RTW Day 49 - Great Ocean Road

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We check out of our B&B. It has a formidable collection of instruction stickers and it’s a relief to be out of there.

Today we head for the Great Ocean Road. But we start with a detour to Geelong. Along the waterfront are 100 wooden bollards, painted by artist Jan Mitchell to resemble people and tell the story of Geelong. We take a tour of most of these rather quirky bollard figures. There are bathers and life savers, sailors, soldiers etc. They add to the character of the very pleasant town of Geelong and I wish we had more time to spend here. We have a picnic which we are forced to share with a super aggressive seagull and move on to the start of the Great Ocean Road.

The road hugs the Victorian coast for 151 miles. Built by soldiers returning from World War 1 and dedicated to those who fell, it is technically the world’s longest war memorial. It starts at Torquay, home of all things surfer. Then Anglesea with its stunning orange striped rocks. And Aireys Inlet with a cliff top walk to a lighthouse. Then Teddy’s Lookout, high up on cliff top, where we spot a family of kangaroos having dinner.

We skip the resort town of Lorne as they’re doing a controlled burn and it’s rather smoky. Road works slow us down somewhat so we don’t stop to look for koalas at Kennet River, which is a shame but it’s already getting dark.

Finally, after a long day (we have been on the road for almost 9 hours) we reach our destination of Apollo Bay. We go to the Fisherman’s Collective. Not a pretentiously named restaurant, but where fishermen sell their catch on the quayside. We get some melt-in-the-mouth fish and chips and retire for the night.

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