Apollo Bay to Torquay

Today is more a day to catch up on the things that we missed on the drive from East to West, however, for the first time on the trip the weather wasn't up to much as it looked quite moody and rained steadily for most of the afternoon. The original plan was that we would take a short drive out to Mariners Falls. However, the news from the tourist information was the main road to the falls would be closed until 5pm for repairs and this scotched any ideas of checking out the natural beauty of the region.

It's not Mariners Falls, but here's a shot of the main beach at Apollo Bay

 


















After taking a quick look round the charming Apollo Bay (not that there was much to see apart from the main beach and a local parade of shops), we set out for lunch in Lorne. En route we made a brief stop to look at Carisbrook Falls. The rolling hills around the area fold dramatically to provide a stunning backdrop for the waterfalls. It was quite an easy walk to the lookout and its only a short 15 minute walk there and back.

Carisbrook Falls are one of the highest falls in the Otway Ranges

When we arrived in Lorne we managed to walk down to the Erskine River at the point where the river meets the beach, before it absolutely chucked it down with rain. Retreating to the nearby cafés on Mountjoy Parade we got a bite to eat while the rain eased off.

I don't think that there's much danger of a fire today.

The next stop of the return journey was to revisit Kennet River to see if we would have better luck with the koala spotting. With a better understanding of where to look, we walked from the very bottom of Grey River Road, instead of starting 4km up the road (as recommended the trail guide). With our eyes focused high into the trees, sure enough before long we were spotting the grey furry marsupials, left, right and centre!

Sleeping koala hanging out in the gums!

We were even fortunate enough second-time round to be greeted by the presence of another echidna, and luckily this one was much closer and around for longer, as it was going about it's business only about 5 meters away from us! Upon reflection I'll have to reassess my impressions of the koala walk, especially after the echidna spotting, although I still feel the guide for the walk is misleading and needs to be rewritten so it's clearer where you should start the walk.

The echidna is one of the Earth’s oldest surviving species!

With the Great Ocean Road snaking spectacularly around the cliff-side from the Wye River onwards, we realised that we hadn't seen an important part of the local scenery - any surfers on the iconic breaks! Wye River is a small town neslted discretely in the steep hillsides with just a few holiday homes, but we were there to check out the glorious golden sand beach and the surfers catching the waves.

A little further along the road is the site of a historic shipwreck (one of many on the Great Ocean Road) where in 1891, the W. B. Godfrey was wrecked. At low tide wreckage from the ship, including the capstan winch, anchor and the iron frame (at very low tide) are clearly visible straight out to sea from the site of The Lonely Grave.

View from 'The Lonely Grave' near Godfrey Creek

Although there were no casualties from the actual wreck, several men died while trying to salvage the ship. A monument was built for the men 30 years later, when workers constructing the Great Ocean Road stumbled upon the graves.

As mentioned in one of my earlier posts, there was an interesting lighthouse at Aireys Inlet called Split Point Lighthouse. This would be the last place to stop off before Torquay, however this was a bit more interesting than the Cape Otway Lightstation (partly because it was free to look at) as it was the lighthouse from the Australian TV series "Round the Twist"! There were also a couple of decent lookouts to take pictures of Eagle Rock, Table Rock and the surrounding cliffs, and to get some moody shots of the coast as the rain swept in.

Split Point Lighthouse or the "White Queen" as it's known locally

Eagle Rock and the cliffs along the coast

Rain moving quickly inland and obscuring the horizon

Port Campbell to Apollo Bay

Leaving our room at the militant Port Campbell Hostel was one of the most surreal experiences we've ever had when checking out of a hostel. After being taken back a little by all the rules we had to follow, I half joked that there was a notice saying that an alarm would sound 15 minutes before our check out time! Then at 9.50am a tannoy announcement came on (seriously what kind of hostel has a tannoy?) to "kindly" remind us that in order to receive our $10 key deposit we must leave the hostel within 10 minutes. Feeling quite cheesed off by this we left fairly swiftly -  it's not like we were paying customers, oh wait yes we were...

The plan for the day was to combine the Otway Fly with a trip to the Cape Otway Lightstation and if possible squeeze in a walk to Triplet Falls inbetween. Driving to the Otway Fly took just over an hour, and we paid to go around the steel treetop walk which enables visitors to walk 25 metres above the forest floor. The whole walk included a bush walking track that took us just over an hour and we climbed our way to the top of the spiral tower to give us a face to face view of the tallest parts of the forest canopy at 47 metres! 

