Love, love, loved our hotel in Warrnambool last night. Comfy, clean, and – the best part!- attached to a lovely hot springs park. With discounted admission from our hotel, we headed in this morning for the “A.M. Session Hot Springs Sanctuary” which gave us access to their 18 geothermal rocks pools with sensory caves, waterfalls, and a variety of temperatures from hot to a freezing cold plunge. We had a fantastic time trying out all of the pools, including the cold plunge which restarted our hearts! It was a wonderful, relaxing start to our day.

Warrnambool

After our spa float and a shower, we headed out to do a bit of driving around the town of Warrnambool. It’s not a name easy to say for Americans, but it is a good sized coastal city (population 33,000) that has a lot to see and do. We took a beach walk, had brunch, and did a bit of driving around before we hit the famous Great Ocean Road.

If you are not familiar with it (as we weren’t before our pre-trip research), the Great Ocean Road “…is a famous 243km scenic coastal drive in Victoria, Australia, built by WWI veterans, making it the world’s longest war memorial. Stretching from Torquay to Allansford (the tiny town next to Warrnambool), it offers stunning views of cliffs, rainforests, beaches, and iconic landmarks, perfect for a trip with wildlife spotting (koalas!) and charming towns.” What’s not to like?

The Official LeBeau Start to the Great Ocean Road: Cheese World!

So we are using a Guide Along audio app as we drive the Great Ocean Road, and the helpful app lists the official start (going eastbound) of the GOR as the tiny town of Allansford, and the first stop on the drive is the iconic “12 Apostles” (more on that later). LeBeaus disagree. We will have a strongly worded email with the app’s creator recommending they use the Official LeBeau First Stop: Cheese World. It had everything one may need to fuel up for the drive: cheeses, crackers, milkshakes, sandwiches, treats, and a comprehensive dairy history museum to bore/relax you into a post-cheese nap. 💤. Perfect.

Bay of Islands

So this Bay of Islands, Victoria, Australia (as opposed to the Bay of Islands we visited in the blog on New Zealand) is a collection of limestone rock stacks and sheltered bays on the GOR. It was absolutely stunning!

Bay of Martyrs

This stop in Bay of Islands Park has a sad history of crimes against Aboriginal people according to our guide. It does have lovely views, though. It is also a starting point for some coastal walks that we would love to do with more time (and less flies).

The Grotto

This stop in Port Campbell National Park is a cool rock formation combining a cave, sinkhole, and archway. It makes for a great photo backdrop, as you can see by this line of tourists waiting in line to take selfies by the arch 🙄

London Arch

We’ve all heard the children’s song “London Bridge is falling down…”. Well, in Australia, it already fell! In 1990, this popular sight on the GOR, then called London Bridge, had one of the two arches crumble into the sea, stranding some tourists out there on the other cliff for hours until they could be helicoptered back! The remaining structure was later renamed London Arch.

Loch Ard Gorge

This is one of the two most iconic stops on the GOR. It was named for a tragic shipwreck (The Loch Ard) that happened in this bay leaving only two survivors, one of whom scaled these limestone cliffs to get help for the other survivor. An incredible story of sheer determination. The cliffs themselves are, of course, very beautiful and include a really cool area called the Razorback.

The 12 Apostles vs. Sow and Pigs

The second of the two most iconic stops on this drive are the limestone rocks of the 12 Apostles. According to our guide app, this area with the limestone formations was originally named the “Sow and Piglets”, with the nearby small Mutton Island being the “sow.” However, some marketing geniuses in the first half of the 20th century realized that did not have quite the ring to it that they sought for tourist appeal and marketing, and they renamed it “The Apostles.” It has now evolved into the name “The 12 Apostles”, despite the fact there are only 8 visible formations. That there are more underwater or further away is a topic of debate that I will leave to the Australians. Suffice to say, it’s lovely here and I liked the rocks. 😂

Funny side story: as I have mentioned (probably ad nauseam), the bush flies here are horrible. One side effect though is that as everyone walks around these crowded tourist areas waving their hands in front of them over and over , often quite frantically, which gives them the appearance of very zealous friendly waving people. If you were a bird or something else above, we probably all look like the friendliest people ever, what with all the waving!

Melba Gully or BUST

Drat. Bust. Tried to stop at this beautiful fern gully, home to glow worms and hiking trails, but it was closed due to recent storm damage. 😭

Castle Cove Overlook

Nice little stop with views of the ocean in Otway National Park. The paths of the Great Ocean Walk go right by here.

Cape Otway Light Station or BUST

Drat. Again. Bust! Okay- well our attempt to see the Cape Otway light station (closed 😭) wasn’t a total failure, because along the way through the park, we saw another koala AND an echidna (and a deer) in the wild!!! Sooooo exciting.

On the bright side of this part of the drive:

Koala video:

Southernmost Dinner

Our dinner stop was the tasty Great Ocean Road Brewhouse which, as it turns out, is the “southernmost pub on the Australian mainland continent”. They are very proud of this.

From here we headed straight back to Melbourne and our final rental condo in Australia. We will be here for 13 days, and it feels like a treat to NOT have to pack and unpack for a while! Arrived around 11:45 pm feeling pretty exhausted! Will post more about out Melbourne shenanigans in the next few days, once we are done resting! 😂

Thanks for adventuring with us!