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Reaching Point Break and Going Round the Twist
Great Ocean Road, Australia |
Great Ocean Road, Australia
The Great Ocean Road is 243 kilometer stretch of road listed as an Australian National Heritage site linking the Victorian cities of Torquay and Allansford. It was built by returned soldiers between 1919 and 1932 and is dedicated to soldiers killed during World War I, making the road the world’s largest war memorial; I bet you didn’t know that!
The road trip from Torquay to Allensford is one of the most well-known and well-travelled roads in Australia popular with day trippers from Melbourne, backpackers and locals alike. We had been looking forward to this journey from the very start of our trip, so with expectations high we hit the road.
We decided to head out of Melbourne and spend the night in Torquay in preparation for the trip, whilst 243 kilometers is a normal distance for us to drive in a day we decided to break it up to stay a few nights along the way and really make the most of the journey. With La Toya bathed and looking her best and the fridge stocked we had an early night and watched a movie in bed, not just any movie…. We watched Point Break in preparation for a visit to Bells Beach the next morning. Much to our disappointment upon asking professor Google we were informed that the final epic scenes in the movie were actually filmed in America and not at the real Bell’s Beach, but what the hell we are going anyway in search of Bodhi.
As it was my best friend’s birthday that day I decided it would be the perfect location to make her a personalised birthday card and spent a good hour trying to get the right spot with the sun not ruining my hand made sign!!
We had decided to spend the night at Kennett River (well I decided and told Tim that is what was happening), a spot renowned for having a dense population of Koalas and a camp site which claimed to have its own koala family living on the site how could we resist, or more to the point how was Tim going to convince me that we were staying anywhere else!!
Like every other tourist travelling the Great Ocean Road I had about 15 different maps that I had been collecting from camp sites and tourist information centres along the way, each with its own suggestions as to what to do. One map suggested a stop at Split Point Lighthouse as they offer daily tours up the lighthouse. We decided to give it a look, sadly the tour was already booked up when we arrived as it seemed to be Activities Week for Kids as they were all out walking and exploring the area. However I was not the slightest bit disappointed when I read an information sign about the lighthouse. Split Point Lighthouse was the location of filming ‘Around the Twist’, one of my favourite childhood TV shows. Before I knew it I was skipping down the road to the lighthouse singing away… “have you ever, ever felt like this, strange things happen, are you going round the twist”… and so on…. It was also a very pretty area with rugged cliffs and lovely views, but there was no time to hang around. I had koalas to find so we carried on stopping along the way for some road pictures of course.
We made it to Kennett River and whilst making small talk at check in discovered something, the weekend coming up was a national holiday which meant every campsite in the area would be doubling its prices or booked, oh heck. We got set up and then our second bad news of the day arrived, we had no phone network so no way to book a campsite and sort out the disaster that was looming over us. Thankfully the campsite did have wifi of sorts, it was slow and lost network regularly but it worked for long enough for me to find one campsite at the end of the Great Ocean Road to book us in for 3 nights to ride out the holiday. Phew. Now back to koala hunting.
On our tour maps there was a koala walk marked which went up a road behind the campsite, so we set off cameras in hand and eyes to the skies in search of our favourite furry friends. We followed the map and there was a smell of koalas in the air, not an unpleasant smell like you get in some of the zoos but a strong warm digested eucalyptus type smell. We passed a few other tourists wondering around all looking up, a few cars passed and went back down but low and behold there was not a koala to be seen. Feeling utterly cheated and dejected that the Koala Walk had zero koalas we decided to have a look around the camp site. Phew, the koala situation improved rapidly. We found at least 7 or 8 koalas dotted around the place but there were a couple that were really adorable. Firstly an old looking koala that was the spitting image of Mr Miyagi from the Karate Kid and then there was a baby with her mum. We decided to call her McFluffster because she had the furriest coat and ears. She was so inquisitive she spent ages just checking us out whilst her mum was asleep in the tree, it was the perfect opportunity for my friend Lulu to get a second personalised birthday card for the day with a cute furry koala!!
We literally spent hours with our necks cricked watching the koalas on the campsite, they are my favourite marsupial by far, but don’t tell the wombats, or the kangaroos, or the wallabies, or the echidna’s or the possums!!
That night we slept to the sound of koalas, ever wondered what cute little noise these little furry faces make? Well it is a bit like a lion crossed with an angry pig. Literally they have a roary squeal like nothing you have ever heard from such a small cute animal.
