April 6 – Tour of the Great Ocean Road – Day 1

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First – we do not know why the past couple of blog postings have lost their paragraph formatting – hopefully this will work better.



This morning (Sunday) we have another first experience – we are going on a 2-day excursion. Fortunately Daylight Savings Time ended last night and we got an extra hour’s sleep this morning. Despite that we had to be in the lobby at 8:00 so we could not dawdle.



We did get to check our e-mail and have message from Kathy saying that Janet’s brother Mike had a big gall stone removed and everything went well. We also got a note from Elizabeth confirming our flights and that she was going to pick us up at the airport. We also saw a message from David’s sister Janel that she is starting a 13 day visit to Morocco (via Paris). So we kind of caught up on the mail.



We had to finish packing the bags and get the ones we were leaving into the luggage check place before we checked out of the hotel. We will be back for them tomorrow evening, but we don’t want to haul them all along on our bus. Anyway, we still had one suitcase and one carry bag anyway, and we had all that done and into the lobby at 8:00. The bus turned out to be a 10-person van as this is a “small group” tour. The driver is German who moved to Australia 17 years ago and stayed. His name is Jorgen. With us on the van is a couple from UK named Alan and Barbara, as well as a couple from Switzerland name Urs and Linda. So there are only 6 of us on this tour. We are sitting in the back on the van to allow more space but it does entail a more difficult process to get in and out.



Obviously Jorgen did all the driving. Maybe from the back seat it just seemed to be fast, but that’s how it seemed to us. But we got where we needed to go and did not have any accidents, so all was well. He said that the top speed limit on Victoria was 100 km, in Western Australia the limit is 110 km, and in the Northern Territory there is no limit – primarily because the roads are so bad that you can’t go very fast. Anyway, we made our way around in this van and were actually able to get to places that a large bus could never have gone (or stopped) because of size. Also it was generally easier to get everyone back in the van than for 40-odd people in a large bus. So this “small group” tour is an interesting way to get around.



Our first stop was at Bells Beach. This is where they hold the World Surfboard Championships if they are being held in Australia. There were a couple of people surfing today, but not many because the surf was not very high today. But it was about 90-minutes from Melbourne and we were ready to stretch our legs. The views here and elsewhere along the Great Ocean Road are really impressive. They remind us of some of the better viewing places along the Pacific Coast Highway, except these seem to be almost continuous all along the southern coast that we saw today. After some photos we got back on the van and headed to our next stop – a golf course.



Jorgen knew a back way into the course and pulled off the road near one of the practice greens. We were a bit surprised

until he explained we were not playing, but looking at the views. We walked through about 30 feet of woods and came out on the course, right in the middle of a group of Eastern Grey kangaroos. These were larger than any we had seen in the Animal Farms and these were completely wild. They had been tagged by the local university for tracking purposes, but they were free to go where they wanted. Apparently they like golf because they stayed around the edge of the trees whilst we walked up pretty close to them. We could never have snuck up in a tour bus! It turned out that during the drought, the ‘roos’ had moved to near the golf course because they had discovered it was a source of watered vegetation and stayed on afterwards. Anyway, we stayed and watched/photographed them for about 20 minutes and then got back on the van for the next destination.



This turned out to be a Lookout location overlooking the sea. Here Jorgen produced hot coffee and tea from canisters he had brought along and we had a traditional Morning Tea. He even had a variety of biscuits (cookies). There was a great view of the sea (this is the Tasman Sea between here and Tasmania, and further south is the Southern Ocean going to Antarctica). There were several hand gliders sailing past overhead, and it was a nice kind of picnic to fresh us in mid-morning, well about 11:00.



We loaded back into the van and went to the Split Point Lighthouse. This was not actually on the itinerary, but someplace else is going to be skipped because of a local sporting event, so this was one of the replacement items. There was a 300 meter path down to a viewing area below the lighthouse which was kind of steep, so Janet stayed up at the lighthouse watching from there. David went down and took a few pictures. Then we were back on the van and headed off again.



We have been driving along the Great Ocean Road but a little further along we came to the Memorial Arch. This road was built primarily by returning soldiers after World War I, when there were not many jobs and the depression was approaching. Australia had been planning to build such a road connecting the old whaling stations on the southern coast, but this gave them motivation to get it done. However, they mainly use hand labor with pick and shovel so it was a long schedule. There was not great urgency as it was basically a “make work” activity. But they produced a good result from their investment. That had been only a single lane road and there have been more improvements over the years so now it is pretty good. The memorial is to commemorate all those who worked on it.



