Great Ocean Road - Flat tire and sunset at the 12 Apostles

Hallihallo everyone,

At 6am on Thursday morning we got up for our next adventure: a two-day-tour to the Great Ocean Road! This is the only tour that we found that takes more than one day to explore the Great Ocean Road and as it was designed for backpackers we should note take our luggage with us. We got picked up at 7:40am together with 19 other people, so we were 21 travelers and our tour guide Jude. Not everyone looked like a backpacker though.

Anyway, the other special thing about this tour is that it goes in the other direction than all the other tours. We go land inwards first and then start at the END of the Great Ocean Road. This way we avoid most of the crowd of the other coaches.

So we started with a very boring three-hour tour past farmland with a short stop for tea, coffee and biscuits. Our guide Jude wanted to memorize all our names and where we come from. We first stopped at a beach at Warrnabool where in winter you can spot whales. But in summer it is nice as well.

Then we drove to Tower Hill, a volcano national park where you can spot wild koalas, emus, kangaroos, snakes, lizard and birds.

On the way to the Cheese Tasting stop apparently a tire of the van got flat, so instead of 15 min we stayed there over an hour as we waited for Jude to come back with a changed tire. The cheese was alright but we were glad when she picked us up again.

After that we finally hit the real Great Ocean Road with its limestone cliffs, islands and stacks!

We stopped in several places with their own history and stories, took lots and lots of pictures and tried to enjoy being there despite the short time we had in each spot. Due to the tire change we lost a lot of time and had to make up for it. At about 6:40pm we checked into our hostel in Port Campbell, refreshed and prepared the BBQ for dinner.

We had a lot to eat! Jude had promised us to feed us until we burst and she succeeded! We had to eat quite fast as we wanted to not only see the actual sunset at the 12 Apostles but also the prelight (as Jude calls it, I think it is known as the Golden Hour for photographers) before sunset. And it was definitely worth the hurry. The sunset was magnificent and the change of colors of the 12 Apostles as well.

After that we waited for the penguins to arrive at the beach and after 50 minutes they waddled onto the beach below us but in the twilight we could not see them properly.

We drove back to the hostel and I got quickly into bed whereas Markus had a drink with the two Italians and two German boys of our tour. Tomorrow we will hit the rest of the Great Ocean Road! Good night everyone.

Yours sunset-at-the-12-Apostles-watching Stefanie