Great Ocean Road

Australia 2013 Backblip #14

Up, breakfasted then took a tram towards the centre of town. We then walked across town away from the tram route and found Avis to pick up our hire car.

The car was an automatic, which made it somewhat difficult for us to adjust to, but it didn't take too long. There was an easy route away from the car hire company onto the M1 westbound towards the great ocean road. Signs here are quite good, though everything is in kilometers.

After driving out of town our first stop was at Torquay, where we had a short walk along the beach. Sharon then took over the driving and we worked out where reverse was. Next, we stopped at Anglesea where we purchased lunch and drove on to a car park further around the bay. We sat on the beach and ate lunch watching the waves and surfers. We were protected by a seagull who chased off every other bird that came close, so he could have first pickings of whatever we happened to drop.

We turned off the road and found a high lookout which gave us some panoramic views over the coast. It was the site of an old World War II observation point.

Our next stop was at Airey's Inlet where we saw Split Point Lighthouse. This has often been used for TV and Film including Mad Max and Round The Twist. We had a short walk which let us take photos of some lovely rocky coastline and then we had tea and cake in the cafe. Next, we drove on a bit further and took more photos from beach level of the lighthouse.

We then drove further down the Great Ocean Road, stopping at various viewpoints before driving straight through Lorne. We then drove through to Apollo Bay, stopping just short of the town to drive up a steep hill to Marriner's Lookout where we again got some great views of the coast. After a short time up there we drove down into town and found our hotel.

Dinner was Fish and Chips (Gummy Flake and Flathead) at a local chippy.