The Great Ocean Road begins at Torquay, the home of Rip-Curl, Billabong, etc, a surfers paradise, in reality a bit nondescript, with a surfers museum, but, after much thought, we gave that a miss! We headed for Anglesea, a cute little seaside town, stopped for a look, then onto an amazing wild beach called Point Roadknight, with massive waves, clear aqua water and weird limestone formations.
Our journey then took us along the coast, the road hugged the cliffs, clinging on as we wound our way down around the hairpin bends. The scenery is breathtaking, we stopped again and again to just look, with awe. We passed through Airey's Inlet, and a series of creeks: Orchard, Petticoat, Separation, Sugarloaf, Wilson, Skenes and Shrapnel Gully. They're all small hamlets overlooking the beaches. We finally arrived at Lorne, the most picture postcard, perfect place.
There were cockatiels everywhere, white with yellow plumes, scavenging for fish and chip wrappers, just Iike seagulls at Scarborough!
We meandered into the Visitor Centre in Lorne, to be met by a very excited lady, Wendy, who has lived in Australia since the late 60's. She heard our accent and .... She originated from Chesterfield, went to Leeds University, married a Yorkshireman, and has family in Riccall!! This was the first conversation we had with an emigre, and I'm just telling you because over the past few days we have had several - all on a similar theme about parents, uncles, partners, aunties, cousins, etc.
Finally we left Lorne en route to Apollo Bay, we stopped off for a walk to the Sheoak Falls, then to our 'luxury' accommodation, a chintzy motel in Apollo Bay.
On Wednesday, following Wendy's advice, we discovered a gum tree forest alongside Kennett River. We drove up Grey River Road, a dirt and gravel track, then abandoned the car and walked among the gum trees. They smelt just like Hall's Originals and cleared out our sinuses. We were looking for, and found, koalas by the score.
When we finally tore ourselves away we continued through the forest as it became more dense and the trees and undergrowth changed to massive ferns and mountain ash. The road was barely navigable in parts but Dipi did us proud. Suddenly a kangaroo leapt from the trees in front of us, making us jump and hopped along a bit with us following then disappeared. We'd had a competition as to who saw the first kangaroo, sadly Jim won which meant I had to buy him a pint. After he'd given me the money (obviously I don't have any of my own any more), I duly obliged!
Onto Triplet Falls, which involved a walk through a forest of gigantic mountain ash and huge ferns, it seemed like a primeval forest, we wouldn't have been surprised if a dinosaur had appeared and, in fact, we discussed a plan for survival if one did! (I know, but we are removed from the worries of the real world)
On the way back the road took us inland to Laver's Hill, the main hub of the community, consisting of a general store and the ubiquitous motel. We dropped down to the most beautiful bay we had ever seen, Castle Cove, near Glenaire, the colour of the water is amazing.
On Thursday it was on to Port Campbell, on the way we called at Cape Otway to marvel at the lighthouse.
We picnicked at Moonlight Head, overlooking Wreck Beach. Sounds very romantic but was really red scrubland on an exposed cliff.
This part of our journey took us through the Port Campbell National Park, which is in the sea. The most famous limestone formations are called the Twelve Apostles. They are fantastic to see but are on a main tourist route and we ended up viewing them with several Japanese tourist buses.
We stayed in a brilliant motel that night, and the owner, another Brit with a tale to tell, told us about more limestone formations, which are not as well known but just as good, if not better than the Apostles. We left him, on Friday morning, to find out. I'll let you be the judge.
The Arch
London Bridge
The Grotto.
On our friend's recommendation we just had to visit Croft's Bay.
We drove through Peterborough, the last town on the Great Ocean Road before it turns into the Princes Highway. The road travels inland and back to the coast several times. We are heading for a town called Mount Gambier over the state border in South Australia. We are now going to enjoy two nights in Warrnamboll back on the coast. See you, hopefully, in South Australia, wi-fi permitting!
- Posted by Annie & Jim using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Warrnamboll, Victoria
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