Great Ocean Road Day 2

On the second day of our Great Ocean Road journey we started off by driving to Cape Otway Light house: the oldest surviving light house in mainland Australia. On our way to the light house, we drove through some beautiful forests where we saw some more Koalas. Although the Koalas we saw on the first day were wild too, they were all around a camp site and easy to spot. These were much further up in the trees and seemed more wild. Which made it more exciting too!

The lighthouse is located in it's own little precinct. It costs $19.50 for adults to enter and $17.50 for students. Thanks STA! The precinct includes the light house, a museum, an aboriginal culture site, a World War 2 bunker and a restaurant/cafe. The panorama above is taken from the World War 2 bunker, from there you have a beautiful overview of the area and a different angle of the light house.

The trees on the way to the light house were all completely bare, it was the strangest site. It looked like there had been a huge fire, but it was due to the Koalas. They had eaten all the leaves from all the trees. No matter which direction you looked or how far you could see, everything was bare.

After the light house we went to an Australian wildlife park. It was only a small park but it had tons of Australian animals. We bought a bag of food and went round feeding most of the animals. The photo to the right is me feeding a wallaby. They're a smaller and cuter version of kangaroos. We also saw Dingo's, Kangaroos, emu's and more. It was nice to see wallaby's and kangaroos for the first time, but obviously we'd rather see them in the wild!

There was one kangaroo that had a joey in its pouch. It wasn't like what you'd see in cartoons where the joey pops its head out and looks all cute. This joey was in upside down and its legs were sticking out.

At sunset we made our way back to the 12 Apostles. It was such a beautiful sunset. I originally wanted to time-lapse it, but it was so incredible windy my tripod wouldn't stop shaking. It's such an iconic Australian photograph and it's still unbelievable I actually saw that in person.

Great Ocean Road Day 1

In the middle of March my parents came to visit me in Australia. I got to show them why I love Melbourne so much, and they took my boyfriend and I on a trip to The Great Ocean Road and Wilsons Promontory. They were only here for 11 days, but we did a ridiculous amount in such a short time.

After 4 days in Melbourne, we drove down the Great Ocean Road to the 12 apostles with a few stops along the way. Our first top was Bells Beach, a renowned surfers beach. Bells Beach is where the longest running surf competition, Rip Curl Pro Surf, takes place. It's a beautiful crescent like beach with loads of surfers.

There was a view point at the top where you could see the surfers, and a long wooden stair case down to the beach. The water was freezing. We had a quick stroll on the beach when we were attacked by the waves.

This was just a random stop along the way. It shows off how windy the road actually is. You're driving on the side of a mountain so the majority of the time this is the view, but ever now and then the road takes you through the mountains and you see beautiful valleys. A very different type of landscape.

We had some stunning ocean views along the way... obviously.

We stopped by Kennet River at a place called Koala Cove Cafe. This is where we saw our first wild koalas!! There were 3 koalas just chilling out in the trees surrounded by these vibrant red and green parrots. After we had some lunch (delicious!) we bought a bag of bird feed and were attacked by the birds and ducks. They even sat on my head!

This is also where we saw our first kookaburra. The Kookaburra is found in Australia and New Zealand and their cry is a discordant, abrupt laugh. The cackle of the Kookaburra is actually a territorial call to warn other birds to stay away.

Finally we made it to the 12 Apostles! Unfortunately the weather had caught up with us and it looked a bit gloomy, but it was still an amazing sight. I have seen so many photos of the 12 apostles, but to see it in real life was very different.

We stayed at the 12 apostles for 3 nights in a place called Port Campbell. It's a cute little town but there wasn't really much to do. That's it for the first day!