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The Coastal Route is the Great Ocean Road
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We bid adieu to Gord and Margo in the Launceston Airport as they boarded a flight to Sydney and then on to Kiama to rejoin their family.
Our flight to Melbourne took a little less than an hour and we were greeted by sunny skies and 26 degrees. We picked up our new Holden Trailblazer rental without any problems and were soon out of the airport and on our way southwest to Torquay for lunch and the start of our Great Ocean Road experience. Just a few kilometer more we arrived at Anglesea for our first overnight.
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Holden Trailblazer - Our Chariot For The Tour
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We checked into the Anglesea Ocean Resort in the early afternoon and enjoyed the sun before walking around the town. Deborah and I took a stroll to the beach while Randall and Doreen headed inland to find the Anglesea Golf and Country Club.
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The Beach At Anglesea
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Our original plan was to golf with the Kangaroos the following day. The course is gorgeous and heavily populated with kangaroos. Unfortunately, we woke the next morning to grey skies and pounding rain. The thunder was so loud Deborah thought a plane had crashed into the resort. We had to settle for buying souvenir golf shirts and dinner at the club. That evening, the club president signed us in and the folks could not have been nicer. We had a window table overlooking the 18 hole and were thoroughly entertained by the kangaroos as they hopped and munched around the green.
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Official Guest Of The Anglesea Golf Club
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First Tee Box
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Don't Hit To The Fringe
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Roast Beef Dinner At The Club
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Note The Tail Of The Joey Hanging Out Of Mom's Pouch
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This is a good time for another weather comment. Since our arrival, all the bush fires that had dominated international media almost immediately ceased to exist. We brought the rain. Sadly it hasn’t really abated and parts of the country are now underwater.
We have had a shower or two almost every day. I have lost count of the number of times I have quoted the movie immortal Captain Ron, “It's just a squall, they come on ya fast and they leave ya fast.” One minute your cooking in the sun and the next your running for cover.
Due to the weather, we jumped in the car and explored the first portion of the Great Ocean Road. We went as far west as Loren, stopping along the way to take in the coastal scenes before stopping for lunch. Our first stop in Loren was to the Visitor Center to learn the story of the road. The project began in 1919, as a make-work project for returning veterans. The men used picks, shovels, and dynamite to create a link between the many fishing villages along the coast in the hopes of bringing people to the area.
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After Driving 3 Hours - Now They Tell Us!
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After an amble about the town, we drove into the hills for a short hike to the Erskine Falls. It was well worth the effort and safe as long as you stayed on the established paths. Lots of “Beware of Snakes” signs.
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"Snakes" - A Very Effective Way Of Keeping The Public On The Path
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Jungle Rainforest
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Erskine Falls
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It Was A Long Climb Up To The Parking Lot
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Randall's Wombat Nest Protection Stance
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After returning to Loren we took a walk on the Long Pier and were treated to a show by a squadron of Manta Rays. I wondered why there were so many gathered in one place until I witnessed a restaurant staff member dumping seafood waste off the pier.
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Loren's Long Pier
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Manta Reef Ray
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After another night's sleep in Anglesea, we set off again to explore the full GOR. It was my first time at the wheel and it took my full concentration not to get us killed while driving the twisty, narrow road, carved into the cliffs. All this in addition to driving on the wrong side of the road in a strange vehicle.
To avoid repeating myself with the descriptors of the magnificence of the vistas, I’ll let the pictures tell the story.
We stopped for lunch and a walk-about at Apollo Bay.
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One Of Many Beach Gathering Places Of Last Resort
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Then off to Otway National Park with a quick pull over to sight Koalas in Gum Trees before visiting the historic Otway Lighthouse.
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They Are Very Shy & Hard To Spot
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Road To Lighthouse
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Have I Mentioned Snake Warnings?
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Otway Lighthouse - 1848
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Deborah & Doreen
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The highlight of the GOR was the 12 Apostles. These natural edifices are the result of erosion of the limestone by the angry wind and seas of the Bass Strait. We stopped at the Gibson Stairs, the only place you can access the beach and hiked down to get a greater sense of the scale. We also stopped just down the road to get more pics and visit the Apostle Centre before another squall drove us off the cliffs.
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Did I Mention That There Were Snakes
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A Few Of The Apostles
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From The Beach In A Squall
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And Then The Sun Came Out
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To finish an already long day we headed inland through cattle country before cutting back to the sea to our destination at Warrnambool. We saw some interesting mass gatherings of cows in confined paddocks and wondered what it was all about when Doreen astutely observed, “it must be how they produce condensed milk!”
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Condensed Milk Herd
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We arrived in Warrnambold, checked into the Midtown Hotel, had a few drinks, a late dinner and then said good night to a long day.
