B & T Travels

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Day 20 – July 15 – Great Ocean Road

We took a trip down the Great Ocean Road from Geelong to Apollo Bay. We made the great decision of purchasing a “GuideAlong” Tour which is an app that gives…

We took a trip down the Great Ocean Road from Geelong to Apollo Bay. We made the great decision of purchasing a “GuideAlong” Tour which is an app that gives lots of good information about a tour as you drive along. We learned about the history of the Great Ocean Road (it was first built, by hand, after World War 1 by soldiers who returned from the war). We saw lots of amazing sights and had a great drive along the coast.

Our first stop included the town of Torquay (pronounced Torr – K) which is one of the surfing capitals of the world. We saw lots of surf shops and visited some of the famous beaches there. We were able to watch several surfers braving the cold water and temperatures (they all had wet suits on) as we visited. The pictures below are of Bells Beach. Each April they hold one of the top surfing competitions in the world.

Bells Beach – the waves were not huge today but still big enough for some surfers to be out there. If you zoom in you can see a few in the water.
The beach is surrounded by large cliffs that allows lots of spectators to watch during the surfing competitions.
More views of the beach.

Point Addis – Another surfing spot and also a marine sanctuary. Beautiful views of the ocean.

Sign that describes the marine sanctuary here at Point Addis. Although the marine life is protected here, surfing is still allowed.
Addis Point looking northeast.
Addis Point looking southwest.

We saw kangaroos! Our tour app guided us to a golf course that has a resident population of kangaroos. We got some great pictures of them along the fairways!

Split Point Lighthouse at Aireys Inlet. We stopped at the lighthouse and took in amazing views at this important point.

Split Point Lighthouse – we didn’t go up into the lighthouse but did walk around the area.
Looking northeast along the coast. If you look closely you can see a person on a surfboard using a paddle to paddle around.
Looking southwest from the lighthouse.

Our next two stops were short stops at interesting landmarks. The first was an arch that is a tribute to the Australian soldiers who fought in World War 1 and helped build the road. The other pictures are of Erskine Falls. The falls were a 15-minute drive off the main road but was well worth the drive.

Great Ocean Road Arch – tribute to soldiers that worked on building the road.
Erskine Falls – a view from the upper overlook. We wanted to walk to the bottom of the falls for a better look but the walkway was damaged from recent rains and flooding.
Rainforest in the Otway National Park near Erskine Falls. Look the diversity of plants here and the ferns were huge.

More stops along the way – the road has tons of overlooks and stops…there were too many to stop at every one!

Artillery rocks – the rocks here have been eroded away by the ocean. However, many of them look like cannonballs or artillery shells so this area was called Artillery rocks.
We stopped at one pullout and made sandwiches for lunch.
The road has lots of plaques like this one that show important people or sights. Howard Hitchcock was one of the people who helped found the road.

Kennett River – we stopped at a natural area by the Kennett River that has a population of koalas. We went on a 2-mile hike to try to find them but did not see any. Instead, we got lots of mud and some beautiful birds.

Purple Swamphen – common Australian water bird that feeds in marshes and shallow waters.
Crimson rosella – eat seeds, fruit, and insects and are common in the south Australian area.
Cockatoo – beautiful birds that have become aggressive to people because people feed them. The birds then expect each person to feed them. We had a few individuals from a flock in Geelong fly directly at us on our walk yesterday. Was a little intimidating.

Final stop – Apollo Bay and Mariner’s viewpoint – Apollo’s Bay was an area that ships used to stop in for protection from violent seas. Now it is a big tourist destimation and the halfway point of the Great Ocean Road. We did not do the western half of the road…we only had time to do the eastern half. It took a full day to do the eastern half and we are driving up into the Victorian mountains tomorrow to stay in Bright, Victoria, for the next week.

Mariner’s viewpoint looking out to the Pacific Ocean. Tasmania lies about 450 miles to the south.
Up the coast from Apollo Bay. Nice beach with big waves today.
Main town of Apollo Bay. There is a rainbow out in the ocean beyond the town. It did not show up as well in the picture as we saw it. Was a great end to the our day along the Great Ocean Road.

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