This weeks post is being divided into 2 because I have so many pictures to post with it! (so make sure to read my other post too)
On Saturday, we woke up bright and early (and I mean early! 6am is not an hour that I usually see) to go on a tour of the Great Ocean Road. The Great Ocean Road runs along the south-eastern coast of Australia. Its really cool because a majority of the road follows the coast line. We were driving only a few metres away from the ocean! It is 243 kilometres long and goes from the city of Torquay (about 1 ½ to 2 hours outside Melbourne) to Adelaide. We didn't see the whole road, but we did see all the main tourist spots along the road. The road is considered to have three sections: the surf coast, the forest coast, and the ship wreck coast (probably the most famous one).
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| This is the part of the Great Ocean Road that I traveled |
Leaving from Melbourne, we traveled to Torquay to start the road. Fun fact: Torquay is considered the self-proclaimed surf capital of Australia and is where the brand RipCurl was started. At Torquay, we visited Bells Beach, which is a surfing beach. It was very cold so we didn't go down to the water, but we were watching the waves and they were huge! Unfortunately, the cold and wind continued all day but since most of the day we were on a bus it wasn't too bad. Bells Beach is the start of the Great Ocean Road, as well as the start of the surf coast.
Next, we visited Aireys Inlet to see a famous lighthouse called the white queen. Traveling on, we got to take pictures at the Great Ocean Road Memorial Arch (which is oddly not at the start of the road). We then went to a place called Kennett River and got to see wild koalas and really pretty birds. We then stopped at a city called Apollo Bay to eat lunch. This led to the end of the surf coast. The drive along this section of the road was my favourite. Almost the entire time we were driving, we were right along the southern coast of Australian. We got to see all the beaches along the way and the ocean was gorgeous! The waves were massive!
We then entered the area called the forest coast. This drive was a lot less interesting because we were surrounded by trees a lot, but sometimes it would open up into fields and farms and then the view was really cool. Our only stop on this coast was at a place called Maits Rest in Great Otway National Park. This was a temperate rainforest. It was cool because I didn't think there were rain forests in Southern Australia but apparently there are quite a few along the Great Ocean Road.
We then came to the third and most famous of the three coasts, the ship wreck coast. Our first stop here was the 12 Apostles. The 12 Apostles are lime stone columns standing in the ocean. They are huge and really cool looking. Apparently they were formed by the waves crashing into the side of Australia and breaking away everything except these columns. Another fun fact: there are actually only 8 Apostles. There used to be 9 but a few years ago one became unstable and fell into the ocean, but there were never 12. The wind at the 12 Apostles was insane! I almost got blown over walking out to take pictures of them. We then went to a place called Loch Ard Gorge. This was another spot to view the Apostles. From the first location you can see 6 of the 8 and you have to go to another location to view the other 2. Our final stop along the road was at the London Bridge. This used to be a limestone bridge that you could climb walk out on to and stand on the limestone rock; however, the bridge collapsed into the ocean in 1990. The rock is still really cool looking though.
