Great Ocean Road

Great Ocean Road between Lorne and Apollo Bay

London Bridge has fallen down

The Arch

Yesterday is a blur in my memory. We drove almost the entire length of The Great Ocean Road in one day, leaving Jack and Sue’s home in Blackburn at 9:30 a.m. and arriving at our accommodation in Port Fairy in the dark at 7 p.m. I wouldn’t recommend that anyone cover the 290 km. in one day, because there is too much to see and do. We arrived in Lorne after three hours and had lunch at the Bottle of Milk. Sorry Jack, but we missed Bell’s Beach – the road was closed – I guess because of the surfing event held there the day before. We started down the road and the sign said Wrong Way Turn Back. We went to the detour sign but it just led us to the main road again, so we had to give it a miss. Next time.
The stretch of road between Lorne and Apollo Bay is dramatically beautiful with many scenic turnouts. We didn’t realize that the Ocean Road was built by soldiers who returned from WWI. The government made an effort to employ the survivors of the Great War and building this road was one of the projects. It also serves as a tribute to these men who built the road with picks, shovels and crowbars. The road is 400 km long with spectacular views all along. If we had had more time we would have taken a hike either along a coastline or in the Otway National Park that we drove in and out of along the way.

The most stunningly beautiful sights come at the end with the Twelve Apostles, The Arch and London Bridge. The rain was tipping down when we were at the viewing area for the Apostles. We waited it out with a cup of tea in the visitors centre and ventured out again to take in the beauty of the site.

When we arrived at The Arch and London Bridge, about 1 hour later, the sun had come out and was shining on the formations so we took some memorable photos. Apparently one can see the Blue Penguins (or Fairy Penguins as they call them here) at sunset, but we felt we must head toward Port Fairy as we still had some distance to go. We arrived at dark and had a bit of difficulty finding The Coastal Barn, our self-contained apt. for the night. When we finally found it tucked away on a back street, it was all dark, but the owner who lived next door was on the lookout for us and gave us a very warm welcome. She provided a basket of food for the next day’s breakfast, fresh eggs from her own chickens, ham, juice, coffee, a loaf of wholegrain bread and date bread slices to have with a cup of tea. We headed into town and tried one restaurant but it was fully booked because it was Sat. p.m. They recommended Saltra Bistro. They could only sit us in the bar and serve us a limited bar menu because they were fully booked, but we didn’t mind as we were tired and wanted to get back to our cosy B and B ASAP. We enjoyed their Prickly Moses draft beer, it was cold and really hit the spot.

During the night rain began and by 6 a.m. was pelting down. We felt very snug under the covers as we dozed waiting for morning light. We enjoyed our cooked breakfast before heading out for the next day’s adventures.