Jan 137 min read

Our Great Ocean Road Roadie Part 5: The Epic End Of The Great Ocean Road

Updated: Sep 20

Kia Ora friends! So we've come to the final end of our epic road trip around the Great Ocean Road in Victoria and safe to say it was the best road trip ever (topped closely by Barossa Valley). It's swelteringly hot outside today in Melbourne so just know I'm sipping on some cold water and cranberry juice as I write this today lol. I really hope you've been enjoying these travel blogs and vlogs and I'm loving my new catchphrase for social media "Captures, Content & Comedy" - idk why but it feels like it fits.

Day 8: Tower Hill, Koroit, and Port Fairy

3rd January 2024

We woke up pretty early - I think it was close to 5:30, 6am as we were woken up by the gorgeous sunrise and damn, we should have gotten up to watch it properly and take photos. But we enjoyed it from the weird little tiny house we were staying in. We didn't rush to get up in the morning because our first stop of the day was LITERALLY just down the road - and it was an epic nature reserve. We headed down to Tower Hill Nature Reserve (and this is a dormant volcano I believe) - as well as a place that used to be farm land when the colonisers had control of it. But over time, volunteers flocked back to help the land grow back into what it was and slowly but surely did all the wildlife return. I liked this place for the mere fact it had a range of walks you could do depending on your ability and because we'd been doing so many hills lately, we opted for the flat board walks (there was maybe 3 hill walks and 2 flat ones and we managed to do both flat ones). It was pretty cool when we first drove down to the car park, heaps of koalas everywhere, and then as we walked through the boardwalk walk, we saw sooo many birds from grey fantails to waxeyes to honeyeaters and even some emus that escorted us back to the picnic area (tell you what, emus are way scarier than snakes!) We also saw a koala there too - and Luke didn't think they'd be that close to the lake of water but they were and so cute! The other flat walk we did we saw heaps of tiny lizards too and they were super speedy so a lot harder to get a photo of but interesting to look at and see if their natural habitat. We had also packed some snacks here so I grabbed some out of the car while Luke went to the bathroom & then the emu decided to come and try and steal Luke's keys once he came back which was so funny! Made for some funny videos indeed.

The next stop of the day was our lunch spot - which I was happy we went here but also annoyed that we didn't have lunch in Port Fairy (but dw, I've already found some cute accommodation that we're going to stay at there one day). We stopped in at Koriot - Koriot is an Irish Village (again just literally around the corner from where we were) and gives a vast example of early Irish settlement in Victoria. And you could definitely feel the Irish in the town. It felt really old and it was an eclectic range of styles throughout the town. There would be a modern building then an old-fashioned style building and it just kept going. We stopped in at the bakery to grab a bit to eat and I was sure glad to get some lunch in me and sit down for a little bit. It was starting to warm up a bit too. There were some teenagers (maybe about 14-15 or so) busking outside of the bakery playing awesome Irish music - like they were really good. I know I'm not really the best musically because I can't sing or hold a tune and it's been a long time since I picked up the guitar to play something (honestly I think I can only remember like one chord) but I feel like because I have lots of muso friends and spent a lot of time around music, I know if music is good or not and they were really good. I am really hoping they are going to go far in life. Anyway, we gave them some cash to help them out and I hope they become super famous one day. It was cool! There was also a book store here that plenty of other blogs had labelled as "quirky" but we were carrying cold drinks so I didn't want to go in (maybe next time).

Next up was a quick trip back to the Air BnB for a bathroom break and dropping off my heavy camera gear and then we drove down to Port Fairy (and yep, Port Fairy was absolutely stunning and I wish we had more time there). It was pumping with life - so many cute cafes and restaurants and the lighthouse walk was great too! It was a lovely mix of boutique meets beach life and I just loved it. I really wanted to go there for sunset but the weather didn't play ball in the evening for us and the next day we went to watch the penguins instead, so as I said before I really want to go back there and wish I knew more about this place before we went. We didn't see any muttonbirds but they do nest there which is pretty cool. We did, however, see a few wallabies. We mainly just spent the afternoon walking around here and being nosy. It's a super cute town. And I promise you that one day I will be back for my sunrise/sunset pics at the lighthouse!

We had no idea what we were going to do for dinner so we drove into Warrnambool for the evening and ended up at a restaurant called "Images" which is apparently owned by one of Luke's friends of a friend (idk that confused me too dw) and it was pretty nice - not anything amazing, but yummy food. Luke had a chicken parma and I had a chicken camembert dish which was really yummy. We also had some drinks and some sorbet for dessert. We were really hoping the cold cover would lift so we could watch the sunset but it didn't and we just went and had a relatively early night.

Day 9: Warrnambool + 12 Apostles (again)

4th January 2024

Whoa! The trip went so fast and this was our full day left to explore whatever we could and we explored as much of Warrnambool as we could. We went for a walk along the beaches, checked out Logan's Beach (where you can go whale watching in winter) and then stopped for lunch at a yummy spot - where you could get both takeaway and sit outside OR sit inside and have a rest. We opted to sit in side. This cafe was called Main Beach Kiosk and was actually really well-priced for what you got. I also got a mango smoothie here which had a lot of coconut in it but the mango thankfully overpowered it and it was super refreshing. Luke got a long black and I had a sip and it was absolutely delicious coffee - one of my favourite coffees ever. So good. We also walked around the park areas for a bit too! We were kinda sad that we didn't get to go into the day spa (but we'll just have to go back again for sure). Our next stop was just the Warrnambool Botanic Gardens and we were gratefully surprised when we found out a bat colony lived here - that was pre cool to see. There was also some Koi Fish too! I kinda wish we spent more time here too but I was very tired and needed a rest.

I don't actually remember what the time was but I think we went and had a wee rest for the afternoon before we headed out to "Hotel Warrnambool" for dinner. We made an early booking so that we could head off to watch the sunset somewhere after. The food here was DELISH! Luke got the steak and I got a pork belly (bc yum) and they gave us free bread and kept offering to get us more drinks which was so nice! We also decided that because it was the last night we'd get two desserts instead of sharing one so Luke got the deconstructed pavlova and I got a trio of ice creams (I was worried about my tummy but they sounded so appealing). The flavours were banana, berry, and tiramisu and it was sooo good. After dinner, it was time to head back down to the 12 Apostles and watch the little penguins come in for the night. I think we got a pretty good spot to set up and take photos and I was really helping with how the photos turned out. Taking photos and videos of the penguins was a lot harder because there's no lighting whatsoever (and obviously you can't use flash) but I think I did okay. Something that was kinda weird on the trip was so many people had never seen a giant zoom lens before so they'd always be like "whoa big lens" which I found kinda odd. I don't know if other photographers get that? Also, how do you respond? Like yes it's a big lens because I want to take pics of animals okay! Anyway, the sunset was epic and we headed back for the night hoping that we'd be up for sunrise the last day!

Day 10: The Home Stretch!

5th January 2024

We woke up at like 5am thinking the sunrise would be great but we were only greeted with dark clouds so that kinda sucked because I was really hoping for aa sunrise photo op at Port Fairy. Anyway, we made our brekkie, got ready for the day and headed off back to Melbourne. We took the inland route home (because it's much faster) and we kinda thought there'd be something interesting on the way home, but we were wrong. I also just fell asleep in the car on the way back because I was wrecked AF.

Here's some photos!