The start of the Great Ocean Road

It all started with Cheeseworld. Just past the official start of the Great Ocean Road is the 'famous' Allansford Cheeseworld. Had to buy some cheese being the tourists we are of course. Nice stuff too.
Anyway, the Great Ocean Road itself is the worlds biggest war memorial. It was built by service men returning from the first world war. Mainly to give them something to do but also to connect the small coastal towns and give Australia something to rival great driving routes in other countries, such as the Pacific Coast Highway in America. Who would've thought that Australia wanted to do something like the Americans? It's pretty obvious when you come here how American things are, although I've not been there yet! The small towns and roads look American, the government is based on the US and they certainly know how to promote themselves like America!
Back to the road. It took a while to build, 30 years I think, in various forms and length. Often sections of the road were hand cut into the rock along the coastline. Nowadays the official start and end, Warnambool to Geelong, aren't really coastal roads at all but it doesn't take long to get there. When you do there are seemingly hundreds of places to stop off to have a look round and go for a stroll. Empty beaches in gorgeous coves with pristine blue ocean rolling in against cliffs and rocks.
The first bay of major note is the Bay of Martyrs, so called due to the amount of Aborigines that were driven off the cliffs here by white settlers. Another bay close by, Massacre Bay, unsurprisingly has the same type of history.
What makes this stretch of coast so popular, apart from the endless promotion of it, is that the land is fairly weak and had been broken down over time by the constant crashing of the waves. Some parts of the earth and rock are much harder than others so get worn away at different rates. That's why you get all these little islands and rocks out in the sea. They used to be part of the mainland. Where puddles form inland cracks eventually appear in soil, the water drains through the earth and eventually wears it away until it becomes separate from the mainland. You can see dips in the ground as you walk along where new pools are eroding away the landscape and in time will cause more land to separate into the sea. It does make for a good looking coastline though. It´s constantly changing too so if you go back 10 years later it won't look the same.
It's a tourist haven here. Huge amounts pass along this road everyday, a lot of them on day long bus tours. I was glad we could take our time and drive it. About 3 days is the average people do it in, we took 6.
One of the most famous parts is called London Bridge. This is, or was, a piece of land that had formed two arches into the sea. In 1990 2 tourists were stranded on top of the farthest arch as the first arch collapsed into the sea. A helicopter had to fly out to rescue them. Now the rock is a solitary arch in the sea and renamed 'London Arch'.
Port Campbell was another overnight stop off that I mainly remember for it's good looking one street town and beautiful bay. Surfers, probably locals, were insane enough to be riding waves in between the rocks and cliff as well as the pillars of the pier. We also walked up to the top of the nearby cliff for stunning views of the forthcoming coastline. A beautiful place this really is.