Great Ocean Road, a road along the ocean that’s great.

From Phillip Island we passed through Melbourne on our way to the Great Ocean Road, a breath-taking drive along the southern coast of Australia. It is a winding road along cliffs, beaches, and buffs with amazing ocean views, out-of-this world rock formations, and beautiful bays and beaches that run up into lush mountainous forests. It was built as a memorial to Victorians who served in WWI and was competed in 1932.

Near the start of the eastern part of Great Ocean Road is Bell’s Beach, a famous surfing spot. The windy conditions made it perfect for about a dozen kite-surfers out on the waves.

The winding, hilly road amazes you around every turn and over every crest as you feast on gorgeous views. We continued on what seemed like a lifetime of ocean views and passed under The Great Ocean Road Monument.

We crossed over the Big Hill, which was a major obstacle during the construction. It is a BIG hill, with a shear drop off to the ocean below, and the view over the top is spectacular.

We stopped briefly in the town of Lorne and stepped out onto a pretty beach. The pathway on the left is part of the Great Ocean Walk which is a trial that stretches along the coast and along about half of The Great Ocean Road.

A random lookout along the road. It had started to get cold and windy, so we quickly ran back to the Yaris.

This is the view from the beach in Port Campbell where we stayed in a holiday park just down the road. There is literally one block to the town, but we managed to get decent fish and chips there. There were a few kids that jumped off the small pier and were boogie boarding in the waves crashing into the cliffs.

These are the famous Twelve Apostles, a series of free-standing pillars of limestone in the ocean. They were formed by erosion that left these amazing rock formations. There used to be another apostle in the foreground, but it toppled over at some point in the recent past. They are huge and the setting is stunning.

This is Loch Ard Gorge, which is a gorge carved out by the sea. There is a beautiful beach split into two sections by the rocky cliff and the atmosphere down there with the waves crashing is awesome.

This is a blowhole caused by air trapped in the rocks that shoots water out when the pressure of the waves crash against it. Pretty amazing site and the sound is earth rattling.

This is London Bridge, another crazy looking rock formation out in the ocean. Originally there was another archway where the gap is, but in 1990 it crumbled. Two people who got stranded on the island tip after the collapse, which might ruin your day, but be a great story.

The Bay of Islands is a bay with islands (as you can tell, Aussies are very descriptive in their naming of places). More of the stratified rock islands in a sweeping cliff-side bay.

West of Great Ocean road is a dairy region and we stopped by a cheese factory where we were able to sample some of the locally made cheese. This factory made primarily cheddar and some excellent blends like pepper-garlic and sundried tomato-basil, which we took way with us. There was a little museum attached with all kinds of dairy farm equipment and tools. The machine pictured above is one of the first automatic milking machines in Australia. Megan also tried her hand at churning butter.