Great Ocean Road - 1st October

See photo - Sign says it all.

We bid our friends in Geelong farewell and headed south towards the Great Ocean Road, it was the AFL Grand final and we have just under 4 weeks until we were to arrive back in Perth. It was the perfect way to start our trip as the roads were almost empty! Not that we are mad football fans but the score for historical reasons was, Geelong beat Collingwood by 38 points in the 2011 Grand Final.  

See photo - Amazing view even with the rain.

 

See photo - Great Ocean Road stop to take in the view.

See photo - Our friends the Blue Wren.

 As we headed south we stopped in at famous Torquay to see Bells Beach and the Kite Surfers in action, the boys had a little sand time and then it was off to Apollo Bay. Along the way the road was undulating and windy, we had a great clear run and stopped at Devils Elbow the view was fantastic........ but cold! Even with the rain the view was still breathtaking as we headed round each corner,  we eventually arrived at our caravan park just outside of town, it was situated right on the beach and we were across from another young family and the play park. We unhitched the van and there are no prises for guessing where the short ones went.......... yes the Play park!

See photo - Apollo Bay, 2 min walk from our caravan spot!

The park was great, being right on the beach the waves crashing in the distance it wasn't hard to see why it was almost fully booked across the AFL Finals weekend, we quickly made friends with a family of little Blue Wrens who kept the boys entertained as one tirelessly tapped our rear vision mirror thinking it was another male in his territory! The Rocky outcrop the park was situated on was like huge pieces of slate right on the beach, which effortlessly soaked up the heat from the sun during the day, this made for a comfortably warm place to relax and watch the boys play trucks in the late afternoon.



See photo - Look how close the boys are.

See photo - Our first sighting of the Koala's
in the wild, this one has a baby.

See photo - There were so many babies.

After an early night with the sound of the waves in the background we headed out to see the oldest lighthouse on mainland Australia "CAPE Otway Light station, the light, which has been in continuous operation since 1848 is still going. We arrived at the car park and headed for the ticked booth only to find it was $43 for a family.......... and you don't get a tour or get to go inside, so we decided this was a little excessive and resided in the fact we had seen some pretty good lighthouses for free (Byron Bay was the best) and hit the road. On the way back to the highway we found a lone Koala in a tree by the roadside, after a few photos we found out she was a mum and had a little one tucked under her belly, so we left them in peace and headed off.  Not more than 2km around the corner we found a clearing which looked as if a mini tornado had been thru the bush......... only to find more than 30 koalas in this one small clearing!, the closest being only 2 mt off the ground. Many had babies also so we got a few photos and headed for Maits Rest walking trail.

See photo - Look what the Koala's have done to the trees!

See photo - Walk through Maits Rest.

Maits Rest is a cold tropical Rain Forest, if that makes any sense?  it turned out to be a fantastic place inundated with Silver Ash and HUGE Tree Ferns some 15m tall, this is where the boys were able to see how a tree fern unfurls its fronds and how slowly they grow, some of the ferns must have been over 500 years old!

See photo - Beautiful Hopetoun Falls - very cold!

We left and headed for the Hopetoun Falls which was situated along 25km of dirt track, we arrived to hear the roar of the falls, from the lookout it was evident this was going to be quite a walk. We headed off and 20 min later ( all down stairs ) we arrived to the viewing platform, which was nice!. So over the railing went Riley and Dad and along an existing track to get an up close view which was spectacular!, We were covered in mist and could feel the roar of the water as it hit the rocks across the creek.



Koala on road side, never seen so many
in the wild!

We managed to make it back to the car without any drama and then stopped for some muesli bars and headed back along the dirt track around to the road to Apollo Bay, along the way we found a Koala just sitting on the side of the road, we managed to roll slowly up to him within 4 or so meters before he decided to wander off to the nearest tree for some dinner.......... so did we!



See photo - On the beach via Gibson Steps.

 

See photo -  Magic .. what a day to view the 12 Apostles.




See photo - 12 Apostles, main viewing area.

We packed up early and hit the road before 8am, we were heading for the 12 Apostles and the weather was perfect, not a cloud in the sky and hardly any cars on the road. Our first stop along the way was the Gibson Steps, here we could access the beach and grasp the enormity of these stone structures, the boys also had some fun on the beach before we were off to the 12 Apostles viewing area. We then headed along to the Lockard Gorge, in the car park to the boys delight... and dads, were two Bentley's, one old and one brand new, we headed for the viewing area where the Razor Back was the main attraction.

 

See photo - London Bridge.

We headed for Port Campbell and some fish n chips for lunch on the foreshore, then headed on to view The Arch and the famous London Bridge where in 1990 the first arch collapsed only minutes after tourists ventured across, subsequently they were stranded there for some hours before they could be rescued! what a day that would have been, "walk the arch, get a free helicopter ride and get on the news!" We were accompanied along the way by "Baby Brown" and "Wombie" whom also seemed to like the trip as they never complained or got the least bit car sick!

See photo - Boat Bay, can you see Squeaky parked up on the right.

We finished our trip along the Great Ocean Road with views of the Bay of Martyrs and Boat Bay where we saw the worlds steepest boat ramp! before heading for our overnight camp site on the Fitzroy River near Tyrendarra.



See photo - Boys having fun at Fitzroy River bush camp.



See photo - Cape Nelson Lighthouse.

We setup camp on the river and the boys had a blast running through the bush and playing amongst the ferns, we also build a little fire pit much to the boys delight, had dinner and then spent some time by the fire after putting the boys to bed. Following brekkie we headed into Portland which is Victoria's oldest town and the lighthouse for the views, we managed to see a crazy bloke fishing off the rocks below dodging the waves which were HUGE!!! Also nearby we visited the Blowholes and the famous Petrified Forest (which turned out to be Calcified soft earth pylons from millions of years ago)......... still pretty good though! not to mention the wind turbines.

See photo - View from Cape Nelson Lighthouse, there is a guy on the black rock on the water (see him in red)!

See photo - Petrified Forest.



See photo - View Squeaky had while we
walked Cape Nelson.



See photo - Close up of Petrified Forest .. amazing.

We left Portland and made our way to South Australia .. Here is our map of this adventure.

 Also we have had our YouTube slide show program crash and we can no longer make movies until we reload the software, which is at home!! Got to love technology.

Just updated the program here is the ytube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78cNOwlHKVQ