Australia self-driving trip｜Great Ocean Road

I often tell my friends that my trip starts from the moment I think about it and ends with the completion of my travel notes. Once a thought comes to mind, it lingers and cannot go away. So I was busy checking information, reading travel notes, and making strategies. Until the night before the trip, I was as excited as a child and couldn't sleep for a long time. Good times are always short-lived. No matter how long the trip is, it always flies by. After returning home, I sort out the photos, sort out my thoughts, record everything along the way and write it as a travel diary. This is the last inseparable part of my trip. Well, the completion of the last travelogue is the end of my entire trip.

But during this trip to Australia the year before last, I felt like an outsider. I was chatting with my friends a few days ago and talking about this trip and my travel notes that I have yet to write. I found a reason. This trip was not led by me. As a passive participant, I always felt that I was just one of the three of them. A follower, or a photographer, or a recorder. In short, this trip has nothing to do with me. All I have to do is drive, take photos, and keep my eyes on the two brats at all times. Dare to relax even a little bit. As for the surrounding scenery, it has long become an unimportant background. When I occasionally look up, I even feel that this background is a bit out of place with the two brats who are making trouble all the time.

Now I am writing this belated travel diary. It has been more than two years since my trip to Australia. Most of the details on the trip have been blurred. The only thing that can be remembered is my uneasy emotions along the way. It seemed that I was excited, anxious, irritable, scolded and noisy along the way. Occasionally when my sons are obedient and well-behaved, I will fall into deep self-blame and wonder whether I am a little too harsh on my two preschool children. In short, this trip rarely allowed me to enjoy the scenery along the way, experience the exotic atmosphere, and feel the nature and relaxation where nature and man are one. Therefore, it is difficult to recall and outline those past scenes.

Having said that, Australia is, after all, a place famous for its natural scenery. No matter how you don’t pay attention, several scenery will burst into your eyes. This makes me, a person with low cultural background, except for that sentence at this time. There’s nothing else like the classic “holy shit”, and the Great Ocean Road is one of those places.

Starting from Melbourne, go southwest through Geelong and then not far east before you hit the Great Ocean Road. This coastal road with a total length of more than 270 kilometers is, in my opinion, the most beautiful place in Australia and it is definitely the only way to check in when traveling. Here you don’t have to look at any online guides or go to great lengths to find the Otway Lighthouse, the Twelve Apostles, London Broken Bridge and other attractions. In fact, every kilometer along the Great Ocean Road has different scenery and places worth stopping for. When I stopped at a parking area on the road, I took my wife and children to the beach. I sat on the beach and watched the children playing on the beach. I listened to the gentle sound of the waves and the sound of pine waves coming from the mountains and forests behind, and smelled The sea breeze mixed with the smell of fish, shrimp and earth. Although the moment was short, I felt that all the efforts were worth it.