Advice please: Great Ocean Road

hot-ice

Not quite sure how far you are going up the GOR but if your near Warrnambol this place was great for all sorts of wildlife and is free, we had a great time there, plenty of animals to see

http://www.visitwarrnambool.com.au/things-to-do/tower-hill/

koalabear_3

A couple of questions please -

Is the Great Ocean Road safe for driving? Not fond of precarious cliff edge roads! Read a couple of reviews that made me wonder.

And do the hire car's include sat navs, and are they all automatic?

hot-ice

koalabear wrote: »

A couple of questions please -

Is the Great Ocean Road safe for driving? Not fond of precarious cliff edge roads! Read a couple of reviews that made me wonder.

And do the hire car's include sat navs, and are they all automatic?

Went there in 2006, no SATNAV's were available then, our car was automatic. I can't remember any precarious drops on the GOR, i went in May and the road was fairly quiet (it is their winter) plenty of bends but all seemed well marked also plenty of pull-ins to view the scenery also places to stay were plentiful, two we stayed at were only £25 per room per night.

MKS

hot-ice wrote: »

Not quite sure how far you are going up the GOR but if your near Warrnambol this place was great for all sorts of wildlife and is free, we had a great time there, plenty of animals to see

http://www.visitwarrnambool.com.au/things-to-do/tower-hill/

Thanks very much for this and the info on KR. We are driving the
complete GOR and then onto Adelaide. Will make sure that we drop into the two places that you have mentioned, they sound really interesting. Roll on two weeks time!

MKS

hot-ice, where did you go on your trip? Any other suggestions for places to stop off at, would be very welcome. TIA

hot-ice

It was a bit of a rushed holiday, Started off in Sydney for about 5 days and did all the tourist stuff, then flew to Hobart in Tasmania. We hired a car but probably went no further than 60 miles from Hobart, we had a great time there, very relaxed almost seemed to step back in time but a very wonderful place, then flew to Melbourne for a few days then went along the GOR (over several days)and a bit of a detour to mount Gambia, all internal flights X3 were booked online using Virgin Blue for less than half the price that the local (UK ) travel agents quoted, we're not really town/city people so a lot of our trip was spent out and about. Apart from Sydney we had no accomadations pre booked but had no trouble in finding places to stay.
12 Apostles were on the GOR were worth visiting and the Blue Mountains Outside Sydney we caught a train there and caught a London double decker bus to see the sights http://www.explorerbus.com.au/aboutus/history.htm
Warrnambol has a beach with staging on which you may be able to spot the Southern right Whales from the shore (depending on the time of year) we were about a week to early to see them:(

A good website for trips is http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ not just for lodgings & flights but things to do, sights etc. Off to the Everglades & Florida Keys in 5 weeks and again it's going to be a bit of a road trip but the distances are much less than those in Australia.

hot-ice

One tip from two people we know who live in Austrailia was to keep to the speed limits, heavy fines await those who break the law! On one day driving to Mount Gambia, we were passing through a very small town when we came across what we thought was an accident the van we thought had crashed was parked in such a way that we had no choice but to slow to a crawl to get passed, as we drew level with the front of the van a police officer stepped out and asked me to give a breathe test, it was 10am! Random breathe tests, i passed (not that i had a drink anyway) and was told to have a safe trip. Best of all the Australians drive on the correct side of the road.

spottydog

hot-ice wrote: »

One tip from two people we know who live in Austrailia was to keep to the speed limits, heavy fines await those who break the law! On one day driving to Mount Gambia, we were passing through a very small town when we came across what we thought was an accident the van we thought had crashed was parked in such a way that we had no choice but to slow to a crawl to get passed, as we drew level with the front of the van a police officer stepped out and asked me to give a breathe test, it was 10am! Random breathe tests, i passed (not that i had a drink anyway) and was told to have a safe trip. Best of all the Australians drive on the correct side of the road.

RBTs are quite common in Oz, but so is drink driving so its not surprising. Sunday morning RBTs catch those still over the limit from the night before.

Generally I've found Australians don't speed, they may sit 2 inches from your boot, undertake as well as overtake and suddenly decide to turn right in front of you on a main road but generally they don't speed.

With speed limits here you have to watch out for school zones. In NSW you can be traveling at 70 along a triple carriageway road then for certain times of the day in term time the speed limit drops to 40.

Watch out for the cars with P plates (red or green) as they are drivers with less than 3 years experience who think they know everything and can drive like a racing driver.

Generally though the driving is OK and at least Australia drives on the same side of the road as the UK

MKS

hot-ice and spottydog - thanks to both of you for your advice. We tend not to drink before 10 in the morning! (says very tongue in cheek) but I do get your point. We did the Blue mountains the same way, last time. Much more cost effective then taking a tour.
Enjoy Florida, hot-ice. We take out the annual cdw waiver/excess insurance thro' insurance4carhire via quidco - saves a fortune on insurance.

Five more sleeps before we go but who's counting!