View up the spiral tower

Looking down the walkway from the tower

There was also cantilever platform to walk out to, which has been designed to hold 28 tonnes or 14 elephants, however the "gentle" swaying action didn't feel very reassuring in the wind! The best joke of the day was on a signboard which said "When's a leaf not a leaf? When it's a phyllode!". It's not really a joke because it's not funny but more of an interesting fact as phyllodes are essentially leaf-like structures.

Phyllodes are no laughing matter!

 

The platypus we spotted at Young's Creek!

Having spent a decent part of the day at the Otway Fly we decided not to bother with the nearby Triplet Falls to give us as much time as possible to make the most of Cape Otway Lightstation as it was another hour's drive. Unfortunately this wasn't the wisest of decisions as the lighthouse was a serious disapppointment, especially as the admission cost is quite high (luckily we'd paid for a special combined ticket with the Otway Fly which made it cheaper). According to their leaflet it's billed as being the "highlight of the Great Ocean Road", however the grounds looked seriously run down with a number of the buildings closed off or feeling a bit neglected. The World War II Radar Bunker was closed off, as was the Head Lightkeeper's House and there was a token Aboriginal culture site, which a bit confusing and didn't tell you much about what was on display. Although, the state of Victoria seems more tolerant in acknowledging the indigenous cultures that existed before European settlement, sometimes it feels that the things which are highlighted are often just lip-service and don't give you much useful knowledge unlike when we visited Koorie Heritage Trust in Melbourne on King St. It seems a shame that more progress hasn't been made to integrate Aboriginal culture into mainstream society apart from where it offers some sort of commercial interest... 

A spectacular view across Bass Strait and the Southern Ocean

One couple wanting to catch a glimpse of the lighthouse had a wasted journey as they but didn't want to pay the entrance fee ($17 per person), but I didn't really blame them as I felt it didn't offer good value for money. We kinda wished we stuck with a walk round Triplet Falls and I wouldn't really recommended the lighthouse as a must see attraction, which is a real shame considering it's historical significance in Victoria. According to a leaflet I read it's the oldest surviving lighthouse in mainland Australia (built in 1848) and was involved in the first telegraph cable laid between Tasmania and mainland Australia in 1859.

Nice lighthouse, shame about the rest

The only redeeming part of the Great Otway Lightstation experience was the sheer number of koalas hanging out in the eucalyptus trees on the road down to the lighthouse! It was easily the best place to see them in the greatest numbers on the Great Ocean Road, a far better place than the Kennet River Koala Walk.

Who has Lizzie spotted...?

 

... not another koala!

The final leg of journey was down to Apollo Bay where we finished the day with some well earned fish and chips. Exploring Apollo Bay was for another day...

Port Campbell to Warnnambool (and back again)

With a population of approx. 400 people there is literally nothing in Port Campbell apart from a two petrol stations, a pub, a couple of restaurants and a food shop, so we decided to start the day off by revisiting a few sites along the most photographed stretch of the Great Ocean Road.

Starting off at the Gibson Steps, we walked down to Gibson Beach as this is the only place along the stretch of Port Campbell National Park where the beach is accessible to the public. From here we could see two of the Twelve Apostles at sea level and walk along the beach where the tide would allow us. Strong currents and undertows make this a dangerous area if you get stranded by high tides, so you have to be a bit careful about how far you walk. The Gibson Steps were originally cut into the cliffs by hand by local landowner Hugh Gibson in the 19th Century but have been replaced more recently with concrete steps.

Gibson Beach looking east

This photo doesn't give a sense of scale, but these rocks are huge!

Jumping back into the car we drove approx 0.1km down the road (according the road sign) back to the Twelve Apostles to reshoot a couple of the eroded cliffs while the sun was in a better position and then drove a little further onto Loch Ard Gorge.

The Twelve Apostles at their best

This is the site of a famous ship wreck, the Lord Ard, on what is considered a notoriously treacherous stretch of coast (as demonstrated by the number of shipwrecks - over 80 in a span of 40 years). There were only two survivors of the wreck, Eva Carmichael and Tom Pearce (who resecued Eva). Maybe this could explain the Carmichael St connection from earlier? The gorge itself was impressive and it was easy to see how the Loch Ard ran into trouble off Muttonbird Island with strong waves crashing against the rocks, but the water within the bay looking so inviting and serene.

