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Published: November 29th 2022
1. Apollo Bay Harbour
Apollo Bay Harbour before the sun came outWe had pretty heavy rain overnight, so much so, it woke us up! By the morning the sky was still pretty grey and it felt like more rain was on the way. Having learned my lesson yesterday I decided warmer clothes would be the way to go today, obviously Roy wears shorts and t-shirt no matter what!
Our aim was to get to Warrnambool today, which is at the end of the Great Ocean Road, with a stop at the Otway lighthouse and the Otway Fly Tree Top Adventures.
There are so many scenic stops along this part of the Great Ocean Road, but before we got started we stopped off to see the harbour in Apollo Bay that we’d missed because of the rain last night. It wasn’t super exciting but at least we saw it in the end.
Our next stop was the Otway Lighthouse, which isn’t just a lighthouse, there’s a selection of buildings including the lighthouse keepers house, accommodation buildings, the old stables (now tearooms), a workshop and not forgetting the WWII bunker! Trying not to worry about the many “Beware of the Snakes” signage dotted around the area, we explored the buildings including
2. Snakes Sign
Worrying signs at the Cape Otway Lighthouse the keepers house, which had information on its use as an old schoolhouse as well as the important role it played as a telegraph station.
At this point, I should add that the weather had brightened up, it was still cool when out of the sun, but at least the skies were now blue and the sun was shining. Sods law really given I’d dressed for winter and now had to peel layers off and carry them instead!
Moving onto the lighthouse, we then scaled the many stairs (again!) to get to the top. Not so many today, only 78 – which is almost half of the number we had to climb yesterday. This lighthouse was a lot narrower though, which made you feel dizzier at the end of the climb and the final dozen of so steps were a very narrow ladder.
Once again, it was very windy up at the top of the lighthouse but the views were great. Once we got back inside the guy at the top gave us some facts about it then we had to head back down to ground level. There were warning signs and we were specifically given directions
3. Cape Otway Lighthouse
Cape Otway Lighthouse, no longer in operation from the lighthouse guy to go down the narrow steps backwards “like a ladder”. I obviously obliged, but Roy, having watched us all struggle, decided it was far easier to just go down forwards (he was right, his descent looked much easier! – but don’t tell him I said that).
On the way out, we saw a MASSIVE red ant on the pavement, which other than getting a photo of it was given a very with berth! After a quick refreshment stop, we went to see the bunker, which was also interesting to see and read about what went on there in its heyday.
Once we were done, we wandered back and set off to the Tree Top Adventure place which was literally just above us, but with no direct road to it, we had to continue on then double back inland to get there. It was about a 25min drive and we finally got there, turned into the turning to see everything was locked up and the sign stated it was only open Thursday-Monday. We were gutted, not only due to the fact we’d just wasted about 45-50mins driving there for no reason! But also because there’s
4. Cape Otway from Lighthouse
Cape Otway from the top of the lighthouse no way we can do this now as we’ll be much further along the coast by Thursday.
We continued on our way stopping at many beautiful scenic stops where you could see the many rock formations along the coastline including the 12 Apostles (what’s left of them anyway!), Loch Arb Gorge, Razorback, London Bridge, The Grotto (which looked very much like a stagnant pond!) and Bay of Martyrs. There was a shop at the 12 Apostles car parking area nad Roy managed to pick himself up a Kangaroo Skin Hat.
An added bonus, while we were walking along the path to Lock Arb Gorge we were lucky enough to spot an Echidna, which was the one animal we weren’t able to see at the wildlife park as it was hiding somewhere out of view. It didn’t seem to care that we were there, just wandered around poking it’s long nose into the sandy ground to find some ants to eat. For a spine covered, very large hedgehog shaped animal it was really cute!
We reached the end of the Great Ocean Road and passed through Port Campbell which was a lovely little place and had lots of
5. The 12 Apostles
The Twelve Apostles, gradually being lost to the sea motels with vacancies, but we decided to push on and get to Warrnambool and stay there instead.
Warrnambool is much bigger than we expected, it’s actually a very large town – which you might think is a good thing when looking for somewhere to stay, but it actually makes it harder to find a motel! Booking.com to the rescue, we found Hopkins House, which looked nice and had a room available and was set back from the main town. After checking in and dropping our bags off, we drove down to the coastal side of the town to have a look around, then into the town centre to find a place to eat. The Whaler Hotel restaurant was perfect for what we wanted, fish and chips!
It's been a very busy day today, although we’ve been on the road all day most of it was walking to see the rocky coastline and we’ve both got very rosy foreheads from the unexpected sunshine! In fact, we’ve only travelled about 160km’s along the coast which is just over 2 hours without stopping – but it took us about 8 hours! We could easily have spent a lot more time on
6. Loch Arb Gorge
Loch Arb Gorge, scene of the wreck of the Loch Arb this stretch, there are so many walks, and once you get to the viewpoints you could stay there for hours watching the waves.
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