I tried previously tried, to persuade Lucy to make The Great Ocean Road and Apollo Bay the focus of one of our weekends.  The road is constantly referred to (by Lucy) as the “Great Scary Great Ocean Road” and a refusal to contemplate the thought of driving it. She finally succumbed to my begging and tantrums well-considered argument. And we booked a lovely two-bedroom unit in Apollo Bay with ocean views.

History

The Great Ocean Road is a “Heritage listed 243-kilometre (151 mi) stretch of road along the south-eastern coast of Australia between the Victorian cities of Torquay and Warrnambool. Built by returned soldiers between 1919 and 1932, it is the world’s largest war memorial dedicated to World War I casualties. It is also an important tourist attraction in Victoria.

The scary part comes into play as it hugs the cliffs, bending and twisting with white knuckle S-bends as it winds it’s way through varying terrain alongside the coast. It is a single-lane road with nowhere to overtake other cars, save for a few cutouts where people can pull over and allow others to pass. There’s also the sheer ocean drop to consider. Hence, her rampant paranoia is an understandable concern. However, the Great Ocean Road also provides access to several landmarks, including the nationally significant Twelve Apostles, a series of limestone stack formations.”  There is a short excellent video history of the road HERE  that’s well worth watching.

Erskine Falls

Our trip down started in the sunshine on Friday morning. A tad cold, but beautiful sunny blue skies. We stopped off in Anglesea for an early lunch and continued. There was a brief stop at the Split Point Lighthouse at Aireys Inlet, back in the car on into Lorne and then up into the hills to see Erskine FalUnfortunately, ls. Unfortunately, I had left my glasses in the car – so I didn’t get the best shot as I could hardly see the settings and was NOT going back to the car to get them!   According to Parks Victoria, this was classed as a ‘moderate’ walk.  

Three hundred twenty steps down to the falls mean 320 back up. It was touch and go as to whether we would MAKE it back up. I took lots of wheezy breaks trying to suck air into my burning lungs. Legs wobbly and refusing to go up another step. If we had mobile reception, we might have been tempted to call in the rescue chopper! 😉

From Lorne, we continued to Apollo Bay, collected our house keys and walked around the harbour. After enjoying the sun at the port, we headed back to our unit, ramped up the heating and settled in to do some art. Working on our journals, ATCs for a swap etc.,

Cape Otway Lightstation

The following day the sun had left us – it was very overcast and windy, but no rain was predicted, so we headed to the Cape Otway Lightstation.  Driving along the road, the trees suddenly all looked stripped bare. It was a very odd sight. Then, we came across the culprit a bit further down the road. There is quite a large koala population. I don’t know what they plan to do when the food runs out cause the cupboard is bare!

Cape Otway Lightstation is the oldest surviving lighthouse in mainland Australia and has been in continuous operation since 1848.  Life must have been terribly lonely and bleak there a hundred years ago. Cape Otway Lighthouse is perched above massive cliffs where the Southern Ocean and Bass Street collide, and it’s no summer picnic. Great view, but wind-swept and bitterly cold.  However, spotting the cafe, we took refuge there for a serving of fresh scones with jam and cream and steaming hot coffee.  After the climb to Erskine falls, we didn’t do the lighthouse climb. Though, compared to split point and Erskine, it would have been a breeze (it’s not that tall due to the height of the cliffs it sits on)

Gibsons Steps

From Cape Otway, we then drove towards Port Campbell. Gibsons Steps was our next stop.  They are just before the Twelve Apostles and were initially a series of steps cut into the cliffside by Hugh Gibson (so he could get down to the beach to fish).  They have since been replaced by 84 concrete steps  – down to Gibsons Beach. Once on the beach, the limestone cliffs tower above you.  Leaving Gibsons Steps behind, we were off to the Twelve Apostles. There are seven of them, not twelve (there have never been twelve).  It was getting very grey with threatening skies. The sun came out briefly for a  few mins at a time – but we could see a storm coming – and Sunday was predicted to be quite wet.

Twelve Apostles

From the Twelve Apostles, we went into Port Campbell for lunch. Apart from the pub, a cafe and servo, Port Campbell seemed to be closed. I expected it to be bigger, and for 2 pm on Saturday, it was deathly quiet and empty.  We ate at the only cafe open – meals took almost an hour to arrive, and I was ready to walk out except that Lucy was chewing the table legs in hunger.

Once we wolfed our meal down, we headed back to Apollo Bay, bought dinner provisions, and returned to the unit just as the rain started. We had a good thunderstorm that night and brief sunshine again Sunday morning before the heavens opened again, and it kept raining quite heavily all day. So it’s a day for staying in and arting.  

As had been the case every time we went away – Monday was bright, sunny and very nice in the sun.  We left Apollo Bay a little before nine. I ate breakfast in Lorne and walked along the beach and through the rock pools. All in all, a delightful weekend. Our accommodation was very comfy. The weather was kind to us (considering it was winter, after all). We did art, ate junk food, talked, laughed and had a wonderful time.

Footnote:

In the months following our visit to the Cape Otway Lightstation, a secret koala cull was commenced to deal with the overpopulation.  For more info, you can see the article Here.