Port Campbell

 5 - 8 February 2025

We chose Port Campbell as the first stop on our Great Ocean Road journey. After lunch (and a  spot of birding) at Peterborough,  we settled in to the caravan park and discovered we were camped beside one of our favourite Youtube travelling couples. We found Steve from Trip 4 2, to be just as friendly in real life as he is online, although we didn't get to meet Ally. 

We had initially booked for 2 nights but added an extra one as soon as we arrived. It was clear this would be a nice place to stay, and an extra day would allow us to have some "down time" and see the sights. On our first day we walked along the beach into the village and called in to the Visitor Information Centre on our way home. Armed with some maps and brochures we planned our next couple of days.

Mick was keen to see penguins to add to his bird list and I was keen to do some sightseeing so we planned to drive east towards the Twelve Apostles with the aim to arrive at sunset. We headed off and stopped at Loch Ard Gorge, one of many spots where ships were wrecked. The Loch Ard was lost with only two survivors found in the bay. We walked along the clifftops where interpretative signage tells the story of the shipwreck, and also provides information on the geology, flora and fauna of the area.

Loch Ard Gorge

From Loch Ard Gorge we continued east to the Twelve Apostles and were quite surprised how full the carpark was at around 8:00pm. It was a beautiful evening after a very hot day and it seems we weren't the only ones with the idea of enjoying the sunset at one of Australia's best known natural attractions.

We made our way along the boardwalk and found a good spot. We could see the telltale signs of penguin footprints on the beach below and waited until about 10 minutes after sunset to see a small group of about eight Little penguins making their way from the water to the beach. There is a colony of about 800 birds but we were happy just to see the first few. We headed home very satisfied with the evening out.

Sunset at Twelve Apostles

We rose early the next morning for another birding session at Peterborough, although it wasn't as successful as some of the others had been. We then hit the tourist trail, first visiting Bay of Martyrs and Halladale Point, then Bay of Islands to the west of Peterborough. From there we turned towards the east again and called in to The Grotto and London Bridge before heading back to the caravan park. Because we were out early, there weren't too many people about. They can become very crowded by the middle of the day.

The Grotto

Later in the afternoon I left Mick happily procressing the hundreds of photos he had taken over the last few days, and set off on the Port Campbell Discovery Walk which can be accessed from the bridge adjacent to the caravan park. This walk is about 4.4km and is fairly easy although there are a lot of stairs at the start. The walk follows the cliff line for about the first half, then turns inland through coastal heath. It's an "out and back" walk and there is a carpark at the turn around point.

It's a big climb up the stairs at the start
of the coastal walk

We still hadn't made up our minds exactly where we would go next, but decided on Saturday morning that we would go inland to escape the weekend crowds. The caravan park in Port Campbell had been almost empty when we arrived, but by Friday night was almost full. We called ahead to Lake Purrumbete which had been recommended to us, and made our way there - only about 45 minutes away.