Travelling the Great Ocean Road

We've now been back on the Mainland for four days. The crossing wasn't as bad as I expected, even though we had gale force winds coming accross the strait. Thank goodness for Kwell tablets is all I can say. Even Steve decided to have some this time. We also hit the sack a little earlier this time in the hope that we could sleep off some of the bad weather. It was a little difficult getting to sleep because you kept wanting to roll in bed, but once we got to sleep we really didn't wake much before the morning call at 5.40am letting us know that we would be disembarking in approx. 45 minutes.

As soon as we arrived in Melbourne we headed straight off to Geelong. We had a pretty good trip, as most of the traffic was coming into Melbourne and we were heading out. We arrived at the Barwon River Holiday Park at around 7.45am ( 15 minutes before the reception there even opened). Once we booked in, it didn't take us long to set up. We got a good deal on an ensuite site ( our first one these holidays) It was lovely. Lovely private park too. We ended up taking off to Macca's for breakfast, had a quick drive around town and then ended up heading home as we were starting to really feel tired. Got home just before lunch and had a camp until mid afternoon when we took off again to go for a drive out to one of the Jayco Caravan Places. Steve had a field day - he loved it. By the time we left there, it was after 4pm, and raining, so we just went for a drive into Geelong itself and around the Eastern Beaches. Too wet to hop out or take photos, that would need to be left for another day.

On Thursday we spent the morning doing some paper work that needed to be done and posted, sorting out some bank stuff, and bills - they don't disappear when you are on holidays unfortunately. It is also a lot more difficult to sort out when you are away from home. That pretty much took us till lunchtime.

We spent the afternoon having some of the documents witnessed by a JP ( another interesting activity, finding someone in a strange town). visited the caravan place again, then headed into Westfield Shopping Centre to do a little shopping, and then we headed down to the Eastern Beaches and Pier where we spent a good couple of hours wandering around. Gorgeous gorgeous area. I think I loved seeing so many of the locals utilizing the area. There were people everywhere, walking, swimming, playing volleyball on the beach, picnicing, sports training, just sitting relaxing and reading. There were folk out having coffee on the boardwalks, the place was a hive of activity. Loved all the bollards - and we walked around and took photos of a lot of them. They tell the history of Geelong. So colourful. Lots of photos to share of our couple of days in Geelong.
We left Geelong yesterday to head out along the Great Ocean Road. It was a slow drive, but probably some of the most spectacular scenery you could ever wish to see. We were only travelling a little over 100 kms and it took us over 2 hours to get here. This is just a little of what we saw along the way.


We arrived at Apollo Bay just after lunch time. We have setting up pretty much down pat now and it didn't take us too long to get the van set up, and after having a quick bite to eat and by mid afternoon we were ready to head out explore explore the area.

We decided to head off to Cape Otway to check out the Lighthouse. It was about a 32km drive. We got there just after 4.30pm to find that it was closed ( early) and that you can't even see the lighthouse from the car park. You have to trek around the headland and it cost $16.50 to go see it. If it wasn't for the lovely scenic drive it would have been a bit of a wasted trip.
We headed back into Apollo Bay and decided we would go for the walk to the Marriner's Lookout. This was well worth the walk. Only about a 15 minute walk - very steep, all up hill, but the views at the top were really quite breathtaking. You could see the coastline for as far as the eye could see. There was a lovely grassy spot at the time where you could just sit and admire the view. Just gorgeous.
Tomorrow we head off again, further along the Great Ocean Road to Port Campbell. Looking forward to seeing the 12 Apostles, and all the other amazing scenery in this area. We definately live in a very beautiful country.

I cannot beleive it is only two weeks to Christmas. It really doesn't feel like Christmas at all this year. There has been no Christmas spring clean, no christmas baking, No putting up the Christmas decorations, in fact I haven't even thought about Christmas shopping yet. We have hardly been near the shops since we left home. I am thinking we might have to do some in Mt. Gambier, cause I definately don't want to try and do it in Melbourne. It is only a little over a week now until we get to catch up with two of our kids when they fly to Melbourne to join us for Christmas. I can't wait.