From there were moved back and forth between driving near the coast and driving up on the hillsides overlooking the coast. Each was very impressive. We drove on along the road until we got to the town of Lorne. This is an old whaling station which changed to a tourist town a long time ago. There is a very good beach and the area is partially sheltered from storms, but certainly not a bay. In fact the only real bay along this part of the southern coast is in Apollo Bay.



Lorne is where we stopped and everyone went off to get themselves some lunch and look in the shops. We found a Fish & Chippery and had a good lunch. Actually the chips (French fries) were very salty, but the lunch was good anyway. Janet was able to get a bottle of iced tea and David got a Coke (only about the 3^rd during this trip). After lunch and shopping, David went down and walked on the beach for a little while, whilst Janet rested on a bench. It turns out this “bench” was a solid block of wood, about 24 inches wide, 8 feet long, and at least 15 inches thick. This apparently came from a Norfolk Pine, which are grown along the Australia coast and can grow very long and extremely straight. As a wood carver, David was fascinated with this block of wood.



Next stop was just outside of town, at a place called Teddy’s Lookout. Once again this was somewhere that a full sized bus could never even approach (such a narrow lane and small parking area), but we got there just fine. This provides an overlook down from the hillside and gave us a terrific view along the coast and over the Great Ocean Road. From there we traveled the road further and stopped for a quick photo-op at Defiance Outlook. Hop-off, snap-snap, hop-on and away we went again. These were the kinds of places you would like to stop and see, but your big bus would lumber on past and never even slowed for.



The next stop was at a place with koalas called Kennett River Holiday Park (actually a camper van mark). This is another small area where wild koalas can be seen in the trees but they are not in a refuge type environment. All four of these were firmly wedged into tree branches and were sound asleep. Koala sleep the majority of the day, and approximately ¾ of the time (mostly awake at night). People below took a bunch of pictures and made some noise, but it didn’t seem to disturb the koalas at all. By now we are beginning to become experienced at sighting Australian wildlife. J It does NOT get boring though. Apparently this area is especially good for koalas and from time to time they remove a few of them and take them elsewhere to keep them from over-eating the leaves of the local trees. There were also lots of brightly colored birds which David photographed, but we don’t know exactly what they were. They were very photogenic though.



Back in the van and another photo-op at Cape Patton Lookout, and then we were on to Apollo Bay. We had an option of getting off the van and having an hour to stroll around town or going a little beyond the town and taking a nature walk through the forest. Jorgen described it as being a bit strenuous, so we both opted to remain in town (gift shops are strenuous enough). After the hour was up we got back in the van and headed for our evening’s lodging.



We are staying at the Beacon Point Ocean View Villas, and they certainly are well named. Each couple got their own 4-room villa and from the balcony we had a great view of the ocean below. That is because it is located near the top of a small mountain outside of Apollo Bay, There are plenty of amenities except no internet, so this will not get posted until we return to Melbourne tomorrow. But we had a couple of hours to unpack, relax, and unwind before going to dinner. The bed is back to being queen-sized instead of king, but that will be fine because we are kind of tired.



The tour included our dinner at a hotel in Apollo Bay. Janet had a delicious Chicken Parmesan and David had a Porterhouse steak which was very well prepared and excellent with Hollandaise Sauce. There were plenty of dessert options, but we were both too full to eat another bite. The group sat around and chatted for a couple of hours before we went back to the villa to finish the day and get some sleep.



We need to mention that all day we had really good weather. Actually Janet says she got a little sun burned before she started using the sunblock we had bought way back on the first day after flying in. This evening though the wind is blowing in from the water and really whistling past our villa. It was cool enough that we both needed jackets to go to dinner, but hopefully tomorrow will be back to short sleeves for the rest of our excursion. Tomorrow we have to be all packed and ready to leave at 7:40, so that is going to wrap up things for this report.

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Photos

Memorial Arch
Great Ocean Road

Split Point Lighthouse
from across the sea

Janet & David
at Apollo Bay

Looking down on Great Ocean Road
from Teddy's Lookout

View of the Coast
from Cape Patton Lookout

Colorful Bird
at Kennett River