The archway by Muttonbird Island

The entrance into Loch Ard Gorge

The two rocks used to be an arch but are now know as "Tom" and "Eva"

Continuing west along the Great Ocean Road we passed some more limestone formations including the Grotto and London Bridge, named after its British counterpart for once being a double span arch. However, London Bridge had quite literally fallen down as one of the arches collapsed under its own weight on 15th January 1990 where the sea has continually eroded it. Apparently no one was hurt, but two people were left stranded on other arch and had to be rescued by helicopter. It is expected that the second arch will eventually do the same to form structures similar to the Twelve Apostles.

London Bridge

Looking down into the Grotto

The plan for the day was to drive over to Warnnambool and check out the Tower Hill Reserve. The drive took about an hour and we passed through the last town on the Great Ocean Road, Nullawarre - although it's so remote there's nothing to see there. Warnnambool is the first major town after the Great Ocean Road.

The Tower Hill Reserve is an extinct volcano 15km west of Warnnambool, which is believed to have erupted about 30,000 years ago. In the late 1950s Tower Hill underwent a re-vegetation project to restore the environment to the state it had been before European settlers moved into the area. Today it's one of a few places where you can spot wild emus, kangaroos and koalas all in the same place.

View into the reserve from Koroit lookout

View of the Tower Hill volcano

Arriving in the reserve, we settled down for lunch with some emus nearby in the picnic area but before long someone pointed out that there was a (unusually active) koala walking on ground to move to another tree. Whilst watching this rare behaviour an emu sneaked up on Lizzie and ate one of her sandwiches! There wasn't much she could do about it but she was quite upset as she was really enjoying her sarnies.

Before we started our walk round the Lava Tongue Boardwalk we saw our first huntsmen spider of Australia on one of the trees where I was taking pictures of koalas. I think we've been generally lucky not to see one up until this point, however, it did make me feel a little uncomfortable (being a bit of an arachnophobe) but I was glad to see it outside and not in a confined space.

The koala...

...and the Huntsmen Spider, apparently they get bigger than this!

Never turn your back on an emu, they're crafty pickpockets

To finish off the day we drove all the way back to the Twelve Apostles for a third time (via stop-offs at the Bay of Islands and The Arch), to get a shot of the limestone formations during the golden hour before and after sunset.

The Bay of Islands is a well kept secret

The Arch

The Twelve Apostles bathed in the light of a glorious sunset

High tide at Gibsons Beach

Lorne to Port Campbell

Getting up early for breakfast, we had heard that the local Sulphur-crested Cockatoos sometimes sit outside the balcony of our motel room and sure enough we were greeted by a couple of unphased cockatoos "looking for a good feed"!

Being so close to the ocean (literally you could see it from our balcony), we took the opportunity to walk down the pier and look out across Loutit Bay, back to the centre of Lorne before driving back into town to have a look around. If you've got the time to check out Lorne it's definitely a nice place if you just want to hangout.

You're never far from civilisation!

After fuelling up for the day, we took a short drive (about 15 minutes from the tourist information centre) up a windy road up to Erskine Falls, which are part of the Great Otway National Park. At the top of falls is a viewing platform, which offers decent views within a short walking distance of the car park. The walk down to the bottom of the falls was quite easy but it was coming back up which was more difficult, although it was worth it for the view. There were also lots of large rocks, which you could stand on at the bottom where the river was calmer.

Erskine Falls is an impressively tall and slender 38m waterfall

Not far from Erskine Falls is a place called Teddy's Lookout which apparently has the best views of Great Ocean Road in Lorne and they weren't half decent! From the lookout we could see the brilliant blue of the ocean all the way round to the Otway ranges and St George's river.

View from Teddy's Lookout

It wasn't until midday before we made some progress on the Great Ocean Road but even then we stopped off at a scenic spot down the road called Sheoak Falls where we did a 600m walk to a rocky waterfall which cascades 15 meters into a deep pool of water. This was another great site but it felt a little eerie especially as the water in the pool was very dark, most likely from the surrounding rocks. There were also lots of small lizards scurrying around, we weren't entirely sure what they were but they could have been McCoy's Skinks or Coventry Skinks because they were a bronze/copper colour.

Sheoak Falls

Some sort of skink, not sure which one but there were loads of them!

Driving on to Kennett River we were really keen to get to Grey River Road as this was billed as the best place to go koala spotting on the Great Ocean Road. However, this was actually one of the biggest disappointments of the trip so far as the trail guide from the tourist info didn't really give us much insight as to where to see the koalas and there wasn't much of an actually walk to do but more of a dirt track to drive up. Eventually we did see some "free-range" koalas, which were very cool but the whole experience didn't quite live up to the hype.*

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No it's a koala!

