Great Ocean Road / Port Fairy / Grampians (Australia)
19 January - 20 January 2019
19 January - 20 January 2019
It's a problem for Australians, everything is so far away that the idea of travelling for us is always so grand and so large that we quiet often forget the absolute gems in our own backyard.
The Great Ocean Road is one of those gems.
For many a year I've been coming down to Melbourne for either work or pleasure and on most occasions, in that time, would find the time do a drive on the Great Ocean Road. In my humble opinion, one of the most special, unrivalled and pre-eminent drives in the world. There is nothing quite like the stretch of road out of Lorne to Port Campbell. The reveals and dramatic landscape of land and sea will inevitably have you stopping for many more times that you would ever anticipate. Additionally, the towns of Lorne & Apollo Bay are highlights, but so too are the many other smaller locales on the way. In addition to that, I would also like to give a special mention to Cape Otway National Park, not only for its beauty but also for it never having let me down in my quest to either find, or show someone a koala in their natural habitat. That in itself is a rarity these days but surely you'll achieve your objective here.
Great Ocean Road - Victoria
Great Ocean Road - Victoria
The Twelve Apostles - Great Ocean Road - Victoria
The Twelve Apostles - Great Ocean Road - Victoria
The Twelve Apostles - Great Ocean Road - Victoria
We stopped for a night in Port Fairy, an absolutely charming fishing village at the end of the Great Ocean Road whose only failing is that by 8pm on a Saturday all its main restaurants are closing down. Like....what!!!? Beautiful and picturesque, no matter what the state of their late night economy, their streets are lined with nineteenth century cottages, great Nolfolk Pines and some great old sandstone buildings. Quaint and endearing, this town had a lot going for it on the attractiveness scale, and I wonder now, after having covered the Great Ocean Road many times, why the hell I'd never forced myself to get here.
The Twelve Apostles - Great Ocean Road - Victoria
The Twelve Apostles - Great Ocean Road - Victoria
The Twelve Apostles - Great Ocean Road - Victoria
The Twelve Apostles - Great Ocean Road - Victoria
The Grampians National Park - Victoria
The Grampians National Park - Victoria
The Grampians National Park - Victoria
On the Sunday we headed north out of Port Fairy and did the 120km drive to the Grampians National Park. Once again, this was another part of Victoria that had always been on my hit list but somehow it had been more than wily and eluded me on all previous occasions. A beautiful area known for its wildlife, sandstone mountains and wildflowers, it has plenty of walking trails for all levels and all adventure requirements. Inga and I took one of the medium walks up to Pinnacle lookout and were rewarded with some spectacular views of the regions. A walk well worth the effort, even if Inga was 6 months+ pregnant (oops, should not have said that out aloud)
