Day 1: Warrnambool to Port Campbell to Apollo Bay
We woke up in Warrnambool and enjoyed a nice, relaxing, slow morning. In Europe we were a lot less bound to schedule and had missed that freedom many of the mornings of this trip, so we indulged and took our time and had a breakfast of Rice Bubbles and milk (Rice Crispies…with Snap, Crackle, and Pop on the box…just called Rice Bubbles instead) and were on our merry way.
The weather was not fabulous, but it wasn’t raining every minute, so I bargained with the rain fairy and told her that if we could get some pauses in the storms when we reached the lookout points along the Great Ocean Road then we could still be friends.
First stop was Logan’s Bay, the nursery area for the Southern Right Whales…only after standing around for over half an hour and getting colder and colder, we gave up. From there it was nearly lunch time, so we decided to start our Great Ocean Road drive and to visit “Cheeseworld” when we came to it…a cheesy name I know… ha. So as we reached Cheeseworld, storm clouds were brewing and we visited the local wine and cheese shop as we waited for lunch to start being served. After we ordered our food and sat down at our table a torrential downpour with very high winds hit and we were most glad to be inside, warm and cozy, and not in the rain. It’s been in the 40’s and low 50’s and is very wet and extremely windy. Gross weather.
After Cheeseword, we left with a small scoop of ice cream (for me) and a sizeable chocolate malt milkshake (for Daniel) who had not anticipated how large the milkshake was going to be – it tasted like pureed whoppers and was delicious…but I thought the boy was going to jump out of his skin after he drank it he had such a ridiculous sugar rush…he had some funny rain man impressions and was very entertaining for a good hour as he coped with his sugar surge…
And finally, we reached some of the look out points along the Great Ocean Road – which was absolutely beautiful. The rocks are made of a softer kind of rock, sandstone, clay, etc and jut out of the water, but are steadily being worn away –some of the bases of the rocks are teeny tiny and you can tell the whole tower jutting out of the ocean will soon topple. Sometimes the water carves out arches, sometimes caves, sometimes it just eats away at the base – but it’s all very pretty because the ledges have distinctive layers and coloring. The wind was extremely high and the seas seemed very powerful, cold, and menacing. My favorite two views were the Bay of Martyrs and the London Bridge. The way it works is you see a brown sign, you pull off, you walk the marked trail to the lookout and then can enjoy your view and take pictures. You strongly acknowledge and believe the signs that say “wandering off the path is dangerous and sudden subsidence may occur” or the ones that say “cliffs may crumble without warning, stay on marked path” -- the wind is gusting, the sea is mighty and swelling with fury, and on the other side of the ledge you’re standing on is Antarctica – you’d listen to the signs too!
So we spent several hours doing the following routine – we’d see a sign and pull over, we wait and see what the rain looked like, if we thought we had time we’d make a break for it, we’d take lots of pictures, brace ourselves against the wind, enjoy the view, scurry back to the car, and then try to gently wipe all the salt water from our lens.
Now the wind. At some of the stops the wind was really really STRONG. We talked to the guy at the lighthouse yesterday and he said that there were sustained winds of 120 kilometers during the afternoon – not including the wind gusts – there was one walk we did that was ridiculous – we fought the wind the entire time and avoided one of the trails because the wind was picking up mist from the water and drenching one of the walking paths. The Twelve Apostles is the most famous of all of the lookouts – and there was a wind tunnel like experience there. I’ve never been in winds so strong…there were times when we lost balance trying to walk towards it and walk the boardwalk ledge! We took some video to try to illustrate the strength…it really was impressive. We really had a lot of fun ducking in and out of the lookouts and enjoying some of the amazing views - it really was a great day!
The Twelve Apostles was the last major stop we had, so from there we drove through Great Otway National Park and the Otway ranges and made our way towards Apollo Bay, a pleasant, sleepy town on the water’s edge. Our accommodations were very pleasant and had a very nice “order breakfast to your room” option that came with a ten dollar credit. It was nice and cozy and we found a great restaurant just down the road that had a delicious Mediterranean chicken dish and kangaroo steak.
Day 2: Apollo Bay to Lorne to Torquay
We had another lovely, lazy morning in Apollo Bay and enjoyed our “room service” breakfast. After that we doubled back a bit and went down to Cape Otway to visit the lighthouse – which is where we were assured that the previous day was a pretty windy day, but were also told that in really stormy weather they had recorded gusts of 180 and 190 kilometers. Crazy.
After the light house we started our drive northeast on the Great Ocean Road – this time instead of high cliffs with lookouts that had land that was falling away at the edges, we saw lots of hard rock ledges that were lower to the water and great surfing swells. We stopped at a few of the lookouts and enjoyed the view, but again were playing the dodge-the-rain-game. We had initially planned to go into the forests and hike and then do the vineyard at Otway Estates – but one, it was really cold and rainy and would have been an absolutely miserable hike and two, Otway Estates would have been a four hour plus detour. (It’s a lot easier to figure out things once you’re actually there). So, we ditched those efforts and enjoyed the Great Ocean Road views instead.
We stopped for lunch in a little town named Lorne and I got a great pasta dish and Daniel enjoyed a nice lamb curry. We also found a bookstore where I could pick up another Janet Evanovich book to keep me occupied on the plane trip home. (What better way to pass part of the 20+ hours of flight time home, right?) I actually feel MUCH better knowing I have the book to read on the way! From there we hit the road again and after many winding, curvy roads and beautiful rocky beaches, we made our way to Torquay. (Pronounced Tore-key…almost like turkey)…and Warrnambool is Wah-nah-bool. While we were on the live aboard I asked the girl from Melbourne (Mel-bun) how to say everything so I didn’t embarrass myself too much. That seems to be the rule of thumb in Australia – point at the word and ask a local. Daniel’s been drafting a rules of pronunciation, but it’s getting pretty complicated. Q’s and R’s have a lot of rules it seems…
So, we reached Torquay and discovered that our hotel was another B&B – we didn’t like the last one, so we cringed, but this one was woooonnnnderful. We loved it – very nice, not overbearing people, a heated Jacuzzi (thank God, because I was freezing), beautiful rooms and very comfy bed, billiard room, fire place area, view of the water from some of the rooms – much nicer. And, we had robes to wear to the Jacuzzi, fresh tea and coffee in the room, and fresh biscuits in a jar waiting for us. (BTW – Australia is very British…biscuits are whatever you would have with tea – brownies, cookies, etc.)
We crashed in the room and thawed for a bit and then went exploring. We shopped a bit in the downtown area and then ate at a nice restaurant named Growlers. We had a bunch of starters and called it a night. We hit up the Jacuzzi and I finally got warmed up (there’s a car conflict with the AC versus nothing versus low heat) and spent a nice relaxing evening back at our hotel.
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