Great Ocean Road Trip – Day 6 – Apollo Bay to Port Campbell

Hi everyone,

Sleeping in a beach tent has many nice things about it. It’s fun, it’s very pretty, it feels rustic and it’s kinda unique. However, it also has its downsides. It does not retain heat whatsoever (very cold last night) it’s very loud (waves crashing is louder than you think) and you’re pressed for space. Not sure we’d opt for it again over a cabin or something.

After breakfast and coffees we got in the car and made our way about an hour down the forest section of the great ocean road to our first stop which was Gibson Steps. Gibson steps forms part of the twelve apostles but it is on the other side of the part that everyone knows and you can go down a bunch of stairs on the side of a cliff to stand on the beach near the limestone tower. It’s really quite nice.

We drove approximately 500 metres down the road for the main event of the whole trip and one of Australia’s most iconic (and most visited) landmarks – The Twelve Apostles. There is not much to say about The Twelve Apostles that hasn’t been said by anyone who has visited them, but they are magnificent. So majestic and it looks like it’s straight off a postcard. We could stand there and watch the waves push up against the limestone towers all day long. The only downside is that we came at around midday and every step felt like we were disrupting an Asian tourist’s instagram photoshoot – small price to pay though.

The next stop was about 2kms up the road for more limestone rock formations. This section is called Loch Ard Gorge. It is named for a ship that wrecked here many years ago. You can no longer go down to the beach here as you used to be able to, but you can see it and another formation here called Razorback. Both absolutely lovely.

It was quite a walk around these areas and it was actually very hot. The temperature shifts here have been insane and have made it difficult to plan and dress appropriately leaving us hot and sunburnt or cold and shivering. After that we drove to our destination for the next two nights. Port Campbell. It is a tiny little town consisting of around 10 blocks. We have a nice Airbnb with plenty of room. There also seems to be rabbits everywhere in this town, which is cute for us, but probably problematic for any local veggie garden enthusiasts. We had lunch at a brewery here which was pretty alright.

We had some time to kill so we went and let Julian play at a local playground (also many rabbits hanging around here). Then we grabbed some ice cream, relaxed in our airbnb, had pizza for dinner next to the beach as we were all pretty sunburnt and exhausted from today and are planning an early night.