A three hour flight from Christchurch (NZ), took us to Melbourne (the flight time just enough to watch Oppenheimer!), then it was another car hire, unsurprisingly this one also absent of a sat nav, not to worry, we were getting used to directions by phone, plus the Great Ocean Road... it couldn't be simpler .... all we had to do was keep the ocean to our left!
We needed to leave the airport first, and navigate to our first night's destination at Geelong, a 60 minute drive south west of the airport, the chosen destination for the start of our Great Ocean Road trip.
Our schedule included a 3 night stay on the southern ocean road, the first night in Geelong, moving on to Apollo Bay, and finishing in Warrnambool, before heading back over to Melbourne for 3 more nights.
Checking in to our accommodation in Geelong (Vue) located near the prom, it was my turn to let Jo that we had been given a unexpected upgrade, no penthouse this time, just a bigger apartment, so after a quick park of the car and a decamp of our bags, we were off in search of a place for dinner after a long day of travel.
Geelong, a mix of industrial port and coastal resort, with a marina and an interesting boardwalk which led out and around the bay was surprising, particularly as it appeared to go to sleep around 8pm, however we eventually came across a place to eat that was still open, after we had walked the majority of the town.
Up early the following morning, we set out towards the gateway of the Great Ocean Road, pesky Geelong had other thoughts as we were taken on a magical mystery detour, large sections of the main coastal road was closed for repairs, the detour signage mostly non existent, not a problem .... as it was back to Google Maps and a few extra miles going around the leafy suburbs... all typical Ramsay Street locations.
"The Great Ocean Road" started life in 1919, taking 3,000 Australian ex servicemen 13 years to construct, its purpose was to help connect isolated townships along the state of Victoria's spectacular south west coast, it is now a well travelled tourist route, our coastal drive would take around 180 miles to the finish in Warrnambool.
Torquay (in Victoria) is the official start of the route and became our first stop after leaving Geelong, this Torquay (much like the UK's Torquay of "English Riviera" fame) is also self proclaiming, this one being the "Surfing Capital of Oz".
An inviting menu in the busy surf dude cafe right on the beach provided a great lunch, the town qualifying its credentials by boasting a museum dedicated to surfing. Torquay's beach sitting on the Bass Strait (the sea between mainland Oz and Tasmania) also supported its claim by showing off its big crashing waves onto a long stretch of golden sand.
Our drive took in a detour to Split Rock Lighthouse (fondly known locally as the White Queen), also found its way into a Mad Max film, the lighthouse was built in 1891 to help safeguard vessels navigating the treacherous waters of the Bass Strait, noting tales of many ship wrecks.
This was was the first place we came across the sulphur Crested Cockatoos, a noisy and sociable little blighter.. happy to join in if a picnic was on offer, their sightings alerted by lots of squawking, we then noticed their increasing prominence as we traversed along the mainland of Australia's most southern road.
The Great Ocean Road continued as we passed countless expanses of picture perfect surf friendly empty beaches with crashing white and blue waves, the road was an undulating and winding drive along the coast, we drove up, down and around the hills before getting to Apollo Bay, our stop for the second night.
Apollo Bay is a pretty coastal town boasting the most southern pub on mainland Australia, we arrived at our accommodation on the one street town by the picturesque beach and small working harbour, looking out the bay known as Lady Bay, our accommodation was aptly named the Waterfront.
Being a hot and sunny day at 28 degrees, a refreshing beer stop beckoned us into the "Great Ocean Road Brewhouse" the most southern pub on mainland Australia, with the choice of over 100 craft beers to choose from.
After our needed hostelry pit stop, we took a wander around the little harbour occupied by fishing boats and lobster pots, coming across the local chip shop the "Fisherman's Cooperative", proudly boasting to be the freshest chippery in the state of Victoria.
(NB: There are lots of places with "ry" added to the word......used to describe what they do / or serve..... favourites so far in Oz have been chippery, foodary, winery, and cyclery!!!.... a shop hiring bikes!!)
At the Fishermans Co-Op (est. 1948), we had to stop, the location, the view, the rustic nature, the appeal of the freshest fish, and no more than a wooden shack with wooden old benches outside in the sunshine.
