Great Ocean Road and Dandegong Ranges

Ah, so excited for the Great Ocean Road. Robin and I were again ready to see some nature. We had a minor hiccup along the way that set us back a few hours. You see, we decided to book with a rental car company that had a special at one of their locations just outside the city about 30 minutes. Seemed like a great deal and a minor inconvenience to get out there so we booked it. This turned into a bit of a headache. We got up in Melbourne and ordered an Uber out to this little town and we were excited to know our Uber still works internationally and with WIFI only. However, by the time we got out to our rental car office, and said goodbye to our Uber driver, we quickly learned we no longer had a reservation.  I still haven’t looked this up, so this very well may be a thing. We arrived at 11 am although our reservation did say 10 am. We assumed this time was flexible, but we were apparently wrong.

After a bit of arguing and accepting we weren’t going to get a car that didn’t exist, we gave in and asked for help. Being a holiday weekend and all, there was not a car on the lot. We also now had no car, no internet, no phone service (because we were relying entirely on WIFI) and were not within walking distance to any cafes. After explaining our situation, the man reluctantly decided to help us call a taxi and called around to a few other Europcar dealers and found 1 car left that was within a reasonable distance. Another $60 later and quite some time, we finally had our car! The same car we actually reserved and this new sales person was much more customer service oriented and even gave us a few more discounts because of the hassle.

After that hiccup, we were on to the Great Ocean Road! Our accommodation for the next two evenings would be in Apollo Bay just about the midpoint. This short road trip can be done in a day, but it’s recommended to stay at least a couple nights so that’s what we decided to do. This road winds about a portion of the southern coastline West of Melbourne and it’s full of beautiful sandy beaches, stark cliffs,  epic surfing waves, tide pools, and Eucalyptus trees galore. On the way to Apollo bay we stopped at a few of the beach towns along the way to take in the views. We also did a short aboriginal heritage walk and spotted an Echidna! SO CUTE! He was just hiding in the bushes and we only looked because we heard him rattling around. I thought it might be some crazy exotic Australian snake. Thankfully, it was not. These guys look sort of like a porcupine but are actually a member of the same order as the platypus and is an egg laying mammal that eats ants and termites. Apparently they are all over the place, but this is the only one we saw.

The first town we reached was Bells Beach which was slammed with people. The Rip Curl pro surfing tournament was in play. We didn’t actually catch any of the competition but watched a few of the different surfers from the other viewpoints. We also came across a few beaches while the tide was low that had some awesome little tide pools. This is one of my favorite things at home and abroad. So much to be discovered if you just look a little closer! Lots of sea snails and little starfish. Also a few different types of sponges and cool rock formations. We also found another beach that was not as easily accessible so a little less touched by all the tourists as the sunset. For us that meant cool little finds of things that have washed up along the beach. Robin even spotted a dried up puffer fish! Finally it was getting dark so we hurried back to check in at our dorm room in this cute old hostel, then out for dinner! The location was great, just a few minutes walk from the town area. We decided to stop and have dinner at The Brewhouse. I have to say, the food was actually overpriced and not great, but the beer was good and the atmosphere was right! In the morning the hunt for koalas began!

Day two on the GOR we did quite a bit of driving. We decided to make our way out to the Twelve Apostles about 1.5 hours away which are these beautiful limestone formations right off the beach. We took our time getting there and stopped for a hike  in a rainforest and later at a lighthouse along the way. This is where we had our first spotting of Koalas! They are high up in the trees here but you could tell someone spotted one when there were 5 tourist cars suddenly stopped in the middle of the road all getting out of their cars. We joined them of course! From the light house we moved on to the Twelve Apostles. These were PACKED with Chinese tourists. Swarms of Chinese only tour busses unloading here. Apparently this was a popular time of the year for Chinese to take a vacation. There must have been a thousand people there. The place is stunning, but the crowds did take away from it a bit. We were being shuffled along like a herd of cows and everyone stopping every 5 seconds to take the perfect selfie. Its actually entertaining, but a little chaotic in a place that isn’t meant to feel that way. We didn’t stay long because of this, but the view is fantastic.

In a mission to see the Koalas up close we found a place known to have them called Kennett River. We drove back towards the hostel and back tracked just a bit further to get here. And low and behold, koalas! All cute and up close. This was totally a little tourist area that everyone knows about, but we loved it.  There were also plenty of different parrots and cockatoos flying around. We also decided to move away from the crowd a bit and found this little riverside park that had an abundance of birds. We were definitely glad we drove on a bit further to come back to this place. Alas, the sun was beginning to set again so we headed back to our hostel and town for some dinner and wine.

In the morning we decided we would make an effort to see the kangaroos. So we were unlucky and weren’t anywhere they were around and they also tend to make their appearances at night. This was the last chance we thought we’d see them on the trip (and we were right) so we decided to drive out to another little tourist area known for kangaroos. We were hoping to see them more in the wild, but we’d settle for this. At Angelsea Golf Course they have a population of wild kagaroos that hang out and eat their grass. They aren’t caged or forced to stay there so many do leave and come back over a few weeks, especially the males, but because of the abundance of grass they choose to live here. With a small entrance free we got to take a golf cart with guide out to see their kangaroos. They had a LOT. Some were relaxed and let you walk by easily, others were timid and took off, not cool to disturb them, but it was pretty cool to watch them hop off at full speed. They are definitely strong, fast and intimidating creatures up close. And cute!

This was our last day out on the Great Ocean Road and we only had one more night before we moved on to Sydney. From here we moved on to the Eastside of Melbourne out to Dandenong Ranges. It is more like a bunch of small forests and trails scattered around small towns and suburbs, but it really is beautiful. We stayed in an AirBnB that was a barn converted into a living space. We were one of the first people to stay here and the lady that ran the place was so adorable and sweet. She set it up like a bed and breakfast. We definitely felt spoiled by the cost for the amenities compared to what we’d been used to staying in. It was awesome to have wine, cook dinner and relax just the two of us. We chose to come out to this area because of the birds though, so in the morning that’s what we sought out. We did a hiking trail to find the Lyrebird in an area protected as its habitat. This was a beautiful walk, but produced no Lyrebird. We decided to move on to another part of the ranges known for cockatoo and parrot feedings for some up close pictures. On the way we spotted a Lyrebird digging around by the road! We immediately pulled the car over and tried to sneakily to get a picture. I was determined at this point. I know that sounds dorky, but they are unique birds and we just did a couple hour hike stopping at every sound hoping to spot one. We were glad we spotted one!

Down the way a bit, there was a café that sold cockatoo bird seed and there was an area where some will come down to a snack. These are wild birds, so sometimes they come and sometimes they don’t but today we got to see a few fly down. We chose not to take part in the feeding because we really just wanted to see them a bit closer, didn’t need to hold one. In other parts of that same area there were also plenty of parrots flying around, some that we hadn’t seen yet like the Galah which is a pink cockatoo. Sadly, after we were finished here it was time to head back to the airport.

Returning to the city, Sydney bound…