The World's Longest Coach Ride

Day 19:
We had another early morning today as we had a 13 hour coach ride ahead of us. Today was the day that we went on the Great Ocean Road tour. This is a 243km long stretch of road that winds its way through a scenic coast line, a rainforest, and back to stunning cliff top views.

The coach’s first stop was in the quaint little village of Torquay. This town is the home of some of the most famous surf companies and is known for its world-famous surf competition at Bells Beach.

From there you drive up some of the most picturesque and incredible looking coastline in the entire world. Imagine driving up the Pacific Coast Highway but it being more beautiful, more twisty, and closer to the water and you’d have an idea of what it looks like.

After an hour or so of driving (including spotting some wild koalas), we pulled into a small town called Apollo Bay for lunch. This was another one of those cute little sea-side villages and we had a very nice stroll along the beach before pushing on.

The first stop after lunch was a geographic formation called The Twelve Apostles. These are a set of limestone stacks that stand alone in the ocean away from the cliffs. They are constantly being eroded from 15 at the turn of the century, to 9 in the 1950s, to 6 and a half today. It’s easily possible that that they’ll be completely swept away in our lifetimes.

From there is was a quick jaunt up to the Loch Ard Gorge. This was the site of a horrible maritime disaster in which the clipper ship Loch Ard ran aground drowning all but two of the people aboard. The story is a very interesting one and the landscape even more so. There are again a number of interesting limestone formations here, and I highly recommend checking it out if you’re in the area.

From there we made one final quick stop in a town called Port Campbell and then on to the last sight of the day. This was another limestone formation called London Arch. It was at one point called London Bridge, but after a collapse of part of it (stranding two bewildered tourists) its name was changed. Looking at it from the shore makes you wonder what it was like standing out at the end before the collapse.

After this final stop, we had a three hour drive home and were delivered to our hotel at about 20.15. Truly a long day.