The Great Ocean Road
After leaving Melbourne, we went on a three day drive on the Great Ocean Road. The Great Ocean Road lines the south coast of the state of Victoria and is full of tiny country beach towns, surf beaches, dramatic coastal cliffs, and lighthouses. We went Wednesday - Friday and the tourist season had not yet picked up so whilst we had cheap accomodation and the lack of crowds, we also had few options for eating.
Day one included the Pt Lonsdale lighthouse, Torquay "Australia's Surf Capital" and home to famous "Bells Beach", and Anglesea. In Torquay we stopped in at the Surf Museum and were very much impressed with the pictures and tales of the famous surfers. Angelsea was Jared's favorite though as it had a golfcourse which was full of kangaroos. Then we spent the night in Lorne at the historic Grand Pacific Hotel. After browsing the town, we stopped in for some pizza at a cafe that was actually open. Unfortunately, there must have been something wrong with the food. It didnt sit right at first and later that night Katie got food poisoning. She spent the entire night extremely sick. Not a good start to our holiday.
Much of the next day, Katie spent in the car trying to recoup while Jared stopped at the many viewing points to take in the spectacular views (and he took the camera for Katie). We made our way from Lorne through Apollo Bay all the way to Port Campbell to see the Great Ocean Road's most well known sites...the Twelve Apostles, London Bridge, Loch Ard Gorge...all dramatic coastline cut up from the tremendous southern ocean. That night we stayed in the tiny tiny town of Port Campbell and Katie managed some soup for dinner.
Luckily by the third day, she was feeling better and we could get out and about for some walks. First stop was the walk to wreck beach...366 stairs from the cliff to the beach and back up again (maybe a little overdoing it for our first walk). But it was worth it. The southern coast is also called the shipwreck coast. At wreck beach you can see several reminants of two of these wrecks at low tide. We also liked our stop at Cape Otway where we spotted many koalas and took a tour of the Cape Otway lighthouse.
After all that, we were still glad to be coming home to Manly and to some great food options!! Thankfully we have the day on Sunday to relax and catch up from our travels before going back to work.
Day one included the Pt Lonsdale lighthouse, Torquay "Australia's Surf Capital" and home to famous "Bells Beach", and Anglesea. In Torquay we stopped in at the Surf Museum and were very much impressed with the pictures and tales of the famous surfers. Angelsea was Jared's favorite though as it had a golfcourse which was full of kangaroos. Then we spent the night in Lorne at the historic Grand Pacific Hotel. After browsing the town, we stopped in for some pizza at a cafe that was actually open. Unfortunately, there must have been something wrong with the food. It didnt sit right at first and later that night Katie got food poisoning. She spent the entire night extremely sick. Not a good start to our holiday.
Much of the next day, Katie spent in the car trying to recoup while Jared stopped at the many viewing points to take in the spectacular views (and he took the camera for Katie). We made our way from Lorne through Apollo Bay all the way to Port Campbell to see the Great Ocean Road's most well known sites...the Twelve Apostles, London Bridge, Loch Ard Gorge...all dramatic coastline cut up from the tremendous southern ocean. That night we stayed in the tiny tiny town of Port Campbell and Katie managed some soup for dinner.
Luckily by the third day, she was feeling better and we could get out and about for some walks. First stop was the walk to wreck beach...366 stairs from the cliff to the beach and back up again (maybe a little overdoing it for our first walk). But it was worth it. The southern coast is also called the shipwreck coast. At wreck beach you can see several reminants of two of these wrecks at low tide. We also liked our stop at Cape Otway where we spotted many koalas and took a tour of the Cape Otway lighthouse.
After all that, we were still glad to be coming home to Manly and to some great food options!! Thankfully we have the day on Sunday to relax and catch up from our travels before going back to work.
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