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Tuesday dawned overcast and cold. And by dawned, I truly mean that I arose at sunrise. For the next three days I would be travelling back to Adelaide via the Great Ocean Road, a stretch of coastline that is famed for its beauty, and we started early. Because it is incredibly popular, many tour groups routinely take this route back and forth from Melbourne to Adelaide, and I joined one run by Groovy Grape. It turned out to be a great decision, because the size of the group was smaller than other tours, and the people I went with were amazing. Everyone was young and international: I met people from Holland, England, Belgium, South Africa, Germany, Austria, and Quebec (she was adamant about that point). My friend and I were actually the only Americans. I hadn’t realized how much I’d been missing the camaraderie of people in their early-to-mid 20s until I was surrounded by them again; Adelaide as I’ve known it really lacks the 20-something crowd.
As we left Melbourne I knew the weather would not be on our side; it started to rain before we even got very far. We stopped at a small diner for some breakfast and continued driving until we hit Bell’s Beach.
Bell’s Beach
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| From Melbourne & the Great Ocean Road |
Bell’s Beach is internationally known as one of the best surfing spots in the world; it is home to the Rip Curl Pro Surf and Music Festival, the longest running surfing competition in the world. One glance and you can see why; the waves seem perfect for surfing, and this is coming from a person who has never surfed.
We continued driving, and the ocean front that opened before us was beautiful. We arrived at the entrance of the Great Ocean road by mid-morning. The road was built in memory of the “Diggers”, or Australian servicemen, who died during World War I. The construction of the road, starting in 1919 and lasting until 1932, also provided much-needed work to those returning from the war. The road also opened the coast to the rest of Australia. Previously, travel between the coastal towns of Victoria was incredibly difficult, relying mostly on water commerce and travel. The road made these towns accessible to the outside world.
Sign
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| From Melbourne & the Great Ocean Road |
We made a short stop at a nature preserve, where we saw koalas hanging out in the eucalyptus trees and colorful and very gregarious birds.
Can you find the koala?
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| From Melbourne & the Great Ocean Road |
Koala
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| From Melbourne & the Great Ocean Road |
Birds
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| From Melbourne & the Great Ocean Road |
After eating lunch in the town of Lorne, we drove into the rainforest of Otway National Park. It’s surprising to find a rainforest in this part of the country; I’d expected them to be confined to the more tropical northern and eastern coasts. We took a short hike through a bit of the place, and I learned that this temperate rainforest is home to the Australian mountain ash, a species of tree that grows to a massive size, and some of the largest ferns in the world. Lovely place.
Rainforest
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| From Melbourne & the Great Ocean Road |
Driving again down the coast, we made our way to the first of the coastal rock formations we would visit on the trip: The Loch Ard Gorge. The gorge itself was not incredibly impressive, though interesting. However, the story of its naming made the visit worthwhile. I won’t relate it here, but for those who are interested...
Loch Ard Gorge
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| From Melbourne & the Great Ocean Road |
At that point, the clouds that had been threatening us intermittently all day finally released, and we got soaked. Rather than going to our next destination, the Twelve Apostles, and freeze while we waited for sunset, we decided instead to stop and unload our things in Port Campbell, our accommodation for the evening. After doing so, we hauled ourselves back into the bus to watch the sun set on the Twelve Apostles, the world famous limestone rock formations on the coast.
It was bitterly windy and cold, and the group of us huddled together for warmth and a respite from the biting wind. Because of the heavy cloud cover, the Apostles didn’t get a chance to “do their thing”; the rocks change color during sunrise and sunset, and it is supposed to be stunning. Despite this, they were still very impressive.
Twelve Apostles
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| From Melbourne & the Great Ocean Road |
We returned to our accommodation, a small house very near the water, and ate dinner around the fire we had built. The evening was spent in good conversation with my new friends, followed by a warm and comfortable bed; the next day we’d be getting up early to go back to the Twelve Apostles.
Sunset
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| From Melbourne & the Great Ocean Road |
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