Day 131 - The Great Ocean Road and the Twelve Apostles - Friday 24th February 2012

Up early and packed up the car for our drive to Lorne. Me & Soph in one car and Derek, Kaye, mum and Stu in the other. After a quick detour to drop Connor off at the kennels (which was really sad as we have both got to love this dog!) we were on our way! Seeing as Soph and I will be in South America in 10 weeks we had decided, the day before, to buy a "Learn Spanish in 6 weeks CD" hmmm we'll see how it goes! Anyway seeing as we had bought it, was fired up the CD player and listened to it for most of the journey, I think we're doing really well… Bonjour.

After an amazing 4 hour drive down the famous Great Ocean Road we arrived at the beautiful coastal town of Lorne and just as we did the sun came out - perfect start to a relaxing weekend! A couple of minutes out of the town and we reached our house for the weekend, it was a lovely wooden built house with 3 bedrooms on the first floor and an added apartment in the basement. Soph & I were in one double, Ben & Gillian (with baby Phoebe & Lachlan) in the other, mum and Stu in the twin and Kaye and Derek in the basement. Once unpacked we all walked down to the ocean (2mins!!) and had a swim, the water was a little colder than what we were used to on the east coast but the waves were big and we had a good laugh trying to bodysurf a few!! After our swim we dried up and all hopped in the car for our long drive to the Twelve Apostles; the drive was about 2 hours and the long winding roads and scenery made it a pleasant drive. We luckily arrived about 20 minutes before sunset so the sky was a lovely mixture of reds, yellows, and pinks! The view and sights were outstanding and Soph took about a million photos. But it was well worth it, they really are amazing and we stood there and watched the sun set over the horizon. When the sun had finished setting we got back into the car and drove about 2 minutes to the Gibson Steps. These are pretty famous as they lead you down to the beach below and get you up close and personal to the Apostles. As it was dark Mum and Stu headed back to the car but Soph, Derek and I walked right to the end of the beach because we had heard about a secret cave. On our tour in Fraser Island, our guide told us to walk down the Gibson Steps and right down the beach and there is a cave that leads to a beach that's full of penguins. I thought he was sending us on a wild goose chase but sure enough he was right but sadly the cave had been gated off due to health and safety (killjoys!). Happy however with our find, we trudged back to the car and off towards home, but not before Derek took us into the bush in the darkest of night to see some glow-worms he had seen before - and he was spot on. After a 20 minute walk with our torches through a forest we were there, they are a glowing green colour and seemed to be everywhere! With the 20 minute walk done we were back in the car and home by just gone midnight, knackered we headed for bed. What a great day.