The Great Ocean Road etc

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We left the Princes highway at Geelong and headed for the Great Ocean Road which starts at Torquay just to the south. Stopped off in Torquay to have a look around a craft fair on the sea front, nice little place but we didn’t buy anything, just had a coffee and moved on. The great ocean road was built by veterans of the first world war and what a job they did. As soon as you hit the coastline, the camera comes out as the views are stunning,. Then you drive on and turn the next bend and the views are even better. Had a couple of stops in the look outs and took some pictures and made our way slowly to Apollo Bay where we booked into a motel and got a takeaway, which we ate on the fore shore, surrounded by sea gulls and flies. We went for a walk on the beach and had a beer in the local pub, which was ok. Then back to bed. Couldn’t sleep though as the guy next door had his TV blaring out. Stood it till about 1130 and went round & asked him to turn it down. He was very apologetic and turned it off. (I think he’d fell asleep with the telly on. Anyway off we went the next morning and drove towards the twelve apostles, London Bridge< (which had fallen down a few years ago but was still worth a look and several other sites of great natural beauty. Stopped at all the relevant lookouts and did our bit with the old camera and tried to avoid the flies. Impossible, as they were absolutely everywhere in their millions. We reached Port Fairy, a nice little town which we’d be recommended to look around but decided to press on and finally a great B&B, (Whalers cottage), in Portland, where the landlady, Jean looked after us. We had a Chinese by the lighthouse, after driving up to Cape Bridgewater, where we wanted to see the blow hole. Again, this one didn’t blow either, (must be us). What we did see though, through the flies, was the petrified-forest, right on the cliff tops which was really interesting. Had a glass of port and a chat with Jean after our meal and in the morning, she did us a superb breakfast. The great ocean road ends here just about, so we moved into South Australia next and through a few of nice places, Beachport and Robe to name a couple. We stopped off at Kingston S.E. (don’t know what the S.E. stands for, will have to find out), which looked ok, so we looked around for somewhere to rest our heads for the night. Only one motel in Kingston which didn’t take our fancy so decided to carry on to Meningie, which was only 54 kms away according to the signpost. We needed petrol but we had enough for that distance, so no drama as they say in these parts. As we moved on, it became more and more evident that some local wag, had removed the number one from the road sign and we were getting a little edgy but saw that there were three “towns”, according to the map between us and Meningie so we were bound to get some fuel in one of them. Luckily, it was the first one, Salt Creek, which the sign welcomed visitors to, just before the petrol station. We filled up and carried on and as we left the petrol station, the sign thanked us for visiting Salt Creek, so as you might have gathered, that was all there was there. We passed through another few of places of a similar size, Margaret Flat, Policemans point and Wood wells but didn’t stop and reached Meningie in time to get a room at the motel there. Meningie is a small place, on the banks of Lake Albert, (not as small as Salt Creek etc) but it had a restaurant and a pub, so we were happy little campers. Ate in the restaurant, drank in the pub and slept. Set off for Adelaide the next day and crossed the Murray River at Wellington by free ferry and carried on. We reached Adelaide in the late morning and decided to have a laze on the beach until we could get in touch with Jill & Grahame, who we’d come to South Australia to visit. Drove on from Port Willunga beach and stopped at Brighton Beach a few kms further on. Got in touch with Jill and found we’d just past their house in Sheidow Park about ten minutes previously. Got back to their place and waited about five minutes when Grahame returned home from work. Got settled in there lovely house and were having a chat when Jill arrived. Great to see them, they left England about fifteen years ago and we’d only seen them for a drink when they came back for a visit about five years ago. We went for a meal at Brighton Beach that night and a great ten days in Adelaide had started really well.

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