Great Ocean Road & 4 Seasons in one Day

Well I hope u all picked a winner in the Melbourne Cup. I had $5 ea way on Shocking so that was nice. Haven't got to a TAB yet to pick up my winnings.

After a great 2 days with Wayne & Carol we decided we should make a move along the Great Ocean Road. We didn't get away until lunch time because Joyce was too busy mucking around & deciding to do washing, etc. Up until lunch time the weather had been raining, windy, sunny, cold - it fact it was a crappy day. We should have stayed where we were for another day cos Thursday was beautiful.

Anyway off we headed. What a sight the Great Ocean Road is - the scenery is out of this world. You drive along seeing some of the most amazing coastline & then next you are in Rain Forest area.

Some of the spectacular sights to see were the Bay of Islands, The Arch, The Grotto, London Bridge,Thunder Cave, Razor Back, The 12 Apostles, Loch Ard Gorge. We did quite a bit of walking to get to some of the lookout points to view these sites. We stayed at Johanna Beach camp site on the Wednesday night & then back tracked to go to Otway Fly - which is a 600m long 25m elevated tree top walk which also includes a climb up a 47m high lookout - fantastic.

The London Bridge use to be bigger that it was - but broke up many years ago. Also the 12 Apostles is losing some of their majestic sites due to the weather effects on the limestone. Some history on the Apostles is that in the early years they were called "Sow & Piglets". The Sow was Mutton Bird Island and the Piglets were the surrounding rock formations to the east. The name was changed around 1846. You can not see all the 12 Apostles - from the lookout you see 7 and the rest are hidden by other rocky outcrops. We were going to take a helicopter ride over them but it was going to cost $130 each for a 15 minute ride & you were at over 1,000 ft. Also weather not that good we decided against it.

The coastline is really rugged & there are some spots along the way that would be good surfing beaches.

Apollo Bay is another lovely fishing & seaside resort town & we took a wander around the town before again setting off on the road. We had hoped to camp at Wye River but the free camp site was locked up and the other caravan park was a Big 4 (no dogs). So after a couple of drinks at the local pub, overlooking the ocean, we continued our journey until we reached Lorne. A beauitful seaside town. We are camped at a caravan park that doesn't allow dogs & today we are going to head into Erskine Falls & stay at a camp site called Big Hill.

The visit to Erskine Falls was interesting. We weren't able to drive the car with caravan attached into the Falls parking area. Information Bureau said just to park at the entrance and it was a 5 min walk in!! Rubbish it was about 20 minutes all downhill (steep). Once at the falls we went to the first level (Pat stopped there) & I went to the lower level. That was 320 steps each way!! Then of course we were going to have to do the walk back up. Pat wasn't too keen on that - especially as his knees were playing up. Anyway we asked a couple if they would mind giving us a lift back up the top & they were happy to oblige.

We went out to Big Hill & it is a great camp site. Very peaceful. Only 1 other car here. We are spending tonight here as well. The people we want to catch up with in Torquay are in Melbourne til Sunday afternoon. We will leave here in the morning, try & get a roll up of bowls in at Lorne Bowls Club & then go on to Torquay. Probably stay there two nights.

My eye is still not a 100% - although has improved quite a lot.I have contacted my optometrist and he has advised to get it checked in Geelong. He has given me the name of someone so will probably do that.

The weather today is absolutely beautiful. I am sitting outside finishing updating this blog & will download the photos. Internet/phones won't work inside the van!!

Have a good weekend all.

Nov 5, 2009

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