One of the very popular activities when visiting Australia is to drive the Great Ocean Road, which runs along the coast between Melbourne and Adeline. Some people take many days or weeks to leisurely explore the area. Others take a day trip from Melbourne to see the Twelve Apostles. We opted for somewhere in the middle – two days and one overnight. Since we were coming back to the same hotel in Melbourne, we stored our big bags and took a little one for the drive.
I was happy to find a rental car location a short walk from our hotel, but it was totally bonkers when we arrived – as was the woman behind the counter. I promise she was trying to check in at least five reservations at the same time. It was madness! I was trying to get out of there as quickly as possible, since she was so busy, so I declined an explanation of how to get to the Great Ocean Road. After all, I have a phone with GPS, and it’s a major tourist activity, so of course, there will be signs, right? Wrong. We wasted at least an hour trying to find our way out of Melbourne to the Great Ocean Road. The GPS kept wanting to take me to the freeway, but I wanted to drive along the coast. My mom isn’t a very good navigator, so I was trying to read the map on my phone and drive, all while yelling, “how are there no signs for such a famous drive?!” Oh, and did I mention all of this was happening while driving on the opposite side of the road?
Driving on the opposite side isn’t that difficult for me, but this trip, it took me DAYS to master the switch for the turn signal vs. the windshield wipers! We kept laughing when I was trying to signal that I was changing lanes on the freeway only to turn on the windshield wipers instead!
Anyway…I digress. Back to the story. If you ever find yourself driving the Great Ocean Road from Melbourne, it’s important to know that you have to drive 1-1.5 hours to Geelong and then you can connect to the Great Ocean Road! I read some blog before going that said there was beautiful waterfront between Willamstown and Geelong, but I couldn’t figure out how to get there (and believe me, I took several detours in an attempt to find a coastal route)!
Once we found our way to the official Great Ocean Road, it was straight forward…just follow the coastline.
We had two gorgeous days, and the waves were HUGE! Our B&B host guessed that they were probably 30 feet high! We were disappointed not to see many surfers out, but perhaps it was because the conditions were particularly rough!
On the first day, we drove from Geelong to Apollo Bay, stopping in a variety of little beach towns:
Torquay for a pastry at Cafe Moby.
Bells Beach to see the huge waves. We saw the waves, but no surfers. We did see a lot of paragliders, since it was really windy.
Point Addis, where we walked out to the end of the boardwalk.
Aireys Inlet to climb up to the Split Point Lighthouse.
[I don’t know about everyone else, but I drove a car to visit the lighthouse.]
Lorne, where we had lunch at The Bottle of Milk. The burgers and milkshake were both good!
And finally, our first “Koala Safari” on Grey River Road. Don’t worry; koala safaris aren’t a term I heard anyone else use. But to me, it best explains the activity of walking or driving around looking for koalas in the trees. I read about this road when I was doing research for the trip, but the reality is that it was way more than 200 meters to find one, not “bundles of koalas clinging to the branches.” Can you see him rolled up in a ball in the crux of the branches?
Beyond koala, we also saw a lot of cockatoos on this day and throughout the trip. It was so fun to experience so many unusual animals in the wild!
We continued on the coastal road to our destination – Apollo Bay Guest House. The owner was thoughtful, and the property was peaceful and immaculate. We rested for a bit before heading to dinner at Chris’s Beacon Point Restaurant. It was located way up the cliff with stunning ocean views. We both had fish, and it was delicious!
After a leisurely breakfast at our B&B in the morning, we headed out for a second day along the coast. Our host told us about another area where we would see more koala, so we set out on another “Koala Safari.” I only spotted one while driving, but my mom was pretty good at finding them. I think we saw three or four. They are probably hard to spot in these photos, because the trees are so tall!
We saw one final one on our way back to the main road. It’s a given that someone has spotted a koala when you find a crowd around the base of a tree!
I loved this day, because there were so many incredible rock formations along the coast, particularly those in Port Campbell National Park.
We walked down the Gibson Steps to Gibson Beach, which was AMAZING! The cliffs are so high, and the rocks out in the water are enormous!
Twelve Apostles has the most tourists, but I was happy to overhear someone saying that there were far fewer people than the last time they were there. Maybe it helps that we were visiting on December 23rd. There aren’t actually 12 rocks jutting out – probably more like seven or eight.
Loch Ard Gorge also had stairs down to the beach. The waves crashing through the little split between the cliffs were impressive.
Arch…
London Bridge…
…and Grotto were all rock formations that had parking lots nearby, making it easy to see them without trekking a long distance. I was most amazed at the Grotto, because it wasn’t at all what I expected. It has a pool of water, even though it’s located high above the ocean. I’m still not clear exactly what it is…cave / arch / sinkhole / pool, or how it came to be, but I thought it was really beautiful.
After all of those beautiful stops, we made the three hour drive back to Melbourne by way of a less scenic, but more direct route.
(And so you don’t think we were going non-stop for a month, we spent the evening doing laundry, eating room service, and relaxing.)
I highly recommend the Great Ocean Road! The majesty of nature is enough to take your breath away!