Great Ocean Rd

First day on the GOR - another early start to get out of Melbourne before rush hour. We're going to take 3 days and stay in 3 hotels along the way before returning to Melbourne for our flight to Cairns.

We stopped for coffee (Aussies know how to make a good cup of coffee) and I get a message from the camper hire place to say they have a camper van available for the Cairns part. A huge relief because I had been having no luck in booking this up to now (I was counting on leaving it late to get a better price - WRONG strategy!) and we needed to pick one up on Thursday. Could have caused a major falling out with Mrs S!!!! Phew!!

At Geelong a lady carved all these our of the old pier stanchions - about 20 of them - looks like hard work

The start of the GOR

Kangaroos on the golf course

Is this the Southern Ocean? I'm the only one on the beach - that's cos it's ffflippin' ffreezin'

The Great Ocean Rd was built by servicemen returning home after the First World War - the government employed them from 1919 for about 12 years until it was completed. 3000 ex servicemen were involved building the road - 330,000 were in WW1 with over 60% injured or killed - rather poignantly we are there on Rememberance Day. This is the fourth gate that's been built to mark the start of the road. The previous ones have either been burnt by forest fire or had to be updated when the road was widened. 

We stay in a little town called Lorne tonight.