The First Great Aussie Road Trip – Day 1

Melbourne to Warrnambool via The Great Ocean Road

Wednesday morning dawned and the plan was set in motion. We were going to drive along The Great Ocean Road and spend the night in Warrnambool. If you don’t know where that is, then don’t worry – I didn’t either. But Simone and the GPS did. Thats all the reassurance I needed.

Now, us being city folk, don’t have a car. Just a minor problem if we’re planning to go on a road trip. Lucky for us, cars are now a subscription service. And they have an app. Thats right – you sign up to the app, pay a monthly fee (of like $20) and you can get a car for a day. Or longer. They charge you per kilometer over a certain amount and give you a fuel card. And you can pick any car, parked anywhere in or around the city. Millennials-not-wanting-to-speak-to-another-human has prevailed again and birthed one of the most convenient business models around.

Also being city folk, we do not drive in the city. Thats reserved for madmen and locals. Being the more civilized type, we trained out of the city and picked up a car in Footscay. This meant less city driving and an easier escape from Melbourne.

We climbed off the train at Footscray station and had a 15-minute walk to where our car was parked. Already, we were adventuring – hunting a wild GoGet car in its natural habitat. The car we booked was a Mitsubishi Mirage and was found down a tiny street in the heart of Footscray suburbia. Also of note: this street had no business being two-way!

We loaded up the car and navigated out of Melbourne, heading towards our first stop – lunch! Lunch was had at the library cafe in Geelong which allowed us to see the city center in a by-the-way way. This would set the cadence of the trip – pack up in the morning, drive until we got peckish, stop at some random town in search for food.

Our next stop was the official entrance to The Great Ocean Road, and of course we did the tourist thing of posing in front of the wooden arch that marks the start. It was now official – we were on the great ocean road!

Next on the list was Lorne and the one of the best lookouts of the trip – Teddy’s Lookout. From here not only did we see our first wildlife of the trip, but we got a great view of some of the road and the majestic scenery that was awaiting us. At this park, we saw our first kookaburra and spent some time trying to get close enough for a good photo. Once we finally moved on to actually start the short walk to the lookout, it became abundantly clear that this place was absolutely infested with Kookaburra. Seems our excitement at the first one made us peak early!

On our way out of Lorne, we were treated to a flock of cockatiels on the grass interspersed with some galah. Que the excitement all over again! But alas, no photos – we were in dire need of finding a bathroom!

Now this is where our plans fell over a bit. You see, when planning this trip, we forgot to take into account just how big Australia is. And being winter, we were going to be fighting daylight. And the Twelve Apostles and Warrnambool were still a few hours away…

Luckily for us, The Great Ocean Road goes though The Great Otway National Park, and we got to experience the magic of an Aussie rain forest. As the road snakes its way through this park, you’re treated to a very primal land. Apart from the road and cars of course. It was here, after the road turns more inland, that we had the next magical moment, and where we almost caused a car pileup!

As we came around a bend, there was a car in the opposite lane with its hazard lights on. Not a great place to break down, as if there is any. But this car wasn’t broken down. It had stopped to look at and protect a wild koala that was sitting on the road! The poor guy looked mightily confused, convincing me that he had fallen out of a tree and was in shock at suddenly being on the ground. We pulled over, almost into the embankment on the side of the road to really enjoy the sight. Causing the car behind us to also stop to look. The car behind this car had been riding on their bum, so they had to make a quick swerve, but continued on their way. No doubt swearing at the bloody tourists. White watching the koala make his way back into the bush, no less than six cars must have passed us. After he disappeared into the bushes, we were off again. Albeit at a slower pace – just in case…

Almost an hour later, we were treated to the next magical experience of this trip. And we hadn’t even gotten to the twelve apostles yet! On the outskirts of the national park, we came across three wallabies hopping down the road. At this stage, Simone was driving (and doing an excellent job of it). We pulled up alongside the wallabies – one massive one and two smaller ones, and Simone matched their speed. Cruising down the road, close to sunset, with wallabies hopping next to the car was one of the best things I’ve ever experienced. And Simone handled it like a champ. Knowing that at any moment these rather dim creatures could go into the middle of the road, she gave them space. Close enough to hear their feet against the asphalt, far enough that we wouldn’t be the cause of a wallaby death. The photos really don’t do it justice. They hopped alongside the car for a while and then made a mad dash across the road and over the fence. The photos are from after they crossed the road and were in front rather than at our side.

Now we really need to pick up the place to make it to The Twelve Apostles, but secretly we all knew that no big rocks poking out the ocean would match up to what we just experienced. Light was fading fast, but luckily for us, the road had opened up into a wider straighter path.

We arrived at The Twelve Apostles just after sunset and we’re treated to another amazing sight. I’ve learnt that Australian sunsets are only surpassed by the ones in Africa. The Twelve Apostles are indeed big rocks poking out of the ocean, but their sheer scale is something to marvel at. Australia is a big place. You think you know big, then there’s Australia…

We stayed until after sunset and now needed to get to our Airbnb for the night – another 80 kms and an hour or so away… The rest of the drive was not nearly as exciting, getting us into Warrnambool close to 9PM.

What a day! And one we’d be talking about for the rest of the trip…