Cruisin' the Great Ocean Road

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With Brett back in town, we decided to leave TP and her roomies for a few days and drive the Great Ocean Road on the South Eastern coast. The road starts just passed Torquay, and winds along the coast and through rainforests for 273km's to Warrnambool. The road was originally built by 3000 returned servicemen as a war memorial for their fellow servicemen who had been killied in the First World War. The actual construction of the road took place between 1919 and 1932, with many updates since then.

Most of the road hugs the coast pretty tightly offering amazing views of Bass Strait and the Southern Ocean, and they say it is some of the most scenic coastline in the world. And it definately is beautiful and very rugged in spots, and is known as the Shipwreck Coast in parts, and you could definately see why! The weather was overcast both days, and cold! And I know 16 degrees doesn't sound that cold... and we have been in Australia for awhile now, but we aren't that used to only warm weather! With the wind howling up from the Antarctic it was bloody freezing in parts!

We were surprised at the amount of farming and rolling hills that were right up against the coast. Lots of cows and sheep. Also one of the parks, Great Otway National Park, includes some of the last surviving temperate rain forests in the south of Australia.

Probably the most famous and well know attraction on the drive is the Twelve Apostles. The stacks have been formed by erosion, and are varying heights and thicknesses. Even though you have seen them before in tonnes of postcards and books and calendars, they are really amazing and beautiful to see. We had wanted to be their at sunset but with the cloud cover we decided to keep moving on. There are now they say only 8 apostles left, as a number have fallen over entirely as waves continually erode their bases. The rate of erosion at the base of the limestone pillars is approximately 2 cm per year.

We stayed in Apollo Bay both nights, and even went to the same restuarant 2 nights in a row because it was that good! Apollo Bay is a beautiful little seaside town that you can imagine gets really busy during the summer months. Lorne was another really nice little town, as well as Port Campbell. It was a great time to do the drive though as it wasn't as busy as it gets in summer, as well as accommodation was cheaper as it is the slower season. I can't imagine doing the drive with loads of cars on the road, bad enough creeping along with only a few people on the road, and cars crossing the centre line as everyone is staring out the window!

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Photos

Another rainbow shot.
This rainbow seemed to follow us for a couple hours on the first day.

Finally after 2 previous trips, and 6 months here now, our first koala in the wild!
Look hard and you can see a koala up in that tree.

There he is. So cute.
I was tempted to climb up there and have a snooze with him.

Some pretty good waves rolling thru here.
But that wind from the Antarctic is pretty damn cold!

Thunder Cave
Where 15 of the 52 people onboard got washed into after the wreck of the Loch Ard in 1878 after a 3 month journey from England to Melbourne. Only 2 people survived.

The view out from Thunder Cave.
The 2 rock sides used to be joined across before collapsing after years of beatings from the weather and waves.