The Great Ocean Koala

Today we tackled the Great Ocean Road from Port Campbell to Geelong – 200 Km of spectacularness and fun on two wheels. We also threw in a dirt road loop up through the Otway National Park to Gellibrand – extra credit and extra fun through unlogged temperate rain forest. Hard to photograph the road and you don’t want to see the grins.

Three things stand out.

First the road itself is a pure delight. We hit some roadworks and a couple of slow vehicles but basically we had the road to ourselves for hundreds of curves of sheer grin-inducingness between the neat, charming, friendly seaside towns along the way.

Second, the cliff formations on the west end of the route are truly stunning. Here is an image of the 12 Apostles.

Finally, this is one of the places that you can predictably see koalas in the wild. They sleep 18 hours a day and this guy was in a post eucalyptus eating haze up a gum tree (literally) near Kennet River. Fun facts – koalas are not bears but marsupials (babies in pouches) – “koala” is from an aboriginal term for “no drink” because they, well, don’t drink – 80% of koala habitat has been lost and the rest is under threat. We saw a number of koalas on the road to Otway Lighthouse but 400 of them had been relocated to Kennet River because they had eaten themselves out of their preferred leaves, killing the tress in the process.