Great Ocean Road

      The Great Ocean Road is a stretch of insanely scenic highway that runs along the southern coast of Victoria for several hundred kilometers.  We left from Melbourne and it took about an hour and a half to reach our first stop, Bell's Beach, near the town of Torquay.  Bell's Beach is the site of the famous Rip Curl Pro surf tournament every Easter.  There were only a few small waves for our visit, but the view was beautiful.  We contemplated stopping by on our return trip, but the contest start was delayed a day by poor surf conditions so Chris had to resort to seeing some of it on TV at home this week.

   From Bell's Beach, we headed down the road to Airey's Inlet and the Split Point Lighthouse.  More stunning scenery!



     From the holiday town of Lorne, we took two short treks to a gorgeous waterfall, Erskine Falls, and then up to Teddy's Lookout. 

   Mia was eager to reach a spot along the Kennett River known for koala spotting, so we booked it down the road to get there before sunset.  We had directions to turn onto a gravel road, turn behind the caravan (camper) park, and start looking.  Just when we were thinking it was like looking for a needle in a haystack, we started seeing them!  One was even awake and moving around a lot through the gum trees.  As we wandered down the road spotting more and more, some kangaroos jumped into view.  So, we're listening to the ocean while watching wild kangaroos and koalas.  Pretty great way to end the day!



    Our destination for the night was Apollo Bay, another small town catering to Great Ocean Road travelers.  After a surprisingly yummy meal at the local hotel (means bar and restaurant here), we slept like babies, or maybe koalas.