Great Ocean Road: Wild Koalas and Majestic Views
Beautiful 150 mile stretch of road along Australia’s southern coast. Great Ocean Road is a day trip from Melbourne and takes about 5 hours to traverse one way. Envision a twisting and turning coastal road that has magnificent ocean and beach views on your left and 50 foot cliffs on your right. This was my first time driving on the left hand side of the road and it was a challenge to take in the magnificent landscape, navigate the blind curves, and avoid oncoming traffic all at once. We continued to pull over at the scenic lookouts so we could really enjoy the views.
We were advised to eat some seafood in a small city along Great Ocean Road called Lorne, which I can not recommend. Really touristy strip of shops and lack of competition between the restaurants proved to result in poor quality everywhere. We did have some excellent ice cream in Lorne at a place called Stone Cold which is basically the same thing as Cold Stone in the US, except they have the option to add crushed up Tim Tams as a topping. Tim Tams are Australia’s famous chocolate cookies and they are delicious.
Halfway down Great Ocean Road, the highway briefly swings inland as you go through Great Otway National Park which includes mountains, forests, waterfalls AND koalas. A brief detour while in the national park leads to the Cape Otway Lighthouse and is known for onshore whale watching during migration season. We didn’t see any whales, but the road to the lighthouse brings you through a stretch of land that is heavily inhabited by these slow-moving, extremely cute creatures that hang out in the eucalyptus trees above the road.
The highlight of Great Ocean Road is the Twelve Apostles which are naturally formed limestone stacks just off the shore. Well, there used to be twelve of them but over time the mighty Southern Ocean continues to crash on them eroding them to the point where they fall over. Now only eight remain. There are a couple of other really nice sites within a minutes drive of the apostles such as Loch and Gord (my favorite), the Grotto, and London Arch. These majestic rock stacks are sometimes up to 200 ft tall and the pictures below don’t do them justice. Worth the drive!
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