We are back from our trip on the Great Ocean Road! This famous road is located in the South-West of Victoria, a hundred kilometers West of Melbourne. 243km long, this road stretches between Torquay and Allansford.

As usual, we have tried to explore the area by public transportation. We enjoyed most of the Great Ocean Road during the bus rides. But we haven’t ride the whole 243 kms. We’d preferred to focus on the Great Ocean Walk: a famous 100km hike between Apollo Bay and the majestic 12 Apostles.

It was difficult to organize ourselves to do the whole hike with our big backpacks in less than 5 days. Also, we were not really ready to experience camping in Australia. So we decided to stop in Princetown and in Apollo Bay and to do some day walks from these two points. Apollo Bay is the start of the Great Ocean Walk, and Princetown is almost at the end, a few kilometers away from the 12 Apostles.

1st day: Princetown > 12 Apostles > Princetown

18km return to see the 12 Apostles: amazing cliffs with a collection of limestone stacks (don’t try to count, there are not even 12 of them!). The weather was a bit cloudy but still this place is splendid!

Surprise of the day: a tiny snake (a baby?) on our way back to Princetown.

2nd day: Princetown > Gables lookout > Princetown

24km return to reach Gables lookout. Honestly, this is not a place that you need to visit, but it was as far as we could hike from Princetown in one day… The walk to Gables lookout is not really interesting either so you may not want to go there, but we were happy to walk and take some fresh air!

Surprise of the day: Two “not tiny” snakes. The first one ran away when he heard us and we hardly had the time to see it. But the second one was not frightened. It was an Eastern Tiger Snake: a highly venomous snake, but not aggressive… All right, but from now we will stay focused on where we put our feet!

3rd day: Rest

In the morning, we took the bus from Princetown to Apollo Bay. As the rest of the day was rainy, we took some rest.

Surprise of the day: All the coffee places are closed between 4pm and 6pm (too bad, we would have been tempted by a coffee and cake!)

4th day: Cape Otway > Apollo Bay

For our last day on the Great Ocean Walk, we wanted to see as much as we could. So we hitchhiked to Cape Otway, where we started our hike back to Apollo Bay. After these 28 kilometers we were really exhausted but we definitely enjoyed our day. We could see beautiful landscapes (beaches and forest) and a lot of wildlife!

Surprise(s) of the day: kangaroos, a koala, a snake again (unidentified), and a black wallaby on the track. We definitely feel in Australia!