WanderList #4.1: The Great Ocean Road_Day 1

If you are a fan of road trips, then this one should definitely be on your WanderList:

🚘 The Great Ocean Road 🛣

One of my college bestfriends, who is based in Melbourne, invited us to visit her in Australia. She enticed us with this wonderful weekend roadtrip and it was just so hard to resist. So we booked our flight, applied for a visa and off we went to have an epic adventure.

Here is how we spent day one of our awesome two-day roadtrip.

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Torquay

We left my friend's house at 8 in the morning and after about an hour, we arrived in Torquay, the gateway to the amazing Great Ocean Road . We bought flat white from a local shop and sat on the deck overlooking the vast ocean.

People often come here to surf, they even hold Rip Curl competition in this town. It is interesting to note too that many of the surfwear brands we know can trace their roots in Torquay.

After we finished our coffee, we left and continued driving.

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Aireys Inlet

We reached our next stop after about 30 minutes of driving from Torquay. The Split Point Lighthouse in Aireys Inlet was built in 1891 and offers breathtaking view of the ocean. There are available guided tours but we no longer joined one as we prefer exploring the place at our own pace. Besides, I heard they share ghost stories about the lighthouse at the tour and I'd rather not know. 😂

After walking around the area, we stopped by the Willow Tea House. I really loved their scones with jam and cream! No wonder my friend kept raving about those scones, they're so delicious!

We continued our road trip after we've consumed God knows how many scones 😁 and passed by the memorial arch. This was erected to commemorate those who built the Great Ocean Road.

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Lorne

After another 30 minutes of driving, we arrived in Lorne. It's a nice little town with quaint stores and restaurants. It has a beautiful long beach with a nice big park near it.

There are picnic areas with free wood or gas barbeque, tables with bench and toilets. We brought meat and shrimps we can grill for lunch in one of these barbeque areas. The location we chose was overlooking the beach, under the shade of the big trees, and not too far from where we parked our car.

We had a very enjoyable lunch and since we have not done much but eat at that point, we all agreed to walk by the beach and explore the nearby park. I had fun watching the kid surfers on the beach.

There are a lot more too see in Lorne that just the beach. I read that they have more than ten waterfalls in the area. You can also whale-watch here if you visit between May to September. If you are into arts, Lorne has festivals, exhibits and interesting sculptures on their park.

My friend wants to buy a retirement home in Lorne and I fully support her on this. 😁 I told her I'd come visit often when that time comes.

We left Lorne before 2PM and went to continue driving.

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Port Campbell

We reached our final stop for the day before 4PM. Port Campbell is a storm refuge as it is sheltered by cliffs and big pine trees. It is a popular stopover for tourists as the 12 Apostles is just 12 kilometers away from this town.

We checked in our AirBnB which was only a few steps away from the beach.

After we've settled in, we went out to the nearby beach to watch and play with the birds.

Afterwards, we went back to our place and watched the sunset while we had beer at our balcony.

We cooked dinner and chatted some more before we called it a day.

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That was day one of my terrific two-day road adventure with my college friends. On my next post I will share with you our second day where we went to see spectacular views and natural rock formations. I will also provide you with a little background on each place so please drop by again for that part, yes?!

Hope you enjoyed this roadtrip!

xoxo 😘, @wander-full

Please check out the earlier issues of this WanderList series:
WanderList #1: Why you should visit Seoul
WanderList #2: Siargao for Non-Surfers
WanderList #3: Weekend in Taipei