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| Aubrey out on the beach in Warrnambool |
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| Carter on the steps down to the beach |
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| What a glorious morning! |
Sean and I grabbed some takeaway coffee and we started out on the Great Ocean Road. The Great Ocean road is 151 miles (273 kilometers) and runs along the south eastern coast of Australia. It was built between 1919 and 1932 by soldiers that had returned from WWI. The road is the world's largest war memorial. We planned to do it in one day since 151 miles seemed pretty manageable. It turned out to be a very, very full day.
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| The Great Ocean Road is the gray road that runs directly along the coast from near Warrnambool to Torquay. |
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| The start of the Great Ocean Road |
The very first stop, at the Bay of Islands, was breathtaking. The ocean water is this fabulous deep, dark blue with a hint of turquoise. We were looking at either the Southern Ocean or the South Pacific Ocean, depending on whose opinion you go with. (Some authorities say the Southern Ocean does not start until 60 degrees latitude, so much closer to Antarctica.) I think that as a general rule Australia considers it is the Southern Ocean.
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| Red pin is the Bay of Islands |
As we drove along the scenic highway, we continued to stop at various limestone formations along the coast. We even saw the London Bridge after it fell down.
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| London Bridge as it looks today after its collapse |
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| Looking to the right from the London Bridge lookout |
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| Looking to the left from London Bridge lookout. It is hard to see, but the Twelve Apostles are faintly visible in the distance. |
It was already midday, so we stopped and had a picnic lunch in the quaint little town of Port Campbell.
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| View from our picnic table |
I have looked forward to seeing the Twelve Apostles ever since we had planned this trip. The Twelve Apostles are offshore limestone stacks that remained standing after the rest of the cliffs eroded away over the years. They were named the Twelve Apostles in 1922 even though there was only 9 of them. One of them has since fallen, in 2005, due to erosion (they nicknamed that one Judas). So, there are only 8 left at this time. I know they are just some rocks sticking up in the ocean, but it was a magnificent site to see in person.
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| Red pin is the Twelve Apostles |
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| The big pile of rubble in front is where the 9th apostle used to stand. |
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| If you look into the distance at the coastline behind the kids, you can see how the landscape changes from steep limestone cliffs to rolling hills descending towards the ocean. There was a sign near this lookout that explained that is due to a fault line existing there and the coast changes from being made up from mainly limestone to sandstone. Thus, this changes how the coastline is eroded by the wind and water. |
Not long after seeing the Twelve Apostles, the road curved more inland through the hinterland.
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| Photo of the hinterland |
We pulled off the Great Ocean Road to check out a lighthouse, the Cape Otway Lighthouse. As we were driving on the small highway, we saw a bunch of cars pulled off to the side of the road and people walking around. We were not sure what was going on at first, so we slowed down and looked around. Then we realized was the big attraction was; there were tons of wild koalas in the eucalyptus trees along both sides of the road! I cannot even tell you how excited we all were. If there was one animal I wanted to see in the wild in Australia, it was definitely the koala. For animals that sleep 18 to 22 hours a day, they were pretty active while we were there. I am happy to say that everyone we saw was being very respectful and just taking photos of the koalas up in the trees.
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| We even saw a baby koala in a pouch!!! |
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| Closeup! |
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| We had to take this photo to show how close we were to the mama koala and baby. This was a major highlight of our trip. |
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| One more baby photo before we move on..... |
We then drove on towards the Otway lighthouse that we originally were going to see. We only got as far as the gift shop though. It was a little pricey to go see the lighthouse, plus it was getting to be mid afternoon and we still had quite a bit more driving to do.
We continued our drive towards Apollo Bay.
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| Looking over the landscape towards Apollo Bay |
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| We saw this sign frequently while driving on the Great Ocean Road. Just a friendly reminder for all the tourists that drive the road. |
The drive from Apollo Bay to Anglesea was fabulous, but it was extremely curvy as it directly followed the coastline and went up and down in elevation at the same time, so it pretty much turned the car into a roller coaster. It was too much for Aubrey to take. Even with motion sickness medicine, she felt extremely ill for this portion of the journey. There was a lot of stop and go since we were trying to let her get out, walk around, and get some fresh air. I felt so bad for her. I have been motion sick so many times in my life; I know how miserable it is. She finally did have to use the bag we bring along with us for these occasions, and then she finally felt much better for the last bit of the journey.
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| Apollo Bay to Anglesea |
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| Closeup view to show how curvy the road was |
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| Some photos that Sean captured between Lorne and Aireys Inlet |
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| This little Superb Fairy Wren came and visited us on one of our stops. He was so cute, but acted like he was dying to get inside our car. So, we kept the doors and windows shut. We did not need a bird loose in our car!! |
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| A playground stop in Aireys Inlet to let the kids get some energy out (and to try to make Aubrey feel better). Split Point lighthouse is on the hill in the top left of the photo. |
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| Closer view of Split Point lighthouse |
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| The last photo Sean took towards the end of the Great Ocean Road (near Torquay, Victoria) |
As wonderful as the day had been, we were all happy to pull off the road and settle into Geelong for the night. It was almost 7:00 pm and we were hungry and tired. The portion of the trip when Aubrey had been feeling poorly had been very mentally exhausting, especially for her and I. We grabbed a quick dinner and checked into our hotel. We were all fast asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillows.
The next day we began another leg of our trip. We traveled along the Mornington Peninsula (south of Melbourne) towards Phillip Island where we saw more amazing and wondrous things.......
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| Looking at the trip ahead....... |
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