Great Ocean Road

One of my favorite days in Melbourne was the day we spent on the Great Ocean Road. We took a tour that drove us along the road and stopped every few minutes at cool lookout spots or scenic attractions. We had a really great tour guide and a small group, so it was perfect! Rachel and I had a great time, saw so many beautiful places, and had a lot of laughs throughout the day! If you thought the pictures were pretty in the last post...check these out! Warning: Lots of gorgeous pictures to follow!

Our first stop, Torquay, Victoria's surfing capital:
(There was actually a big international surfing competition going on at a nearby
beach we drove by, Bells Beach.)



At "morning tea" (this is big in Australia) I got to try a well-known Australian favorite...Vegemite! Not a favorite of mine (or of most people who haven't grown up eating and loving it). It's a spread for crackers and bread made from yeast extract, and it's a dark brown/blackish color. Sounds tasty, right? :) At least now I can say I've tried it, though I don't plan on ever eating it again. I did enjoy the lamington cakes though (small sponge cakes coated in chocolate icing then dipped in coconut).




Cape Otway Lighthouse

The views from the path by the lighthouse were incredible!






Great Ocean Road sign

Of course we had to stop and take pictures by the
famous Great Ocean Road sign and the beach !




Lorne

A popular beach town for "holiday makers" surrounded by lush green hills and forests.




Kennett River

This is a popular spot to stop and look for koalas in the wild...lots of them live throughout the gum trees in the area. We stopped and spotted some (sleeping, of course) and also saw several more in trees along the road as we continued our drive.




Cape Patton Lookout





Mait's Rest Rainforest Trail

Named after an old forestry officer, Mait, who used to stop here and rest, this dirt trail led us into the beautiful, dense rainforest. It was so much cooler in there and there were amazing plants and trees everywhere (including the ones so large you could stand inside them).




I couldn't get over how beautiful the drive was even when the Great Ocean Road left the coast for a while! We went from the gorgeous views of the ocean to the rainforest to endless miles of rolling bright green hills full of livestock (I saw LOTS of sheep and cows in Australia) and trees. (These pictures were taken as we were driving, so they're not the best, but I wanted to remember how pretty it was!)

(This was taken as we were driving back closer to the coast again,
with the ocean in the distance.)





Gibson's Steps

86 steps down the cliff face to the beach where you get a beautiful sea level view of one of the apostles, and on low tide you can round the corner of the cliffs to be able to see another of them.


Our guide thought it was a risky time to try to round the corner as the tide was coming in and was pretty high, but several of us were up for the challenge and went anyway. :) It was worth the views and added a little fun to the day as we darted through rocks between waves. Luckily we made it and didn't get stuck on the other side! :) These beaches get some great waves!





12 Apostles

Here I am with the 12 Apostles. Okay, so not the real live apostles but that's the name the Australian's have given to these rock formations out in the water. It's the most popular sight along the Great Ocean Road.

Here's a little info. about how they came to be, in case you're interested:

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 blasting winds gradually eroded the softer
limestone, forming caves in the cliffs. The caves
eventually became the arches and when they collapsed,
rock stacks up to 45 meters high were left isolated from the shore.

the apostles







Loch Ard Gorge

Part of the attraction of the Loch Ard Gorge is the story of the ship called Loch Ard and its shipwreck which left its only survivors, an 18 year-old boy and girl, stranded in the gorge.

Enlarge the photo below to read the whole story:




There used to be an arch connecting these two large rock formations until it caved in last year.





London Bridge


This formation used to be connected to the mainland and visitors were allowed to walk out across the two arches until the arch closest to the shoreline unexpectedly collapsed in 1990, leaving two tourists stranded on the remaining arch. Luckily nobody was injured and the stranded tourists were rescued by helicopter.


Rachel and I got a good laugh out of this picture...we were going to each take a picture of each other with the London Bridge in the background until a man in our group volunteered to take one of us together. Too bad he didn't bother getting the main attraction, the bridge and arch, in the picture. :) We are covering up what we were trying to get a picture with! Nice!


It was a fabulous, long and busy day! I loved the Great Ocean Road!