Australia's great coastal highway

  Great Ocean Road, Australia
Tuesday, March 8, 2005

From Melbourne I took another backpacker tour and spent the day along Australia's "Great Ocean Road." It's very similar to California's "Highway 1" where the highway winds it's way along the coast. The Great Ocean Road has recently been voted as one of the Worlds Great Drives and is about 160 miles of breathtaking scenery. The road was built in the 1930's as a memorial to the servicemen of World War I and hugs the clifftops of this rugged coastline. Australia's coastline is mostly made out of limestone, so it easily gets eroded by the ocean waves, winds and other natural activities. Driving along the Great Ocean Road you'll come across deserted beaches, small towns and dramatic scenery.

One of the beaches we stopped at was famous "Bells Beach." There's big World Championship surfing competitions at this beach throughout the year and is where Quicksilver and Billabong started out (surf gear). This beach was also the beach featured at the end of the movie "Point Break" with Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze. It's the scene with Swayze riding off on a massive wave.

Much of this coastline is also known as the 'Shipwreck Coast', a reference to the many ships which were trapped and sunk on the many reefs over the past 150 years or so. The Great Ocean Road then eventually leaves the coast and winds its way through the rainforest of Cape Otway, but then returns to hug the coastline along the entire length of the Port Campbell National Park. This stretch offers dramatic coastal scenery, with the road twisting and turning. Along this stretch of the Great Ocean Road is the amazing and famous 'The Twelve Apostles' and the fallen 'London Bridge'. And the further down we continued along the road, the colder and more overcast it got.

One little tidbit about London Bridge: When the bridge collapsed back in 1990, a couple was stranded on the part that became the island. It turned out the couple were co-workers and also married...but to other people. And they each told their respective spouses they were at a business meeting up north. When word of the Bridge collapsing started to get around, the whole town and all the media and news helicopters all came out and photographed the bridge and the couple. Eventually the couple were rescued (3 hours later), but when this couple who were originally out on a discreet romantic rendevous got caught on media while on the collapsed bridge, well...