The Great Ocean Road

The Great Ocean Road
November 5, 2008

The cabin in Robe served us well and we had a pleasant breakfast in our cabin looking out over the ocean.

First stop on our eastern route was Mt. Gambier where there are several volcano crater lakes and we took the lovely drive to the best one, Blue Lake. Joe and I have been so impressed throughout this trip at the thought put into visitor services at the attractions and parks. This route was especially beautiful and efficient. There were clouds overhead so the locals said Blue Lake wasn’t as blue as when it is sunny, but I thought it was a gorgeous sapphire blue. We thought Mt. Gambier should be awarded one of the “Tidy Town” awards that we’ve been seeing throughout the country, as it was as neat as a pin with roses everywhere.

Shortly after Mt. Gambier we entered the state of Victoria. All of our rental cars have had Victoria license plates so finally our car matches the state we’re in.

Finally, we were on our way to one of the “Must See” places on our Australia list…The Great Ocean Road. But we first took a short detour to Cape Bridgewater that is supposed to be one of the greatest surfing beaches in the country. It was a nice beach with a few expert surfers to watch, but probably wasn’t worth the extra 42 kilometers. The Great Ocean Road is simply great. It winds through beautiful green hilly pasturelands, timber farms, rainforests, and sweet little beach towns. But the main attraction of the drive is the beautiful coastline starring the “Twelve Apostles.” These are rock stacks in the ocean, but it seems that several have finally given way to the forces of the sea so there are less than 12 in sight and one appears crumbled in a heap. Nevertheless, these rock features standing in the ocean gave me one of those, “Oh, my God!” moments when I saw them. We stayed for at least an hour letting the emotions soak in. We also took the walks to Loch Ard Gorge, the site of several shipwrecks (easy to see why), the Arch, and the Grotto. All were good and we’ve only driven half the Great Ocean Road. We’ll do the other half tomorrow as we make our way to Melbourne.

We pulled into the beach town of Apollo Bay after dark. This is the first time we’ve driven in the dark…not a good idea with so many animals on the roads. We found a great motel, modern and stylish. By this time (9 PM) we were hungry and since it is the shoulder season things were closing up for the night. We walked into a pub and they quickly rushed us down the street to the only place in town still serving food, a Vietnamese Restaurant. So, we’re fed and bedded down and done for the day.

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