The Great Ocean Road

So, your work contract ends and you're jobless on a Wednesday. What should you do? Book onto a 2-day tour of the Great Ocean Road, that's what. No chance for getting the unemployment boredom, especially with a 7am start. Sure, 600km in 2 days is a lot to cover, and you could easily spend WAY more time adventuring around there. But, it's better than nothing and at least they know where they're going, which is more than I can say for me.

I'd booked onto a travel tour recommended by a friend and wasn't disappointed. Thursday morning also brought with it the sun, so it was a great day to head along the coast. It was a scorcher in Melbourne (30 degrees at 5am), and the first day of total fire ban for the state. We spent the first 3 hours driving west of Melbourne to the far end of the Great Ocean Road, past Lismore, to Warrnambool (war-na-bul) and Tower Hill, which is a huge sunken volcano where lots of koalas, emus and kangaroos live in the wild. We managed to see all of them too... though I wasn't particularly happy about the emus joining us for lunch.

From Tower Hill, we headed finally to the end of the Great Ocean Road, working our way along the first section (the Shipwreck Coast) right down to Port Campbell. We stopped to take in the beautiful rock formations at the Bay of Islands, the Bay of Martyrs, the Grotto, and London Bridge. I've heard it described as one of the most beautiful sections of coastline in the world, and it certainly is stunning. Finally, we headed to see the 12 Apostles as the sun set before watching the Little Penguins waddle up the beach to their burrows. After a barbeque in the hostel, we headed out to the local pub in Port Campbell, where the locals lined up along the bar and just stared at us...

Next day, it was cooler, and clouder, but thankfully it cleared up a little as we headed back down to the Shipwreck Coast to Loch Ard Gorge. The flies were out in their masses, and annoying us like crazy but the scenery was just incredible, as were the stories of the history of the area. Next, we headed back to the 12 Apostles, where a bunch of us took a helicopter ride over the whole area. It was short but sweet, and well worth it for the view. After that, the Apostles just didn't look the same from the top of the cliffs. Another of the Apostles fell a few weeks ago, so now there are only 8 or 9 left, which is a little sad.

We left the Shipwreck Coast, and headed down to the Green Coast and inland to Mait's Rest for a walk through the temperate rainforest there. As if on cue, it started to rain the second we pulled up in the car park, and stopped as we got back in the bus! The rainforest reminded me a little of the rainforest on Vancouver Island, but on a much smaller scale. The rest of the day was spent driving the Green Coast via Apollo Bay, a cute little town right on the waterfront, and on down the section of road that was cut straight out of the rock face. Beautiful and dramatic. I don't envy the guys who got to spend years upon years carving that road out by hand!

Finally, we got to Split Point Lighthouse in Aireys Inlet, where they filmed "Round the Twist", which I used to watch as a kid. The weather was pretty inclement by this point though, and we didn't stay long before heading on to the Surf Coast, and Bells Beach. Bells Beach is probably one of the most famous surf beaches in the world. Typically, it was flat as a pancake that day. Hahaha. I'll just have to imagine the huge breaks that it's famous for.

I was exhausted when we got back to Melbourne, but what a great trip :)