[arup.misra]

Great trip champ. I am adding this to my to-do list in my annual vacation next year. Was your Indian driving license sufficient or did you require an IDP?

[Judemayne]

Dear Champ,

Brought back memories of our Feb 2010 trip-flooded with nostalgia-thank you. Went from Mulgrave by road to Sorrento caught the Ferry and got off at Queenscliff drove to Geelong met with friends from Amritsar and then we did the Ocean Road. Apollo Bay-what a sight to behold.

We killed two birds with one round trip-the ferry (wonderful experience) and the Ocean Rd.

Your pictures are wonderful.

Jude

[champ27]

Originally Posted by Swanand Inamdar

Memories galore!!
Thanks for bringing back 3 years of my life, that I spent in Melbourne.
Have done the GOR thrice till date, and it amused me every single time, I drove on this route. The scenary, the landscapes and the machine (we choose) are simply brilliant.

Did you go down to the ship wreck point near the Twelve Apostles? Its a beautiful sight to see.

Lovely pics, these.

If you are in Melbourne for a while, try doing this again. This time, in a much better car. Say, a Subaru Imprezza . Trust me, driving that beast on the curves of GOR is something, only to be experianced!

Thanks a lot Swanand. The GOR is so addictive that i am not surprised that you did it thrice. Guess you had the luxury of a longer stay. For me it was a short trip as a couple of important milestones were waiting for me back in India. More on this is mentioned in my verna ownership thread.

Yes i did go to the ship wreck point though it was raining then :(

Next time I will try and do this stretch on a Subaru

Originally Posted by tazmaan

Wow you just took me back to 2006 and 2007 when I was studying in Melbourne. I have done this road trip 4 times and yes its one of the most beautiful drives.

Would leave unplanned in the evening just like we leave for Lonavla from Mumbai .

Some pics from my 2006 visit and my ride was the Nissan Pintara 1989 which I had bought doing odd jobs while I was a student.

We also took the Helicopter ride once and was just awesome!

And yes the Ship Wreck Point Pic.

Thanks and nice pictures tazmaan. I missed the Helicopter ride.

Originally Posted by arup.misra

Great trip champ. I am adding this to my to-do list in my annual vacation next year. Was your Indian driving license sufficient or did you require an IDP?

Thanks arup. You will enjoy it thoroughly. Yes Indian driving license is sufficient. The details are mentioned in my 1st post. I have done quite a few road trips in Australia, had no problems with my Indian license.

Originally Posted by Judemayne

Dear Champ,

Brought back memories of our Feb 2010 trip-flooded with nostalgia-thank you. Went from Mulgrave by road to Sorrento caught the Ferry and got off at Queenscliff drove to Geelong met with friends from Amritsar and then we did the Ocean Road. Apollo Bay-what a sight to behold.

We killed two birds with one round trip-the ferry (wonderful experience) and the Ocean Rd.

Your pictures are wonderful.

Jude

Thanks Jude. So, I am bringing back memories of GOR to quite a few BHPinas Apollo Bay indeed was awesome.

[babupaul]

Thanks Jude. So, I am bringing back memories of GOR to quite a few BHPinas Apollo Bay indeed was awesome.[/quote]

Hey, we did the same route in April. A scenic drive indeed but I loved the countryside with the vast open spaces and the old western style towns & the mom and pops. Will post a seperate travelogue shortly until then, If you allow, I could post a few pics as well

[champ27]

An expensive bit of information pertaining to this trip that I wanted to share with you all.

Couple of weeks back I received a letter from Civic Compliance Victoria. It was an over speeding ticket. Details below:

Permitted Speed - 100Km/h

Alleged Speed - 102Km/h

Detected Speed - 104Km/h

Penalty - $176

Place of offence - It was on my way back to Melbourne

It was an extremely expensive extra 2Km/h.

I thought i was always within 100Km/h on that stretch as i was conscious of this fact. Not sure how accurate these speed cameras are? Fine is too steep for such an infringement,they should have progressive fines for speed limit infringements, instead it looks like a flat rate for breaching the speed which is a bit harsh in my opinion.But may be that's the way they ensure strict adherence to the rules.

Anyway promptly paid the fine as i keep travelling to that country and don't want my name to be flagged up for wrong reasons.

Lesson Learnt - Always stay well within the speed limit

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by champ27

An expensive bit of information pertaining to this trip that I wanted to share with you all.

d the fine as i keep travelling to that country and don't want my name to be flagged up for wrong reasons.

Lesson Learnt - Always stay well within the speed limit

The Australian/ Victorian Police are notoriously tough on speed limit enforcement. More so on rental cars.
But I am very surprised about the 102 having earned a fine because normally the tolerances are a bit higher than that- maybe about 5 to 10 more.
This is indeed an expensive lesson learned.
It is always advisable to pay the fine asap because there is a real chance otherwise, of being detained on the next trip and possibly disallowed entry or even jailed!
The only way around it is to use Cruise Control.

