Great Ocean Road Day 1

Today we started the Great Ocean Road. As soon as we left our campsite and began driving towards the GOR, kangaroos came hopping across the road! We watched them as several hopped around through the forest. It was a great way to start the day.

We drove to Torquay to start the drive after a pit stop for some breakfast and gas. After that, our first planned stop was Split Point Lighthouse. We stopped at a couple of viewpoints a long the way before making it to the lighthouse. It's a skinny building with stark white paint and a bright red top. We walked down a nearby path to a couple of viewpoints of the cliffs and ocean with the lighthouse behind us. The views are already pretty stunning!

We left the lighthouse and continued on to the Memorial Arch. The arch has been rebuilt a few times, once for road widening and another after a fire. The arch commemorates all the veterans from WWI that needed jobs and a purpose, so they built the GOR, receiving a wage and a place to live while they did it.

We drove under the arch towards the village of Lorne. Once at Lorne, we diverted inland to Erskine Falls. We parked up and walked a short way through the forest to the waterfall. It was a bit underwhelming, mostly because there clearly hasn't been a lot of rain. We walked further down the steps to the bottom of the falls and it looked nicer from there. The slight trickle was complimented by all of the greenery and many small pools that the waterfall feeds into. There were a lot of big chunks of tree, so we think that the water can flow much more powerfully than we saw it today.

We went back the way we came and stopped at Teddy's Lookout on our way to Mount Defiance Lookout. Teddy's Lookout was pretty cool with a beautiful view of the water and cliffs below. The water is a crazy turquoise color today and there's not a cloud in the sky. This has been my favorite viewpoint so far. It was a short 10 minutes to Mount Defiance Lookout and a quick stop there to get a picture of the small mountain at the end of the row.

After Mount Defiance Lookout we continued to Kennett River to visit Kafe Koala and do the koala walk. We got a quick coffee and started to walk through the eucalyptus trees, and then decided to drive to make it a bit quicker. There were a bunch of eucalyptus trees as we drove up the dirt road, but no koalas and I was starting to lose hope. Then, just as I was about to say turn around, I spotted one! We drove past it, Allan let me out to walk back down for a bit to see if I could find some more. I walked back to the tree I saw the koala in while looking for others. I didn't see any more, but the tree I saw one koala in actually has two! It was great to be able to see some in nature, even if only a couple. We kept looking for them as we drove away, and didn't see any, but I was glad I saw the two.

Our next town was Apollo Bay. It was a small town, but had a lot of surf shops and restaurants (more than Lorne anyway). We stopped here for a beer and snack at Great Ocean Road Brewhouse. Allan had the light and refreshing Summer Ale and I had the Chardonnay DIPA. They were both lovely (and local). We enjoyed the break from driving before hopping back in the car to head to Cape Otway Lighthouse, the oldest in Australia and most southern.

Cape Otway Lighthouse was unfortunately closed when we got there. Unlike Split Point, this one had a gate that closed off the path. The last entry was 1630 and we arrived at 1642. It was really disappointing, but there was no time to linger in order to get to the Twelve Apostles for sunset. We got back in the car and raced through the Otway National Park (as much as one can in an old camper).

After getting stuck behind a couple of slow people, we managed to get to Twelve Apostles about 10 minutes before sunrise. We ran through the parking lot and up the 1km path to the lookout. We got there just in time to see the sun leaving out from behind the clouds on its way down to the horizon. The sky was beautiful with bright oranges and reds and as it descended beyond the horizon, the clouds lit up a lovely pink color. We stayed a little bit after sunrise to try and see if the sky would light up any more, and to try and spot Little Penguins that come out at dusk. The sky turned a grayish color, so we walked to the other viewpoint before heading back to the carpark.

After a stop for the bathroom before the car, it was dark, so our plan to do the Gibson Steps was out. The sky has also turned a deep red near the horizon, so we walked back to the lookout to see the sky. While we were there, down below, we could just make out a moving cluster of penguins. We managed to see them! It was pretty dark, and hard to make them out, but we still saw them!

It was now too dark to even see penguin clusters, so we really did leave the parking lot this time and went to Port Campbell for some groceries for breakfast. While we were there, we had dinner and decided to try and sleep here rather than drive to a free campsite 45 minutes away. Fingers crossed all goes well!Read more