The Great Ocean Road trip that incorporates the Twelve Apostles is a LONG day! But it was so worth doing and I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. I travelled on a minibus with a small group of others that ranged from a group of backpackers from Germany to a couple on their honeymoon from the USA! I was picked up right outside the hotel and we headed off, stopping first at Lorne by a lovely beach where I had the pleasure of meeting some extremely tame cockatoos, and then onto the Kennett River area for some refreshments. We were told that there was a koala bear asleep up in one of the trees, which we could just about make out as we looked up into the tree. I then found myself adorned by a couple of beautiful lorikeets that flew down from the nearby trees – they were obviously used to tourists and didn’t want to miss out on any potential snacks!
Our next stop was Apollo Bay, which stands out in my mind for a number of reasons, including the scenery. The one thing I must mention about here is the ice cream parlour that serves just about any flavour of ice cream you can imagine, including Marmite - yes, you did read that right!! I didn’t try any, but the adventurous ones who did said that it was one of the strangest flavours they had ever experience in an ice cream.
We then stopped briefly at Cape Otway before entering the Port Campbell National Park, where it was great to experience the tropical plants and huge array of ferns. There was a short walk through the tropical landscape where you could breathe in the fresh scents and wander along narrow paths and over small bridges. It was truly invigorating.
Before we were introduced to the breath-taking Twelve Apostles, we made another stop to look at the landscape from the other side. There were narrow sandy paths leading to stunning coastline. It was here where I encountered some rather large lizards with blue tongues. I was busy trying to photograph them when one of them suddenly decided to chase after me – I quickly turned on my heals as everyone around me was laughing. Apparently, they are quite harmless, but it was a bit of a scary moment!
After spending some time at the Twelve Apostles viewing area, where everyone got some great photos, we eventually headed on our long journey back to St Kilda, and we didn’t arrive back until well after dark.
