FriendlyBrooks

Spectacular lunar eclipse under a perfect sky

Lance Brooks, stargazer, March 2026

After a decent night’s sleep on the Spirit of Tasmania we were awoken by the unspeakably loud ship’s wake-up call at 5.15am We quickly got dressed and were called to our cars before 6 and we disembarked in the dark at 6.15am. Our plan was to drive down the Great Ocean Road (GOR). We decided to first go to the heads of Port Phillip Bay, stopping at Portarlington, Port Lonsdale and Queenscliff where we had a lovely breakfast and coffee. Queenscliff in particular is a beautiful town with preserved buildings from the early 1800s.

We hadn’t even officially started the Great Ocean Road 🛣️ and here it was already nearly 9 am – it was going to be a long day as we hoped to get to at least Port Campbell before nightfall and we had a lot to see.

We drove in the rain ☔ through Barwon Heads, following the GOR signs and stopped at the National Surfing Museum in Torquay. What a wonderful way to spend an hour or so on a wet day in a beach town. Torquay and its iconic Bell’s Beach is the home of surfing competition in Australia and hosted the first professional surfing competition in 1962 which is still going today.

We next visited the beach with Lance hoping to surf it. But alas it was completely flat and moreover the weather was abominable so we didn’t even walk on the beach. Three times Lance has tried to surf at this famous beach and each time thwarted, twice there was no surf and the other when it was too big!

Moving on we drove the GOR, stopping at every lookout and vantage point possible The road is an incredible piece of engineering as well as providing magnificent views. We wanted to stop for lunch but Lorne was too crowded so we drove on to the prettier Apollo Bay.

Having replenished both ourselves and the car we decided to push on to Port Campbell 100kms away. There couldn’t be anything to look at on the way there?! Wrong!  Just a few kilometres down the road is Cape Otway National Park. We stopped at a very special rainforest walk at Maits Rest. I have to say I wasn’t keen to stop here but it was definitely worth it. The next step was a little detour to the Cape Otway Lighthouse. We got in for half price because we were so late. Unfortunately you can’t actually get to the lighthouse, due to repairs and maintenance.

After the lighthouse we just had the 12 Apostles and all the other amazing rock features to look at. There are many features and each are worth stopping at,  walking a few hundred metres or so to see and photograph and then get back in the car to travel less than a kilometre to the next one. It felt like these would go on forever but we didn’t want to miss anything and we got some good photos, along with everyone else.

We finally drove into Port Campbell after 7. We found a good spot in the uncrowded Recreation Park and after a little altercation reversing in we set up and ate our dinner. 

Next morning we planned to get to South Australia and stop about 4 or 5 hours away from Adelaide. However we still had more of the GOR to see. And first we had to have a coffee in Port Campbell and an icy swim. Some of the rock features after Port Campbell are even more amazing than the 12 Apostles. We especially liked the shipwreck cove and the Bay of Islands.

After this area the countryside became a little less stunning, but still beautiful. We thought we would approach SA on Highway 1 but somewhere along the way we took a wrong turn (due to my dreadful navigation skills) and we crossed the border on a back road. We dutifully unloaded all our fresh fruit and vegetables and put them in the quarantine bin. It’s an honour system so we may have gotten away with keeping all the food, but we’re glad we didn’t risk it.

We wanted to stop at Mount Gambier and see the Blue Lake, which we did.

At this point we had to decide if we would go the coast road or inland road. We had a bit of a time crunch as we needed to get to Adelaide by about 2 the next day so didn’t want to have more than a 5 hour drive away. We also had to stop by 5.30 (and it was already after 4) as Lance had to log on to his course at 6pm. Searching for an available campground was proving difficult. We had looked at the Bellwether Winery in the Coonawarra district but unfortunately the cramping was full. But not far away was a free campsite on a dried out lake near Penola. Apart from being in wine country, Penola is also famous for where Mary Mackillop first turned to God and started a school. The campground was open and flat with a few campers spaced out around the field. While Lance did his course, I prepared dinner of steak, pasta and no vegetables (as they were all thrown away). After dinner we looked at the stars and realised that we were perfectly positioned to watch the lunar eclipse. How fortunate that we chose this place to stay.

On the Wednesday morning we drove to Adelaide, first to Salisbury where we left the van and then to the airport, leaving the car at Andrews long term parking. We flew to Sydney for a week where we caught up with family, some friends and some work.

We are back in Adelaide ready to start the next part of the adventure – WA bound crossing the Nullabor.