On a beautiful, sunny and very warm morning in Melbourne we picked up the first rental car of our adventure and took on (to be read “Billy took on”…I’m the co-pilot!!) the challenge of driving on the wrong side of the road from the wrong seat in the car!! I must say that this challenge has absolutely been lessened by being away from US driving for 3 weeks, and becoming acclimated to this “backwards” driving in Thailand, Indonesia and now Australia. Billy has done a terrific job driving, other than turning on the windshield wipers instead of the directional numerous times before getting the hang of it!
The Great Ocean Road (GOR), which is south of Melbourne and a bit over 150 miles, is one of Australia’s most famous roadways passing by world-class surfing beaches, seaside towns, rain forests, and spectacular rock formations just off the beach and just beside amazing cliffs. Parts of the road hug the ocean and are incredibly curvy, narrow and picturesque…it’s kinda’ a mix of California Highway US 1 and the Hana Highway in Maui…with some of the scenic coastline of Oregon and Washington thrown in. There are many bus tours that traverse the Great Ocean Road in one long day, but we choose to take 3 leisurely days to enjoy the incredible scenery.
The first part of the GOR had us pass some beautiful and famous surf beaches, such as Bells Beach, where they have big surfing competitions, but not this time of year, as the seas were really calm…they looked great to me!
If I spoke to you before my trip, you may have heard me talk excitedly about my plan for us to play golf on a golf course with wild kangaroos…well, that golf course in Anglesea is also located in the early part of the GOR. I was so excited to play golf with kangaroos around, but after playing 2 holes and not seeing a sign of any kangaroos (other than lots of poop), I was starting to feel disappointed. Then, on our 3rd hole, I saw 2 pointy ears under a tree…I ran over and lo and behold…a roo!!!
Then another!!! I was so happy!! Golf became an afterthought! By the next hole we started seeing them all over!! I LOVED watching them hop across the fairways!! Big roos, little roos, and we even saw two mama roos hanging together with babies (called “joeys”) in their pouches!! I was a happy golfer!!! There are more than 300 kangaroos that live on this golf course, and seeing them all over was a blast!
That night we stayed in a nice beachside town, Lorne, in a lovely bungalow amongst eucalyptus trees and our proprietor pointed out our first “wild” koala living in a tree outside his house. Not as exciting as a hopping kangaroos just off the putting green, but really fun, none the less!
The next day we drove (or should I say, “Billy drove”…I copiloted!) the curviest part of the GOR, which was really beautiful. We stopped in one area that I had read had many koalas living in the trees. It took a while to find several koalas quietly snoozing high in the eucalyptus trees, but what was easy to find in that area were dozens of wild and beautifully colored parrots and sulfur crested cockatoos! When a fellow traveler pulled out bread for us to feed them, we became very popular instantly and the birds became incredibly friendly…almost too friendly! It was really fun!
And that was just the first part of our Great Ocean Road drive…check out the next blog with Part 2!