Tonight, we’re in Portland – roughly the end of the Great Ocean Road. We want to acknowledge that this area is the lands of the Gunditjmara people. We want to pay our respects to the elders of the Gunditjmara people – past, present and emerging. It was cool to find out that Archie Roach, Lidia Thorpe and Lionel Rose are all Gunditjmara people!
What an incredible day exploring the western side of the Great Ocean Road today – mostly around the Twelve Apostles, but Loch Ard Gorge, London Bridge and The Grotto as well. Just spectacular! A lot of photos in today’s post.
We started out at what’s known as the Secret Apostles Lookout. It’s just at the information board about 1km before the Twelve Apostles, or about 500m before Gibson’s Steps. It was a fun little walk up some stairs to join part of the Great Ocean Walk, and there at the top was a platform to look out over what you can see of the Twelve Apostles from here. Ridiculously windy up there, but it was a fun walk and a great way to start the day. From there, Daniel and Debbie decided they wanted to walk on to Gibson’s Steps – so off they went, and the other two and I hopped in the car and drove the 500m up the road…
When you arrive, Gibson’s Steps is a reasonably nice vantage point from the top, looking at the same two Apostles you can see in the picture above. But the fun starts when you walk down the 3 huge flights of stairs from the top of the cliff face to the beach below. We decided this was a good time to just live in the moment – so shoes were off and left at the bottom of the stairs while we walked along the beach. In the end, I think our timing was perfect; there were so few other people here! (But as we were leaving, there were plenty arriving.)
The kids absolutely lapped up running around on the beach and having fun, despite how cold the sand was! We walked all the way along the beach to stand at the base of the two Apostles there. Unfortunately, it was between high tide and low tide, so we weren’t getting anywhere near them (and the waves were ferocious). But to even get close to them was incredible – it’s one thing to marvel at their size and beauty from a lookout point; it’s another thing entirely to stand beneath these structures. And equally, turning around 180º and looking at the sheer cliff that stands above you is amazing as well (note the tiny kids for reference in the third photo below).
After probably a good hour or so exploring the beach and the freezing sand, we decided to head on to the actual Twelve Apostles lookout. Daniel and Debbie again walked along the track to meet us there – this time it was 1km on! We met up and walked along the path to the viewing platforms for the Twelve Apostles.
So, don’t get me wrong, the Twelve Apostles were spectacular and incredible to stand and look at. But having just spent an hour looking at two of these structures up close, and feeling so isolated as we explored them, looking at them from a distance on a viewing platform with tens or hundreds of other people just ended up feeling a bit underwhelming! The signage was really good though, and it was great to learn with the kids about how these were formed, and how they will collapse and then continue to be formed into the future.
So there’s a definite tip for you if (hopefully, when) you get to explore the Twelve Apostles – sure, do the “official” viewing platform and lookout. But spend most of your time at Gibson’s Steps and just enjoy being at their feet. It was far and away the most amazing and fun thing we’ve done on this trip so far!
We headed on toward Loch Ard Gorge next. Debbie and I both knew this was another one we wanted to see, but didn’t actually know the story behind it. This incredible gorge was named after a ship called the Loch Ard that wrecked just at the tip of the gorge. There were only two survivors, and they sought shelter in one of the caves in the gorge. This is another chance to climb down some stairs from the cliffs onto the beach and experience the incredible size of Loch Ard Gorge, and the ferocity of the waves coming through the narrow gorge entry.
By this time it was 1:30pm! I don’t think we planned on spending this long at each of these places, but we were just enjoying it all so much! We had our lunch as we walked up to one of the Loch Ard Gorge lookouts at the top, after we’d come back up from the beach. And then we jumped back in the car and kept heading west – there were still a couple of other places left on our list!
We stopped in at London Bridge for a quick look, and a great chance to see another recent collapse of some of the limestone into the ocean (as it did in 1990). There wasn’t much more to this than just the viewing platform, so we took a reasonably quickly look and then hopped back in the car.
The last one we stopped at was The Grotto. This is another amazing geological formation along this stretch – but slightly different to the others. The Grotto was formed essentially by a massive sinkhole. Rainwater would collect in a natural dip, and over years and years, it permeated through the limestone, which then collapsed and created an amazing sinkhole, which has then been further smashed by waves over years as well. You can walk down a series of steps to be in the centre of this sinkhole. We stood down here for quite a while just watching the waves through the arch and begging them to crash up and over the edge into the pool of water in front of us!
I think we could have easily spent another 3 or 4 hours on this stretch of the Great Ocean Road. We ended up just driving past the Bay of Martyrs and Bay of Islands – both are supposed to be amazing places to stop and explore as well. But in the end, we pulled into Portland at 5:30pm after leaving Apollo Bay at about 9am – and that drive (without stopping) is only 3 hours!
We’ve arrived into a beautiful old house in Portland (another Airbnb), with plenty of space. It’ll be lovely to be able to spread out again for the next few days, and enjoy the gas fireplace in the lounge room! There are a few things we want to do in Portland, but not heaps – so this stop should be a bit more laid back and just enjoying our surroundings.
Also, the car needs a new tyre – thankful one of the tyre places here has the right size/type available and can get it done on Friday!
