GOR Pt 1/3

GOR, Great Ocean Road, a world famous tourist attraction, and for good reasons. The sights are amazing.

I checked the accommodation, including at the usual booking sites and then called the place directly. It was pointless as at some point it became clear the site's personal booking was done through booking.com. I paid $1 less than booking online. The automated system they use is quite good, but even so it is monitored by a human, so when I was asked about our arrival time, anytime from 3pm onwards, I curtly replied that we will arrive at the standard Australian check in time at 2pm. 

The morning of our arrival later in the day, I received a message about parking, where to walk and the code to a keysafe to gain access to the apartment. For my recent breaks away, I've been very conscious of price. This time I decided to stay somewhere a bit nicer, although a fifteen minute drive from a town rather than in a town. Compromise on location and you get a better standard.

We stopped off at a services along the way. Kosov is amused by my joking about his hollow legs. Do I have to explain that? His legs were more than well filled by more food than I could imagine eating in a day. But then in my teenage years I was accused of having hollow legs.

The next stop was Anglesea for coffee for me. Wow, the coffee was $6 and horrible. I had to wait a while as an American tourist had returned with her coffee and asked for some syrup to be added, like at Starbucks, she added. I exclaimed to her with a laugh,  'Not Starbucks' and held my forefingers as crossed swords. She replied with with a smile and, yes I know that already.

Meanwhile Phyllis' hair had been become entangled in his hair band, and Kosov was trying to free the knot from the stretchy band. Phyllis was wearing some lethal looking nails and could not do it himself.

I don't know what it is about Phyllis at his girliest best, but he seems to cast relaxation and friendliness from even very straight guys. Older women are absolutely charmed by him, and one woman waiting for her coffee offered to cut his hair to free the band with scissors from her handbag. Kosov did free his hair, so it wasn't necessary to attack Phyllis' hair with scissors.

As we were leaving the town I spotted a lookout sign and quickly remembered Ray and I had stopped off there. "Swing right Phyllis", and he did. The views are great. 

The next stop was the official beginning of the Great Ocean Road, which I think was where the original toll booths were. The sign has been destroyed by fire twice.

Far above the monument sat these houses. We had already passed the Pole House.

 

Great Ocean Road was essentially carved into cliffs by WWI returned soldiers by hand and dynamite as gainful employment for them. Many died during the huge construction project of 243 km/151mls. They slept in tents, in the cold, in rain and in heat.

 

After a brief toilet stop in Lorne, we drove on along the constantly curving road. Oh wow, we arrived at our accommodation and the view from both the living area and my bedroom was stunning. 

The sea was just 100m/328ft away.

Then we began to find issues with our apartment.

To be continued.