The Great Ocean Road (Port Fairy to Apollo Bay) - 16th Dec

It was nice this morning waking up to the sound of waves from the window of our B&B. Our hosts knocked on our door at 8.30am with a tray of cooked breakfast which we ate in the room.

The view from our room

When checking out our hosts recommended we visit the Tower Hill Park which turned out to be a great recommendation as we saw lots and lots of Aussie wildlife. When we pulled up in the car park 3 koalas were lazing and eating in a tree. Later in the car park we also saw an echnida (related to the ant eater) and two ostriches. We chose to do the park's 3km board walk and within 2 minutes of the walk saw a Copperhead – one of Australia's 25 deadly snakes. Needless to say I was glad when the walk was over and we were safely back in the car.

Koala - cute

Echidna - interesting

Snake - scarey !!

 

After this we started our trip along the Great Ocean Road, a limestone coastline where erosion has created lots of fantastic rock formations.

One rock formation aptly named London Bridge really had fallen down. The rocky outcrop collapsed in January 1990 just after a couple had crossed it. They were rescued however it turned out they were conducting an extra marital affair and so fled from the waiting media after the helicopter rescue.

Loch and Gorge was another formation named after the Loch Ard, a boat which sank in 1878 whilst transporting immigrants from England to Melbourne. Of the 53 people on board only 2 survived. There was a little cemetery near the rocks where some of the ships crew and passengers were buried.

The Twelve Apostles is a point where you can see at least 8 rock formations in the sea at different stages of erosion. It is the most iconic part of the drive and we have to agree the most impressive.

 

By the time we'd pulled ourselves away from taking many, many photos it was 6pm so we thought we better head to Port Apollo where we were stopping the night. This turned out to be quite a drive through the Otway Ranges and took about an hour. The YHA in Port Apollo was lovely with a nice lounge and big kitchens for cooking. The average age of people stopping here was much higher than in Adelaide as I guess the 'scenic' Ocean Road isn't high on a 21 year old's travel plans.

We cooked some food, spent some time organising our accommodation in Melbourne and then headed to bed.