The Great Ocean Road Trip Part 1 - Sorrento

Before I left for Tasmania there was talk amongst some of the people at the hostel about doing a trip down the great ocean road. I thought nothing would ever come of it but when I got back to Melbourne they were still talking about it and it looked as if it was actually going to happen. Not only that but the trip was also going to take in the Mornington peninsula as well.

So on Friday 19th myself and Colin both hired out cars for 6 days and we headed off to Sorrento. Each car had 5 people in them together with camping gear and enough belongings to last for 5 nights. With me was:

Katy (who's shy!)


Nina:


Thomas:


and James:


Colin:


had Alex:


Ina and Georgie:


and Pete.



Chris:


would be driving down the next day with another 3 people:

Xenia (warrior princess):


Mikey:


and last but not least Fergus:


A sorry bunch to be sure!

Our camp site in Sorrento turned out to be just about the smallest camp site on earth but we were lucky in that nobody else was there. Putting up the tents was a bit of a chore:



But once it was accomplished we chilled out and went to the beach just across the road.


After some very expensive fish and chips and a walk around the town we headed back to the camp site to start some serious drinking.



It was very cold though and someone suggested that we move to the backpacker place at the front of the site which we duely did:



We were just getting comfortable in the room when the owner of the camp site came and said that we were not allowed to be there. We had to pick up all our stuff and head back to the tents. In the end we decided to go across to the beach where there we could drink and shout to our hearts content:

Lets go to the beach!

What do we do now?

I know - play fights!

We lost Pete for a while but it turned out he had gone back to the campsite where we found him later snoring his drunk head off.

The next day once Chris arrived with his Delorean (actually a very old, falling apart Nissan but the front looks like a Delorean) the rest of the gang went to Portsea to go sea kayaking while I went to Sorrento Pier to join a swimming with dolphins boat.

This was one of the things I had always wanted to do on this trip - I failed to do it in Perth and I would get other opportunities in New Zealand but I thought while I was here I would give it ago.

The trip started off well - we went to a man made platform used by seals to bask and we were able to get in the water and swim quite close to them. I had great views of seals swimming really close to me.

Aftet that we went in search of dolphins. Each time we spotted one in the distance we all had to get in the water and hope that they would come swim with us. Because of the currents we had to hang onto a rope trailing from the back of the boat.

We did this 3 or 4 times each time without success. We did see another dolphin swim boat which had plenty swimming around their clients (typical - I choose the wrong boat!)

In the end we gave up and headed back to port. I was very disappointed even though I had gotten good views of seals. At least I will have other chances in New Zealand.

Seal Platform

Seals

I rejoined the rest of the crew and heard that they had had an eventful canoeing trip where several of them ended up in the water. They had managed to go about half a mile in the 3 hours they were out paddling. At least they had a better time than me!

That night we chipped in some money for food and had a BBQ back at the campsite. The sites BBQ was a sorry affair but there was lots of very dacaying wood. Instead of the normal grill it had a very rusty steel lid so we placed some tin foil over it and cooked the meat on the foil. I've had better BBQ food but it all went down very well with a steady supply of beer.

Colin and Chris at the Barby

It was Georgie's birthday (she was turning 19 - I can't even remember when I was 19!) and after a rather yummy chocolate cake was produced complete with candles we sat down wearng our party hats to try our hand at some drinking games.

Cake - thats C.a.k.e - Caaaaake!





Party on Fergus!

In the end we gave up on the drinking games. Georgie wanted to go to a night club for her birthday so some of us headed into town to see what there was. The only nightclub had a queue a mile long so in the end we didn't bother and just went back to the camp site.

For our last day in Sorrento we all went across to the other side of the peninsula to the Ocean side Beach.

After a small walk to the viewing platform myself and Katy went for a stroll along the rocks while the rest of them sunbathed and played with the frisbee and rugby ball on the sand. (we did also have a football but Fergus had managed to hit it over the fence of the campsite using a cricket bat!)

Sorrento Beach

Part of the gang

Rocks!

Rocks through rocks

After the beach we had to say goodbye to two of our crew. Mikey had only come down for the weekend as he had to go back to work the next day. Fergus was supposed to have been with us for the reminder of the trip but while doing the canoeing the previous day he had managed to burn the only part of his body that he did not protect - his feet. His feet were now bright red, swollen and blistering - they looked like hobbits feet! Because he was in so much pain he decided that he would have to go back home on the train with Mikey.

Once they had been taken to the train station we headed to the ferry terminus that would take us over to the other side of the bay for the Great Ocean Road part of our trip.

Chris doing what he does best

Chilling out on the ferry

THINGS I HAVE LEARNT:
I snore - very loudly when I am sleeping on an airbed in a tent. Luckily I was in a tent by myself but the other ones could still hear me in their tents!

When you are getting someone to take a photo of you make sure the camera is in the right mode!


ANIMALS I HAVE SEEN:
Australian Fur Seals
Gannet
Bottlenosed dolphins (in the distance!)