The other benefit of Kennett River as with most places along the Great Ocean Road, it has a huge beach right opposite the camp ground. A huge beach which at 6pm we had completely to ourselves, to play camera club as the sun went down.
After a night of listening to koalas it was time to move on, it was also my birthday so once again I got to pick our campsite. Guess what feature made me choose this campsite, yup you got it, koalas!! Sadly the meteorological department of Australia hadn’t got the memo that it was my birthday and we woke to grey drizzly skies and no hint of the sun making an appearance at all. So we set off on the now grey and not so beautiful Great Ocean Road.
What surprised us most about the GOR, is that in my head I had visions of a huge straight highway along the coast like you see in the American movies (yes I know I am in Australia!!). However the GOR is actually just wide enough for 2 cars most of the way, definitely not wide enough for 2 large campers or caravans to pass as the overhang on the right was pretty low and regularly crumbling causing landslides. We were pretty pleased we were in little La Toya on the ocean side safely away from the crumbling cliffs. The road is also super windy and bendy. It has a speed limit of between 80 and 100km however you are lucky if you can travel at much more than 50km due to the constant bends. But don’t get me wrong, this is not a road you take to get from A to B, it is all about the experience of driving it, which we loved.
Our next stop was Cape Otway, I knew that we were in the right place because just minutes into the drive there were 5 cars and campers pulled over all with their cameras pointed up at the trees at a little koala holding on and wondering what the fuss was about. We carried on to our campsite which much to La Toya’s disgust was at the end of a 3km unpaved, corrugated dirt road. Annoyingly we were once again in a phone signal dead zone and so I spent considerable amounts of time sat in the freezing cold drizzle outside the campsite office checking my emails and Facebook to see who loved me on my birthday, thankfully I was loved and felt much warm and fuzzier on the inside than I did on the out.
The annoying thing about cold weather is that the koalas like it and climb higher up the trees as they are not seeking shelter and hugging the cool parts of the trees so our in campsite koala trail was filled with koalas so high you needed a zoom lens the size of your leg to get a photo of them. So we decided to head to the other feature of Cape Otway, the lighthous
e.
Cape Otway lighthouse is the oldest lighthouse in Australia still in work today. The light was first lit in 1848 and was decommissioned in January 1994 after being the longest continuous operating light on the Australian mainland. It has been replaced by a low powered solar light in front of the original tower.
We climbed the lighthouse, took in the views, very nearly got blown over the side and retreated to the café for a cup of coffee and a slice of birthday cake, yay!
Thankfully later that day the sun came out and I did get to go koala hunting on my birthday, they were everywhere but sadly they were all so high in the trees we didn’t get such great photos but it was still a perfect way for me to spend the day.
The next day after another freezing cold night, it was time to get to the most renowned spot of the GOR, Port Campbell the home to the 12 Apostles.
The apostles were formed by erosion to the soft limestone cliffs: the harsh and extreme weather conditions from the Southern Ocean gradually eroded the soft limestone to form caves in the cliffs, which then became arches, which in turn collapsed; leaving rock stacks up to 45 metres high. The formation has had many names such as the sow and piglet but eventually became known as the Twelve Apostles, despite only ever having nine stacks.
The twelve apostles is such a popular stop for the many visitors and day trippers that it now has a rather fancy visitor centre and wooden walkway to follow to get the best views of the apostles. Despite the numerous signs to stay on the path and not to climb onto the cliffs there were apparently a fair few illiterate or just plain ignorant tourists ignoring them in search of a better view!!
After a daytime visit to the apostles we headed over to see our friends Lyn & Geoff for coffee and biscuits and a catch up before returning to see the apostles with the day light fading and thankfully a lot less tourists than in the midday sun.
Thankfully the GOR was not over yet, after a night in the cute little town of Port Campbell and a rather nice dinner of fish & chips the next day we drove the final stretch of the road taking in all the other lime stone formations along the way. One of my favourites was London Bridge, a former bridge which is no longer connected to the land after it collapsed leaving tourists stuck at one end awaiting a helicopter to airlift them to safety, crazy times!! Visiting the final sights along the road was quite funny as everyone was following the same route and you would start off by passing on the path and saying good morning, and by the 5th stop over you are like long lost friends asking if this spot is worth the walk down the steps. They were all worth the walk, despite the cold wind and looming rain clouds we stopped for them all and can well and truly say “We Drove the Great Ocean Road”!
Beans Around The World 