The Great Ocean Road

This past weekend, Ross and I drove out the Great Ocean Road (GOR). It is just west of Melbourne and is probably best known for the Twelve Apostles. It is a gorgeous, winding road that follows the rugged coastline for quite a ways. We drove the whole thing with my parents when they visited in 2018. You might remember that blog because there was a massive bush fire that meant that we didn't see most of what we'd wanted to see and we were hard pressed to get back to Melbourne in time for Ross to catch his flight back to New Zealand. Good times were had by all. Luckily this year, there was no fire.

Twelve Apostles at sunset

The main impetus for this trip was that I was running in the Great Ocean Road Running Festival. It is a series of road races held over a weekend in the middle of May every year. The races vary in length and include 6 km, 14 km, half marathon, marathon and ultra-marathon. There are also some kids races and a couple walking events. I had originally wanted to do the half marathon, but I was super busy with work this fall (March-May) and with my parents visiting in March I didn't really feel like I had enough time to train. I ended up doing the 14 km race and really enjoying it. Most of the other races are along the GOR, but the 14 km is actually inland a bit and mostly goes through pastures and then forest. The 14 km is also midday on Saturday, so Ross and I drove down to Apollo Bay from Melbourne Saturday morning. As I mentioned before, the GOR is very winding and not the fastest route, so we went took the inland route to Apollo Bay rather than the scenic route.

We had initially been discussing doing some hiking in Great Otway National Park after the race, on our way to our airbnb in Warrnambool, but I was a bit more tired than expected so we just got on the GOR heading west. We somehow managed to make it to the Twelve Apostles at sunset (completely blind luck), so we enjoyed sunset with about 1,000 of our closest friends. Unfortunately sunset at the Twelve Apostles is peak tourist hour, but it was quite pretty, so I kind of get it.

From there, we drove the rest of the way to Warrnambool and stayed at a really cute AirBnb. This is the second time that we've stayed in Warrnambool and once again we did nothing there other than eat at a really good Indian place (India Gate - slow service but seriously amazing food), sleep and then hit the road east first thing in the morning. At some point we'll actually explore Warrnambool, but that didn't happen on this trip.

Koala in Apollo Bay

Because there was no fire this year, Ross and I were able to stop at all of the amazing landmarks that are west of the Twelve Apostles that we missed out on last year.  We had a fabulous time exploring and took way too many pictures. I've included some of the better ones below.

Bay of Islands

Stupid beach doesn't let you bring your cat...

Bay of Martyrs

Worm Bay

The Grotto

London Bridge

The Arch

Razorback

Loch Ard Gorge

Following the ocean eye-candy fest, we headed inland and found ourselves on the Gourmet Trail. We got some amazing ice cream at Timboon Fine Ice Cream (Ross got maple cinnamon and I had cardamon orange) and then stopped by Dairylicious Farm Fudge. We had also stopped by a cheese factory on the way out of Warrnambool, so it was a rather indulgent weekend. While we didn't see all of the GOR this trip, it was nice to spend some time exploring the locations west of the Twelve Apostles and to get out of Melbourne for the weekend. 

Autumn along the Great Ocean Road

For everyone back in the States, enjoy the long, Memorial Day weekend. Until next time!