This lengthy coastal freeway often compared to California’s Pacific Coast Highway, ranks along with the world’s top picturesque drives, cliff-hugging its way west of Melbourne along the rough southern coast of the Australian continent. Every curve of the 180-mile expedition discloses another breath-taking scene of uneven bluffs, desolate beaches, old whaling and fishing towns, ingenious restaurants, sweet B&Bs, and protected rainforest and national parkland inhabited by koalas and kangaroos.

The eternal fight between the unrelenting waves of the Southern Ocean and the beach has resulted in major surf beaches such as world-famous Bell’s and such astonishing rock formations as Loch Ard Gorge, the Bay of Islands, and, most well-known of all, the Twelve Apostles. In the nineteenth century, these limestone pillars were recognized as the Sow and Piglets.

It is not difficult to see why the Twelve Apostles stretch is also known as the Shipwreck Coast, because the waters claimed hundreds of ships during immigration in the 1800s, when the voyage from England took three to four months. This is the most impressive section of the Great Ocean Road, frequently broody and romantic during stormy weather.