The Great Ocean Road: Melbourne to Apollo Bay 9^th December 2014

Our next section of our trip will take us from Melbourne to Adelaide before flying onto Perth to be with Phil and Becks for Christmas. On our way we will travel the length of the Great Ocean Road and visit Mike’s uncle in Victor Harbor as well as Kangaroo Island, Adelaide and the Borosso Valley.

Melbourne to Adelaide

We left Melbourne behind and headed west to start the the Great Ocean Road journey. This road runs along the south coast from just west of Torquay for 214km.  We made a diversion to take a look at Torquay since this is reputed to be the surf capital of the south coast being the home of Rip Curl and Qucksilver brands in 1969.

Torquay Surfers

There were quite a few keen surfers out in the water at Torquay but not much action in the waves.  Nevertheless, the sun was out, the sky was blue, the water looked inviting and we were playing the Beach Boys on the iPod but we knew it would not be as warm in the water as in Port Douglas so were not tempted to join them. 

We stopped at the Great Ocean Road Arch and took photos and read the information about the building of the road.  The Great Ocean Road was started as a project to employ servicemen returning from WW1. The first sections were completed in 1936.

Great Ocean Road Arch

We drove onto Anglesea and then Lorne where we visited the Ocean Road Discovery Centre and had some lunch with a view of the ocean. We dipped a finger in the water, to at least say that we had sampled the Bass Straits. The Bass Straits separate Australia from Tasmania. 

Great Ocean Road coastline 

When we got to Apollo Bay we decided to go on and visit Otway “Lightstation”, which was in the Otway National Park.  This had been recommended to us by Brendon and we had time to spare before we could check in at our B&B.  We were astounded to see numerous koalas in the trees, we must have seen nearly a dozen and then down near the light house saw a kangaroo. 

Koala with joey

Chilling out!

Check out my tail!

The lighthouse has been in continuous operation since 1848 rotating the large Fresnel lenses and tungsten lamp, and on a bed of mercury driven by a motor.

On the way back in the car we stopped to take a landscape photo looking down towards Apollo Bay and spotted a fairy wren. 

Fairy Wren

The wren then spotted the car wing mirror and decided to peck her twin sister. We were somewhat concerned since the car door and window were open at the time.

Mirror image

On the way back to Apollo Bay we saw a wallaby by the side of the road as well as a koala. The koala was running along the side of the road, trying to find a way through the short fence that separated the road from the beach.  

We had dinner in a sea food restaurant called Vista and then walked back along the beach to the harbour and around the coastal golf course. We might try our had there tomorrow morning since it looked in pristine condition but relatively cheap..