Epic Roadtrip Leg 2: That Famous Road

22nd - 25th January 2015

After securing a job on the New South Wales / Victoria border it was time to leave Melbourne behind but I didn't head straight to the farms. There was a route I had long been intending to travel. Along the Great Ocean Road.

Bells Beach

I left Melbourne of the morning of the 22nd of January. There a few little bits before the official start of the great ocean road which are well worth a look. The first is Bells Beach which is apparently famous for its surfing. There were already a few early risers out there when I arrived despite it being midweek.

Australia's Jobless

I few more K's down the coast brings you to Split Point Lighthouse at Aireys Inlet, the setting of Round The Twist. I can just about remember the theme tune.

Airleys Inlet with flaps

Split Point Lighthouse

Winning

The official start to the Great Ocean Road is marked with a large arch. Its actually the forth arch they have made, as the sign next to it told me, the first three had been removed through a fire, a storm and a road widening. The road was built by veterans of the First World War after they returned from service and what a road it is!

Teddy's Lookout

Twisting and winding its way along the rocky coastline it is enormous fun to drive. As long as you don't have some tourist driver in front of you which happened on occasion. I don't think I've ever had as much fun just driving.

Awesomeness

Nice

I stopped for lunch at Teddy's Lookout which had an incredible view. I moved on to Sheoak Falls which involved a 20 minute walk through the bush. Then I went to Kennett River with the hope of spotting some koalas.

Sheoak Falls

Parrots

The koalas took a little while to find. I'd heard you could find them around the river but I didn't really no where to look. The answer was up, right up in the tallest trees as high as you could go. I finally spotted one having a snooze. Then I saw two more. They all looked quite sleepy in the midday heat.

Koala

I carried on down the road into Cape Otway National Park where I saw a few cars had stopped at the side of the road. Curiously, I pulled up slowly to see another koala in the tree and this one had a baby! It was extremely cute. It kept looking like it was going to fall out of the tree but it didn't.

Mummy and baby koalas

I carried on to the southern point of Cape Otway to see the lighthouse there but as there was quite a large fee to look at a lighthouse I decided to pass. I took a picture of the picture of the lighthouse instead.

Picture of a Picture

On the drive in I noticed that a lot of the trees were dead. It looked quite haunting. There was a notice at the information point that mentioned it. Apparently its a combination of factors including lack of fire and a large number of leaf eating animals in the area. The sign said there might soon not be any koalas in this area.

Dead tree

There are no free camp spots on the Great Ocean Road but I drove, pretty much, through a bush to find myself a nice quite cosy spot away from the road and set up camp.

Gibsons Steps

The next day started a little wet and cloudy as I started the second part of the Great Ocean Road along the big sandstone cliffs. You really appreciate the height of these things when you go down Gibsons Steps to the beach. The cliff really towers above you and if any size of rock were to fall on you then you would almost probably die.

The beach

Biiiiig Cliffs

The next stop along the road is the most famous. The twelve apostles, or how ever many are left. They are quite impressive and its amazing that any of them are still standing.

12 Apostles

More Apostles

A few more big rocks

I had seen a picture of Loch Ard Gorge in the sun and it looked incredible so as it was cloudy when I arrived I was a little disappointed. It still looked good just not as good as it could be. I made way down to the beach anyway and with every step closer to the water I got, the sunnier it became. It lit up the gorgeous beach just how I wanted it to. Lucky and it was sunny for the rest of the day.

Loch Ard Gorge

More cliffs

The Arch

There's stop every few minutes to along this road to see various rock formations. The Arch was worth a look but not worth going out of your way for. Then it was Londons Bridge which collapsed in 1990 marooning two people for a few hours which I found hilarious when I read the sign. The final stop I made was The Grotto.

London's Bridge

The Grotto

This trip was just as good as I thought it would be, better even. Plus it gave me a good excuse to test out my new toy. I made a video of the highlights with it.

The Great Ocean Road

The fun doesn't end there though. I turned inland and after spending the night at a rest stop I entered the Grampians National Park.

Start of The Grampians

On the oringial road trip plan I only discovered this place while looking for something else to do en route to Adelaide so its not like it was a huge thing to tick of my bucket list. It should've been. After spending the day doing a few walks and hikes I wished I could have spent more days there. The place was epic!

Top of a mountain selfie

This first stop off was Mt William Lookout which was up a 12km mountain road. You can only drive as far as a small carpark. The other 1.8km is up a very VERY steep road. The sign said "Strenuois Walking Involved" and it was not exaggerating. The view from the top, though, was awesome! You could see the entire range of The Grampians.

The Grand Canyon

I stopped up at Halls Gap for lunch which is a small tourist town in a valley between the two rows of mountains. From there I set off on another hike which gave me plenty of surpises. To get to the lookout point you had a 2 hour walk up through a large canyon which was very impresive.

Very grand

Epic

Along the route was a 'cool chamber'. The sun obvisously does not get to the rocks inside so they keep the coolness of the night. It came as a welcome break from the midday sun.

Its a chamber thats cool

More Canyon

Made it to the top

The view from the top of this walk was again, epic! I sat up there a while taking in the view. You could see over the tops of the other mountains and for miles and miles on the other side. It has to be seen to be believed!

Chilling

After hiking back down and driving a bit further along the road I came to Reeds Lookout which is only a 10 minute walk from the road. The view, again, was amazing. You could see the whole of Halls Gap and the dam.

Epic!

Time was ticking on now but there was still one more stop I wanted to make and that was at Mackenzie Falls. Here, I got quite a shock. I fire had ripped throught the place only a year earlier destroying the info centre and the toilet block. All the trees were black and the wooden floors of the lookout platforms and been burnt away.

Ruined building

No looking out from here!

The steps down to the falls were stone so that was still accessible. It was a very popular spot and there were heaps of people in the water cooling off. The path lead off to another walk that I was really tempted to do but it was too late. I needed to make some progress towards where I would be working otherwise there would be a very long drive the next day. If I ever get the chance to go back here, if for some reason I am passing through again, then I will definitely revisit this place. I will also ask lost property at the police station if anyone handed in my glasses which I left in the toilets when I put my contact lenses in!

Mackenzie Falls

Instead of heading to Adelaide like my plan says I carried on north to a free camp site by a lake. It was a great spot. Free hot showers are always a great thing. The next day I would be heading to the farms for some watermelon picking.

Chillin by the lake

Using my new camera I made a video of all the cool stuff in The Grampians National Park.

Awesomeness