Fish choices were plentiful all with intriguing names, plus a 'catch of the day" option which Jo settled on, turns out it was barumundi and rather tasty by all accounts, snapper and southern rock lobster were also popular choices.
To walk off dinner, we went for an amble along Lady Bay, heading for Thunder Point.
The long sandy beach opposite our accommodation stretched for over 5km, providing a surf spectacle in the sunset, the thought of seeing a few penguins returning home from a day out in the Strait was our hope, but sadly it was not to be, we were on a beach too close to town, later finding out that the penguins had a more secluded nesting place just around in the next cove. In a way that was pleasing they were away from the nosy noisy tourists, some who are less mindful about preserving wildlife.
Leaving Apollo Bay we both agreed it was a great stop over location, a picturesque place to stay with great views, helped along by very friendly locals, if we had more time we'd liked to have stayed a little longer.
Our journey continued, through The Great Ottaway National Park, with its huge redwood trees densly lining the road as we took a turn inland.
It wasn't long before we hit more road works with temporary traffic lights, this became a bit of a fortuitous hold up, as a car was parked by the side of the road, and the occupants were out looking up at a tree.
Taking our attention toward a clump of gum trees (eucalyptus), a family of 3 koalas were sitting happily having their pictures taken, of course we stopped and joined in, the koalas seemed quite comfortable with the attention.
Reluctantly we left the furry tree huggers to more passing motorists after a number of photos were taken, continuing through the Port Campbell National Park, we were back to the coast with the ocean still on our left, shortly arriving at the site of the Twelve Apostles.
A visitor centre and large car park was located on the opposite side of the road to the ocean, initially a little confusing until we were saw the underpass leading down to a board walk, a sign stated a 600m stroll would take us to a look out point on the end of the ocean.
The Twelve Apostles, (as they are still known as) despite only half of them now left, the giant eroding soft limestone rock stacks, (eroding at around 2cm per annum) are pounded by the raw power of the ocean waves.
The six that are now still visible also suffer from rainwater seeping into cracks and weakening their structure, the great thing is that these sentinels look over an underwater paradise, with a rich marine life of outstanding bio diversity, home to giant cuttlefish and pot bellied sea horses in a forest of bull kelp.
The area was full of water and land life, as I had noticed a sign at the start of the path leading to the look out point expressing venomous snakes in the area, distracting Jo just enough that she failed to see the first big yellow warning sign, I was not so lucky about 300m later at the second sign, at that point she was committted, so continued our walk albeit a little more gingerly, Jo keeping dead central on the path leading towards the Bass Strait.
It was worth it, as we enjoyed taking a bit of time to view these well photographed icons of the Great Ocean Road, we also took a few pictures!
The walk back to the car was at pace, no idea why!!!
Safely back in the car we headed off, frequently stopping off for more lovely pictures at other lookout points along the way including the pretty Martyrs Bay, before arriving in Warrnambool, our location for the night.
Our accommodation (Old Maritime) was connected to days gone by, through its maritime history in Warrnambool, located at the top of Flagstaff Hill, next to a maritime museum hosting a preserved collection of buildings making up a small settlement dating back to the early settlers, the location chosen due to a need for a lighthouse, to help vessels navigate the treacherous waters around the rocky bay and coves below.
Whilst in Warrnambool I received a message from a former work colleague Duncan, who had moved with his family to Australia in 2002, noting that he would be in Melbourne when we were there, so a catch up and dinner was planned for a few days later.
Before leaving the historic town, we took a little drive to explore more of the headland and outlying areas.
Taken a bit by surprise as I was driving, a large kangaroo hopped across the road just in front of the car, thankfully the car was going around 20 mph as it was a shore road and no other traffic about.
Our marsupial surprise seemed to be just taking in the scenery, any faster and Kevin (as we named him) would have been a road kill statistic, however Kevin took a leisurely hop along the road for a while .... in front of two startled brits before disappearing into the deep shrubbery. (NB: we continued to be on high alert..... becoming avid wallaby & wildlife watchers!)
To conclude the ocean drive, the furthest west we ventured was Port Fairy with its two large and very different beaches, East Beach, a family friendly expanse of golden sand, the other named Pea Soup, with its rocky outcrops, a challenging beach with many surfers getting big wave action on this wilder shore.
