The Great Ocean Road!

The last post said that we managed to get a cheap rental that we were not too keen on as we would have rather had a van but were happy to take in order to drive the Great Ocean Road. The car was supposed to be a cheap "compact car" that we would find out what it was on arrival. We had been told to expect something like a Toyota Corolla at best and we were wondering if all our bags would fit in if we were to get anything smaller.

However it was to turn out that our luck was about to change as the guy brought out a Toyota Camry which is a massive businessman type car! The boot was so big that there was enough room for all our bags and we could have squeezed in with them!

The car was still an automatic and not the manual we had hoped for but we didn't care too much as it was fantastic to get out and drive a real car with power and speed. Our luck was also good with the weather as it was a fantastic sunny day, which had been a change from the rain we had seen in Melbourne quite often.















Now onto the Great Ocean Road (GOR). The GOR starts 100km south west of Melbourne and works its way along the stunning coastline of Victoria's south-west. Recognised as one of the world's most scenic drives, it stretches for around 250km, from Torquay, just south of Geelong, to Warrnambool. For most of the distance the road follows the coastline and offers spectacular views of beaches and rock formations. The road was constructed to provide work for returning soldiers and dedicated as a memorial to those killed in the 1st World War.








Torquay:

To get to the start of the GOR we had to first drive from Melbourne and an hour later we arrived in Torquay. This is the surf capital of Australia and also where surf institutions Rip Curl and Quiksilver clothing and surfing brands started out around 30 years ago.








Airey's Inlet (Split Point Lighthouse):

The first stop on the road was a visit to the 34m high Split Point Lighthouse. The number of disastrous shipwrecks along the coast resulted in the construction of a lighthouse in 1848 on the point of Cape Otway. Several others were then built including Split Point Lighthouse in 1891. These guided ships bound for Port Phillip through the narrow entrance to Bass Strait. Despite the lighthouses construction there have been 19 shipwrecks along this very small stretch of coast leading to the name "Ships Graveyard".
























The GOR is not all about the coast and the next stop was a slight detour up into the mountains to check out Erskine Falls which were pretty cool. The Erskine Falls are located 10km inland from the small town of Lorne.

















Marina Lookout:

One of the nicest lookout points that we came across was Marina Lookout. This was situated near the Erskine Falls and overlooked the town of Lorne. The lookout was great but the coolest part about it was the carpark. You may find this weird however it was justified with the 2 friendly ponies that were wandering around freely!





























Also in Lorne was the best lookout point on the GOR. It was also by far one of the most spectacular sights we have seen on our travels. This was Teddy's Lookout and it was incredible. Unfortunately for you the pictures do not do it justice but we enjoyed it! The sea was one of the clearest we have ever seen and the beach looked amazing with no-one on it so after taking in the views we stopped off for a while here.





























The 12 Apostles:

Our final stop of the day was to be the 12 Apostles before we spent the night in a great wee town called Port Campbell. When we first arrived we could see the rock formations in front of us but we were distracted by the large seal that was bathing on the beach. Gemma wanted to climb down to get a closer look however the only way down was a steep vertical cliff.









The Twelve Apostles are giant rocks that rise from the Southern Ocean and are the central feature of the rugged Port Campbell National Park.

The Twelve Apostles have been created by constant erosion of the limestone cliffs of the mainland that began 10–20 million years ago. The stormy Southern Ocean and strong winds gradually eroded the softer limestone, forming caves in the cliffs. The caves eventually became arches and when they collapsed rock stacks up to 45 metres high were left isolated from the shore. They are a pretty fascinating site and we were fortunate enough to arrive just at sunset so we got a good view of the sun going down in the background.






























The reason we rushed through the GOR in the one day was due to the fact that we had heard it was going to be raining the next day and we only had the car for 3 days. Therefore we didn't want to take the chance of missing some of the key parts. We are never so glad to have done this as the next day it was torrential rain and this lasted all day. Therefore we had great fun driving the car which we enjoyed almost as much as the GOR. We had to make 1 more stop for the night in a town called Keith before arriving in Adelaide the following day where we are currently.