One of Australia’s most spectacular coastal drives, officially stretching 240Km from Torquay (absolutely nothing like the town close to us in Devon) to Allansford near Warnambool. We planned to continue the coastal route beyond the official end of the Great Ocean Road all the way to Adelaide.

The Great Ocean Road is the world’s largest war memorial, dedicated to the soldiers who lost their lives in World War 1. After the war, thousands of Australian soldiers returned home needing work and so 3,000 of them were employed to construct the road by hand using picks, shovels, wheelbarrows and explosives, incredibly difficult due to the sheer limestone cliffs, dense rainforest and unpredictable coastal weather. Construction started in 1919 and the road opened in 1932, originally as a toll road but quickly became a popular scenic drive.

Our first stop was dictated by what we were prepared to pay for accommodation – Lorne was the suggested place but was ridiculously expensive for the Saturday night so we settled on Aireys Inlet, about 10 miles along the coast. And that turned out to be a really lovely choice – a gorgeous little coastal settlement with stunning scenery and a fabulous pub where we had a couple of beer tasting paddles before cooking the chilli we were craving back in our apartment at Aireys Inlet Getaway. There were even sulphur-crested cockatoos in residence!

The following day brought poor weather so we didn’t see the best of the next stretch of the Great Ocean Road sadly, but the scenery was still stunning and the road a testament to the ex-soldiers who built it.

We quickly realised that most of the population of South Korea was joining us on our Great Ocean Road adventure – and that it’d have been extremely lucrative to be a house-burglar in Seoul this week as clearly no-one was home! Coach party after coach party of Koreans descended on every viewpoint, outnumbering other tourist nationalities by at least 20:1, taking the most bizarre pictures of themselves and jostling for position at every opportunity – obviously different cultural norms but we found many to be downright rude as they elbowed past us!

We passed through Lorne – it did look lovely, quite a big resort though, and it turned out that there was a major surf event taking place, which probably explained the high prices. A lunch stop at Apollo Bay, a smaller place than Lorne with a gorgeous beach, and where Steve sampled a ‘famous scallop pie’ (the curry version rather than mornay) from the bakery. He declared it to be stunningly good – Debbie thinks that it’s just wrong.

It stayed dry for most of our drive but the clouds thickened and the raindrops started as we approached the famous Twelve Apostles, so we decided not to bother stopping and would return the next day, instead continuing to our accommodation in nearby Port Campbell – Portside Motel. Debbie hadn’t stayed in a motel before and didn’t really relish the prospect, but it was OK – the bed was REALLY comfy and there were 3 table/chair options (2 in the room, 1 on the patio) to choose from! The weather turned really nasty and we concluded that nipping out for a takeaway was the only sensible dinner option – and then Steve dropped Debbie’s pasta & meatballs getting back into the car (he claims the wind blew the container out of his hands) – let’s just say she wasn’t best pleased!

The following morning brought glorious weather and we backtracked a little to take in some of what we’d missed the previous day. OH MY GOD! This was by far the most amazing section of the Great Ocean Road.

Firstly the Twelve Apostles – stunning soft limestone ocean stacks. There were never actually 12, and now there are only 7 – the name was adopted in the 1950s to sound more impressive and attract more tourists, but the original name of The Sow & Piglets sounds fine to us!

And then the area around Loch And Gorge, just a couple of miles away, followed by London Bridge and Bay of Islands – all simply stunning and less crowded than the Twelve Apostles.

Our next overnight stop was Port Fairy – a charming historic fishing village known for its bluestone cottages, working harbour and one of Victoria’s best preserved 19th century port towns with river frontage, beaches and nature reserves. We ate fish & chips on the quayside and wandered around Griffiths Island – but the plan to relax on one of the lovely beaches was scuppered by clouds, high winds and a bit of rain. Our accommodation was gorgeous though – a little cottage at Clonmara complete with huge spa bath – less than £100/night.

Although The Great Ocean Road had now finished, we continued up the coast, crossing from Victoria to South Australia and a half hour time zone shift, to our next stop – Mount Gambier, and a night in a cottage on the Big4 Blue Lakes Holiday Park. The town was nice enough but the attraction is a set of volcanic lakes and the star attraction of Blue Lake – the clue is in the name! This is one of South Australia’s most striking natural sights and was right next to where we were staying. Between November and March the lake turns from its normal steel-grey colour to an intense cobalt blue due to seasonal temperature changes, increased sunlight and chemical reactions in the limestone crater. It was certainly spectacular, and at the main viewpoints people had attached padlocks – cute but not as impressive as those on Brooklyn Bridge in New York. It was bloody freezing though and the fleeces needed to come out for the first time in mainland Australia. The town itself was nothing special but we did find an amazing lunch spot – The Limestone Coast Pantry – which doubled as a jazz club in the evenings and was a gem in an old warehouse building.

