Great Ocean Road

We spent an entire day driving to the Great Ocean Road. After renting our car and having some nervous issues about driving on the other side of the road, we were off and reached the start after almost 3 hours. The start of Great Ocean Road is already almost 2 hours from Melbourne, but we managed to hit some traffic along the way.

After hitting up an information center, we were aiming to get to the 12 Apostles before sunset. We opted to avoid some of the stops that were for the beaches along the area and stopped at only a couple of places. First up, the lighthouse at Anglesea. We couldn't actually get to the top of the lighthouse unless you paid to take a tour.


Beyond the lighthouse, there were some paths that we could take and look out onto the ocean.


It seems as if lots of rock formations have drifted off the main island to create these rock formations.


Cindy was taking in the view from the other side of the lighthouse.


After the lighthouse, we kept driving along the road and hit even more traffic on our way to a little town called Lorne. By the time we arrived, we were starving for lunch and stopped as soon as we saw some shops. Little did we know that there were about 3 times as many cafes/shops if we had continued to drive for another block. After Lorne, it was a windy, narrow drive until we hit the next lookout point. At Cape Patton Lookout, we could see the drive that we were going to have to do in the distance.


After we reached the next small town of Apollo Bay, we stopped to stretch our legs. We found this little ice cream shop that had some amazing Marzipan ice cream. A couple of kilometers outside of Apollo Bay, there was a small rainforest area that had an easy walk/hike that we decided to take. Unfortunately, since there has been a drought in Australia, the rainforest wasn't thriving too much. We did see some trees where the roots had grown up and around something that no longer existed.


There were these convenient bridges along the path for when there was a river/water flowing through the rainforest. Cindy decided to meditate for a little bit.


After our rainforest hike, our last destination was the 12 Apostles. The road had turned off from the ocean and we drove through lots of countryside for awhile before finally reaching them. Wombat enjoyed the 12 Apostles, but he didn't like the number of flies that were in the area.


The amazing part of the area around the 12 Apostles is that there is no pathway to get down to the beach. These cliffs are at the edge of Australia.


The Apostles were on both sides of the little viewing area that we were able to walk around.


The 12 Apostles made the Great Ocean Road journey worthwhile, but it did take us almost 9 hours to finally reach them. Luckily, there is a shortcut through the countryside that can get you back to Melbourne in 3-3.5 hours.