Video Transcript
Welcome to Wout of the World, and you’re still joining me on an epic road trip on the east and south coast of Australia, where we are now exactly in the middle.
We just left Melbourne, and this is the Great Ocean Road in Victoria.
Yes, we’ve been down under for a while now.
In this video, we’ll be driving driving this awesome four-wheel drive camper van with two rooftop tents by WA Experts.
After the Northern Territory, we explored Queensland.
And it was hard to leave those natural wonders behind.
Bye-bye, Queensland. Hello, New South Wales.
In Victoria, we found a new nature paradise in Wilsons Prom.
Then we drove on to Melbourne, are often voted to be the best city in the world. We enjoyed both historical and modern architecture, street art, and the vibrant culture.
Now we drive on west to find more natural wonders which can be found along the single best road trip destination in the world.
The epic Great Ocean Road stretches for about 243 kilometres all the way from a little place called Torquay, today, over to Warrnambool on the other side of Victoria.
So the place where we start is called Torquay. It’s a nice little surfing town, and there’s a nice beach as well. I’m going to fly over this with a drone because it’s beautiful. We’re going to hang around here for a bit before we start to the epic Great Ocean Road.
The shirt I’m wearing is very appropriate, by the way, because the brand Quicksilver is from Torquay. Other surfing brands like Rip Curl too, because this is without a doubt, the surfing capital of Australia. This beach between the town and the cliffs of Rocky Point is swamp with surfers and kids learning how to surf because this is the best beginner spot and it has a surfing school.
On the west side of Rocky Point are the more advanced surfing beaches that even host famous World Championship competitions.
We use this relaxed little town to stack up our camper van and hit the road.
Once you start your trip on the Great Ocean Road, you will see that there are many viewpoints. Of course, you cannot stop at all of them, but some of them are so beautiful, like the first one here at Anglesea, where we got a 360 view over the ocean. What a beautiful panoramic picture this is.
A little bit further down the road, you can also go down to the beach. Over there, we can see one of the next sites on the horizon over there. That’s Cape Otway with the beautiful lighthouse. I cannot understand that there’s nobody on these beaches. Well, it’s so beautiful. Look at this.
The eastern section of the Great Ocean Road connects the one incredible bay with the next, and it mainly has the best beaches. But as we drive on, the Coast gets rockier and more adventurous by the minute.
Even though we started in Torque, this will be the symbolic beginning of our trip because this is the Memorial Arch, the beautiful sign of the Great Ocean Road. From here, we get the most beautiful sights on the ocean. I promise you that.
The Great Ocean Road was built by soldiers coming back from World War I, and the entire road The Great Ocean Road is therefore often called the biggest war memorial in the world. It took the soldiers 13 hard years between 1919 and 1932, with only picks, shovels, and explosives. Well, nowadays, 2 million visitors drive this road every year.
After one of the most entertaining parts of the Great Ocean Road, we end up in a town called Lorne. Over here, we get some great views of the ocean and also the highest viewpoint that you can find along the Coast.
Lorne is the liveliest town on the Great Ocean Road, with plenty of restaurants and pubs, and the view.
This is it, the highest and the most beautiful view point you can get on the Great Ocean Road. It’s called Teddy’s Lookout.
From above, we can see even better how the cars down there drive the road trip of a lifetime.
It’s like driving through a beautiful painting over here. We now drive on to Kennett River.
So on the internet, I read a tip about spotting Koalas on the Great Ocean Road. One of the best places would be at Kennett River, just across from the Caravan Park, right over there.
And we already find some other beautiful animals, or actually, they found us.
And it’s a royal visit because these are Australian king parrots. Up there in the tree is a koala.
Oh, yes by the way, koalas sleep up to 20 hours a day.What a life.
Don’t you just love it when your wife yells, koala, there in the tree, and it’s awake, and it turns out to be a branch, just a normal branch. Is the branch awake, though? No, it isn’t.
Koala.
Sorry.
We see some other ones sleeping as well until suddenly… One seems to have an itch. Or is he flipping us the finger? And back to sleep.
So the last hour or so we drove through the dense rainforest of the Great Otway National Park to end up at a beautiful campsite where we’re going to spend the night. Tomorrow, I’m going to fly here with the drone, and we’re camping just outside a beautiful waterfall that we’re going to see tomorrow.
But guys, the Great Ocean road so far, perfect.
This must be one of the best camping spots of Victoria, and the best one that we had in Australia in general.
It’s quiet, it’s right in the middle of nature, and it’s completely free. And we like that. Now, let me show you where we are exactly with the drone. Wow.
