The Great Ocean Road. Another one that’s been on my bucket list for years.
For my birthday many years ago my ex gave me a card with a promise of a trip along the Great Ocean Road. I’ve finally had that trip – on my own. He never delivered on his promise 🤷♀️
After beach and national park hopping around south-east South Australia I made it to Victoria.
The 180k trip from Mount Gambier to Warnambool took me around 6 hours. There were quite a few stops along the way. I’m really enjoying this slow travel thing.
I checked in to the caravan park on the beach in Warnambool – there’s not a lot of free bush camping along the Great Ocean Road. I went for a walk around town, had a swim and then sat on the deck of the surf club having a drink overlooking the beach. It was fabulous.
I looked at the guide books to decide what I was going to do. You’ll never believe it. There’s a cheese world in Warnambool! With a café. That made the top of the list for a visit on my way out of Warnambool in the morning.
Things were looking good.
Until it rained overnight in Warnambool. I don’t set up my swag underneath my awning as I like to lie in bed and look at the stars. So I was woken up during the night with rain drops falling onto my face. No biggie – I just pulled the cover up on the swag and went back to sleep.
The problem was, as I discovered when it rained in Canunda National Park, when I woke up in the morning the inside of the canvas of the swag was wet to the touch. Nothing had dripped on me, I was still dry, but it meant that when I rolled the swag up the wet canvas would make my bedding wet. And it was still drizzling on and off so I couldn’t just wait it out for the swag to dry a bit.
Oh well, nothing else for it. I pulled the bedding out of the swag and put it all in the back of the car separate from the swag, and took off.
I pulled in to Cheeseworld, BUT IT WAS CLOSED! It didn’t open for another hour. So I decided to continue on my way.
So a wet swag, no Cheeseworld, and it was still drizzling. Not an auspicious start to the trip.
Add to that the first part of the road from Warnambool is through dairy country. Lots of cows in fields, but nothing out of the ordinary. I was starting to think about just continuing straight through to Melbourne to visit friends and family.
Then I rounded a curve and got my first glimpse of what the Great Ocean Road is about. It literally took my breath away. The Bay of Islands.
It was spectacular!
And the scenery continued.
I stopped at every lookout, even the ones that weren’t marked. Some of the unmarked ones were the best. A couple had paths down onto the beaches. I barely got into top gear from one lookout when the next appeared.
The stormy looking weather suddenly seemed perfect against the dramatic cliffs and rock formations in the ocean.
From the Bay of Islands, through the Bay of Martyrs, the Grotto, London Bridge, Mutton Bird Island and Loch Ard Gorge. All the way to the 12 Apostles. The scenery was magnificent.
Dramatic. Awe inspiring.
And by the time I got to the 12 Apostles the weather had changed again and it was warm and sunny.
Though the 12 Apostles was a bit of a shock. So many people! I think there must be day trips just to the 12 Apostles. It’s very well developed, with an information centre and shop, and a huge carpark which was full.
And to be honest, I don’t think it’s the best part of the scenery.
Don’t get me wrong. It is spectacular, but further around the coast towards Warnambool is better in my books. More dramatic.
From the 12 Apostles all the way to Apollo Bay the scenery changed again. As did the weather.
The Otways National Park is thick forest, and when I was there was also thick fog. Fog so thick it required use of windscreen wipers at times.
But to offset that there were koalas in the trees right beside the road in the Otways. A few of them. Every so often you’d see people pulled up beside the road staring up into the trees.
I kept running into a young woman at the lookouts along the road. So often that we started to chat, and decided that we’d stop at Apollo Bay and camp together that night. However by the time I got to Apollo Bay the fog had changed to rain.
As my swag was already wet I texted her that I was going to continue to Lorne in the hope of moving past the rain.
Leaving Apollo Bay the scenery changed again. The road moved down closer to the ocean and around every curve there was another beach. Sadly the rain continued and the road was winding so I had to concentrate on driving and couldn’t appreciate the scenery.
But by the time I got to Lorne it was sunny again. Sunny enough to set up and let the swag dry out before I had to get in to it to sleep.
And sunny enough to go for a walk, have a swim, then go to the local Bowlo for a drink and some dinner. (Not to self: don’t go out drinking with young people)
I woke up the next morning a bit seedy. But a swim in the ocean, a walk along the beach, and coffee on the beach fixed that. Together with the beautiful sunny weather.
We’d both decided that we were going to drive to Queenscliff and take the ferry across to Sorrento. Then she was carrying on to Wilsons Promentory and I was going to drive the scenic route around the bay to Melbourne.
Of course, there was a lot of beach hopping along the way. Because there are a lot of beaches along the way.
