The Great Ocean Road is one of my favourite road trip destinations. Loads to stop and see along the way, great lunch spots, and very, very changeable weather.  We have had sunny, hazy days, cloudy overcast days, rainy days and one glorious sunny day. We have been chasing the elusive sunrise and sunset several times over the last few months. 

Redwood Forest

Determined to get that ever-elusive sunrise/sunset, we travelled down the GOR in December, January and again in February…

Heading down in December, we stopped off at the Redwood Forest in the Otway Ranges.  Beautiful Californian Sequoia Trees planted along the Aire River in 1939 now rise majestically up to a canopy towering above your head. The ground is covered with rusty red leaf litter; it’s a stunning, serene place to walk in, peaceful and silent like a cathedral of trees.  The Aire River meanders through at the back, lined with tree ferns. It cascades across rocks and under fallen logs. Its vibe is otherworldly. You almost expect to see Frodo or Gandalf walk out.

Peterborough

Leaving the redwood, we skipped Apollo Bay and headed towards Princetown. Being the height of the Christmas period, the coast road was packed with tourists, so we had decided to stay a bit further along at Peterborough, passing the Twelve Apostles. The roads were lined with barriers to stop parking on the side of the road, LED signs in both Chinese and Australian, and gazillions of people swarming over the boardwalks and lookouts. Staying further along was looking like a great plan.

When we arrived in the sunshine, the following day was very grey and overcast. So we decided to beat the tourist buses by getting out early. It was nice and quiet, just a couple of others out, not cold, but overcast and windy, not the best weather.

Princetown

Skipping ahead a month, we went back in January. This time the sun was well and truly shining as we headed down

revisited all the stops that we did in December, as well as taking in Lorne, but this in lovely sunshine with blue skies

We were staying at Princetown itself this time. It is a sleepy little place with a tavern (with great food). Accom (very basic) and a general store that keeps surprisingly short trading hours had dinner at the tavern (great food) and then went to the twelve apostles for sunset wasn’t bad but still not a box ticked.  I got back to the carpark well after dark and headed back to our accommodation at 9 pm, and everything was closed, a sleepy little place Accom (very basic), and a general store that keeps surprisingly short trading hours.

We were up for sunrise the following day at 5 am and should have stayed in bed. We were definitely out of luck or over-optimistic but going on the cars at the carpark, we weren’t the only ones that thought a sunrise at the twelve apostles on Great Ocean Road was a good idea.

ah well, there’s always February