Great Ocean Road is one of the world's most scenic coastal drives. See 12 Apostles; the group of sea stacks that ain't even 12 of them, walk into national park and get up close to native wildlife. Sam and I decided to book a tour to go there. The reason was because Sam wasn't sure about driving on unfamiliar roads. He just moved to Melbourne less than a month so it made sense.Click here if you wanna check out the tour we booked. Anyway, the tour offers hotel pick up and drop off in the city center only. We stayed at Oak in Lonsdale. The tour picked us up at 7.30am.
Our tour is unique because it is reverse. Most tours visit 12 Apostles at the end but our tour starts at 12 Apostles since we tried to avoid the crowd. It took us 4 hours to reach it. However, 2 hours before we reached our destination, the tour stopped for morning tea.
12 Apostles created by constant erosion of the limestone cliffs of the mainland beginning 10–20 million years ago, the stormy Southern Ocean and blasting winds gradually eroded the softer limestone, forming caves in the cliffs. The caves eventually became arches and when they collapsed rock stacks up to 45 meters high were left isolated from the shore. As you can tell from the photo, this place is real magic. Blue sky with blue ocean contrast with the brown colour of the rocks. The guide told us to go to certain way since we didn't have much time to go to every single path. After 45 minutes, the guide gave us sandwiches which was our lunch. After that, we headed to Loch Ard Gorge. It's only 3-minute drive from 12 Apostles. Loch Ard Gorge is a clear example of the process of erosion in action. Named after Loch Ard, a clipper ship that ran aground back in June 1878 on the nearby Muttonbird Island. The history said Eva and Tom survived from the Loch Ard shipwreck. Of the fifty-one passengers and crew members aboard the Loch Ard, all on a three-month journey from England to Melbourne, only two managed to survive the crash.
Look how clear the water is! How can I not fall in love with this scenery. People go there to relax, sun bath, swimming or just to chill. Unfortunately, I didn't bring swimwear with me so no swim. Melbourne has many national parks, however, the popular one called Great Otway National Park. We visited a part of it and it worth the time. The Great Otway National Park stretches 91 km from Torquay through to Princetown and up through the Otways hinterland towards Colac. The first step I walked into there. I felt like I was in Indiana Jones film. There were so many big trees and thick moss on the rocks and woods! and the most important thing is I saw fern that unrolling a young frond! OMG! I don't have to fly to New Zealand and it was right in front of my face! What a great thing to see.
My favourite part of the tour was spotting wild koalas and feeding native birds, Australian King-Parrot. If you have been read my blog for awhile, you will know how much I obsessed with animal. These two activities pretty much blown my mind. Let's start with spotting koalas. Man, it was hard. I couldn't spot any of them till the guide guided me to see one. Nevertheless, there were plenty of koalas at the caravan parking, which was the place where I fed the parrots. As long as you have seed in your hands, the parrots will fly to you. I had some in my palm, also Sam. Believe it or not, more than 5 parrots landed on our bodies and ate the seed.
Before we went back to our accommodation, there were couple stop along the way. First, it was at the view point. Imagine of the hills with mist. That was what I saw. The second stop, which is the last stop, was at the beginning of the Great Ocean Road. After 14 hours of journey, me and Sam arrived at our accommodation in Melbourne city center. Very exhausted but I love everything about this trip. Me and Sam had a very deep slept after the trip.
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