The Great Ocean Road is one of the iconic sites in Australia. The road starts about an hour from Melbourne to the start of the road and it goes along the southern coast of Australia for about 150 miles and is similar to the Pacific Coast Highway in California. Its about 3 hours to get back to Melbourne from the other end. We debated renting a car but booking a tour seemed to be an easier route. We also had been watching the weather to find a day that was generally “clear” so we decided the night before to go. The tour was fine – just slow – we ended up with a 12 hour day – 3 hrs in stops, 3 hrs in driving in scenic areas and 6 hours transportation. The entire tour was timed with arriving at the Twelve Apostles rock formation at sunset – so each biobreak or stop was defined to ensure we made it in time. We had stops at Anglesea, Apollo Bay, Koala Cafe, Gibson Steps, Loch and Gorge, and then came back to the Twelve Apostles. Our busmates would not have won any timeliness awards and one of the better stops we pretty much skipped so we made the headline attraction. One of the stops was to look for koalas – we saw a couple from a distance but they are pretty hidden in the trees.
The main attractions were crowded – and this was considered a slow day so I am glad we went when it was less crowded – although it rained a lot of the day we got a good subset at the end of the day. We’ll definitely go back when others come to visit but likely make it a two day trip and not run through each stop and relax on the beach a bit.
The Matildas run came to an end – largest TV audience in Australian history watched them lose to England. It was great to be here for the event – and pretty much everyone here is saying “Esta volviendo a casa” – or “Its coming home” in Spanish.
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