Great Ocean Road Trip - Part 1

---

Leaving the drizzly Blue Mountains we headed towards Sydney for our short flight to Melbourne and the start of our road trip along the Great Ocean Road. We had booked with Qantas and the queue for luggage check in turned out to be reminiscent of the queue for New Year’s Eve, minus the spectacular fireworks. Qantas, like Virgin, probably have a bit of work to do if they are going to thrive in the new climate. All in all a bit of a disappointing flight, but we were glad to land safely especially as there was a bit of a cross wind just before landing which led us to tighten our seat belts and bum muscles!

Bit of a difference in the temperature as the weather man had promised that it would be about 39 degrees when we were due to arrive in Adelaide - factor 30+ here we come. The drive to Geelong, the gateway to the Great Ocean Road and our first stopover of the trip, was uneventful. We drove through Geelong and headed for Torquay to undertake a bit of retail therapy in the surfy dude outlets, such as Rip Curl, Billabong etc (you know the ones) and after the plastic took a bit of a pounding we headed back to Geelong fully satisfied with our purchases. We had been here before, with Matthew, and to be brutally honest we were all totally unimpressed with the city, probably mainly because we were here between Christmas and New Year and everything was closed. Would it be any different this time? Well, the shops were open, it was busy and the harbour side was quite nice - could it be that we liked Geelong after all - well that might be pushing it a bit far, but it certainly didn’t seem to be as bad as we remembered. We found an Italian restaurant which cooked a very nice pizza, but even that couldn’t convince us that we needed to stay more than one night. Sorry Geelong, okay stopover but that is about it for us.

The following day we skirted passed Bells Beach (saw it last time) and headed for a recommended picturesque stop, Point Addis, and it was certainly that; the first of many such stops en route. The only thing that could mar our enjoyment of the beautiful rugged coastline was the millions of pesky flies that kept dive bombing us. We thought to start with it was just us and they loved the smell of our British skins, and we felt like “Stig of the Dump”, but no, we soon realised that everyone we passed also had the same problems and weren’t just performing some weird arm waving dance! We battled on. We had decided that our next point to visit would be the small town of Lorne, where we had wanted to stay the night but hadn’t been able to book accommodation. It all too soon became clear why not, there was a very popular swimming competition taking place and competitors from all over the world had descended on this small town. We managed to find some parking and, again battling the flies, we made our way to the sea front to catch a glimpse of the competition. It seemed a very nice little town with a seafront full of nice cafes and restaurants and we felt it would be worth a look at if we were ever in the area again. Continuing on we stopped for a quick look at Apollo Bay and then the view from Castle Cove lookout - very nice. We found ourselves driving along what is known as the Shipwreck Coast - no prizes for guessing how it got the name - and our first stop was Gibson Steps, which, luckily, one of Chris’s friends here in Aus recommended (cheers Rog), lucky because we would have driven right by otherwise. What an absolutely beautiful beach - golden sand, turquoise sea, rugged cliffs - you know the sort of place. But it gave a great view of the start of the coast from sea level. Unfortunately still lots of pesky flies - they seemed to be following us. The next port of call was the famous Twelve Apostles, which is Victoria's second largest Marine National Park and covers 7,500 hectares along approximately 17 kilometres of coastline. As well as the famous limestone stacks eroded by the sea, it also boasts spectacular underwater scenery, dramatic underwater arches, canyons, fissures, gutters and deep sloping reefs. Obviously we could only see the tip of the icebergs, so to speak, but we were not disappointed; the stacks are stunning. However, after several counts we realised that there were not actually 12 and were relieved that we were still able to count because apparently some can only be seen at low tide and others are obscured by bays. Our final stopping point for today was going to be Port Campbell, we had also tried to get accommodation here but had not managed it but we wanted to stop and have a look at the town because some other travellers had recommended the place. Well, it was really nice so we stopped at a cafe opposite the beach for a well earned drink. It only had a small beach, but seemed very popular. Our overnight stop was to be Warrnambool and, as the afternoon was getting on, we decided to drive straight there and come back the following day to look at those sights we had to miss.

