One of our stops along the Great Ocean Road was the aptly named Wreck Beach, just outside of Lavers Hill. With the dramatic cliffs and amazing rock formations along the coast, it’s easy to see why the area has been the place of so many shipwrecks throughout history. If I remember correctly, the count was around 800. Apologies if I’m not exact, I have read a LOT of historical plaques at this point…
Wreck Beach is somewhat unique because you can still can see the anchors of two ships, The Fiji and Marie Gabrielle, that wrecked hundreds of years ago. It is an incredibly steep climb down the beach. There were so many stairs and it took us about 25 minutes to get down to the bottom.
The beach was deserted while we were there and so serene. Probably due in part to the fact that the tide was coming in (not exactly the most optimal time or safest to be out there!) and to the fact that the steep descent may deter some folks. Thank goodness Jack has built up his stamina with all the walking!
It was a beautiful beach and after we got down, we first walked left to look for the wreckage. Not the correct direction, but we still got to explore a great part of the beach and Jack had fun playing on the rocks. We walked the other direction and were just about to give up when Matt ran ahead to peek around the next corner and discovered that we’d made it!
It’s very simple really, there’s not much there other than an anchor, but it is amazing to think that it happened so many years ago and is still there today. Jack was fascinated by it and decided he wanted to touch some of the wreckage. Matt picked him up and walked out on the rocks and I tried to get a good angle for some pictures.
Suddenly, after I snapped a few pictures, a huge wave came in that sent us scrambling for higher ground, literally! Matt was still holding Jack and the three of us ran and perched on our tippy toes on top of this one rock that stuck up a little higher than the others. Our feet got pretty wet, but that was luckily the extent of it! After that we decided to head back to the car as we didn’t want to get stuck down there when the tide came in.
We decided to count the stairs on the way back up and each gave an estimate of how long we thought it would take us to get back up. We thought for sure it was going to take us at least 30 minutes. We ended up counting 380 stairs and managed to race back up in only 5 minutes! What can I say, we do well when we have a goal in mind!
If you ever find yourself on the Great Ocean Road, seek out this spot. It’s a little remote and it’s obviously not the easiest to get to, but it’s so worth it.
The Detour Diary 