Tuesday 21st February - Great Ocean Road Day 2

Amanda was woken by a Chinese girl saying ‘Wakey wakey, Rise and a Shine’ which was brilliant – it took her a while to remember where she was and what was going on! We had our included breakfast before setting off again to take more pictures of the 12 Apostles, but in sunlight, and another stop was called Worm Bay, a beautiful secluded beach that you walked on to after going down some steps. Other stops included Gibson Steps and Loch Ard Gorge which are both famous as they feature in a famous shipwreck love story – which is just too long to repeat on here.  At Loch Ard Gorge, the entire group climbed over rocks around the bay in to a really deep cave. We also got a group photo taken here!

We stopped at Apollo Bay for lunch, a pretty, artistic beach town with very posh houses. We got the best tasting lunch yet! Burgers and wedges – the wedges would probably have fed a family of 4 alone, deep fried with a massive dollop of crème fresh and sweet chilli sauce dribbled all over – trust me, it was as immense as it sounds! Yummy yummy yummy! 

Other stops included a guided walk through a rainforest and the Lighthouse from ‘Going round the Twist’ – Jude played the theme-tune in the bus, as we approached it and it was so funny, all the English (us two and a girl a year younger than Mand) started singing along – it’s crazy what is in your memory when it’s tested! “Have you ever, ever felt like this, with strange things happening and you’re going round the twist”. So random but brilliant!

We also stopped at Bells Bay which is a famous surf beach with waves that reach 6 meters high! The waves were only 1 or 2 meters high when we were there so we stood and watched the surfers become irritated with the lack of surf and jumped back on the bus. This beach is also home of Rip Curl and Quicksilver, and hosts the World Surfing Championships.  

On the way out of Bells Beach we saw a heard of wild Kangaroos - Amazing to see them in their natural environment!

We arrived back at our hostel at about 7.30pm, well ready for a nice long sleep! After saying our farewells to Jude, we got some food and slept like babies!