To our delight Warrnambool’s Foreshore Promenade stretched around Lady Bay some 5.7 kms from the breakwater along the coastline to the famous Southern Right Whale Nursery at Logans Beach and, as well as it being a lovely beach for sunbathing and swimming, it has over 29 shipwrecks for those more interested in diving. There is a story of a mysterious shipwreck which is buried deep beneath the sand dunes on Warrnambool’s outskirts. A Portuguese vessel, known by locals as “The Mahogany Ship” reportedly ran aground off Warrnambool in the 1500s and the local legend is supported by the discovery of old Portuguese charts that depict Australia’s southern coastline as far as Armstrong’s Bay. It is believed these charts were drawn in the 1520s. If ever found, or proven true, the Mahogany Ship and those Portuguese charts could rewrite the history of both Warrnambool and Australia - lucky they haven’t then! A further claim to fame is its connection to Australia’s national song “Waltzing Matilda”. Christina Macpherson was attending the Warrnambool's Annual Steeplechase Race Meeting in April 1894 when she heard the Warrnambool Town Band play the traditional Scottish tune, Thou Bonnie Wood of Craigie-Lea. She memorised the tune and played it to Andrew B. (Banjo) Paterson at Dagworth Station in Queensland in 1895 and Banjo Paterson, inspired by a local event, wrote some words to match the tune and the national song was borne.

Warrnambool was larger than we expected with quite a good selection of cafes and restaurants and we managed to find a nice relatively cheap restaurant to treat ourselves to an Aussie Burger (basically everything on it) and chips - nice. We were really impressed with the beach and decided that the following day this would be our destination for a bit of sunbathing. We were, however, really disappointed to discover that it is only between June and September that Logans Beach is the spot where you can witness Right Whales giving birth.

The following day, after an early brisk walk along the promenade, we headed back along the Great Ocean Road to visit those picturesque sites we missed the day before. We were determined that it would be different today and we were ready for those persistent flies - we had bought sun cream with fly repellent in - bring it on. We felt exceedingly superior as we were convinced that we had beaten the little buggers and they wouldn’t be pestering us today. Obviously no-one had bothered to tell them that they should be repelled by the aforementioned sun cream. Smiles soon wiped off our faces and trying not to inhale too deeply in case we ingested a number of them we continued our exploration of the wonders of the Shipwreck Coast which included The Arches, London Bridge, The Grotto, Bay of Martyrs and Bay of Islands. The scenery certainly is stunning along this part of the coast and its rugged beauty demonstrates how the forces of nature can create beautiful and bewitching natural phenomena which we can only gaze at in awe. Every stop along the route provided us with dramatic and beautiful scenery. As a break from the beautiful scenery, we had also been recommended Cheese World as a stop and, as we both like a bit of cheese on crackers (particularly with a bottle of red wine), this seemed like a very good idea. We partook of the cheese tasting session, although Chris declined a taste of the chilli flavoured cheese, and we chose our favourite flavour. There was also a small museum and cafe and the shop sold other tasty tit-bits as well as their home made cheese. It was nice to do something different along the route and this made a pleasant break from the sightseeing Only when we met Rog a couple of days later did we find out he was taking the mickey and had only driven past it, laughing. Well next time stop Rog, the vintage is lovely. Finally we made it back to Warrnambool and a couple of hours sunbathing on the beach looking out onto Lady Bay was all we could manage as the temperature was relatively hot, so we headed off to our next overnight destination in the small town of Port Fairy.

---

Photos

Mother Nature
can produce some great art ...

Point Addis
A great beach .. to become a recurring theme

Lorne
The Town to Pier race packed the town

Gibsons Steps
A decent climb rewards with anouther great beach & views

The first apostle
and it's eager disciple....

More Apostles
A great spot for the min view - exdept for the flies

Craggy
Craggy old rocks and craggy old rocker...

The arches
or Durdle door 2

London Bridge
has fallen down ...

The grotto
complete with Italian students about to get drenched

Even more apostles
they're everywhere