Showing posts with label Great Ocean Road. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Great Ocean Road. Show all posts

Day 04: Back to Melbourne

Checked out our apartment and headed off to The Twelve Apostles for the second time! We were hoping to get to walk down to have a look at the popular tourist attraction which we missed out the previous day due to the unpredicted wet weather. But guess what.. Apparently we are totally not fated for the famous natural structure, it was raining non-stop again when we were there! :( What a pity.. 

Good bye, Great Ocean Road (with a heavy heart of disappointment).. and we drove off back to Melbourne, another long day of driving (for the prince actually). 

Hearty breakfast to start off the day! 
Definitely don't get to see rainbow so often in Singapore. 
Will be great if the weather had maintained this way throughout.
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Braved through the wind and rain for a shot together. 
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Stopped by at Geelong for a quick bite and ended up in the supermarket instead. Bought some snacks and continued on the driving.

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Along roadside of the Princes Freeway (links between Melbourne and Geelong), we saw littles boards that goes like "Direct from Farm", "Cherries $10/plate", "Strawberries $5/strawberries" and etc.. And these boards led us to Fruit2Go! A fruit store with pretty lots of varieties but it wasn't as cheap as I have expected.. AUD7.90 for our strawberries and cherries. 

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Headed down to The Baths Restaurant & Cafe Brighton the moment we reached Melbourne for our very late lunch. The restaurant was closed when we were there and only open for dinner later in the evening. So we headed to the cafe instead. Both the cafe and restaurant overlook the sea and paint a really nice backdrop and amb. Bright colours interiors of the cafe. Prices wise, AUD52.50 (SGD64.60) for a cup of hot choco, fish & chips and spaghetti. Taste wise, it was normal. Definitely not worth my every cents. 

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Beautiful skyline of the City.
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Drove a little down to Dendy Street Beach Brighton, home of the 82 colourful Brighton Bathing Box, another popular tourist icon and cultural assets. We didn't get to head down to the beach as it was closed (for don't know what reason) when we were there.. only managed to get a glimpse from another car park further down the road. What a disappointing day! :(

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Checked in to Cosmopolitan Hotel (again) for the night. The same hotel and (coincidentally) same room that we stayed for the first two nights in Melbourne and the day ended off with a range of yummy snacks!

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Information you might be interested in: 

The Twelve Apostles
Port National Park
Great Ocean Road
Port Campbell VIC 3269, Australia

Fruit2Go
Along Princes Freeway 
(links between Melbourne and Geelong)

The Baths Restaurant and Cafe Brighton
251 Esplanade
Brighton VIC 3186, Australia
http://www.middlebrightonbaths.com.au

Brighton Bathing Box
Dendy Street Beach
Brighton VIC 3186, Australia
http://www.brightonbathingbox.org.au

Cosmopolitan Hotel Melbourne
2-8 Carlisle Street
St Kilda VIC 3182, Australia

Day 03: Great Ocean Road

Checked out our hotel early in the morning and we went off for our road trip to the Great Ocean Road! The Great Ocean Road is a total of 243 km drive, along the south-eastern coast of Australia between the Victorian cities of Torquay and Warrnambool, it's one of the world's most scenic coastal drives. The road wind its way around rugged cliffs, through lush rainforest and windswept beaches. 

"The road was built by returned soldiers between 1919 and 1932, and is the world's largest war memorial; dedicated to casualties of World War I. It is an important tourist attraction in the region, which winds through varying terrain alongside the coast, and provides access to several prominent landmarks; including nationally significant Twelve Apostles limestone stack formations."

The road wind around rugged cliffs, through lush rainforest and windswept beaches. I'd say the drive along the Great Ocean Road can be quite a challenge to inexperience drivers even experienced drivers need to be extra careful too. The views are great and definitely worth the drive. Started off as a bright sunny day and left St Kilda at around 9AM, but as the day went on it slowly became overcast and started pouring..

Our route of the day from St Kilda to our destination, Warrnambool. 
Probably the best (double) rainbow captured through my lens. 
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Stopped by at Lorne Pier to settle our hungry tummies. This Lorne Pier Seafood Restaurant we went turned out to be surprisingly good! AUD57 for our garlic bread, oysters, scallops, seafood pasta and tea. For the big portion and yummy food, I thought it's really worth it! The restaurant also served the best garlic bread I've ever had. No joke! It was really that good! But we were too hungry and gobbled down the bread before snapping a photo of it. Anyway, two extremely satisfied customers here! :) 

Look at the gloomy sky! :(
Very interesting blackboard menu of the restaurant. 

*DROOLS*
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The Great Ocean Road is also the home of the famous The Twelve Apostles, a popular tourist attraction. The Twelve Apostles is a collection of limestone stacks off the shore of the Port Campbell National Park. Planned to arrive at the Twelve Apostles for the sunset but unfortunately, it was raining and we couldn't walk down to admire the beauty of the famous icon of the Great Ocean Road. What a pity! 

"Created by constant erosion of the limestone cliffs of the mainland beginning 10-20 million years ago, the stormy Southern Ocean and blasting winds gradually eroded the softer limestone, forming caves in the cliffs. The caves eventually became arches and when they collapsed rock stacks up to 45 metres high were left isolated form the shore."

The wind and rain showing no mercy to us. 
Didn't get to see the Twelve Apostles but here's a photo of it from Google

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Warrnambool marks the end of the Great Ocean Road and it was also our destination. Checked in  the (pre-booked on Booking.com) City Central Apartments that was hosted by an extremely friendly host. We even got a free upgrade from a Budget One-Bedroom Apartment (AUD80/ night) to an Executive One-Bedroom Apartment,  also comes with complimentary WiFi and parking. Service was good, value for money, clean and spacious, basically no complaints about our stay there. Definitely recommend it! 

Full set of kitchen equipment and cutleries.
Separated laundry and bathroom.
Looking cosy isn't it?
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After being very happy with our apartment, we drove to the nearest supermarket to do our groceries shopping for dinner and next day's breakfast. First cooking session for our adventure! 

Chef Young and our not very appetising and nice looking dinner.
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Information you might be interested in:

Lorne Pier Seafood Restaurant
Lorne Pier
Lorne VIC 3232 Australia

Port Campbell National Park
Great Ocean Road
Port Campbell VIC 3269 Australia

City Central Apartments
14 King Street
Warrnambool VIC 3280 Australia

Woolworths Warrnambool East
Corner Princes Hwy & Gateway Road
Warrnambool VIC 3280 Australia