THE GREAT OCEAN ROAD, THE PRIDE OF VICTORIA
One of the greatest road trips from our Australian bucket list was the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, Southwest of Melbourne. The Road was built as a memorial to the World War I soldiers, and the project also provided work for 3000 returned soldiers for 13 years. The idea was to construct a scenic road that rivals the Pacific Coast Highway of California. The result is 244km of breath-taking seaside scenery with a road carved out from a densely forested coastline running above the sea on one side and along steep cliffs on the other.
The road starts off in the town of Torquay, 100km Southwest of Melbourne and runs till Nelson. The winding road passes through a number of very picturesque seaside holiday towns as you go up and down hillsides hugging the narrow path between the side of the mountain and the ocean, which is not for the faint-hearted at times.
On the first day of our trip we started early from Melbourne to make the most of the day. We passed down the Eastern side of the peninsula to Torquay, an 1.5hs drive away from the city, where the Great Ocean Road officially starts, From this point the route runs along small seaside towns and beaches that are popular with surfers and families who spend their weekend relaxing, and often don't need to share the beach with more than a few others, as there are so many of these.
Beaches along the Road are often only for yourself
Several scenic lighthouses mark the corners of the land that used to be the only navigation points for ships approaching the continent from the West. We visited the scenic Split Point lighthouse on Aireys Inlet that is standing on the rocks and a nice hiking trail leads up to it. It offers a nice view on the coastline.
Aireys Inlet lighthouse and view
A bit further West the Memorial Arch commemorates the original start of the Road in 1919. From this point the scenery along the road gets especially pretty, so be prepared to feel like stopping in each bend to admire the fantastic view!
The choice of lookout points is also spoiling, however to see the postcard-like view of the road bending along the rocks beneath, we chose to go up to Teddy's Lookout a bit after Lorne. Here it is what you can see:
Our final stop of the day was the biggest town situated conveniently midway along the road, in Apollo Bay – this also happened to be one of the few places where we managed to find accommodation at a reasonable price. We stayed in a B&B in a one-street village on the outskirts, in Skenes Creek. The view from the living room was a very picturesque image of rough, rocky seashore with huge waves – not the type that invites you in for a dip at all, even if it was a great spot for a morning stroll!
Rocky coast around Apollo Bay
The second day we made a small detour from the main route for a hike in the Great Otway National Park, which has a special micro-climate and therefore unique fauna. As we walked in the forest the sunlight was only able to penetrate the immense forest's canopy in patches, giving the whole trek a very mysterious air, Our destination was the Beauchamp Falls, a waterfall amid the dense forest with a little crystal clear lake at the bottom of it. We found a little secret path to the falls so that we could get much closer and Szilveszter could take a quick dip - even if the water was breathtakingly cold!
The detour road rejoins the Great Ocean Road close to Shipwreck Beach, one of the absolute highlights of the trip! Although the road leading there is an absolute nightmare with little if any signposting and a challenge for any 2WD cars, it is worth the detour. It got its name from the two hundred known ships which met their untimely end on the shores. Why? The Bass Strait separating Tasmania from the Australian mainland was a particularly treacherous area (even if its average width was 250km, twice as wide as the English Channel) due to it's multitude of submerged rocks and very stormy seas - hence the need for all those lighthouses! The shipwrecks here are some of the many victims of the imprecise navigation tools at the time in such a difficult environment.
The Shipwreck Beach was my favourite area along the Road, with huge cliffs dropping away to a narrow band of sand, and massive waves breaking on the semi-submerged reefs. Even better is the fact that 2 ships' anchors (the Marie Gabrielle's and the Fiji's) got washed up on the shore during a particularly large storm, and they complement today the desolate landscape. Being less known than some of the more popular sites, we had the beach practically to ourselves! It is an ideal place to forget about time.
The final stop before the end of our weekend trip couldn't have been more different than the private beach. The 12 Apostles formation is a group of limestone rocks rising dramatically from the sea. They were formed by the comparatively quick erosion of the limestone from which the cliffs are made (similarly to the Cliffs of Dover), which is also why there are only 8 of them left. The 9th one collapsed in 2005 - but I guess 8 apostles wouldn't be as catchy a name, While the location is certainly spectacular, we must have caught the wrong time to visit as it was absolutely heaving with people! An alternative way to see the rocks is from the air which was extremely popular at the time of our visit, perhaps to take pictures without heaps of others on them!
After the 12 Apostles we had to say a sad goodbye to the Road to head back to Melbourne. A piece of advice to fellow travellers would be, that while the Great Ocean Road is possibly doable in 2 days, if you can, you should budget 3-4 days, as we felt we would have happily stayed another day or two - and might do at another time in the future - to see what we have missed this time: the Cape Otway Lighthouse, the Loch Ard Gorge and the London Bridge rock formations.
And perhaps another useful advice is to get back on the road back to Melbourne on time in order to avoid making the drive too exciting by worrying whether you will make your flight due to the massive traffic jams on Sunday afternoon!
