A wall of smoke hit my face as I stepped outside the club. A group stood around, cigarettes dangling from their fingers. It was almost 2 am, and people were still raring to go. I would be too, if I hadn’t had to embark on a road trip in a few hours. My second night in Melbourne had filled me with an anxious impulse to explore the nightlife, see a little more of the city before I got on with a packed itinerary. But I had to get back to my hotel soon. The map showed a 20-minute walk, and I was on my way. A little later, a tall figure zoomed past me, nodding a hello. He was in full athletic gear, doing laps around the little cluster of bars in Fitzroy before even the hope of morning had touched a soul. Melbourne was fast becoming my favourite city in the world.
“Good morning!” Tony chirped brightly at sharp eight, dressed and ready by his car. “I didn’t think you would show up. And on time!” he laughed, looking at the big, dark glasses covering half of my face against the early morning light. Tony was taking us out on the Great Ocean Road, filling his many roles as our guide, chauffeur, ATM, and Visit Victoria representative. The morning breeze rewired my sleep-deprived brain a little, and I remembered this is what I had been most looking forward to. The Great Ocean Road tops the list of Australia’s most scenic drives, stretching 243 km from Torquay to Allansford. We were about to be thrown to the sea and taken in by all its beauty.
The Three Teds
Hideous but hydrated, I took in the scenes as we drove along the Eastern View, through Lorne, Apollo Bay and finally ending our journey in Halls Gap, in the heart of the Grampians National Park.
“This is the Memorial Arch,” Tony had announced, stopping behind a big traveller van from which a large group of tourists were spilling out. The sign clued us in to the start of the stretch.
“This arch commemorates the building of the Great Ocean Road as a memorial to Victorians who served in the First World War, 1914-1918,” the board read. We got a few pictures before piling into the car again and driving for another 30 minutes to Teddy’s Lookout. The roads here made me want to drive too, and that was saying something.
“Who was Teddy?” My seemingly innocuous question had Tony go silent for a few seconds before he pulled up a Google link. Apparently, that wasn’t a common question, as he laughed and told me even he wasn’t sure who Teddy was. As I walked towards one of the most spectacular vantage points along the Great Ocean Road, where the ocean was endless, and the briny air licked my face, I learned that Mr Ted Babington was contracted to supply and deliver timber for bridges. He would cart timber from St George River Mill with his two drivers, Ted Hogan and Ted Bolger. And after a hard day’s work climbing uphill, the three Teddys would rest the horses at this particular point and keep a lookout for anyone else coming up the hill. Hence, the name. I peered down the railing to the winding roads below, with the St George River mouth, and the crashing waves accentuating the silence of the lookout.
The Apostles and the Wallabies
Around midday, we stopped for lunch at the Great Ocean Road Brewhouse, the southernmost pub of the Australian mainland, where I had the freshest calamari of my life, washed down with a delicious house brew. The owner was a nice lady who told me a bit about how the cafe was formerly established in 1887 as the Ballarat Hotel and was renamed in 2015. The pub was built on reclaimed farmland, with steps surrounding the area, "These steps separate the land from the sea and keeps the area from flooding when the tide is high," she said.
I wanted to linger, but that’s a luxury a packed itinerary doesn't quite afford. Yet by the time we arrived in Princetown after another hour and a half, I had already forgiven the schedule that deprived me of some sea foam on my toes.
The Great Ocean Road tops the list of Australia’s most scenic drives, stretching 243 km from Torquay to Allansford with the sea by your side
We secured our tickets at the Visitor Centre, and then I was strapped in, headphones in place and mouth taut over a grin. And finally, we were off. Up in the air in a helicopter over the fantastic rock formations that make up the Twelve Apostles, Loch Ard Gorge, London Bridge, and as far as the Bay of Islands. The pilot was pointing out the different bobbing rocks changing colour with the light, explaining their history, but I was mesmerised by the beauty of it all. “Sometimes during dusk, you may catch a glimpse of little penguins on the shore,” the pilot had said, and I strained to see if I could spot any moving specks across the sand. The Twelve Apostles, of which only seven stacks remain after collapses and erosion, are said to be between 8.6 and 14 million years old. Time suddenly felt very real but equally fleeting.
After 25 minutes of soaring above the ocean with shimmering gold rock towers scattered along the shore, we went on ahead to Warrnambool and checked into a hot springs hotel for the night.
“Oh, look! That one has a joey in the pouch!” I said, surrounded by kangaroos in Halls Gap, who were very silently pecking at the grass in a field. “Be very slow and quiet when you approach them,” Tony had advised, but the animals seemed unbothered, feasting and moving around, sometimes looking up with a bored expression suggesting they were used to the humans milling about and being nosy. So comfortable are Australians living with the wild that at the cabin in Halls Gap where we stayed for the second night, I spotted little wallabies scampering past my shower cubicle at least twice. One was even brave enough to pause and stare while I brushed my teeth in the morning.
As my great Australian adventure was winding down, I crossed out a few opinions and jotted down some new impressions. The open roads and the wild had been my companions for two days, and I was not tired. I wouldn’t mind learning to drive if it were on the Great Ocean Road. The people of Melbourne are fiercely proud of their coffee, and I felt like I could fit in. A smile and a “hello” shot to a first-time visitor cross-eyed with wonder as she hiked the trails or walked back to her hotel in the middle of the night, was not strange but the norm here. And, a week is not nearly enough time to experience the marvel that is Australia.
The Information
What not to miss
If you are lucky enough to visit Melbourne in March, the Food and Wine Festival is a must-visit. This 10-day festival brings together food lovers, chefs, winemakers, and some of the biggest names in hospitality for the country’s largest culinary celebration.
Must-visit coffee spots in Melbourne
Caffé E Torta, Shortstop Coffee and Donuts, Krimper Cafe, Hardware Society, and Mondo Gelateria.
Where I stayed
Hotel Indigo Melbourne Little Collins and 1 Hotel Melbourne; Deep Blue Hotel and Hot Springs- Warrnambool; DULC Cabins - Halls Gap.
Pro tip
Pack swimwear if you're heading out on the Great Ocean Road. There are small beach towns throughout the stretch, so going for a quick swim in the sea is never really out of the question.
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