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Great Ocean Road and drive to Adelaide

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Great Ocean Road and drive to Adelaide

After a few days in Melbourne, it is time for us to pick up the van and start our road trip. And like our first day with the van in New Zealand, it is raining for our first day in Australia !

The van we have here is the same make and model than the one we had in New Zealand, but this one is a lot more recent. And no stick shift! All automatic. And we love it knowing how much we are going to drive in this country.

Day 1 – Melbourne to Port Campbell

So it’s under the rain that we start our trip towards the Great Ocean Road (or GOR). The GOR goes from Torquay, a little bit South Ouest of Melbourne, all the way to Warrnambool, some 160 miles later. It is known to be one of the most beautiful coastal roads in the world.

First stop in Torquay, starting point of the GOR, and the famous Bells Beach, famous because of its surf competition. Unfortunately today there aren’t many surfers in the water. And we understand them, the weather is pretty bad. It’s cold and rainy. Nonetheless the beach remains beautiful, and we have nice views from the different lookouts.

We then continue to Aireys Inlet, and the Sandy Gully beach. Very pretty beach once again, with the surrounding cliffs.

Too bad the weather isn’t great and it’s pretty cold, we would have loved to go for our first swim in Australia!

In Aireys Inlet we also stop at the Split Point Lighthouse, a cute Lighthouse overlooking the ocean.

A few lookouts offer great views on the ocean.

We end the morning at Teddy’s Lookout, in the city of Lorne. This lookout is high up in the hills, and offers an incredible view on the cliffs dropping in the turquoise blue ocean, with the road winding along the coast.

We decide to grab lunch here before continuing to the Kennett River. On the road we see plenty of cockatoos, these white birds that look a little like parrots.

On the way we stop now and then to take pictures. We have to admit, the road is really beautiful.

Kennett River is known for being a good spot to see koalas. It is easier to see them late afternoon when it is less crowded, so we don’t really expect much as we get there right after lunch. But who knows! The first animals we see are birds, and there is a ton of them (it does help that there are plenty of tourists feeding them seeds…).

Some are very colorful.

After walking less than 2 minutes, we see our very first koala. Sitting at the very top of a tree, it is so cute.

We are able to take a few pictures before it decides to curl up and take a nap.

We continue walking a little bit, and what do we see, a second koala! Maider is super excited. And Matt manages to take an awesome picture.

We then go back on the road to Appolo Bay, and climb to the Mariner’s Lookout. From there we have a great view on the bay.

Since it is still early we decide to continue all the way to the 12 Apostles, which is THE most popular stop of the GOR, 50 miles further. Between Apollo Bay and the 12 Apostles, we abandon the coastal road and drive inland  into a huge forest in the middle of the Oatway National Park. We stop at Maits Rest and got on the trail that brings us in the middle of the rainforest. Apparently this is another good spot to see koalas. Unfortunately we won’t be as lucky as in Kennett River and won’t see any along the walk.

Late afternoon we arrive at the 12 Apostles. The 12 Apostles are actually only 8. These are massive rocky stacks, created by erosion, that seem to be abandoned in the middle of the ocean. The formation of the Apostles date from a few million years back. So far we were relatively alone on the road from Melbourne, but when we arrive at the 12 Apostles parking lot, it is jam packed. And the parking is huge! It is already 6 pm and we thought people would be heading back to Melbourne by this time. Guess we were wrong!

We still go to see these rock formations. And we have to admit the spectacle is pretty amazing. The rocks stacks are impressive. We really enjoy the view.

Unfortunately it is hard to truly appreciate the beauty with all these people around, running, screaming and taking 100 selfies. So we decide to come back early tomorrow.

Before going to our campsite for the night, located in the small town of Port Campbell, we stop at the Lock Ard Gorge. The ocean here squeezes between the clay cliffs thanks to erosion.

The gorge gets its name from the English ship Loch Ard, that sunk here in 1878. This place is beautiful.

We almost prefer this to the 12 Apostles, probably because there are a lot less tourists.

There is a short walk that brings us to several lookouts, all more beautiful than the previous one.

The waves that come crashing against the cliffs make for a beautiful scenery.

 We end the walk on the beach bellow.

The ocean here is turquoise blue.

And behind us a small cave with stalactites.

The landscape is simply incredible, we love it!

After a pretty long first day, we go to sleep in the village of Port Campbell and go to sleep early because an other early morning awaits us tomorrow.

Day 2 – Port Campbell to the Cobboboone National Park

The next day we wake up at 6:30 am and go directly to see the 12 Apostles. We have been driving for less than 5 minutes and already see our first kangaroos. They are on the side of the road. We don’t have the time to stop and take a picture, but we are happy to have seen some after 5 days in Australia.

We start with the Gibson Steps, where we couldn’t go yesterday because the parking lot was full. At 7 am it is almost empty. Only 2 other cars are parked. From here we can see some of the Apostles. And we can go down to the beach to have a better view.

The beach is empty, only 5 other people are here. Perfect!

The landscape is incredible.

We stay a little while on the beach before heading to the 12 Apostles lookout. Unfortunately the weather isn’t on our side and it starts raining when we get to the lookout, but at least we are all alone!

And that is great! We are glad we woke up early.

