Travel | The Great Ocean Road, Melbourne
Finally I'm getting around to blogging about my weekend away with Stew. As both of our birthday's are in April we decided to use our parents money on hiring a camper van and driving the Great Ocean Road!
I've had a few friends do it and I know it's one of those 'must see' sights of Melbourne. We had the van for 4 days and managed to drive the length of the Great Ocean Road which begins a little outside Melbourne and travels south along the coast, as well as a trip to Phillip Island and the Moonlit Sanctuary. But I'll be blogging about that and all the cute animals we encountered in another blog post.
First stop on our journey was this lighthouse in Aireys Inlet which was featured on the kids TV show 'Round The Twist'. Do you remember it?! I used to love watching it on CBBC... "Have you ever, ever felt like this? When strange things happen, are you going round the twist?" I knew it was filmed in Australia but had no idea we'd see it on this road trip so that was really fun.
The whole drive is mesmerising winding your way round cliff faces, through valleys, and alongside beautiful beaches. Near the end of the journey you arrive at the 12 Apostles. Another very famous sight here in Australia. Unfortunately it was a rather cloudy and miserable day so our photos aren't brilliant but it was a fantastic sight all the same. As is London Bridge which you can see below where the land has been battered into an arc. This used to be connected to the main land until the 90's hence it's bridge name but now the bridge has collapsed and only the smaller arc remains.
Another sight I didn't realise I'd see or walk through was a rain forest! I had no idea Australia was home to a rainforest but sure enough there is one and we walked through it to find these beautiful waterfalls. We also did a tree top climb through the canopy of the forest which was breathtaking.
On our second night we camped in the seaside town of Lorne where we had dinner at a seafood restaurant on the pier. I went for the seafood piella and it was huge! It also contained many creatures I've never eaten before and so I had no idea where to start. But with the help of Stew and a handy pair of shell crackers I managed it. It was beautiful!
We then resided back to our camper and toasted marshmallows on our stove!
Now we don't do things by halves when camping (ie. we're not campers and love our food). We had a mini fridge in the back of the van as well as two stoves and a sink. So we cooked up a storm for our breakfast the next morning...
And whilst we were enjoying our full English the campers nearby called us to come over because up in the tree above us there was a koala!! A real life wild koala. I couldn't believe it. Apparently it's so rare to find them in a campsite like that so close to humans but because it's out of season and the site was almost deserted this little fella was brave enough to make his bed above us. Incredible!!
