Great Ocean Road

I wanted to spend at least a day or two driving the Great Ocean Road.  Tom volunteered to drive it (instead of going on a tour bus) so we could go at our own pace and do the things that were most interesting to our family.

We started our day at Bells Beach in Torquay.  Bells Beach is a well known surfers beach and hosts the Rip Curl surfing competition each year.  We quickly saw why the beach was popular with surfers.  It had very strong waves and a strong undercurrent.  The kids took turns getting drenched by the waves while Tom held onto them very tightly.  They also had fun playing in the sand.

Bells Beach

Tom and Charlotte splash in the waves while Tommy plays in the sand.  

Then we drove to the town of Anglesea where we stopped for lunch and went to the golf course.  The golf course is famous because there are several mobs of kangaroos that have made their home there.  At any time, there are around 350 kangaroos living on the golf course.  They spend most of their day lounging around under the trees.  The kangaroos are free to come and go as they like, but probably because of the safety of the course (there are a few busy roads nearby) they choose to live there.  Several of the kangaroos had tags on their ears.  The local university has been studying the kangaroos there for years trying to learn more about their habits.  Each mob has 1 dominant male kangaroo, the lifespan of the males is shorter than the females, mainly because of fighting for that top ranking.  We saw a couple joeys, but none that were still little enough to be in their momma's pouch. Overall, they were pretty cute and it was neat to occasionally see one of them hopping away.

lunch

checking out the kangaroos

 

After Anglesea, it was a long drive to our final destination, Port Campbell.  The Great Ocean Road is beautiful, but it sure is curvy.  We would see multiple road signs that would have a picture of a curvy road and say next 38 km or next 25 km.  We also saw signs constantly that reminded you that in Australia they drive on the left.  We didn't see these very often on other roads in Australia.  Also, the Great Ocean Road is primarily two lanes.  Every once in a while there would be passing areas, where the slower driver was to pull over to the left and let faster cars behind them pass.  Before the passing lane, there would be multiple signs saying "Be considerate of other drivers".  I thought it was interesting the system was set up for the slower driver to be the one to concede instead of in the US where a passing lane would be set up for the passing driver to make their move.  Overall, we found the people in Australia very polite.

Sign reminding you to drive on the left

 The road had many lookout areas to pull over and admire the view.  We took advantage of these to get a good look as well as to give Tom a break from the stress of driving on the opposite side of a curvy road.  One place we stopped had hundreds and hundreds of rock piles.  I have no idea how the tradition started, but it was kind of fun thing to stop and see and, of course, we had to add one of our own.

Beautiful views

Hundreds of rock piles along the beach

Tom had to add one of his own

Tommy and Charlotte added their own finishing touches

Finally we reached Port Campbell, our final destination (The GOR continues all the way to Adelaide, but we didn't have time (or the desire) to go that far.  In Port Campbell, we stopped to see the 12 Apostles.  The 12 Apostles are huge limestone rocks that protrude out of the ocean.  They have been formed by erosion over time.  There are actually only 8 of them, the 9th collapsed in 2005.  There were only ever 9, but were named the 12 Apostles for touristy reasons anyway.  They were beautiful to see, especially in the late afternoon sun.

Tommy and Charlotte in front of some of the 12 Apostles

Finally, we checked into our hotel and went into town to get some dinner.  Tom decided he was going to order kangaroo steak to honor our visit to the golf course earlier.  The kangaroo was a little chewy, very similar to a low quality beef steak.  Overall it was a great day.