The Great Ocean Road!

We spent a couple days south-west of Melbourne staying in Torquay and exploring the Great Ocean Road. We booked a room at the Crowne Plaza and upon check-in were delighted to be upgraded to the oceanview penthouse suite. It had a balcony that reached from the dining room to the kitchen and into the master room.
After a breakfast buffet in the hotel, we hit the Great Ocean Road. Our first stop was at the Anglesea Golf course-- a bit off the main road, but we knew we had a good chance of spotting kangaroos in the wild. Sources were correct-- we saw dozens of big, hopping kangaroos. We ignored all the signs saying we weren't allowed to walk the course to photograph them because seriously, how often do we Americans get the chance to see wild kangaroos? (Go ahead and laugh at me Aussie friends!)

Further west and just outside of Lorne, we made a detour to see the Erkshine Falls. As we drove the rainforest, I made the comment "wouldn't this be a great place for a koala to be?" which got me scanning the trees for them. About two minutes later, I spotted one in the tree above the road. I screamed "KOALA!" to Dave and he immediately stopped. Took him a minute to find him and he was seriously impressed I spotted the guy while we were driving.

Erkshine Falls

He was seriously cute and would rotate his body to follow us as we snapped photos. Being a nocturnal animal, you could tell he was a little annoyed that we were keeping him from napping. The annoyance didn't stop there as many cars passed, saw us taking photos of something and stopped. Everyone of them were shocked and delighted we had spotted a koala.

We spotted a koala in the wild!

The waterfall wasn't overly impressive and probably not worth the 700+ steps we hiked, but had we not taken the detour, we wouldn't have seen a koala in the wild! From here, we headed west to Apollo Bay where we stopped for gelato at Dooley's. Winner of many awards, our mint chip and toffee treats were both yummy.

We were now heading into the more gorgeous stretch of coastline as we entered into Port Campbell National Park. We hiked yet more stairs to the Gibsons Steps overlook where my creative brain saw a bear kissing a wolf on the top of one of the rocks. For those who have been to Kissing Camels in Coloardo, you'll appreciate this.

The fantastic gold color of the limestone and sandstone stacks was just breathtaking. We made stops and did short hikes at the Razorback, Loch Ard Gorge, the Blowhole, the Arch, the Grotto, the London Bridge (which collapsed in the 90's making it more of an arch now), and of course, the famous 12 Apostles.

The collapsed London Bridge

Our original pictures of the 12 Apostles had bad lighting and overcast skies, so we came back later in the day at sunset. Still cloudy, but the various purple and pinks of the skies made for a nice photo.

About 10 minutes before the sun fully set, it began to pour. Luckily we had purchased that waterproof camera. It came in handy as we would not have gotten any sunset photos of the 12 Apostles otherwise.
We took the inland drive home thru the rainforest and by Lake Colac. We ate dinner at a large Italian place with an indoor kids playground and arcade with an older brick architecture. I ordered the very yummy Pollo E Funghi (chicken, onions, mushrooms in fettucine with cream sauce) and Dave had lasagna. Everything (including the garlic bread, can't forget that!) was tasty.