Today was the real Great Ocean Road. I won’t lie, I found yesterday’s road trip experience to be mediocre at best. The narrow road looped through lush forests with no ocean in sight. For a minute there I thought the “Great Ocean” Road was a lie. But when I awoke after a long, delightfully cold rest and left Torquay it wasn’t too long before I really got to see what the Ocean part of the Great Ocean Road was all about.
My first stop was a few minutes past Anglesea, where I had stopped yesterday, and called Aireys Inlet. I saw a huge lighthouse from the road and pulled into the first parking lot I found. Like a fool, however, I set off in my sandals along the path to find an up close view of this lighthouse. By the time I climbed up the dirt mini mountain and saw that there were forest hiking steps to get closer to the lighthouse I realized my footwear was a terrible mistake. Still I got to see the lighthouse up close and the inlet for which the township is named. Mostly I stopped there because it was most similar to the last name of my cousins fiancé and I thought the photos might be of some mild interest to them.
Carefully climbing down the hill again I got back into the car with my brand new sandals now covered in Aussie dust. From Aireys inlet things started to get interesting. Melbourne is a notoriously overcast part of the world. For a place where even winter is sunny and mild, it’s summer days always seem to be shrouded in clouds for half the day before the sun finally decides to show up. Then the sun bakes everything before setting again and the arctic chill of the evening arrives. Even with the overcast skies the Great Ocean Road finally revealed itself as I continued on my journey to Port Campbell.
You drive along this winding road that goes in and out along the coastal limestone cliffs, the tumultuous surf crashing endlessly below. The road goes up the mountains then back down and if you’re lucky enough to be paying attention, and don’t have a caravan of cars following directly behind you, you can stop at one of the dozens of scenic outlooks to get a closer look. Driving through upstate New York for years of my life I learned that the marked scenic outlooks are some of the most underrated parts of country roads or interstates. So I tried my best to stop at as many of them as I could.
Eventually I got to a pretty popular looking town, Apollo Bay. It was one of the points of interest that the Collingwood Crew had recommended to me when I shared my plans to drive the Great Ocean Road. By the time I got there I was a bit knackered from all the driving and could use a bite to eat. I wandered up and down the drive but found I couldn’t be bothered with table service and went to a cafeteria style eatery where I got a steak sandwich and chips and the coveted dim sim that I had been introduced to back in June. All in all it was pretty solid and after a trip to the supermarket for an ice coffee and a walk through the park to find the public toilet I was back on the road again.
The drive once again got forestie again. Driving through all those trees felt like being on parts of Long Island, and pretty boring. All the twists and turns kept me on my toes though and after about another hour the road opened up again to the coast line, revealing the Twelve Apostles.
The Twelve Apostles are some big ass sea rocks. Not to be confused with Uluru, which is a big ass outback rock. Australia has quite a few of these big ass rocks as tourist attractions. The Twelve Apostles are said to be formed by the rough surf carving away at the limestone cliffs and underneath is supposed to be a whole underwater haven. You can’t see anything under the water, despite the clarity of the ocean, so I suppose you have to take the visitors centre’s placard for its word.
I was directed to park ages away from the trail to the view the cliffs and decided that this time I wouldn’t be forced to not hike because I was wearing sandals. I opened the trunk to get my sneakers and when I grabbed a shampoo bottle I threw back there just in case I needed it, it was wet. I silently cursed it but saw there was just a small damp soapy spot in the trunk so it wasn’t all bad. Then I lifted my duffel bag to get to my shoes underneath and found it to be sipping wet with liquid soap. I opened the bag to find it wasn’t the shampoo at all but the small bottle of body wash I had used that morning when I took my shower. At the time of the shower it was full but when I picked up the bottle from inside my bag it was bone dry inside and sticky wet outside. I quickly emptied the bag and thanked Muji for their economical but obviously water resistant packing cubes because my clothes were all dry. The only thing to have suffered was the bag itself, my ziplock bag of toiletries (interior was dry), and a bit of my other toiletry bag. I used my dirty shirt from the day before to mop up the soap from my small toiletry bag, turned the ziplock bag inside out, and then wrapped my now empty duffel bag in my now soapy wet T-shirt so it couldn’t further contaminate my belongings.
Smelling faintly of flowery body wash I headed to see the sites. It would have been infinitely better if there were fewer tourists but the whole reason I stopped was because it was now the early afternoon and the sun had decided to have its daily showing. I wasn’t going to take the risk of going tomorrow before the sun came out. In the end it was well worth dealing with the crowds. The cold breeze and the hot sun and the sound of the surf crashing into the jagged coastline. I took a bunch of photos and then walked back. Upon my return I contemplated taking another route to another viewing area but thought better of it. By this time it was nearly 4pm and I was starting to lose steam.
I hopped in the car again, after changing my shoes and mourning the loss of my luggage to a damn bottle of soap, and set off for my final stop of the trip: Port Campbell. I can’t remember why I picked this town other than it was pretty far from Melbourne but not unreasonably far and it was recommended in one of the guide books I read. I got a bit turned around on the 10 minute drive here and ended up at another scenic outlook nearby. In the distance I could see surfers battling the waves and doing little tricks as they road them but I couldn’t see where or how they had gotten to that part of the beach. There were only humongous cliff faces at the end of the beach. After my quick look around I arrived at my hostel and realized that they came from Port Campbell Bay where I’m staying.
I can see why this area was recommended. The town is small but has four restaurants slash bars. The beach is calm and reasonable and peppered with swimmers as well as right next to a lifeguard facility. There’s a small but legitimate grocery with a post office. Most importantly the hostel I’m staying in is a two minute walk to the beach, has its own microbrewery, plenty of parking, and a lively common area. If my rental car was cheaper and I didn’t have work to worry about, I may have extended my stay on the spot.
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