Great Ocean Road & Lorne

Views from the Great Ocean Road
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Everyone says how lovely the views are along the Great Ocean Road and they are right. Even though the skies were cloudy and occasionally rainy, we found the stops along the way just stunning. The road was built to rival those others in the world such as the Pacific Coast Hwy in California, and we actually found this one to be more beautiful. As we made our way east, we stopped at Loch Ard Gorge, the London Bridge and the Grotto. The colorful sandstone walls were contrasted by the gorgeous blue waters and waves crashing against them and we walked along a number of short trails to check out the various views. The Twelve Apostles was our last stop which is a grouping of limestone pillars standing out along the coastline. Although this is the best known and built up tourist stop, we found the other stops to be our favorites.

Lorne Beach
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Our final stop along the coast was the small holiday town of Lorne. Scott’s former boss was generous enough to offer up his summer home here so we took full advantage and camped out there for five days. The house was perched up back in the hills with stunning views of the ocean. It was nice to have a home away from home where we could cook meals, stoke up the fireplace and relax. Who knew however that Scott would be intimidated by the small army of Kookaburras that came to visit him on the deck when he went out to the grill to cook up some burgers. They apparently love meat and surrounded the grill as soon as it was fired up even before the meat came outside. One other morning, it was like a scene from the Alfred Hitchcock movie “The Birds” where a group of 15 or so cockatoos came to visit us on the deck as if they were waiting for breakfast to be served. Because a cool front had moved in and the temps were only in the 60s, we didn’t get to take advantage of the beach, but we did go on a number of nice walks as the Otway National Park surrounds the town with a number of waterfalls to see and gorgeous fern and eucalyptus laden forests.

Ahhhhh...Relaxation!!!

Loch Ard Gorge
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If you ever stay in Lorne – must stops are the seafood shop along the pier (had grilled prawns at home!), Lorne Greens (a great small European style produce shop), and Pizza Pizza for the most fantastic Italian style pizza.

Next, we move on to Melbourne.

Tidbit of the day:

The building of the Great Ocean Road served a number of purposes after WWI. It served as a war memorial for the veterans that had died in the war and to provide work to 3,000+ servicemen upon their return.