The Great Ocean Road

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The Great Ocean Road
Some days we’ve traveled 500km (300m), so you’d think 259km would be easy!
Well this 259km road was the Great Ocean Road. An Australian National Heritage area stretching along the south-eastern coast of Australia between Torquay and Allansford. Built by returning soldiers between 1919 and 1932 and dedicated to soldiers killed during World War I, the road is the world's largest war memorial. Winding through varying terrain along the coast and providing access to several prominent landmarks - this stretch of road took us three days!
After camping close by we headed to the start of this great road. Unfortunately the end we were started at didn’t lead to the ocean for a while but we were still seeing some amazing country side views.
Along the GOR are viewing points, historical points and small towns. The first few view points we saw were Bay of Islands View Point, Bay of Martyrs and Martyrs Beach. The bays are made of limestone and over thousands of years the ocean has weakened the coast line with sinkholes and small cracks in the cliff where water enters and creates swampy clay.
The cliffs are unstable now but the viewing points are a little further back and are not subject to sinkholes. The limestone is tougher and more able to withstand the battering. The aboriginals used to live off the land in this area. They would eat water birds and other small animals found in the swamps. There are still traces of middens in the clay on the cliff tops. Middens are old fire places where shells, bones and stone fragments can be found.
The next place we visited was the Grotto, unfortunately it was the wrong time of year for Santa!

Our next stop was London Bridge. In the 80’s the land was all connected and you could walk right out to the edge. On January 15th 1990 part of the walk broke leaving an arch in the ocean. Luckily no one was hurt but two people were stranded on the arch and had to be rescued.
Loch Ard Gorge was located right on the beach, in caves at the back that are formed with the rock there were stalactites.
Back on the cliff there was a lovely walk with the ocean one side and rolling hills the other. On this walk we saw Mutton Bird Island Lookout and Thunder Cave. Thunder cave was a big cave where when the ocean enters and it’s a storm, sounds like thunder. Mutton Bird Island is an Island where lots of birds used to go in the summer after migrating from Canada. Apparently the birds don’t go there as often as most of the food supplies have diminished.
Loch Ard Gorge, Mutton Bird Island and Thunder Cave are all historical points as well. Loch Ard got it’s name from a ship that crashed in that area in 1878. Only two of the 54 people on board survived. 18 year old Eve Carmichael, an Irish immigrant moving to Australia with her family and Tom Pearce the ships apprentice. They sheltered in the caves on the beach until Tom went to find help.
The last place we visited on the first day was the 12 Apostles. However from the viewing point only seven can be seen and if you take a helicopter ride only 11 have been counted. There have more than likely never been 12. The rock formations used to be called sow and piglets and in the 1960’s the name was changed to apostles as they thought this would bring more tourists to the area. The way the waves are crashing against the cliff another apostle is being formed.
After going down a farm road to a free campsite we found ourselves in what looked like the “I’m a celebrity” camp. We were in the middle of the forest and the walk to the bathroom was a path through the forest and it was beautiful. I call it a bathroom it was a metal shack with a seat over a hole but it worked.

The next day we started the Great Ocean Road again.
The first stop was a little viewing platform in Glenaire looking right over the beach, the sun was shining and it was a wonderful site. We stopped and had our breakfast there while looking out to sea. Next was a little village named Marengo, we walked along the jetty and watched some of the fishermen then started off towards our next destination, stopping off at different view points on the way. At Kenner River we stopped and saw a Koala! This was in fact our third Koala but this one was the easiest to spot and the best to take photos of. It was alone in the trees eating. Maybe not alone, there were a lot of tourists and parrots.
That night we stopped at Separate Creek another free campsite where the toilet looked right over the beach. The toilet this time though was what ever part of the bush you wanted to use.


The third day we didn’t have much left.
We stopped to do a walk in Lorne, it was meant to lead to a waterfall but there hadn’t been enough rain for that. We walked along a path with the road and ocean one side and the other mountain, jungle and animals.
Just after our walk we ended up in Lorne village where we went for a swim in the sea. After getting over the chilly water we swam for a bit before sunbathing.
Torquay is the end of the Great Ocean Road and that was our next destination. On our way there we saw a different chocolate factory so after stopping and having a few tasters we were in Torquay. We headed towards one of Torquay's beaches and enjoyed a few hours swimming and sunbathing.
After spending the night a little out of Torquay the next day we enjoyed Torquay village, drove to Geelong and enjoyed a very

windy walk along the sea front then headed towards Melbourne.
We had met people who had done the Great Ocean Road in a day. Laurent and I don’t know how people did that. The views and walks were amazing and to be able to do it all in a day must mean people have missed some of the best natural views we’d ever seen.

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