Crazy for Photography: Great Ocean Road, Melbourne

2nd day in Melbourne - Day tour to Great Ocean Road

After a good rest, I woke up early and my "room-mate" was still sleeping, so, the toilet was all mine. After shower and put on all cloths that I brought in my tiny luggage to keep me warm (lesson learnt from the day before), I quickly ran down to the kitchen and make myself a toast and tea.

The tour guide cum driver from the agency picked me up at 7.30am (ya, I bought another trip before I went to Melbourne through the internet too), and this trip was smaller in size, only 16 ppls if I'm not mistaken. There were ppl from UK, Italy, India, Malaysia, Japan and US. How I know? Because the driver has a PA system in the mini bus and asked each of us to intro ourselves and how long have we been in Melbourn and what do we think about Melbourn.

Great ocean road is also quite far away from the city, about 1.5 hours drive. And, the driver said he has prepared a morning tea for us, you know what's that? Timtam chocolate, cookies, tea bags, coffee powder, 2 bottles of hot water, sugar and creamer... hahah, I guess Aussie breakfast is more or less like that, because the so called complimentary breakfast in my hostel is something similar too - cereal, milk, bread, peanut butter, tea and coffee.

Basically that day the tour was quite simple, the guide drove us alongside the coastal line of Melbourne, dropped us off at a few sightseeing spots, stopped us for meal, told us a little bit of the history and story behind those rocks and that's it, but believe me, the views are very magnificent, very breathtaking. 2 killing parts are, 1. the weather, although temp went up a little, but because it's seaside, wind was super strong, at a point my ears felt very painful, then I imagine ppl getting frost bite and ears drop off, so scary, I quickly covered them up with my shawl. 2. the road, I didn't know it was so curvy, I get a bit motion sick when I was in the bus, then I saw the indian lady opened the window and vomit, made me even sick.

When the driver stopped us for lunch, I think he knew some of us already very sick, so, he pointed the pharmacy shop for us, I went in, bought a box of motion sickness pill, a box of lozenges for my sore throat, and you know how much is that? 20AUD!!! wah, no choice, already on the choping board, and I wouldn't want to risk the rest of my day vomiting.

The best part of this tour is the scenery, very very nice, I couldn't tell you how interesting and how beautiful is the trip unless you see my photos.

These surfers were crazy, surfing in such a cold weather

The breaky that the tour guide prepared for us

Do you see ppl fishing there?

a house on the hill, facing the sea

cool! enlarge the photo by clicking it and you will see something through the window, the owner really know how to enjoy life.

Starting point

There is an area where the tour guide dropped by, he brought bird food for us to attract the parrots to stand on our hands.

My tour mates & the hungry parrots

Vintage car convoy? They also stopped by at where we had our lunch too

My lunch of my choice (included in the tour)

They also having their lunch in the field

Feel like lying down on the grass

Then we were brought to a jungle walk. He tour guide reminded us to put on our jacket, because the temp in the jungle will be lower than outside... gosh

I forgot what did the tour guide said about the tree, but it's a very very old tree, I'm very sure about this. :p

old ferns too, see the ferns? they are taller than us. each year they only grow few cm, so you can imagine how old are they

The young tour guide

moss

a big tree with a big hollow in the trunk

The spores

The carnivorous black snail in the jungle

Here comes the interesting part: 12 Apostles

Isn't this very breathtaking?

super super cold... you wouldn't imagine how hard to stand still and hold the camera without shaking, that's why I like my camera, excellent anti-shake function!