[champ27]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

The Australian/ Victorian Police are notoriously tough on speed limit enforcement. More so on rental cars.
But I am very surprised about the 102 having earned a fine because normally the tolerances are a bit higher than that- maybe about 5 to 10 more.
This is indeed an expensive lesson learned.
It is always advisable to pay the fine asap because there is a real chance otherwise, of being detained on the next trip and possibly disallowed entry or even jailed!
The only way around it is to use Cruise Control.

I kept staring at the over speeding ticket and could not believe that an extra 2km/h extracted such a hefty fine. Unfortunately Cruise Control feature was not available in that car.

Yes, I agree. There was no question of not paying up or delaying the payment and getting blacklisted.

[champ27]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

But I am very surprised about the 102 having earned a fine because normally the tolerances are a bit higher than that- maybe about 5 to 10 more.

I was wondering what is the concept of Detected Speed and Alleged Speed.

Why is alleged speed less than the detected speed? Is it because of some kind of inbuilt tolerance in favour of the driver?

Also is there a standard international tolerance level or does it vary from country to country?

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by champ27

I was wondering what is the concept of Detected Speed and Alleged Speed.

Why is alleged speed less than the detected speed? Is it because of some kind of inbuilt tolerance in favour of the driver?

Also is there a standard international tolerance level or does it vary from country to country?

Alleged speed is simply a field on their system that needs to carry some value on it. No logic per se to the number except that it has to be in the ballpark. There is no standard tolerance. It varies from state to state, country to country and sometimes from officer to officer.
However in the UK they allow for about 10 or 15 mph, UAE 20kmph, Europe mostly about 20kmph except in France where they are very tight. Northern Ireland same as UK but more easygoing. Eire, while it is part of the EU, they dont give two hoots!
Australia is very strict but largely only in the main well settled areas. All the above is from personal experience.
NZ is chilled out from what I am told.
This much I know, no more.

[champ27]

Thanks for the useful information Shankar. It seems Australia is the strictest of the lot. Anyway, will be extremely watchful next time I rent a car in Oz.

[ajayrec]

First of all - Great ocean road was one hell of a trip. I rented an Aurion (Australian version of Camary). Light drizzling till 4 PM added to the fun and as soon as we reached twelve apostles, weather was damn good. Howeve all shops were closed by then, aparantly almost everything closes by 5 in Aus except few bars etc.

I was taking an exit from expressway to grab a coffee. A cop followed and gave me a ticket because I was driving at 83 Kmph on a 60 road. I was pulling the speed down but since I exitted from expressway, it took time to pull over and it was enough for his speedgun to hit my wallet :(

Had to pay!

[Rajesh1968]

It reminded me when I did this in 1999, when there were 12 apostles, now I believe there are only 11, one of them crashed in mid 2000-2005. It was one great drive, we had a Land Cruiser at our disposal, as I was working for Toyota in Melbourne. Visiting a Wildlife park, could see the Koalas at a distance a few feet was amazing. It was an era of Non Digital Photos, so have the memories in hard copy.

[Pankaj_Ahlawat]

Originally Posted by Swanand Inamdar

Memories galore!!

If you are in Melbourne for a while, try doing this again. This time, in a much better car. Say, a Subaru Imprezza . Trust me, driving that beast on the curves of GOR is something, only to be experianced!

Iam planning a trip in 2nd week of may 14, but subaru`s and bmw are not available anywhere on rental websites , can someone help with that
BMW M3 or Subaru or any exotic

[Swanand Inamdar]

Originally Posted by Pankaj_Ahlawat

Iam planning a trip in 2nd week of may 14, but subaru`s and bmw are not available anywhere on rental websites , can someone help with that
BMW M3 or Subaru or any exotic

Pankaj, sorry for the late response.
The rental websites may not advertise those cars, with their regular fleet.
Better to call them up personally inquire, or at the time of picking up the rental, see if you can get an upgrade of sorts.

I was living in Melbourne at that time, and hence had better access to these rental agencies, by dropping into their offices and inquiring.

[champ27]

Originally Posted by Swanand Inamdar

Pankaj, sorry for the late response.
The rental websites may not advertise those cars, with their regular fleet.
Better to call them up personally inquire, or at the time of picking up the rental, see if you can get an upgrade of sorts.

I was living in Melbourne at that time, and hence had better access to these rental agencies, by dropping into their offices and inquiring.

I agree with Swanand. These cars are normally not listed on the rental websites. I remember when I went to pick up a car from Avis in NZ, I saw a gentleman picking up an Audi. I checked with the rental guy about how come I was not able to see this car on the website, he said that they normally don't list these cars on the website. However, if I wanted one to hire in future, I could either walk in and check its availability or call the individual rental outlets (not the toll free numbers of these rental agencies).