We take our time to admire the scenery.

And try to take pictures without getting everything wet.

Next stop : The Arch. And when we arrive in front of it we clearly understand where the name comes from.

Then we continue to the London Bridge. Up until 2009, this was a double arch, that made it look like a bridge. But since then the first arch fell and now we are only left with a single arch in the middle of the ocean. The scenery is once again amazing. These cliffs sculpted by erosion, overlook a large beach, and the water is as always crystal clear.

The place is magical, and it helps that there are only very few tourists.

A few miles further we have our next stop : The Grotto. A cave carved in the middle of the cliffs.

And one last stop on the GOR at Bay of Martyrs.

We then leave the coast to go to the Tower Hill reserve, on the road between Warrnambool and Port Fairy. This marks the official end of the GOR. The Tower Hill reserve was created by a volcanic eruption 35,000 years ago.

Here it is possible to see kangaroos, koalas and emus in their natural habitat.

We get out of the car for a first walk and after less than 5 minutes Maider sees a few kangaroos. This time we are able to take pictures of them. They are really close to the trail.

We will see quite a few during the walk, and Maider is excited like a kid on Christmas morning each time she spots one.

Unfortunately we won’t see an koalas on this walk. We then go a little further to a second walk around the volcano crater. Here we see plenty of emus.

And a few kangaroos. It is really fun to see them jump around. To our disappointment we won’t see any koalas today. We grab lunch on the parking lot before heading back on the road.

In the afternoon we stop at the Cape Nelson lighthouse, a little after the town of Portland.

And we end our day at the Cape Bridgewater Seal colony. Here there are two colonies of about 650 seals total. A nice 2 mile hike gets us there, and starts at the Cape Bridgewater beach, one of the 10 most beautiful beaches in Australia.

On the way we cross paths with another kangaroo (or is it a wallaby? We aren’t quite sure about the difference).

We won’t see many seals, and only from pretty far away, since we are 425 ft above sea level.

But the view is amazing.

After this hour and a half walk, we take advantage of the free showers at the Cape Bridgewater beach, even though the water is freezing cold.

We spend the night in a camping in the Cobboboone National Park. In the middle of the forest, with nothing around besides kangaroos.

Day 3 – Cobboboone National Park to Coonalpyn

The weather is still grey for our third day on the road, and we head towards Mount Gambier to see its Blue Lake. This lake is located in the crater of an old volcano. The lake’s color changes during the year, it is grey from April to November, and turns bright blue towards the end of November. We were lucky to see it blue. And it is very pretty.

We get back on the road to the Coonawarra region, known for it’s Cabernet Sauvignon. So we stop in two wineries, first at Wynns Coonawarra Estate, the oldest of the region.

This winery is known for its Riesling and Cabernet of course.

We do a small tasting and come back with a bottle of Cabernet and late harvest Riesling.

The second winery is Rymill Coonawarra, known for its excellent Sauvignon Blanc. Here we do another tasting and go back to the van with a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc (it is indeed delicious) and a bottle of Cabernet.

We leave the region with 4 bottles of wine that will be perfect to enjoy our evenings in the outback !

The region is also known for the Naracoorte National Caves, world heritage site, where 26 clay caves are home to many fossils, like giant marsupial skeletons. We have to admit we preferred the wine tasting to the caves! Guess we’ll visit the caves if we ever come back.

Back on the road, we stop at a rest area, right on the highway, to take a free hot shower. And drive all the way to Coonalpyn, small town in the middle of nowhere. The only motel in town lets campervans park on there back lawn for free. Awesome! To thank them we go have a cold beer in their pub, that comes straight from the 80s, with a juke-box, a pinball machine and all that goes with it. We love it. Couldn’t do more local than this.

Day 4 – from Coonalpyn to Adelaide

Today we drive to Adelaide. On the way we stop in Strathalbyn, small historic village. With 30 buildings listed as local heritage sites.

The city is home to many antic shops and a beautiful garden along the Angas river.

We get closer to the coast in the city of Goolwa, from where we can see whales between May and October. We will just go for a stroll along the beach and on the dunes.

We continue a little bit to Port Elliot, where we would have loved to go for a swim in Horseshoe Bay. Unfortunately the weather isn’t great and it is still pretty cold. And we aren’t as courageous as the few Australians we see swimming.

In the afternoon we stop at Victor Harbor, coastal town known for it’s tram pulled by a horse (that dates back from 1878) that goes from Victor Harbor to Granite Island.

We also sit back and watch Australians play boulingrin (which comes from the words bowling and green, in reference to the surface they play on). This game comes from England, and looks like it is pretty popular in Australia since we see fields for this in every little town.

We end our afternoon in Adelaide Hills, in the village of Hahndorf and at Mount Lofty. The village of Hahndorf is the oldest German village in Australia.

The main road is filled with historic buildings.

There are plenty of antic shops, but also pubs where you can stop for a refreshing German beer.

Mount Lofty offers a nice view on the city of Adelaide.

Where we arrive after having driven 770 miles from Melbourne over the past 4 days.

We will stay a couple of days in Adelaide with Matt’s high-school PE teacher. She moved here a little over a year ago with here family. A nice break before heading into the outback.