The Great Ocean Road
We started our first of two days driving the scenic Great Ocean Road, often regarded as one of the world’s best coastal highways, and one of the most remarkable war memorials, too.
A largely community-driven project, it served numerous purposes: a memorial to the fallen (Australia experienced the highest casualty rate of any nation in the Great War), an employment project for returning soldiers who needed work, and a way to connect isolated coastal communities and opening up the coast for tourism and development. And of course, it’s also quite scenic, offering some great coastal views (similar to the Pacific Coast Highway in the US) and plenty of beach access too. I bet this place is really hopping on good weather days—the water is much bluer than you’d expect.
Unfortunately, we caught much of it on a rainy day, and had no plans to swim anyway. So much of our visit was simply driving through, pulling off at numerous pull-offs and viewpoints, and generally enjoying the scenery.
Kennett River Nature Walk
Along the drive, there’s a popular short nature walk, bounded by local backyards on one side and a small river on the other, where you can often spot wild koalas. We had an incredible koala experience yesterday at Raymond Island (more photos of that soon), but we wanted to check out this little trail as well. While there were fewer koalas to be seen today, we still managed to find some.
I also really enjoy these laughing kookaburras, so between koala-spotting in the trees, I had my eyes out for sightings of these guys, too.
These cormorants near the start of the trail looked quite grumpy.
We also managed to have lunch at a brewery, and dinner at a brewhouse. Go figure, huh?
We have a number of additional stops planned for tomorrow, and hope to get as far as South Australia before we begin heading back towards Melbourne, where we return our campervan and fly to Tahiti. -S 🇦🇺