#11 Great Ocean Road

After visiting Kangaroo Island, our journey continued towards Melbourne. There are two routes from Cape Jervis (where the ferry docked) to Melbourne; one goes inland and the other follows the coastline and includes the Great Ocean Road. We naturally chose the latter.

The Great Ocean Road starts from Peterborough (VIC) and ends in Torquay (or vice versa). Although the road is only 243 km long, it took us two days to travel and we didn't even stop at all the attractions. If you want to see everything and take your time, it's better to plan for three days.

Our first stop was 'The Grotto'. It's a natural rock formation created by erosion. From the parking lot above the rock, you can descend to the attraction using a wooden staircase. Even from above, it was impressive to see the power of nature. We had never seen such large breaking waves before, crashing with incredible force against the rocks.

We then headed to 'Loch Ard Gorge', which is another rock formation shaped by the forces of nature and resembles a gateway to the open sea. On the way there, we saw our first bushfire. The huge smoke clouds could be seen from kilometers away. We managed to take a few pictures of Loch Ard Gorge before the entire beach was evacuated. You can see the smoke clouds in the top right corner of the pictures.

Next stop, the 'Twelve Apostles', the most famous attraction along the Great Ocean Road. We wanted to watch the sunset at the Twelve Apostles and had booked a hostel in Princetown for the night.

Accommodations along the Great Ocean Road are all very expensive. In order to save money, we decided to spend the night in a 14-bed dormitory. The hostel was only a 5-minute drive from the Twelve Apostles and was super clean, and breakfast was included. So far, we had always treated ourselves to the 'luxury' of a double room. The night in the hostel was the complete opposite. 14 people in one room, 12 of them strangers. I never thought I would experience something like this. Meykel and I had always slept in bunk beds in the double rooms, with Meykel sleeping on the upper bunk and using the lower bed as a wardrobe and storage space. In the dormitory, we decided to sleep separately. And what did Annika, the most security-conscious and distrustful person in the world, do? Of course, she took her backpack with all her valuables and her handbag to bed. So Meykel finally had some space in bed after weeks, and Annika had her 60-liter backpack + handbag lying next to her.

What is it like to spend a night in a 14-bed dormitory? It's okay for one night, but you don't wake up refreshed or rested in the morning. Some cell phone rings every few minutes, people come in and out the door, someone snores or talks... and at 5:00 am, the first people start removing the beds.

Back to the Twelve Apostles. The sun was supposed to set at 8:00 pm, so we arrived at the viewpoint at 7:00 pm to secure a good spot. It was really beautiful, although not romantic, as hundreds of other tourists had the same idea as us.

We filmed the sunset, but unfortunately, the video doesn't capture the beauty of it.

>>> Click here for the video: https://youtu.be/BjX0KzDhAgQ

The next morning, we continued our journey towards Lorne. Our first stop was Teddys Lookout.

We then went to Erskine Falls. We took some pictures and were about to leave when we saw other tourists walking along the river over the rocks. We followed suit. The plants were impressive. After a short time, it felt like being in the middle of the jungle.

Finally, some impressions of the Great Ocean Road.