Unable to hide my disappointment as the sun went down the first day.
I consider myself something of a lover of road trips, so when I read that the Great Ocean Road was one of the world's best road trips I was pretty excited. The GOR is a winding road similar to the Hwy 1 on the California Coast, tracing a path from Melbourne to Adelaide on the southern most coast of Australia. The guidebooks tout that it weaves past unparalleled natural beauty, friendly wildlife and delicious seafood. I cannot imagine a better combination. I love natural beauty (how can you not), friendly wildlife means potentially cuddly koala bears, and delicious seafood….can't complain about that either. Yay for the Great Ocean Road!
Months before, when planning how we were going to do this drive from my comfortable couch in California, it was a little tricky to figure out the little details - like when we would be leaving and how far we would want to drive each day. The first day we unfortunately got started a bit late, got stuck in traffic, stopped for lunch, and generally dawdled, which meant not starting the drive until after 5pm. This meant that we were rushing by some of the famous lookout points trying to get to our pre-chosen place of rest for the evening. Passing up all of those spots was upsetting, since I had been looking forward to them for months. I tried to not get too upset about it, thinking, "oh, I'm sure that waterfall isn't that beautiful. Hmmm….bet you couldn't see all that much from that lookout point anyway…" But by the time we reached the campsite I was nearly in tears thinking of all that we'd missed.
Months before, when planning how we were going to do this drive from my comfortable couch in California, it was a little tricky to figure out the little details - like when we would be leaving and how far we would want to drive each day. The first day we unfortunately got started a bit late, got stuck in traffic, stopped for lunch, and generally dawdled, which meant not starting the drive until after 5pm. This meant that we were rushing by some of the famous lookout points trying to get to our pre-chosen place of rest for the evening. Passing up all of those spots was upsetting, since I had been looking forward to them for months. I tried to not get too upset about it, thinking, "oh, I'm sure that waterfall isn't that beautiful. Hmmm….bet you couldn't see all that much from that lookout point anyway…" But by the time we reached the campsite I was nearly in tears thinking of all that we'd missed.
The Twelve Apostles
After making dinner at our campsite that night, Steph and I discussed. We decided that it might be worth it to turn around and start over. Steph pointed out that when people had asked me what I was looking forward to seeing most in Australia, I would often list the Great Ocean Road before the Great Barrier Reef, Sydney, and The Red Center. So we decided that even though we would be backtracking (which we both hate), we would turn around. It was similar to making it all the way to Big Sur from San Francisco, and deciding to turn around, drive back to the city and start over.
Totally worth it. We saw waterfalls, stopped and had delicious (and really expensive) fish an chips. We stopped at all the lookouts, I took about a hundred photos, we saw our first koalas (more on that later), and we were able to get to the Twelve Apostles for sunset. Perfect. The Twelve Apostles are probably the most famous sight on the Great Ocean Road. They are a series of rock chimneys that stick out of the ocean near the coast. They were formed by the ocean crashing into the shore over millions of years, breaking away large sections of rock, ultimately leaving these 'Twelve Apostles' behind to fend for themselves against the rough ocean waters. They're doing okay so far. Every thirty years or so, large sections collapse or crumble, and new ones are created. One plaque that we read explained about how in 1990 a couple had crossed a land bridge to one of the apostles, and after getting there, the bridge unexpectedly collapsed leaving the two stranded on top of the apostle for several hours. Yikes. We were able to see these both at sunset and at midday, and I have to say, they are pretty awe-inspiring at any time of day. When driving by the rock formations, there are lookout points along the road about every 300 meters or so, and I stopped at every single one. By the fifth or sixth one, Steph would just stay in the car, unless I would drag her out claiming to have seen penguins or something else spectacular. We did not see penguins.
Totally worth it. We saw waterfalls, stopped and had delicious (and really expensive) fish an chips. We stopped at all the lookouts, I took about a hundred photos, we saw our first koalas (more on that later), and we were able to get to the Twelve Apostles for sunset. Perfect. The Twelve Apostles are probably the most famous sight on the Great Ocean Road. They are a series of rock chimneys that stick out of the ocean near the coast. They were formed by the ocean crashing into the shore over millions of years, breaking away large sections of rock, ultimately leaving these 'Twelve Apostles' behind to fend for themselves against the rough ocean waters. They're doing okay so far. Every thirty years or so, large sections collapse or crumble, and new ones are created. One plaque that we read explained about how in 1990 a couple had crossed a land bridge to one of the apostles, and after getting there, the bridge unexpectedly collapsed leaving the two stranded on top of the apostle for several hours. Yikes. We were able to see these both at sunset and at midday, and I have to say, they are pretty awe-inspiring at any time of day. When driving by the rock formations, there are lookout points along the road about every 300 meters or so, and I stopped at every single one. By the fifth or sixth one, Steph would just stay in the car, unless I would drag her out claiming to have seen penguins or something else spectacular. We did not see penguins.
Momma and baby koala
We spent a total of two nights on the GOR, camping in the same place both nights. It was a campsite at the tip of Cape Otway (about halfway between the beginning and end), and the campsite brochure had made the promise that campers would be 'sleeping under koalas'. I tried not to get my hopes up too much about that, as it seemed like one of those promises that is easily made and then when the koalas aren't there the friendly campsite manager claims that you showed up in the wrong season, or that you're not looking hard enough. So as we pulled into the campground and peered into the trees hoping to catch our first glimpse of a koala, I was secretly skeptical. Tree after tree was koala-free. I began to feel a little disheartened. Then we saw him. Sleeping directly above the road on the most impossibly skinny branch was my first koala. We screeched to a stop in the middle of the road (as much screeching as you can do when driving 5 mph), both of us squealing and greeting the little guy in the voice that I generally reserve for my two cats. If my sister would have been with us she would have been in full-tilt eye roll in the back seat. After that first sighting we saw one koala after another, mostly sleeping, sometimes eating, and once we even saw a small fight break out. Luckily they just tussled for a minute, stared each other down, then retreated to opposite trees. We went on a couple of walks through the campground and ran into more koalas than I can count - including one mother protectively cradling her baby. I think they actually designed teddy bears directly after koalas. They are THAT cute. The only time that they are potentially not cute is when they are making their very distinctive mating/territorial calls at 4am. It sounds like a cross between a dog barking and a bullfrog croaking, and is VERY loud in a campground when all the koalas are trying to claim their territory in the middle of the night.
All in all, the Great Ocean Road is worth the hype. It's hard to go wrong when surrounded by so much beauty. After the GOR, we made our way towards Kangaroo Island - another place that I had read about during my research period, but unfortunately knew much less about. And it seemed like it was going to be expensive to get over there. So the last 100 kilometers of the Great Ocean Road, we spent plowing through informational pamphlets deciding on whether it was worth the time and expense of getting over to this little island off the coast of Southern Australia. I'll let you know all about that in my next post.
-EC
All in all, the Great Ocean Road is worth the hype. It's hard to go wrong when surrounded by so much beauty. After the GOR, we made our way towards Kangaroo Island - another place that I had read about during my research period, but unfortunately knew much less about. And it seemed like it was going to be expensive to get over there. So the last 100 kilometers of the Great Ocean Road, we spent plowing through informational pamphlets deciding on whether it was worth the time and expense of getting over to this little island off the coast of Southern Australia. I'll let you know all about that in my next post.
-EC
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