Day 93 - Geelong to Warnambool (Great Ocean Road)
Trip Start
Sep 02, 2007
1
94
243
Trip End
May 01, 2008
Warnambool,
Australia
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
The plan was to head to either Warnambool or Port Fairy, near the end of the road, to give us a shorter drive to the Barossa Valley near Adelaide tomorrow.
As soon as we hit the coast it was obvious why this road is considered one of the most scenic drives in the world, it was a knockout.
As we worked our way down the road, there were plenty of opportunities to grab a quick photo pointing down the coast.
If I was lucky I could even take photos through the windscreen.
Katie had another big drive ahead of her today, but by stopping regularly to admire the views it helped break it up a bit.
I'll fill in the exact details later (don't have the map with me) but for the moment, just enjoy the photos!
The road also occassionally banked inland, taking us through some lovely forests and national parks.
We stopped at one to take a boardwalk trail down through the valley to the foot of a waterfall.
Unfortunately the weather was getting worse, and we had quite a bit of rain as we made our way west along the road.
We stopped at one point to walk around one of the cliffs to get a good view over one of the many beaches.
Then we continued along the road, with only the briefest hints of blue skies ahead...
At one point we stopped on a quiet road which our guidebook said was good for spotting koalas, and sure enough there were a few of them in the gum trees above us!
Katie was delighted, she loves these little guys, and with spirits buouyed, we continued down the road again...
As we approached the town of Apollo Bay, we took another turn off to get a view over the town, and down the coast.
I think we were both a bit surprised at how GREEN everything was around us, although it's fair to say I'm not sure what else we expected?!
We parked the car at the top of a hill and followed a short trail to get a view out over the bay.
After that we stopped for some lunch in Apollo Bay, choosing a couple of wraps which looked better than they tasted, but they weren't bad, and then set off again. No rest for the wicked!
A short while later we pulled into another park, to do a boardwalk through a valley of tree ferns, which was really cool.
Some of you will know that we have a tree fern (called Percy) in our back garden in London, so it was good to see some of his distant family living so happily and growing so tall down here on the south coast of Australia!
I probably don't need to point out that by this time Katie was feeling a bit cold, there was definitely a chill in the air.
Further down the road, we took another turn off to visit a famous lighthouse, I think it was in Port Campbell.
On the road down to the lighthouse we noticed lots of dark shapes in the trees above us... yep, you guessed it: more Koalas!
The lighthouse itself was really cool, you could go up inside it, and look down the coast, or simply admire its imposing and life-saving qualities.
It reminded us of the lighthouse in that kid's show "Round the Twist", which I think is on this road somewhere, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't this one...
This was the view from the top, looking down the coast.
Note the approaching rain clouds because five minutes later we were running for our lives! We got absolutely SOAKED.
Next to the lighthouse was an old WWII radar station (remember that Japanese fighter planes bombed Australia), which helped track down and sink a very proficient German war boat, which had managed to sink something like 29 allied boats in just a few months.
I really liked the name of one of them, very apt.
With the rainstorm moving off, leaving only light drizzle behind, we pushed on down the coast again...
As I said earlier, it was easy to focus on the stunning coastline, but inland there were some areas of real beauty too, reminding me a bit of New Zealand.
At times we were teased and frustrated by signs suggesting that kangaroos were in the area, but obviously we saw nothing even resembling a kangaroo, so I remain dubious that they even live here!
About half an hour later we took a road off the Great Ocean Road and headed towards the 'Ottway Fly', a tree-top walk which enables you to get right up in the tree canopy, up to 45 metres above the floor.
We were REALLY looking forward to this after we were unable to see the tree-top walk in Western Australia when Lisa got sick, and were surprised that it seemed to take up quite a big area.
It also appeared to have quite a cool observation tower about half the way round as you can see on this map!
We'd arrived about 20 minutes before they were due to close, and they very nearly didn't let us in. We had to promise them that we'd hurry round and be out on time!
We speed-walked through the forest for about 15 minutes until we got to the walkway suspended in the trees, it reminded us of "I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here"...
The trees were magnificent, tall & elegant, they must have been hundreds of years old.
With our long legs we soon reached the tower, climbed up to the top, and were rewarded with even more fantastic views out... and down!
Katie wasn't enjoying the heights, but loved the views.
After the tower we climbed out over the 'cantilever' section of the walkway, which had absolutely no support poles underneath it; it was only held in place by two metal cables suspended from the previous section of walkway.
Naturally I loved this, and Katie hated it... especially when it bounced up and down!
Look carefully and you can see me out on the end, while Katie takes the photo from a safer spot.
After that we set off on the final walkway, and made our way back to the car park.
We had one last good view over the coast, before heading back down to the Great Ocean Road.
Our next stop was the world famous "Twelve Apostles", a cluster of rocks which are now marooned away from the cliffs after thousands of years of erosion by the waves.
This is by far the most famous attraction anywhere along the Great Ocean Road, and the whole way down we'd been praying to have some sun with which to really appreciate them.
Miraculously, for the last hour of the day, and for the very first time, the sun appeared! We rushed down to the viewing platform...
It was absolutely beautiful.
Thank you Mr Fly for landing right on my forehead on this shot!
Ok, one more for luck!
It also looked pretty amazing in the other direction...
We had a few minutes appreciating the view, and then we were off again, as there were a few other attractions nearby and we were running out of daylight.
First came a famous gorge called 'Loch Ard gorge' where 2 survivers of a shipwreck were able to take shelter before somehow walking back to humanity.
The nearest town is miles away now, so God knows what it was like back then!
You can imagine being thrown up on the rocks and finding your way into this gorge, where you could shelter from the powerful waves & get your strength back.
This was the view back from the cliffs, towards the beach.
Next was 'The Arch', which is pretty self-expanatory...
After that came 'London Bridge', which used to be attached to the cliff face, and used to show a double arch, hence the name.
The ledge connecting the 'bridge' to the cliff collapsed in 1990, in the process stranding a couple who were apparently having an affair, and who mysteriously disappeared before they could be interviewed by all the waiting news teams!
Next along was 'The Grotto', which was quite cute, another sheltered bay which had a series of small arches & pools of water at the bottom.
When you got to the rocks at the top it also provided some nice views down the coast.
After that we headed towards the Australian version of the 'bay of islands', but first stopped off at the 'bay of martyrs', which looked really cool because the sun was going down.
I really like this photo, check out the seagulls...
Finally we arrived at the viewing platforms for the bay of islands, which was also very picturesque.
The setting sun brought out some amazing colours in the rocks around us, it was quite something.
With all of the attractions completed we jumped back into the car and headed off towards Warnambool, realising that it would be too dark before we reached Port Fairy.
We thought it was a better idea to drive through there tomorrow morning as it's supposed to be quite a pretty little town.
We struggled to find accommodation in Warnambool, but eventually found a motel right in the centre of town, owned by an English couple.
We popped out to grab some pizza, then went back to the room and ended our action-packed day by watching some telly.
As usual we'd crammed a hell of a lot into one day, but at least it meant that we didn't have a horendous drive into South Australia tomorrow, our final state.
Lots of love,
Al & Katie xx
