We packed up and left the apartment at 9 am for a road trip along the Great Ocean Road. We decided to take the scenic route along the coast which in hindsight was probably the wrong choice; beautiful scenery but an extremely long day of driving.
We stopped in Lorne for a picnic lunch in the shade overlooking the beach (temperatures topped out at ~90+ degrees). The supermarket was surprisingly good for a small beach town; nice breads, cheeses and all sorts of gourmet goodies at reasonable prices, a good sign for us and our future picnic plans. We had a freshly baked baguette with an outstanding washed rind gooey ripe cheese; stinky and lovely – we’ll be looking out for that again on our travels! Cockatiels squawked in the trees above us while we ate.
We continued on our epic coastal drive and got to the 12 Apostles lookout late afternoon.
Holy cow it’s a bit more developed than it was 25 years ago…a huge parking lot, paved trails and multi-level lookout points all served up with an endless parade of sightseers walking out to capture their Instagram moments. My heart sank a little, tourism at its worst…taking a magical place and turning it into a zoo.
The view was unquestionably stunning though and after taking it in, we moved on to see the other viewing points along the coast. The forecast for tomorrow is cloudy so we wanted to take in the views with clear skies while we could.
Ironically our favorite viewpoint was beyond where most of the group tours go, the Bay of Islands. It was less crowded but equally beautiful, maybe more so because it was without the chaos and crowds.
After backtracking for sunset at the 12 Apostles we headed to the small town of Port Campbell to set up our tent for the night at the Recreation Reserve. This basic campground in a bush setting had what we needed; a space for our tent (pretty important), clean bathrooms and a basic but functional BBQ area.
Interestingly, this facility is run by the local community and they use the funds raised towards improving local facilities and hosting community events. We were happy to support their cause!
Dinner tonight was BBQ’d lamb and a Greek Salad washed down with a nice bottle of red followed by bed to ready ourselves for another early rise in the morning.