Stretching for 151 miles along Australia’s southeast coast is one of the world’s great scenic drives: the Great Ocean Road. Stringing together a collection of beach towns, landmarks and view points, this road is also the world’s longest war memorial.It was constructed between 1919 and 1932 by veterans of World War I, and dedicated to the men and women of Australia who died in that war. The men hacked and dynamited the road out of rugged wilderness - though there were towns along the coast, before the road they were only reachable via the ocean or rough trails.
Our guide told us that in addition to providing paid employment for thousands of veterans, it was probably also somewhat therapeutic for them. They still had the camaraderie of living surrounded by fellow soldiers, with a few more luxuries than they would have had when serving overseas (including, once, a 2-week drinking holiday after they salvaged 100 cases of liquor and barrels of beer a stranded ship was forced to abandon) and fewer social pressures than they might have faced trying to integrate back into civilian life.
While the soft stone of the coast has eroded into a number of strange and beautiful formations, by far the most famous is the one known as The Twelve Apostles. This series of sea stacks just off shore were initially known as the Sow and Piglets, but somebody along the way must have decided The Twelve Apostles had a more dignified ring to it. Confusingly, there were never ever twelve of them. There were only 9 at most, and after the collapse of one in 2005, there are only 8.
Other famous formations we visited on our drive included London Arch (formerly the double-arch known as London Bridge, it was renamed when one of the arches collapsed), the Grotto and Loch Ard Gorge.
Was there wildlife? Of course! We pulled over for a bathroom break and found parakeets and koalas - Australia is a magical place.
If you go: My one great regret was allowing myself to be talked out of going to The Twelve Apostles for sunset. It’s a tremendously crowded sunset spot for tour groups and it didn’t look like the sunset would be very pretty so I didn’t push the issue. And of course just before sunset the clouds thinned and the light was magnificent. Hindsight and all that, I suppose. My recommendation would be to make the attempt to see it if at all possible!
It was still a pretty good sunset, though!