The only redeeming part of the drive was seeing a wallaby gracefully fleeing into the bush and spotting a wild echinda on the side of the road going about it's business! There also a number of exotic birds around including lorikeets and we even saw a Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo.

Pressing on, we then moved out of the forested area and more inland on the Great Ocean Road as we drove through Apollo Bay (a place to revisit on the return leg of the trip) and entered the Horden Vale flats en route to the Twelve Apostles in Port Campbell National Park. Although we were running tight on time, we had to make a quick stop for these famous monoliths. Having seen lots of photos of these rocky stacks nothing quite prepares you for how impressive they are in real life. I was completely blown away by the view from the boardwalk, which more than made up for the earlier disappointment. Tomorrow will be a better day to revist the other famous limestone rock formations along this strech of Port Campell National Park and hopefully get a picture of the Twelve Apostles at sunset.

* Having revisited this stretch of the Great Ocean Road in June 2013, I can report we had a much more enjoyable and positive experience koala spotting along Grey River Road, at Kennett River. I'm not sure if it was a better time a year because it was a lot cooler, but we spotted at least 20 koalas in the trees on a short stretch of the road. On the flipside we didn't see any Yellow-Tailed Black Cockatoos or any echidnas this time round.* 

Phillip Island to Lorne

Leaving Phillip Island early, the plan for the day was to reach Lorne but in order for us to do this we would need to catch a ferry in Sorrento to cross the Bass Strait and pick up the Great Ocean Road from Queenscliff. Working our way round the Mornington Peninsula our first stop was at Mornington itself, a historic seaside town famous for it's colourful bathing boxes and swimming beaches.

The bathing boxes at Mills Beach

We had just enough time to grab some lunch and walk through Main St to see the Grand Hotel, Old Court House and the Old Post Office Museum, as well as visiting the famous bathing huts on Mills Beach before continuing our journey onto Sorrento.

Along the way we drove past the highest point on the Port Phillip Bay coast (at 305m), known as Arthur's Seat (or Wonga by the Boon Wurrung people). Although, you can catch excellent views of the bay we had no time to stop at the lookout. I also spotted a street called Carmichael St in Tootgarook, so maybe we were destined to pass through the peninsula!

Once we reached Sorrento, we barely had time to check out Portsea, which was a shame as it's the last village on the tip of the peninsula plus it has some interesting things to see in the nearby national park, but that was just the nature of the day. I bemoaned the fact that most of the day had been spent in the car but it had to be done as this would be the longest part of the journey and was always going to be logistically the most tricky.

Picturesque view of Sorrento from Port Phillip Bay 

After a short journey across "the Rip" we arrived at the Bellarine Peninsula in Queenscliff where we could finally start our trip on the Great Ocean Road. It wasn't long before made our first stop to stretch our legs at Angelsea, parking up next to the river to watch an old man doing some impressive kite boarding - it guess it shows that you're only as old as you feel! Walking along the bank of the estuary until we reached the Main Beach, we caught our first proper glimpse of the Southern Ocean.

Kite boarder on the Anglesea River showing how it's really done

The next stop of the journey was for a brief look at the Great Ocean Road Memorial Arch located at Eastern View. It marks the commencing point of the first stage of the Great Ocean Road built by 3,000 Australian soldiers and sailors who returned from the First World War (1914 - 1918). The casualty rate of 64% was higher than any other nation engaged in WWI and was Australia's highest of any war.

Finding employment for the returning servicemen was a crucial factor in the Great Ocean Road project and their rehabilitation to civilian life. The Arch commemorates the construction of the road and symbolises the sacrifice made by so many, across distant lands.

The Great Ocean Road Memorial Arch built in 1939

Me and Lizzie at the start of the Great Ocean Road

Pushing onto Lorne we drove up some steep and twisty roads along the B100, as well as passing an interesting lighthouse at Aireys Inlet called Split Point Lighthouse. In an ideal world, if we had the time (and money) we would spend a couple of weeks exploring the route but at least we've got the return journey to revisit anything we couldn't see first time round.

Arriving in Lorne just after 7pm we got settled into our motel and then went to the Grand Pacific Hotel to get something to eat. On our way down Armytage St we were greeted by a whole host of cockatoos and galahs feeding on the ground. One cheeky cockatoo even flew up to the fence right next to me. 

The Grand Pacific Hotel is a landmark in Lorne, originally built in 1875 it has been fully restored with a modern facilities whilst retaining some classic period features.

The iconic Grand Pacific Hotel at dusk