Leaving Warnambool we stopped off at a small family run wildlife sanctuary, greeted by Brad, a chap with a very strong outback accent, on hearing our dulcet tones, he asked where we were from... turns out he has been in Oz for 12 years ....originally from Farnborough!! Brad and his partner Lara now run the place, (previously Lara's parents did).
Bookings are in small groups of around 20 people, giving everyone a chance to get up close to a range of native animals, some cold blooded reptiles one being a yellow snake (non venemous) and the choice to hold it or if a little braver drape around our necks.... before Brad uttered the word "sn...." Jo had bolted for the door having already positioned herself by the nearest exit, expecting that some reptiles would make an appearance. I stayed long enough to stroke the various reptiles and more fluffier animals (possum / wombat) offered to the group before joining Jo outside watching the wallabys.
Outside a noisy kookaburra family were nesting and feeding their chicks in the trees above, and the pacing dingos were thankfully kept in a huge pen, the koalas and little swamp wallabys were all being quite sociable and inquisitive.
We spent about an hour wandering about the enclosure, feeding the various animals with fruit and what appeared to be rather tasty green pellets, it was a lovely little sanctuary and seemed very much about animal welfare and preservation.
Leaving our new furry friends behind, the rest of the return drive to Melbourne gave us route options, we chose the faster inland route back to the city, Google Maps and Waze providing competing options... we also took some interesting off beat roads.... some a little dusty and just as you may imagine the outback to be, the SUV feeling a few bumps!!
A few hours later, we arrived at our AirBnB on the Southbank, just a 5 minute stroll toward the city took us to the brown Yarra River, a busy locals and tourist hub of the city with loads of busy bars and restaurants.
Jo had been to Melbourne on a work related matter in 2014, so was familiar with parts of it, and noted that not much had changed, and it still had the free trams!!
We spent the day using the free tram area initiative, which was fantastic, covering a huge chunk of Melbourne's CBD for both tourists to explore the city, and locals to commute, the impact felt like traffic seemed lighter for a city centre. It also saved us walking in the heat, being around 30 degrees in the sunshine.
Our meandering took us around the city, a mix of both modern and older buildings dating back to the 1850's gold rush as well as its Victorian heritage, old next to modern skyscraper offices and apartments.
In the evening we met up at a restaurant well chosen by Duncan for dinner, in a lovely location on the south side of the Yarra River, (he knew the area well from his extreme cycling events). A fab meal, great wine (more about Duncan and his wine in the Sydney edition) and a really great catch up was had, having last saw Duncan about 2 years ago when he was over in the UK.
Duncan lives in Sydney, so we arranged to hopefully meet up again when we get there (if he could get a day off work), first we would be leaving Melbourne for Tasmania.
The following day we took a little drive out to St Kilda by the ocean, and then onto nearby Brighton with its sandy beach, before heading to Philip Island for the evening (home of a Little Blue Penguin colony).
The drive to Philip Island (south east of the city) would take about 90 minutes, and due to the penguins not coming back to shore until after sunset, we thought would be there until about 10pm, getting back to our accomodation around midnight, we were keeping it a bit tight to pack for our 9.50am flight to Hobart the following morning....
The drive to Philip Island quickened once we had left the city's suburban commuter traffic despite more lengthy detours (lots of big road works in Oz it seems).
Philip Island has a huge visitor centre and penguin colony, the boardwalk leading down to the shore 400m (compared to Omarau in NZ it was a massive site).
As we ambled along the boardwalk we noticed a few penguins still at home (likely due to moulting as that phase makes their feathers no so waterproof... a stay at home for a couple of weeks until feather are ready before hitting the high seas again), the little penguins were easy to spot as it was still light, a number of kangaroos happily hopped about their nests houses.
Taking a seat by the ocean, we watched the penguin parade again..... just magical.
Then it was time to head back to the city, arriving back just before midnight, we packed and loaded our bags into the car, set the alarm for 6am.
At 7.03am ... I woke up... lights on... Jo then woke up... what happened to the alarm? Turns out it was on "quiet mode"..
We left the apartment after quick showers at 7.25 and were at the airport and checked in by 8.15am...... phew.... we made it... we were off to Hobart.. Tasmania or Tassie as the locals call it.. and would be having a fabulous catch up with Val.
Next stop Tassie.....
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