We hired a car for a couple of days to drive down the coast to the Great Ocean Road - in all honesty it seemed much cheaper to do it this way than the $130+ tours that lasted only a day. The Great Ocean Road is rated as an Australia must do... being the majority of the road linking the cities of Melbourne and Adelaide. Its "must do" status comes from a few aspects - the inclusion of massive rock formations and the huge amount of dramatic coastline.
It's also a must surf location for all the die hard surfers out there - of which we are both definately not included. Our first stop after Surf City (a megaplex of surf shops) is Bells Beach - famous for hosting the Rip Curl Pro (a huge surf contest). Beach wise is actually pretty average but with waves that big you can`t expect it to be perfect. Dave, mostly remembered it from the movie Point Break where Patrick Swazie dies in the final scene! On a smooth day like it was the waves are still not for the ameuteur surfers - cool to see though. We also got to watch a pod of dolphins playing with the surfers just off the coast.
Bells Beach is virtually on the enterance to the Great Ocean Road, so there was at least a 150 km drive along the southern ocean to the main attraction - which is the 12 apolosles. This is simply a collection of limestone stacks which have eroded away from the mainland. Its quite a sight and a very popular tourist attraction - although there is only arund 8 of them left, its very cool to see!. Further along from that the coast takes a dramatic change to huge caves, arches and all sorts of geological rock formations - its a really interesting drive. The Great Ocean Road itself just winds up the coast, and the views of the sea are pretty awesome (waves crashing in, and small but pretty beaches around most corners).
We stayed in a hostel in Apollo Bay (looked a bit dodgy at first sight - but ended up being pretty good value and very comfortavle) and a good night chatting with an Irish and Scotish couple.
We are heading to Tasmania tomorrow - somewhere neither of us have been before so we are quites excited.