The Great Ocean Road

Early Saturday morning Dave went to pick up our rental car while i finished packing and then off we went...in the wrong direction at first of course, but we quickly figured it out and got back on track!

We spent the first day driving between Melbourne and a little town called Port Campbell. We passed through a ton of other little towns along the way and stopped at most of them - Torquay, Angelsea, Lorne, Apollo Bay and an area called the Shipwreck Coast. They were all major surfer/beach towns so we stopped to watch some amazing surfers in action - Dave was really jealous. He can't wait to get on a surf board soon!

Towards the end of the day we made it to the iconic 12 Apostles viewing point. And, small world, we ran into Julie and Richard - the American couple we did the Able Tasman kayak trip with. We knew they were in Australia, but not that they were also driving the Great Ocean Road...small world! We stopped and had a chat with them for a bit and then went to see the sights. Unfortunately for us it started raining right as we got to the viewing platforms for the 12 Apostles. We managed to get a few pictures before running back to the car. It is a beautiful sight!! So much so that we decided we were going to drive back the next morning to see them in better weather! We stayed at a hostel in Port Campbell that night. It was only about a 10 minute drive from the 12 Apostles, so it was the perfect location.

Rainy day at the 12 Apostles

The next morning we made our way back to the 12 Apostles and had much better weather this time! The view is stunning and we had some fun taking a few good pics before we went on our way. We made a ton more stops on our drive. The first was the Lock Ard Gorge - a former shipwreck site. Then we saw London Bridge. This used to be an intact rock archway, but in 2009 the arch broke and fell away into the ocean. The story goes that there was a couple who had just finished walking across the arch way before it fell and they were stranded on a piece of rock in the middle of the ocean. They were quickly rescued by helicopter, but once on the mainland, they tried to hide from the cameras because they were having an affair together and didn't want to get caught with all the press. The next spot we stopped at was the Grotto - this was our favourite spot. It was a beautiful bit of rock formation with waves crashing into it - so pretty! Then we made our way through the city of Port Fairy, which is known as a good spot to whale watch. Unfortunately for us, it is too early in the season so there were no whales there. Instead, we did a little grocery shopping and bought some St Patty's day souvenirs before finishing up our day in the Grampians National Park at a hostel there.

Next morning at the 12 Apostles

 

The next morning we had decided to do 2 short hikes in the morning since we were in this beautiful national park. The first one was a total bust! It was supposed to be a walk out to a waterfall, but there was no waterfall at the end. I guess it had dried up, even though it had just rained for the past 3 days on and off. The second hike was a little more successful. It was through the forest to the Venus Pools. There were some natural rock formations filled with river water there. It was raining by then though, so we checked them out and then made our way back to our car for the last leg to Adelaide.

The Grotto

 

The rest of the day we just drove through pretty bland country to Adelaide. Amy, a friend of Dave's from Kingston, is currently living just outside of Adelaide in Tanunda in the Barossa region, so we were off to go stay with her for the next few days!

Thanks for reading

xo