P&A GoGoGo 2: Great Ocean Road I

Wednesday 22 February 2012

Great Ocean Road I

Leaving the comfortable Mt Gambier, we now enter the border of the state of Victoria! After so long, we finally get to drive one of the best drives in the world, the Great Ocean Road (GOR)! On the way from Mt Gambier, we pass by these beautiful pine trees along the highway. They are so beautifully lined up, and Peter can’t focus on driving as soon as he sees them. So we stopped and had our tea time here. . .

Heading from west to east, the last big town before you enter the GOR is Warrnambool, where you can get cheaper supplies from the major supermarkets. Once you enter the GOR, everything will be expensive, including the fuel! In Warrnambool, their museum is quite well known because it has stories and records of all the shipwrecks that happened along the GOR. We did not stop at the museum as we drive straight on, but only knew about it when we signages at Lord Ard Gorge recommending tourists to visit it as it has more info about shipwrecks.

From Warrnambool, we continued on to Port Fairy***. Port Fairy is the starting point for the famous GOR. It has a little island called . . . which has mutton bird colony living there. The birds will go out to feed in the day and return to their young after sunset. We couln’t wait till sunset as we need to get to 12 Apostles by sunset. There is another mutton bird colony at Lord Ard Gorge too if you’re interested to see thousands of them flying around their nests!

Saw these black swans at Port Fairy.

The main highlights of GOR are at the Port Campbell National Park*****. It is a big park but does not require entry fees. The first thing we saw in the park is the Bay of Islands (below). Then the London Bridge, which had fallen apart in 1990.

London Bridge had fallen down. . .

Port Campbell town

There are no cheap places to stay in Port Campbell but few kms further south is Princetown. We stayed at Princetown Recreation Reserve$. It is a nice and cheaper place to stay; most importantly it is only 5 min drive east of 12 Apostles. Although it offers only campsite and hot shower for $15 (without camp kitchen), we stayed here two nights as we wish to see the 12 Apostles during sunrise and sunset.