Apollo Bay

Trip Start May 01, 2008
1
16
43
Trip End Jun 24, 2009


Loading Map
Map your own trip!
Map Options
Show trip route
Hide lines
shadow

Flag of Australia  ,
Monday, August 4, 2008

The drive from Avalon to Apollo Bay was delightful!  There were a number of different wattles out all along the way so the gold lined roads under the bright blue winter skies, with the pounding waves of the Pacific Ocean along the left hand side were very picturesque.  We were pleasantly surprised with Geelong, as we had only been through the industrial part before and weren't impressed.  This time we took the tourist route along the coast and found some lovely beaches (with quirky statues on them).  We drove right past the Geelong Cats football field....all looking very prosperous at the moment, as their team is on top again. We stopped for fish and chips and photo stops along The Great Ocean Road.  The weather was perfect, fluffy white clouds against bright blue skies, and the sea was really turquoise in spots.
 
Apollo Bay is a lovely town.  It is just 20km before the Cape Otway Lighthouse, the oldest surviving lighthouse on the Australian mainland, built in 1848, and the southernmost point of Victoria west of Port Phillip Bay Apollo Bay trees
Apollo Bay trees
 .  It is a very clean, neat town, I suspect there are lots of retirees here, with time to tend gardens. 
 
My nephew, Will came down on Monday afternoon and we climbed up to Marriners Hill lookout which has sweeping views over the bay, and on Tuesday we went for a drive in his sporty MX5 with the top open to Maits Rest, a magic rainforest walk among enormous tree ferns and Myrtle Beech trees 17km west of here, then on to Melba Gully near Lavers Hill, another rainforest walk, this one sporting the "Big Tree", a huge old Otway messmate over 200 years old.  There was a cascade there overflowing with lots of water.  I guess this is the best time to visit this area as all the waterfalls had plenty of water in them.  Will had fun with his camera and tripod.  We came back to have lunch with poor Howard who had to work and was very envious, then took the rental car along dirt roads to Hopetoun and Triplet Falls. The first walk was steeply downhill, I counted 200 steps, but going back up wasn't quite as hard as I had imagined. The second was spectacular! There has been a lot of rain in the area, and the falls had made rivulets in every direction as well as the three main streams which were bursting with water.  Heather, a receptionist at the surgery where H was working told us that recently vandals had come to the Triplet Falls walk with chain saws and cut down a number of the old trees there.  Why anyone would do such a thing is beyond me, but Heather says it is the anti greenies who were protesting about the stopping of logging in the area.
 
On Saturday we took the inland route back to Melbourne through Forrest.  There were wonderful views back down towards Apollo Bay up in the green rolling hills.  Apparently these hills were once covered with magnificent trees, and these smooth almost moss covered hills were completely forested before the loggers came in and cleared away the majority of the old Mountain Ash and Myrtle Beech trees. Now only grass grows on these hills. 
We had a photo stop at one point with views of layered hills and clouds towards Barwon Dam.
Slideshow Print this entry