The First Great Aussie Road Trip – Day 2

Warrnambool to Melbourne Via Colac

Day two started a little earlier for two reasons. Being an Airbnb, check out was at 10 and secondly – we now knew what our time frame was. Overnight, Simone and I had culled the list she created for the road trip down to just the places that were super close. Everything was within a 2-minute drive of each other. We even had an idea that we could walk some of it if time permitted.

We had learnt our lesson from the day before – even though things look close, this is Australia. They are not close. Not at all. So, we limited the activities and updated the plan on the fly. We were to go and see The Grotto, London Bridge, The Razorback, Loch Ard Beach and then head up to Colac for lunch before pointing the car back home to Melbourne and letting it do its thing.

We left Warrnmbool and headed to The Grotto by way of Peterborough, where we stopped for gas. When I say this is a small town, what I mean was that there was one petrol station – off brand with one pump – and they didn’t take fuel cards. Inside this fuel station was a small diner too. Clearly a stop for the truckies on their way through. And in typical small-town fashion, also didn’t seem too pleased with these city slickers and their fancy pants fuel card…

After refueling, we made the short trip to The Grotto and saw even more rocks poking out the ocean. But these were different rocks. Ones with holes in them! It’s a cool sight to see – the rock has a hole that looks out to a rock pool which then looks out to the ocean. This creates a window in which you see the calm of the pool with the backdrop being the ferocity of the ocean. Pictures don’t really do it justice!

Back into the car and it was off to London Bridge. Not the real one, mind you. That would take something like 32 hours of flying. No, this was more rocks poking out the ocean, which had created a bridge-like structure. It’s impressive to see, and you get a feeling for the shear sense of scale of Australia. The beach here is locked off from the public to protect the penguin colonies, but the lookout is fantastic! As I was taking the required family photos, a stranger stopped and offered to take one of all of us. Not an uncommon gesture here in Australia! Well, it would have been a nice gesture had he been able to operate our camera! After a quick lesson in pressing the shutter button and one impromptu shot of nothing, he got the hang of it, and managed to snap a few really nice ones of all of us. People sure have gotten used to touch screens, and forgotten the tactile feedback of a two-stage shutter button…

Loch Ard Beach was our next stop. If you’ve ever seen touristy photos of a beach surrounded by cliffs and looking deserted, then you’ve probably seen this one. It’s got to be one of the most Instagrammed places in Australia, I’m sure! Of course, that doesn’t detract from its wild beauty. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get down to the actual beach, but instead was confined to the lookout. But in good news, The Razor Back was along the same path – and that we could get quite close to! Closer than I expected at least.

While looking at, and taking photos of, these many different rocks, it amused me to think that we come here to look at these rocks because we’re told to come and look at these rocks. Sure, they look amazing, but if there were no lookouts, or paths built around them, how much would we actually care? Unless rocks are your thing, of course.

By now, lunch time was on the horizon and so off to the small town of Colac we went. After all the rocks and sparse bush around the Victoria coast, we needed something a little greener. We’re Kiwi’s after all, so you can’t really blame us! If we don’t see something green, we get depressed! That’s a joke, but it really happens! Almost subconsciously we decided to head to the Colac Botanical Gardens for lunch and a walk around.

Colac was about an hour and a bit drive in a northerly direction. Turning away from the ocean, and heading more inland, we hoped, naively, that we would be seeing even more wildlife. Alas, it was not to be. The road to Colac is a very well-established road, sometimes even breaking out into highways! So, the only wildlife we saw was, unfortunately, ex-wildlife.

Getting into Colac, and finding the gardens was a synch. The GPS routed us along the lake for a bit and parked us right in front of the Botanical Gardens Cafe entrance. What a great turn of events for some hungry and weary travelers. Sitting out in the sun, looking at Lake Colac, and hearing the general bustle of people going about their lives felt very community! Which was also helped by a super friendly server who kept calling the children helping out “Brah”. Food was had, chai’s were drunk, and we were now fat and happy.

Instead of just jumping back into the car, we decided to wander around those gardens and help walk off lunch. We ambled through the garden, listening to the birds, and Maurice talk to us about plants – getting quite excited when he came across a plant called a Monkey Puzzle. It didn’t look very puzzlish to me, but then I like to think I’m softer smarter than your average money… we continued to wonder and came across a section of the gardens that has been claimed by bats! Not just any bats – the extra-large and in charge Aussie bats. Ones that if they flew into your hair, you’d surrender your precious locks on the spot!

Back into the car for the final stretch home – having officially done The Great Ocean Road. We parked it where we found it – returning the GoGet to its natural habitat, missioned back to the train station, and arrived home just after dark.

We’d now have two nights at home, before we headed in the completely opposite direction and onto the east coast road up to Sydney…