Go west: the Great Ocean Road

Few tourists visit Melbourne without a trip along the Great Ocean Road. Hurried day trips or two week slogs, glamping or slumming it – everyone makes the pilgrimage. 10 km along the coast.. I joined Kris, a Danish student, Mark, a lively Tibetan who lives in Melbourne, and Sophie, another student from Germany and we piled into Mark’s rattling old Toyota.

My assorted partners on this wacky road trip: Nepalese Mark, Danish Kris and German Sophie

A view towards the Grampians

Aboriginal paintings – a turtle, perhaps

For three days we looped high and low, heading NE from Melbourne to Halls Gap, a strange bivouac of a general store and a few campsites wedged among Grampian Mountains. Onward across endless brush and past Aboriginal shelters, descending through green English fields and damp forests of tropical ferns, we reached the sea – and terrible weather. The roads were packed with tourists, many in garish camper vans and coaches,  but the views were beautiful.

The towering Seven Sisters offer one of the Great Ocean Road’s most scenic views but, unfortunately, have turned into something of a tourist circus.

This arch was once connected to the mainlaand but the bridge collapsed into the sea, stranding two rather lucky tourists until they were picked up by helicopter.