As I mentioned, we slept quite close to a beautiful waterfall. It’s called the Beauchamp Waterfall. It’s only a two-hour walk, but for the kids, it’s a little bit steep and rough, so I’m going alone. It’s early in the morning, so it’s quite chilly, but I’m looking forward to the waterfall.
On my path, I meet many Crimson rosellas who are just having breakfast before I enter the incredibly lush rainforest. Completely alone, I find my way through tall red woods and giant ferns.
The path wasn’t too bad, so I did it in like half an hour, maybe 45 minutes. At the end, there are some steps, a lot of them, and it’s quite steep. But after that, you get this as a reward, the beautiful waterfall, Beauchamp.
So for the second time now, I heard noises in the bushes and I saw something big jumping away. It was a little bit dark, but it looked like a kanagoo, so I think it was a swamp wallaby. I might see them later.
I’m glad I did. Now I can show you what I mean.
Walking down to the river, I get an even better view of the Beauchamp Waterfall.
And because I’m all alone, this is a private moment of true happiness that I will never forget.
This little bird is the superb fairywren. And along many more Roselaas, I also see a Flame robin.
I did this hike for 2 hours, climbing stairs, climbing rocks, climbing waterfalls. Then I get back, the sun is shining, and my family is finally awake. It’s time to continue on the Great Ocean Road. But first, time for… coffee.
A little to the west, we’ll find some of the most famous landmarks in all of Australia.
So we’re driving along the Great Ocean Road again, along the ocean. Over there, we find the most famous site on this entire route, which is the 12 Apostles. There are not actually 12, only eight. They have never been 12, but it was just a very nice name because of the Bible. Sometimes one collapses and then there’s one less. But look at this, guys. Amazing.
It’s beautiful and sad at the same time that this natural piece of art is ever-changing.
Sculptures collapse, but new ones are also created over time.
We’re moving on to the next incredibly beautiful site. This here is the Loch Ard Gorge. You used to be able to go down there, but right now it’s all closed. But it’s beautiful from here, too.
The last time we were here in 2016, and we stood down there on the beach, but they are renovating the stairs right now. The Gorge is named after Loch Ard, a ship that sank here during foggy weather in 1878, after a three-month journey out of England.
Only two of the 54 passengers survived and climbed ashore on the Coast that would later be known as the Shipwreck Coast. And along that impressive Coast, we drive on through the Port Campbell National Park.
Right in the middle of the Port Campbell National Park, we find the little town of Port Campbell.
I can tell you it’s a pretty little town with a nice view over the ocean.
So the next place that we stop is quite beautiful also. It’s called the London Bridge, but it used to be even more beautiful when it was a double natural bridge. Now, one part unfortunately has collapsed, so we got one part of the London Bridge left, but it’s still amazing.
London Bridge had fallen down, which happened in 1990. I think this is still one of the best views that we get on the Great Ocean Road.
Quite close, we find the grotto, which is the most colourful of all the rock formations. Leave it up to nature to create a peaceful natural pool right next to the roughest ocean.
We arrived at the final stop before we go all the way to the end of the Great Ocean Road in Warrnambool, near a little town called Peterborough. We’re standing at this view called the Bay of Islands. It’s a really pretty sight to conclude this episode, and I’ll see you soon driving the south coast of Australia all the way to Perth.
In the Bay of Islands, In the coastal park, there are several viewpoints that are worth a stop. On the east side, we see the Bay of Martyrs. And more west is the Bay of Islands with beautiful sculptures. This here is Tiramisu Rock, and you see what they mean.
Here on the Great Ocean Road, I’ve been warned several times now for snakes. Here on the parking lot, walking towards the viewpoint, I saw one. It was crawling on the parking lot into the bushes, and it was a tiger snake with stripes. It looked very awesome, but supposedly, it’s very venomous.
So if you remember the beginning of this episode, I was standing on this little beach.
It’s actually in Warrnambool at the end of the Great Ocean Road, and I wanted to show you this because it’s pretty nice. This is symbolic because this is where the rest of our South Australia road trip begins, all the way to Perth.
I say let’s go. Because the road trip is far from over.
In the state of South Australia, we discover new hidden treasures.
And go for a city safari in Adelaide.
Subscribe and we’ll see you there.
Ciao.
Wout of the World
Online travel show in Dutch and English with World traveler and actor Wout of the World. In dozens of episodes Wout takes you out for adventure all over the world, always in the most budget-friendly way. Enjoy over 120 countries from your couch, phone or the computer.