Great Ocean Road: Victoria, Australia

After a wonderful couple of days in Melbourne, it was time to hit the road for one of the Honeymoon adventures I was most looking forward to: the Great Ocean Road! Stretching 249 miles along the southern coast of Victoria, we knew we were in for a stunning drive!

To prepare for our trip, I had read several blogs and guides to the area and popped in points of interest along the way. As you can see from the map above, there is a lot to see! The main point of advice that was repeated over and over was that it really shouldn't be done as a one day trip (i.e. leaving from Melbourne, driving all the way to the 12 Apostles and then back to Melbourne) because the road can be dangerous if you're fatigued. So, we decided to do it over two days with an overnight stop in Port Campbell (the little blue bed to the left in the picture above).

I had said to Matt as we planned this trip that I would be happy as long as it wasn't completely pouring because I was worried the road would be difficult to navigate in bad weather. We had read that if the weather is particularly bad, you might want to take the overland, non-coastal route to Port Campbell and then drive back along the Great Ocean Road the second day instead. Fortunately, the weather was just beautiful - I still can't believe how lucky we were!!

Leaving from Melbourne, it's a 90 minute drive to the start of the Great Ocean Road in Torquay (first stop on the right of the map above). We picked up our rental car in the city centre at 9 am and were on the road by 9:15. I had google mapped our journey several times to make sure I was familiar with the route but the process of getting out of the city was totally easy. Once we were on the Great Ocean Road, there were lots of little stop offs along the way. One of the first was the Split Point Lookout which gave us an opportunity to stretch our legs and take in a beautiful view of the lighthouse. We also popped into Bells Beach, which is one of the most famous surfing spots on the Victorian coast and home to the annual Rip Curl Pro event held every Easter.

After an hour and a half on the road, we came to the Eastern View Memorial Arch. This is the image you usually see of the Great Ocean Road and we were surprised to find it wasn't at the very start. Built by returned soldiers from 1919 to 1932, the road is the world's largest war memorial and is dedicated to the soldiers killed during the First World War.

It was really moving to think of those soldiers taking on such an incredible project - the terrain is not easy and the work would be have been difficult, particularly in the changeable Victorian weather. Seeing this memorial arch in the way it was intended was one of the reasons we were so keen to drive the Great Ocean Road in this direction (rather than coming back from Port Campbell along it). It really helps to put the journey into perspective and I hope that the stunningly peaceful scenery was a healing sight after the horrors of the war.

The colours along the route were just incredible - every shade of blue and green against sandy beaches and crashing waves. Although the weather is a bit more uncertain in Spring down in Victoria, it does mean that the road is less crowded than in the summer months. We often felt we were the only ones there and it made the journey much easier without having to navigate around big buses, etc. It also meant we made great time and were able to pop into the Kafe Koala about 40 minutes past the Memorial Arch.

As you might have guessed from the name, this is the place to spot wild Koalas on the Great Ocean Road. The Kennet River is the only natural habitat for them on the route and we were really lucky to spot this sleepy friend. The smell of the eucalyptus was incredible - really rejuvenating after several hours of driving! We popped in to the "Kafe" for a drink and a muffin and were so grateful it was there because this area is so easy to miss if you haven't set your GPS to Kafe Koala. It was a super short stop but well worth it!

After our koala visit, we continued to slowly make our way down the Great Ocean Road, taking time to stop into lookouts as we came upon them. It was so lovely to have a free day to just relax and take in the scenery after a few days of bustling around a city.

For lunch, we stopped in Apollo Bay as it was roughly halfway through our journey. Online, we had read about the Apollo Bay Fishermen's Co-Op and thought that sounded good. Set slightly away from the rest of the town, the Co-Op had lots of outside seating that overlooked the harbour. The area is known as the home of the Southern Rock Lobster so we were tempted to go for it but ultimately decided to share a quick fish and chips before heading back on the road.

After Apollo Bay, the road takes a detour away from the coast to cross through Great Otway National Park. The lush forest scenery and rolling hills made for a nice change but the winding nature of the road meant it was impossible to get a photo! We also hit our first piece of road works which meant we slowed to a crawl for some portions of the trip. This was an eye opener to how quickly you can start to find delays adding up and we were a little nervous since we wanted to arrive in Port Campbell before dark. However, soon we were back to the coast and the now familiar scenes of crashing waves.

The final stretch up the coast to Port Campbell holds many of the most famous attractions so we were happy we made it in good time. Here the coast gets much more rugged with jutting cliffs of crumbling limestone stacks. You can see the differences in the photo above versus the more harsh photo below.

The other benefit of spending two days on the Great Ocean Road is that you can see the formations at different times of the day. For example, when we arrived in the late afternoon, the Gibson Steps (below) were perfectly illuminated from the viewing platform while the 12 Apostles had the sun behind them (which made it harder to see the details). Being able to spend the night nearby and return in the morning made such a difference!

We hit a bit more road work on the final leg of our journey and ultimately rolled into Port Campbell at 4:30 pm. All in all, we spent a little over seven hours on the road. We could have definitely done the journey quicker but the whole point is to stop and enjoy the different sights along the way so we thought this was probably about average in terms of drive time. With all the stops, it was actually a fairly easy drive with just one driver as the stretches between attractions is never more than 40 minutes or so. Port Campbell was such a gem of a place to stay that I have a post dedicated to it coming up next!

We started our second day by heading further up the coast to the Grotto. It was so peaceful with very few visitors since the tour groups from Melbourne arrive around 3pm. We took our time wandering the beautiful paths and drinking in the scenery before heading back to the car and starting our journey back to the 12 Apostles.

Our next stop along the way was at the London Bridge (also called London Arch) formation. Up until 1990, this was a complete double span natural bridge. However, in January 1990, the bridge suddenly collapsed due to the constant erosion. This is a natural process and of course, the coast will continue to change in the future. However, what was interesting about this collapse was the fact that two tourists were unfortunately left stranded and had to be rescued. Now, that is a travel story to take home!

Finally, we found ourselves back at the beautiful 12 Apostles. Unlike most of the stops along the Great Ocean Road, the 12 Apostles have a dedicated visitors centre with a little shop, bathrooms, and other amenities. When we had arrived the previous day, it was absolutely packed with tour groups who were then making the journey back to Melbourne that day. So, the quiet of the morning was absolutely glorious and gave us a chance to really take in the view. Interestingly: there aren't twelve stacks and there never were! Of the original eight stacks, only seven remain after one collapsed in July 2005.

At this point we had the option to drive back up the Great Ocean Road to get to the Melbourne Airport where we'd be spending the night. However, we decided to take a different route since there is so much to see in this part of the world. In a separate post, I'll tell you all about that adventure!

If you can, we highly recommend saving two days out of your itinerary for a trip down this incredible memorial road.

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Website: https://www.australia.com