Great Ocean Road Round 2 Day 2

Today I drove the Great Ocean Road, and boy was it busy! I guess this area is popular for tourists and locals alike when they have a day off.

The day was gray and a bit rainy at times, so it was nice that we had good weather the first time we came to see it at peak sunshine. We drove from Twelve Apostles to a nice beachy lookout to stop and have some breakfast before continuing to drive. It was much easier and more pleasant to drive with an automatic car rather than old manual campervan. The goal today was just to enjoy the drive having stopped at most places along the way we wanted to already. One place we didn't manage though was the Cape Otway Lighthouse, so we decided to head down there again.

Cape Otway Lighthouse hadn't even opened yet by the time we got there, the opposite problem to the last time it was closed when we arrived! (And probably a first for Allan to arrive somewhere before it opens 😜). When it finally did open, we walked the grounds past the Telegraph House, a house with old equipment and some information about the house and how they signalled with ships. Further on down the path we passed the Lighthouse Keeper's house and the Assistant Lighthouse Keeper's house. And finally, down at the coast was the lighthouse.

The lighthouse was smaller than I expected for being such a perilous area of coastline. It was white with a red railing and balcony that we walked around after climbing up a couple small flights of metal steps to the top. It was very windy, but the views from the top of the lighthouse were beautiful. Even with slightly gray skies, the water was still blue. Inside the lighthouse was some information about a Scottish guy who designed special lenses to better project the wasted light of a lighthouse that goes back inland. It was a bit confusing to me, but the lighthouse worker was very impressed by his design and said it was clever.

We climbed back down the lighthouse and headed up towards the Assistant Lighthouse Keeper's House where there was free tea and coffee. We sat for a bit looking out at the coast and the lighthouse before heading back to the car. We officially hit all of the planned stops on the Great Ocean Road (but not nearly all the stops you can do on it).

Coming off the GOR we planned to have a quick lunch at Bells Beach before finishing off the drive to Melbourne. When we drove down to the beach, we were stopped by road closures signs. Apparently the Rip Curl Pro was happening, so the beach was closed. We started the drive back to Melbourne and pulled over at a rest stop to eat quickly before getting back on the road.

The drive took longer because of traffic heading into the city, and instead of getting there just before 2:30, we arrived at 3. It could've been worse, but a couple of Allan's Aconcagua mates were waiting for us, so the delay felt very inconvenient. We parked across from Flinders Street Station and met Con and Martin at the station.

They, mostly Martin, took us on a small walking tour of the city stopping at places like Hosier Lane to see the graffiti and passing by some busy shopping streets. We popped our heads into the Old Treasury Building which has a small museum in it detailing the gold rush in Australia that made Melbourne the richest city in the world at one point in the mid 1800s. We walked past the Parliament and took the free tram down to the river where we stopped for a couple of beers before carrying on towards all the sports stadiums. While on our way to the stadium we made a pitstop at Martin's office which had some great views of the CBD.

The stadiums are all clustered together with nice park land all around them. There were a couple of tennis courts, but Martin has his eye on the MCG, the stadium where cricket, rugby, and Aussie rules football are all played. We missed the end of the game, but the stadium still has people pouring out of it, so we snuck inside to get a glimpse of the interior and the field. It's an impressive stadium, and the round field with all the different lines for different sports was interesting, if not confusing.

We left the stadium with the last of the supporters and headed back through the park to a pub for some food. We had a goat and buffalo cheese pizza as well as a parma, which Con assured us was an Australian staple. We talked for a while before going our separate ways. Con drove back to his house, Martin walked us back to our car before cycling home, and we then drove to Con's house as he kindly offered us a bed for the night. Then it was just a case of packing and rejigging the bags before our flight to Sydney tomorrow.Read more