Part 2 'THE GREAT OCEAN ROAD'
By John Williams © January 2006
G'Day Mate!
My Shelia won't go to the beach to-day and learn to surf!.....
So tie your board next to mine on the roof rack of my 1969 VW
Camper
Van and we'll take off along the Great Ocean Road.
Our first stop over is Mount Gambier, the ocean road travels around
the
rim of a volcano called "Blue Lake".
This one-off spectical was worth the air fare alone as the photos
below show. You could also go insidethe pump house and
see the minerals which make it 'blue'.
the exported to Japan. Looking at the big rigs coming the other way at 70kph made me wince a bit because
I did not want to be like one of those flies on the front of the
radiator.
The first stop on the second day was a
trip on a Portland train.
And then onto the historic village of Port Fairy
(originally called Belfast). This was like walking
into a time warp, the village folk have kept
commercialisation at bay (not a Big Mac in sight),
the colonial building port shop in 1890
banks -pubs-church halls, all are original.
The shops were great -the best ice cream I've ever had
(coconut and raspberry): Stella had forest fruit
(made into a puree).
Best gift shop (I bought three carved fish).
Best cake shop I've been in, the apple turnover
was enough for two people (lookout waist band!)
and you can't beat fish and chips on the Quay (with a beer)
migrate in September from Alaska, 15000 kilometres away.
Stella did see a red kangaroo, the shop keeper told us it fell into the sea last week and a local surfer saved it from drowning!!
The Third day we had an appointment with
'The Twelve Apostles' well unfortunately we arrived too
late and there is only 8 1/2 limestone stacks remaining.
Up till now we had the cruise control set at 100kph, but
now it's down to 35kph because the road zigzags through
'The Otway Fly' Rain Forest, it was like driving through
Jurassic Park with mountain Ash, tree ferns, and cascading
waterfalls, with fireflies near the streams, you are never
far away from gorges or creeks.
They now have a 25m high elevated tree top walk!
first stop was the visitors information centre for places to stay, these centres are a fantastic resource for travellers. The staff know every place in the
region inside and out. The Apartment was on the hillside with sulpher crested cockatoo and crimson rosella birds in the trees, this elevated position gave
us a good view across the Loutit Bay.
of many falls in the area.
This is the last stop over on the Ocean Road before
Melbourne, so we had better get some gifts to take
home with us!
