Day 87 - Saturday 25 March - Glorious Great Ocean Road

Day 87

Saturday

25 March 2017

The Great Ocean Road

We woke to a clear and fine day; a great day for getting out for a drive, just as well that was what we had planned. We organised ourselves ready for a full day away from the van and headed out at 10am, filling the car with fuel, before finding the road sign stating the start of the Great Ocean Road and we were off.

We drove through Torquay, home to surf shops galore and we soon realised Bells Beach as well. The road began hugging the coast and of course opened up plenty of spectacular views which meant stopping every few km’s for the photo opportunities.

Just before we reached the signage that denotes the start of the road and the entering of the Otway National Park, we passed a home at Fairhaven Beach, built on a concrete pillar and accessible by a gangplank. It was an impressive sight and I assume a feat of engineering.  You can find out more at -www.greatoceanroadholidays.com.au/accommodation/13  - The Pole House.

We passed through a number of beachside towns, opting to continue on and come back on the way home. We made our way into the town of Lorne, where we did stop and get out to check out a boardwalk along the Erskine River to the beach. A bridge, leading to the beach, was being used by a bridal party for photos. The reflections off the river were pretty stunning.

We returned to the car shortly after and moved on to the other side of town to check out the pier.  There were plenty of fishermen out there catching their dinner and a lonely seal cruising the waters seeing how many fish he could scare away.

We had a glorious day for the drive, sunny and warm. We continued on, following the coast and admiring the view laid out before us. The road dipped and curved following the contours of the land it was placed on. Sheer rock faces to our right and a drop to the ocean to our left. We could see evidence  of recent land slides, small rocks still scattered on the road edge and large chunks of earth missing.

We passed through Wye River and Separation Creek, two communities devastated by recent bush fires; the trees still baring the scars of the fire. It really hit home how horrific the situation must have been for those both living and holidaying in the area at the time. Wye River was cut off on both sides leaving no option for escape if it was left too late.  The ruggedness of the land leading to the water behind the community would have been a ferocious sight seeing it alight and bearing down on them.

After passing through Skenes Creek, we were on to Apollo Bay where we stopped to have our lunch at the beach side park, though you couldn’t see the beach due to the thick vegetation present. They had some cool wood carved sculptures in the park to check out, before we walked the shopping and restaurant precinct.

After leaving Apollo Bay, we drove on to our final destination, Cape Otway, to check out the historic lighthouse built in 1848. It is apparently Australia’s most important lighthouse and the oldest surviving mainland lighthouse. It was designed to mark the entering of Bass Strait.  Unfortunately, when we got there we discovered they wanted to charge us $19.50 each to go into the complex. There was no way I was paying to check out a lighthouse, so we were straight back into the car and retracing our steps, through the seaside towns until we arrived at Airey’s Inlet at 4pm, pulling into Rogue Wave Brewery so Paul could try a tasting paddle of the beers they had on offer. It was so hot sitting outside in the sun, but it was lovely all the same.  

Once he had downed the tasting samples, we moved on, this time stopping at the famed Bells Beach. We parked up at the top of the hill and proceeded to walk the path, stopping at the various lookouts to check out those surfing. There were plenty of them, even though the water seemed fairly flat there. were grandstands up along the top, we assumed in readiness for the Easter weekend Pro competition.

After getting our fill of sea air, we continued down the road to Blackmans Brewery, where Paul again tried the tasting paddle of beers, while we sat out in the small beer garden surrounded by brew tanks.

Our bellies began rumbling, so it was time to get moving and head back to the van. We cooked up our dinner and ate, while I loaded the photos onto the computer. We were then keen to get out and go for a walk along the Barwon River, seeing we had spent most of the day sitting.

We followed the river edge through the suburbs as the sun set a hue of pinks and oranges reflected in the cloud cover. Paul spoke to Jaden as we wandered. We turned after passing under a number of traffic bridges. We watched the ungainly fruit bats flying around us, out to catch their share of insects. Some of them were really quite large.

Once back at the van, I continued to work on the photos and blog, while Paul wrote up his reviews of the beer’s he had today.  By 10pm it was time to turn off the electronics and crawl into bed.