The Great Ocean Road

This is my fourth time visiting the Great Ocean Road (the first time for the kids) and I still find it thrilling and beautiful.

After Mt. Gambier, we drove to Warrnambool where we spent the weekend visiting the western part of the Great Ocean Road (which many argue is the best part). Unfortunately, it was very cold and gale-force winds! 😬

Warrnambool to Port Douglas Road

Bay of Islands Lookout

The first stop on this road (driving west to east) is the Bay of Islands lookout.

The Grotto

Next up is the Grotto. This was a very fun walk. You approach via the top of the cliffs. Since it was so windy, bits of foam were flying up everywhere when the sea hit the cliffs. You can see a bit in this video, but of course, it doesn’t really capture what it was actually like to be there.

London Bridge

London Bridge, which famously fell down, is the next stop. These cliffs are so large that it’s hard to imagine them just crumbling into the sea, but it happens regularly along this coast. London Bridge is now cut off from the mainland, due to a major collapse in 1990.

Loch Ard Gorge

This is my favourite site along the Great Ocean Road. There are several different walks and lookout points and then stairs leading down to the beach at the gorge. This area is named after a ship called the Loch Ard which wrecked at this spot in the dead of night in 1878. The story is that a male survivor (Tom) swam to the beach at the end of the gorge. Soon after, he heard a female survivor (Eva) calling from the sea. He swam out and rescued her and brought her to a cave at the end of the beach in the gorge. He then climbed up and hailed some local farmers to help. And they were the only two survivors from the ship. If you’re interested in reading more about it, the story is here.

You can climb down a set of stairs to the beach at the bottom of the gorge, but you have to remember that these cliffs just break apart willy-nilly! Thank goodness there are signs like this to remind you:

The gorge from the beach view and the cave:

12 Apostles

The last stop we made on this section of the road was the famous 12 Apostles. I’m not sure how many Apostles are left, but certainly not many!

I’m not really sure why these are more famous than the other lookouts on the road. And things have certainly changed since the last time I was here (about 15 years ago). Now there is a HUGE parking lot, and a helipad with 4 helicopters constantly taking off and landing (even in these really strong winds). There was also a cafe and proper toilets. And, it was crowded!

Apollo Bay

We spent a week in Apollo Bay (about halfway along the Great Ocean Road). We had an incredible view from our van and the park. It was great to hear the waves crashing in at night. Here’s our view:

The kids ran to the playground at the caravan park as soon as we arrived and they saw this guy:

Unfortunately, he left the first night and we never saw him again.

Apollo Bay was a cute little touristy town with boutique shops and a really nice beach.

Apollo Bay to Lorne Road

The following weekend, we took the Great Ocean Road further to the east to Lorne. Unfortunately, again we had bad weather and it was raining off and on the whole weekend.

Here’s the view from this section from this section of the road:

We stopped for a little while in Lorne and had lunch and a play, but the weather put a damper on the fun.

Rain & Mud

One of the less glamorous sides of this lifestyle is having to pack up the van in the pouring rain and tons of mud! (Then having to drive in the car for hours while you’re a bit damp – if not soaked!)

We’ve had so much rain that the ground is really saturated. We had to use our Max Trax to help get out other campers that were bogged in their van – it’s that muddy!

Apollo Bay to Colac Road

We headed up north from Apollo Bay to Maryborough where we are basing ourselves for the next week so we can visit Ballarat and Bendigo.

The road up the Otway mountain range from Apollo Bay to Colac was stunning and the scenery kept changing from Eucalypt forest to rainforest to farmland.