Today our morning started with an early wake up. We left at 7.30 to start our long drive from Geelong to Port Fairy, almost all of which is along a stretch of Road called The Great Ocean Road. Pam was very excited about what we would find along the road and this was a highlight day of the tour for her. We had a series of stops planned along the way and with us alternating driving it would not take long to complete the 241km or 6 hours drive.
Our first stop was the Memorial Arch, built in 1936 to commemorate the completion of the road (later renamed from Tourist Road to Great Ocean Road in 1972) This road was built by returning soldiers from WW1 as a way of giving them jobs and creating a road to connect all the coastal towns together. The sculpture is to celebrate their achievement.
Our second stop was Erskine Falls ,a beautiful valley which was accessed by a long winding road. Then a choice of two paths, one to view the top of the waterfall, the other to view the bottom. Pam choose the top (less steps) Mark did the bottom. A beautiful waterfall with more water in than others we have seen.
Our third stop was the town of Lorne. Here we browsed the local shops and had breakfast in an outdoor seated place called Bottle of Milk. Pam went Aussie with a bacon and egg bap - these are large and come with cheese, pickles and sauces though Pam excluded the last two. Mark went done the custom route and ordered a bacon roll - sometimes for brekkie you just need a bacon butty! The temperature had been mild (in fact it was generally 14 to 18c all day) which was much cooler than we were used to experiencing recently but our bodies seemed to appreciate the break.
A few minutes drive up the road was a lovely spot called Teddy's Lookout. This place gave us the best pictures to explain how special this route was.
We continued our drive towards Mark's favourite stop - Kennet River Koala Walk. The funny thing on this drive is that cars are continually hopscotching each other as they pull over at different stops for different views but now and then you meet to same ones at the must see places like this one. On the way here, whilst driving, Pamela had her first stop the car to let a wallaby cross the road incident though we had seen a fair few occur to cars in front of us today.
So this stop had the bonus of a walk into a nature reserve where you could see birds etc.... (all very pretty and that) but we were here for Koalas and so were everyone else it seems. We didn't have to walk far before we came across 3 (in different trees) all sleeping in their natural habitat happy as Larry (well probably Kylie).
Pamela celebrated our success by visiting this shop for souvenirs and also some caramel koalas - which are like our freddos back home.
Back in our trusty car and off to the seaside town of Apollo Bay. Here we browsed shops once more including buying another Aus to UK adaptor as our one is no longer with us and is obviously still in a plug socket in some motel! We also found a delicious noodle bar for lunch.
Onwards after full tummies and more amazing road scenery with car pulling over all the time. We pulled over at Castle Cove.
Next up is the big must do of the Great Ocean Road - The Twelve Apostles. Now we definitely did not have this place to ourselves. It was a very popular and quite rightly so as the views are spectacular. Now to crush an illusion. There are meant to be 12 rocks but due to erosion over time we are now down to about 8. The water below is so clear although Pam never looked dow. The lookout is very wide so you can take a photo of the rocks form lots of different angles. Pam as usual got a keyring from the shop.
Next up was Warrombool, a short pit stop where we got an opportunity to put our hands and feet in the ocean. A very popular beach for the surfers.
After 6 hours of driving we reached our end destination which is a town called Port Fairy. It didn't feel like a long drive due to all the stops and the constant beauty around us.
Our accommodation was an air bnb place which turned out to be 4 rooms in the garden area of a restaurant - which like most of Port Fairy was closed.
We wanted to eat at the wharves which is a beautiful area but all the restaurants were shut.
Port Fairy
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