The Cold Ocean Road

As a Brit, I didn’t think winter in Australia was really a thing given we often get similar temperatures during our summer, but boy was I wrong; and I found  out during a cold, wet trip to the Great Ocean Road and the Grampians.

This was my last tour for a while, and the last one with Linda, my favourite Dutchie who I spent a month travelling down from Darwin with.

We set off from Melbourne on Thursday 30th June and headed first to Anglesea for morning tea on the beach (above). And what a beautiful day it was for it!

We were very lucky though as we managed to time almost all of the stops right in between downpours and we even got some sunshine at times. We even managed to stay dry during a walk through the rainforest.

Our next stop in between showers was Cape Otway for some koala spotting. The weather didn’t but these guys off as they hung out (literally) in the trees and crossed the road right in front of our bus!

Our next stop was the highlight of any Great Ocean Road trip; the Twelve Apostles.

As I said, we managed to time almost all of our stops right with the weather but the next was not one of them. We arrived at Loch Ard Gorge just after a shower, and as we started walking, headed straight into another, giving us an impressive double rainbow and some moody skies on our photos.

Our final stop along the Great Ocean Road was London Bridge and this was the best timing of the day. As we arrived the sun was shining on the rocks, lighting them up and making the sea look extra green and beautiful.

We then headed inland towards the Grampians where our next day was spent. We had an early start to watch the sunrise and yes, we were all as cold (if not colder) than we look!

Next up we headed to Mackenzie Falls, which thanks to all of yesterday’s rain was in full flow and looking very impressive.

Next up we met some of the locals in Halls Gap, a town right in the middle of the Grampians.

Not all of the locals were this friendly though and Linda managed to make and enemy out of a crow who followed her around town after she tried to shoo him away from her sandwich! More proof that everything in Australia definitely wants to kill you!

Our final stop was an aboriginal rock art site before making the journey back to Melbourne and the warmth of our hostel.