The Great Ocean Road is one of those iconic road trips that every Australian (especially those from the southern states) is expected to make at least once in their lives, and this is my experience.
We left Warrnambool mid morning and followed the big brown signs which directed us towards this great Australian icon. Our first stop was only 15 minutes down the road, and saw me jumping around in the car with excitement as we pulled into the car park of "Cheese World" at Allansford. Now, everyone that knows me knows how much I love cheese so the prospect of a whole complex dedicated to one of my top five food groups was pretty damn exciting!! Well, let down of the century..... I spent a total of maybe five minutes inside, was told I couldn't do a tasting because it wasn't time yet, struggled to find any cheese amongst the shelves and shelves of imported souvenirs, cheeses and small goods. When I finally found the Allansford Cheese Factory cheeses on the shelf (one very, very small shelf) I was even more disappointed to find that all they had was several different flavours of cheddar. Cheddar!!! I can go and buy cheddar in any corner store or supermarket!! I wanted cheese, real cheese, camembert and brie, not cheddar!! So, back on the road we went....
Down the road a bit further we made a stop at Port Campbell for lunch. What a beautiful little town. We spent some time in the playground and on the skate park before I headed into the local history centre for a roam around the tiny museum and a lovely chat with the lady volunteering in the centre. They also had a fabulous range of locally made handcrafts to choose from for purchase. After lunch we all wandered down the main street to the small bay. When I say small bay, that is exactly what I mean too. The whole bay is only around 150 meters wide, and is edged by cliff faces both sides, except for the river running into it. It was stunning. We were all amused though by the sheer number of eateries in a town with only a dozen streets!
From Port Campbell onwards we met with the stunning coastline of the Great Ocean Road. The sheer cliff faces that look like they have been carved with a knife, waves that crash in over the limestone and a sea that is as blue as the sky. The first of many stops was the "Bay of Islands". Scenery like that is just awe inspiring. It really does make you stop and think about how insignificant humans are in the history of the planet. To see what nature can do is amazing. We also made stops at London Bridge, the Grotto and Thunder Cave. Each one as stunning as the last and the next.
My favourite stop along this section of road, however, was definitely Loch Ard Gorge, despite the multitude of coaches and enough people to fill the MCG! E and I made the trek down the stairs first and we were fascinated by the gorge and spent quite some time looking around and talking about it's history. When we finally made it back up the stairs E took R down so he could have a look and she could show him around. I would have loved to spend some time there without crowds of people. It was amazing.
Our last sight seeing stop for the day was to the 12 Apostles. They had a huge visitor centre there, but we didn't go in, we headed straight for the scenery. Again we were in the midst of crowds of people but did get to have a good look and got some lovely silhouetted photos as the sun was going down. We all had a giggle at the most straight forward of warning signs we had ever seen. "Warning, do not climb over fences, you could fall and die!"
We had planned on free camping at Joanna Beach that night but as we had taken longer than we expected getting from Port Campbell we decided to stop in Princetown instead. We drove into the Recreation Grounds and organised our campsite for the night. As we drove further around the oval we were greeted with the sight of over a hundred kangaroos surrounding us!! We had never before seen so many kangaroos in one place, until E did an "ooga booga" dance and scared them all away!! LOL. It was cold that night, really, really cold. Even the discarded pairs of jocks and undies on the oval were snap frozen!! Our poor air con just couldn't cope, as quick as it finished its defrost cycle it had frozen again. The only thing that made the cold withstand-able was the kangaroos that again greeted us in the morning, but this time only meters away from the car.
We left Princetown in the morning and headed for the inland section of our trip through to Apollo Bay. Again we were left speechless at the awesome beauty of the landscape we were travelling through. It wasn't long before we were heading up, up and up into the Otway National Park, towards Lavers Hill. I have to say I was somewhat nervous as we twisted and turned on a rather narrow road with drops off the side larger than I care to estimate in distance, and found that the roads were so sheltered by the enormous trees that there was moss and ice on the road. We were all pretty much in awe of the size of the trees through this area. The drive from Lavers Hill downwards to Apollo Bay was no less amazing, but I was somewhat relieved when the hills started to level out a little and I could finally see the bottom of the drops off the road. It was about lunch time when we found and checked into our caravan park in Apollo Bay. We were immediately taken with this little town wedged between the ocean and the hills.
No comments:
Post a Comment