The Great Ocean Road

About 2/3 of the way from Adelaide to Melbourne is the small coastal city of Warrnambool and, for east bound travellers like us, this marks the start of the Great Ocean Road. This iconic drive is heavily promoted around here and we allowed two days to cover it. For the first half of day 1, not many trees as the terrain is covered in low vegetation consistent with a wind swept area. To view the sights (and they're quite dramatic) you have to stop periodically at the many well marked turnouts and walk out to a viewing platform. 

Huge limestone cliffs plunge several hundred feet to the sea. Waves constantly gnaw at the limestone abrading the softer rock while harder bits yield the rock stacks that you see here.

London Bridge formation:

Mostly you view from above but we were able to get down to the beach in one location. 

The Twelve Apostles formation is the most famous although some in the foreground have collapsed. Fallen angels?

The final bit of day 1 took us through Great Otway Park; a very dense temperate rainforest with magnificent stands of eucalyptus trees.

We overnighted at this small establishment and enjoyed a nice meal at the attached restaurant. View from dining room:

Day 2 was quite different as the road twisted and turned as it hugged the coastline. Best to avoid this stretch if one is prone to motion sickness! No pictures to show you from day 2, regrettably, as there were really very few places to stop. Next Saturday there is a bike road race on this section so it was a challenge for me to get around all the cyclists who were out practicing on this narrow road.

The Great Ocean Road ends at a place called Torquay - about a half hour southwest of Melbourne - and from there we hooked into the M1 expressway that took us into the city. Although I'm getting better at it, it was a relief to turn the car in to the rental agency with only one minor embellishment: a scuff to a front wheel when I misjudged a parallel parking. Hopefully, they won't notice! 

Some random thoughts. As one might expect in a western country, roads here are generally well marked and maintained. For most of what we've done, traffic has been sparse - good news for a rookie like me! Google map lady has been a godsend. Most of the cars we see are sensible compacts like the Corolla we hired. Very few luxury type cars or large SUV's. Mercifully, we have seen no full-size pickups that are so ubiquitous at home.

Taxes and tipping. Here, sales taxes are included in the price of things. What you see is what you pay which I very much prefer over our system. With a few exceptions such as the Uber driver or bellhop, I have not tipped anyone. The owner of the very first placed we stayed explained that Australia has a high minimum wage - $24/hour or so - so a tip is not expected in a restaurant or by housecleaning staff, for example. So...restaurant prices may seem a bit high but no taxes or tip more than offsets, in my opinion.