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Published: August 7th 2007
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With our potato duties all finished we've had some time to go off and do some touristy things.
Our first trip was to set off down to the Great Ocean Road for a few days, and it felt good to get back on the road exploring again. The scenery and just traveling
along in the car stopping every few k’s to see and do things was really good fun.
From the farm we traveled down the Mornington Peninsula to catch the small passenger ferry from Sorrento to Queenscliff, which is on the opposite side of Port Phillip Bay. The crossing took about an hour and passed the notorious channel called ‘The Rip’ that joins the bay waters to the open sea.
We spent 4 days traveling along the road, each day we visited various tourist attractions and by late afternoon we’d arrive in some small seaside town to find a place to stay and settle down for the night. We used a campsite guide and stayed in standard cabins which only cost between $50- $60 a night in low season for an air-con room kitted out with a full kitchen, double bed, dining table & chairs and TV.
It proved the cheapest way compared to spending double that for a hotel or the same for a flea pit hostel!
Back on the road our first night was spent in Torquay. It’s a little bit different to the Torquay we know! No jacket spud van on the harbour and no concrete steps tastefully dipping into the shallows!! Torquay, Victoria is the surf capital of Australia with the HQs of the big surf brands like Rip Curl and Quick Silver all originating here back in the 70’s. It’s also home to the first and longest running professional surf competition in the world, the ‘Rip Curl Pro’ which is held at Bells Beach. Some people will be familiar with Bells Beach from the film Point Break where Keanu Reeves shows in true Hollywood cheese, compassion to let Patrick Swayze surf the sure to be fatal 50 year wave rather than arresting and condemning him to spend his remaining years behind bars. A real tear jerker, male bonding, group hugging, cruel to cage an animal, surf to the death kind of a finale.
We spent the best part of a day in Torquay looking around the surf shops and
beaches before pushing on up the road, through Lorne and a quick stop off to see Ernske Falls then on to Apollo Bay.
With a couple of hours until nightfall we decided to go and check out the Otway Lighthouse. As we drove down the windy gum & eucalyptus tree lined road there was a loud screetch of Koala from Jo. I slammed on the breaks as Jo eagerly hopped out of the car to take a closer look at her new favourite animals in the wild! Twenty minutes and many photos later we got to the lighthouse to find it had closed for the day : ( Undeterred we climbed a nearby hill to watch Kangeroo’s hopping home as the sun set in the distance.
The next morning we went for a brisk tree top walk at the Otway Fly, which takes you along a steel walkway towering 25 metres above the forest floor, absolutely awesome! Then it was onto the main attraction…….
Needless to say the Sandstone cliffs along the Twelve Apostles Marine National Park were outstanding. The overcast weather and rough seas gave for a much more interesting scene compared to that of a
calm And no steps!!summer’s day. Watching the huge waves crashing in and around the Thunder Cave was easily the best bit of our trip. On a few occasions they crashed in so hard, they climbed up over the headland some 5 to 10 meters.
From here we pushed onto Warrnembool, which was a bit of trek, but this way it would give us a full morning to try and spot Wright Whales, the main tourist attraction of the city. So with this in mind we were a little disheartened when we arrived after a long drive in the darkness to our campsite for our hostess to inform us that it was a little early in the season to see any whales : (
Nevertheless we were up bright and breezy the next morning optimistic we would prove her wrong and would indeed spot some Wright whales, even just one.
Arriving at the whale lookout it was good to see a few others there staring out to sea. The lookout was positioned at the top of a beautiful sandy stretch of beach all decking clad with information boards displaying everything you ever needed to know about the Wright
Winkipop
Cool name hey? Right next to Bells beach. Its an old Aborginal word meaning the affects of the cold sea.... Whale, the particular Cool name hey? Right next to Bells beach. Its an old Aborginal word meaning the affects of the cold sea....type of whale that each year come back to the area and breed in the waters. It didn’t take long for Jo to start talking whale watching talk to an old lady who had binoculars. Was there an ulterior motive??? I think there may have been!! The woman was looking at something out to sea, which if we weren’t mistaken ourselves looked very much like an arching whale. The old dear confirmed our suspicions and stated that it was a whale with what she thought might be a calf!! Oow, oow , oow we knew it!! Long story short, after a good look through the binoculars it was the best whale shaped mass of kelp you’d ever seen!! The rolling swell making it look like it was arching in and out of the water. Not wanting to spoil things I keep it quiet from the old Lady and had a good giggle with Jo once she had gone, never mind we’ve been lucky enough to have seen them before, but still for a few minutes we had reveled
in proving the campsite lady wrong!!
After our kelp watching experience we headed for lunch at Port Fairy. Yes Fairy!! Bit funny as to why anyone would call a town that! I put it down to that fact that I too had spelt ferry the same way for years!!
Port Fairy was very picturesque, real picture postcard stuff as you can see from the photos. We spent a good couple of hours walking up and down the inlet looking at all the fishing boats moored along the banks and people sat on benches eating fresh fish and chips.
The biggest disappoint of the whole trip came when we got to the “Welcome to the Great Ocean Road” Sign which for no apparent reason had road works going on!! It spoilt any chance of a nice photo and I had to console poor Jo ; )
The small fishing town of Port Fairy along with the great views of the rough seas pounding the sandstone cliffs around the Twelve Apostles were our favourite tourist sights of the trip and were worth the journey alone. All in all there are many highlights to be found along the Great
Ocean Road and with a couple more days to play with I’m sure you’d find many more.
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