Day Tripping The Great Ocean Road


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Oceania » Australia » Victoria » Lorne
February 6th 2012
Published: August 9th 2017
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Geo: -38.5424, 143.976

Day two in Melbourne and straight in to the swing of things by doing a day trip down The Great Ocean Road to The Twelve Apostles. We arrived in to Melbourne early to a hot 35 degree day, a reminder of what I have missed over the last few years. It was definitely a shock to Anna, especially driving in a car with no working air conditioner.
We caught up with Fernando, a friend of Anna's from Surrey University, for lunch and in no time we had organized a day trip down the Great Ocean Road.

Our fine lodging was in Croyden at one of my best mates place, but at considerable distance to where most of the action is, although there are benefits to being out that way too.
The following morning we picked up Fernando and cruised down the freeway to the coast. The day cleared up beautifully and our first stop was Bells Beach, a popular surfing haven. It was a lot smaller than I thought it would be but lives up to it's name with some great waves.

We pushed on down the road and stopped at various spots and lookouts. We stopped in Lorne for some lunch and the beach was busy as it was still the tail end of the school holidays. Lorne is a great place for a little getaway and the waves were perfect of beginner surfers, unfortunately our time line wasn't as flexible and it was hard to turn down.

After lunch we set off for the final stretch to The Twelve Apostles. The drive seemed endless, a lot longer than I remembered and we arrived quite late at almost 4pm.
Along the way my keen eye caught a glimpse of two wild koalas perched in the trees so we had to stop, being the only ones parked on the side of the road staring up started a mini chain reaction from other passerby's.
In the 15 years that I have lived in Australia I have only ever seen two wild Koalas, and on Anna's second day in Australia she managed to draw even, what a bonus for her!

It was quite busy at the Twelve Apostles, but the views were a good distraction from the tourist traffic. Scenic helicopter flights were in full swing ranging from $99 to $450.
The long drive was definitely worth the wait as it took around 7 hours just to get there and we still had four more hours to get back. We decided to head north and catch the freeway back instead of tracking back down the windy ocean road.
We stopped for a hearty pizza meal and arrived back in to Croyden by 10pm. A long but a very amazing day.






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