[Melbourne 2022] The Great Ocean Road - A Journey from Portsea to Queenscliff via Ferry, Scenic Route Drive, Jostled with School Kids at Chocolaterie, Lunch at Lorne and Getting Wet at Twelve Apostles

We left our AirBnB accommodation early that morning. Thankfully, weather was good and we were on our way to catch the 9am ferry. It was kinda cool to drive the vehicle onto the ferry with everyone so parked so close to each other.

Portsea 7.47 am, waiting for ferry to arrive

all onboard

departing Portsea

on deck

seagulls

Be careful out there especially with the seagulls hovering over our heads. One nearly shitted on me. Actually, it did but luckily the droppings missed me by an inch, perhaps. Hahaaa.

There's a cafe on the ferry, so we went to grab our morning coffee while enjoying the ride.

what do we have here

pie of some sorts

flat white

chicken pie

sausage roll

pretty tasty

After our breakfast, we went to the upper deck of the ferry to catch the beautiful morning sun.

travelling buddies that made the trip possible

reaching Queenscliff soon

We disembarked from the ferry and drove some more for a few hours.

passing by

nice building

passing by a bridge

passed by a flock of birds

canola/rapeseed field

Most of the nice view were on Ivan's side, so there's only a few photos from my end. We made a pit stop at The Great Ocean Chocolateria and Ice Creamery, to stretch our legs. 

The Great Ocean Chocolateria and Ice Creamery

eclair of some sort served with fresh cream and a shot of hot chocolate

Raspberry Ice Cream

The greatest discovery was the hot chocolate sauce will harden once it meets a colder surface. So we dipped the ice-cream into the chocolate sauce and voila, a hard chocolate shell would form outside of the cold treat. Yums!

We quickly made our exit after the morning ice-cream as there were bus loads of school kids coming into the shop.

Let's enjoy the view along the scenic drive!

We made it to Lorne at about 1pm for a quick lunch. Well, it was supposed to be quick but we got distracted. Read more about it here.

After lunch, we drove some more in order to get to the Twelve Apostles.

lots of cows

eyes on the road

wow, windmill

these are huge

more sheeps

must be nearing Twelve Apostles

there it is!

The Twelve Apostles limestone formation

documenting formations that eroded as well

Thanks to Tracy's persistence and insistence, we got to view The Twelve Apostles before more of it gets eroded.

walking to the other side to take photo

the photo before we got drenched by the rain

The drive to The Twelve Apostles took hours, and the time taken to snap the photos of the attraction was only a few minutes. Ivan wanted to walk to the other photo taking site 10 minutes away from the first scenic point, so we went but halfway through it started to drizzle. Ivan insisted that we press on and that the rain wouldn't get any heavier, and so we continued. Alas, the rain continued to get heavier and by the time we got back to the car, our jackets were dripping water.

Thankful for this group of buddies who braved through rain and sun, and arduous long drive, just to make sure we got the best experience in this trip.

Jersey cows

rainbow after the rain

Thank you Hence, Tracy and Ivan for a memorable trip!

[Melbourne 2022] Moons Licensed Espresso Bar @ Lorne (On Our Way to Twelve Apostles - The Great Ocean Road Trip)

It was the day of the Great Ocean Road drive adventure and it'll take us an approximate of about 4 hours if we drove all the way from Mornington Peninsula. Took the Sorrento-Portsea ferry to Queenscliff with our car so that we get a head-start to the Great Ocean Road drive. This cuts down our driving time to just under 2 hours. The ferry costs about AUD117 per car with 1 driver and 3 passengers. There was an online discount of AUD5.

The morning ferry ride was nice, with awesome views. We made a late lunch stop at Lorne before going all the way to Twelve Apostles.

Moons Espresso Bar

Reached Lorne at about 1pm and, I was quite hungry since our breakfast was kinda early at 9am on the ferry.  Chose the outdoor seats to enjoy the cold weather. Opted for a mocha and we decided to order brunch things from this cafe.

Mocha by Coffee Supreme @AUD5 (regular)

The mocha here was good. With latte art and thick foam. In fact, they had the thickest foam I've ever had from a mocha.

thicc

For food, we ordered the Bacon, Avo and Eggs, and some flatbreads. The visuals for these were impeccable!

Bacon, Avo and Eggs @AUD26

flowy eggs ftw

While I was awed by the visuals of the Bacon, Avo and Eggs, I realised that the pide had better flavours!

Reuben @AUD17

When I first saw the Reuben, my thoughts were "This doesn't look like a Reuben!". Like, the Reuben's that I had before, their pastrami doesn't look like the ones served at Moons. The version here looked more like a ham sandwich. But once I had this in my mouth, oh wow... it was like an explosion of flavours. The combination of sauerkraut, dijonaise sauce, pickles, cheese and pastrami, everything in there was just great. Tasty food, I like.

B&E @AUD16.50

The next flatbread we had was another Bacon and Egg (B&E). Hahaa! A sunny side up here instead of poached. Salty bacon, cheese and egg. What's there not to like?

yummy bacon and eggs pide

The staff at Moons were friendly and nice. Thank you for the awesome food, good coffee and clean washroom.

We walked a bit around the area after satisfying our tummies and there's a Selfie Lane, that's aptly named as it looked like the backdrop for a... selfie, what else! Hahaa!

Selfie Lane

nature came to visit

Moons Licensed Espresso Bar

Address: 108 Mountjoy Parade, Lorne VIC 3232, Australia

Website: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Moons-Licensed-Espresso-Bar/151388288234772

Business Hours:

Daily: 7AM–2:30PM