The Great Ocean Road: The worlds longest war memorial

It would be silly to visit Melbourne and not venture a little further and experience the Great Ocean Road. Due to our trip being cut unexpectedly short, we booked a tour to take us for the day down this great stretch of road and hit many of the spots. This was a very long day, picking us up at a nearby hotel (thankfully just a five minute walk from our hotel) early morning and getting us back by 10pm. Easily the longest one day tour I have done anywhere.

We stopped off at a small beach first to break up the journey and have a morning coffee. From this first stop at a lively but not too busy beach I knew this was going to be a beautiful trip.

This was a popular stop along the way, with a memorial dedicated to those that built it. The Great Ocean Road is recognised as the worlds longest war memorial, and could well be the most beautiful.

Fun Fact: In 1924 the S.S. Casino hit a reef and as a result, spilled a hell of a lot of spirits and beer into the ocean. There was enough beer for work to stop and an unplanned two week long binge commenced. Can you imagine the hangover?!

Next year (2019 if you are reading this far into the future) is the 100th anniversary of the early stages of building of the Great Ocean Road. Visitgreatoceanroad.org.au is wanting stories from those that built it, so if anyone knows someone that build it or has a story linked to this construction, I am sure they would appreciate it.

And what a good job the soldiers did. The road winds around the coastline and there are various lookouts along the way giving some stunning views to take in. Again, I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

This lookout is fairly close to the road however a longer footpath winds through the forest. Two ladies kindly let us know that about two minutes down the footpath a koala was chilling directly above the path in a tree. We went to have a look.

The first time I’ve seen a koala in the wild! As we only had a limited time at each stop we got back on the road and continued down this beautiful stretch of Australia.

We were told of the damage wild fires have caused here, and that in some areas most of the houses are fairly new as they were destroyed by the fires. Hundreds of homes were lost on Christmas Day of 2015 following such fires. Christmas Day of all days. Very sad.

Our final stop on this half of the trip was to a little area full of wildlife. The birds would feed out of your hand and if they felt like it, land on your head. Very friendly though, they just want to eat.

And more koalas!

Looking closely, you can see a koala just to the left of this bird in the background photo bombing.

The next half of the trip will be uploaded soon, consisting of the famous Twelve Apostles. See you all soon!

 

---

Thank you again to all my followers and regular readers, and hello to you if you are new to my blog!

New to this site? Click here to visit my About My Blog section

Want to keep up with my travels? Click here for my Travel Diary

Want to introduce yourself and your blog and discover new ones? Click here for my meet and greet page.

Happy blogging,

Sam