We were wondering why we’d decided to include Mount Gambier as a stop (Chat GPT had suggested it) but it turned out to be a fortuitous decision – as otherwise we’d have probably missed the Coonawarra wine region. We’d not originally had this on our itinerary and missing it would’ve been a serious error of judgement, but we only added it last minute because we had time between Mount Gambier and our next overnight stop Robe and it would fill a few hours gap nicely. In hindsight we perhaps should’ve stayed in this area in preference to Mount Gambier and spent a couple of days exploring the magnificent Cabernet Sauvignon producers.

First stop was Wynns Coonawarra – the biggest and most famous label in Coonawarra (and stocked in Majestic, Sainsbury’s and other UK retailers). Steve was a little embarrassed when Debbie blagged a free tasting using a voucher that expired on 31 January (it was now 24 February) but she has no shame, and anyway, another couple who’d arrived on bikes were going to try exactly the same thing. Debbie was Dessie Driver that day so Steve was able to fill his boots with gorgeous reds – naturally liking the wines at almost £100/bottle best. But they are stocked in Harrods and some UK wine merchants so we didn’t need to be pressured into purchasing on the spot.

Next was Brands Laira, just across the road from Wynns, a vineyard dating back to 1893, founded by a bloke from Plymouth and offering a range of elegant premium wines without the big label pretentiousness and prices. Of course the most expensive was the nicest, but we found a couple of absolutely delicious Cabernet Sauvignons at more ‘reasonable’ price points. The first was the 2022 ‘1968 Vines’, only available at the cellar door and just beautiful. The second was the 2019 ‘Cellar Release’, a special parcel set aside for a one-off event celebrating the opening of the new winery building which didn’t happen due to COVID, so was ultimately not labelled/released and was being sold as a ‘cleanskin’ (just with a basic description label) for $40 instead of the planned RRP of $120.

Parker Estate was our lunch venue, primarily as they served pies that were supposedly delicious – and indeed they were, a steak & cabernet for Steve, chicken & chardonnay for Debbie – with salad and chutney and a glass of wine for £12.50 each – bargain. Steve tasted 6 of their best wines, whilst Debbie had a tiny glass of fizz with lunch – it’s OK though, there will be payback when we reach the Yarra Valley as it’s a Chardonnay region and Steve will definitely be Dessie! We had a lovely couple of hours in the sun, sipping wine, eating pie and chatting to the (very slow) server/host who was a bit of an 80s UK music fan. This was another place that you’d be daft not to buy a bottle – tasting fee $30 waived if you purchased – so a $34 bottle of Terra Rossa Carbernet Sauvignon was added to the stash. The $110 First Growth was tempting, but common sense prevailed. We do need to remember what we’d spend at home and consider whether these wines are soooooo much better than that – some are though.

With one of us snoozing off the wines and pies, Debbie drove the 70 miles or so to Robe, our coastal destination for the night, another lovely little place which is showing signs of becoming trendy. It was bloody windy though! We had a studio apartment at Robe Marina – huge and good value but a little strange (no sink in the kitchenette so dishes needed to be washed in the bathroom), but it did have a washer/dryer so we could do our laundry. We ate in the pub, as did most other visitors to Robe, and the steak & pork cutlets were fabulous. The town is famous for its lobster but we weren’t feeling that flash – the prices were higher than the Anchorshone Cafe in Dittisham, and that says it all!

The next and final leg was a long 350Km to Adelaide on an almost straight road. For a lot of the way we followed 2 touring motorcycles, past the 200Km of sand dunes, lagoons and salt lakes of the Coorong National Park – one of the guys was obviously struggling with cramp in his leg and they eventually pulled off. As did we for a KFC and fuel stop in Murray River, before descending a very steep and very long hill into the city of Adelaide.

We took 6 days to drive Melbourne to Adelaide via the coastal route – maximum driving time was 4 hours/day, most days were 1.5-2.5 hours so very relaxed. It probably could’ve been done in 3 or 4 days but that’d have been rushed, ideally we’d have taken 10 days and included Kangaroo Island and a few more stops if the weather had been better on some days. Overall a fabulous road trip and probably the best coastal scenery we’ve encountered in Australia.