Day 17
We dropped-off our friend at William Cooper Justice Centre, but before we left we had coffee and quick conference on what to do next. Getting from Fitzroy to city center at 8:30 on Wednesday was good driving practice and I learned a couple of Melburnian moves I would not attempt on my own. We exited the city via West Gate Bridge on M1 to Geelong. Our first stop on Great Ocean Road (GOR) was Split Point Lighthouse. We walked around for a while, the place was very crowded, but not overwhelmingly so. Next short stop: Devil’s Elbow Lookout. We spent a bit more time in and around Lorne, first to have a look at Lorne Beach and Erskine River, and then visiting Erskine Falls (short walk) – 10 km drive on paved park road further inland. Teddy’s Lookout with short walk to Lower Landing and Otway Ranges Lookouts came next. Watching koalas at Kennett River (recommended) was our anticipated highlight of the day and we were not disappointed. We spent most of an hour watching lorikeets and walking along Grey River Rd learning how to spot koalas: we found 11.
Koala at Kennett River
We made another short stop at Cape Patton Lookout, before checking-in The Falls airbnb at Stony Creek on GOR (recommended), our favorite accommodation, 5 km before Apollo Bay. Great place to stay, high quality, comfortable and beautiful surroundings. We drove quickly to ☞ Fisherman’s CO-OP restaurant to buy take-out dinner: really good fish and chips basket plus grilled Blue Grenadier, and to watch sunset at Apollo Bay, while we were waiting for our order.
Day 18
We continued west on GOR. We drove for couple km on Otway Lighthouse Rd as a side trip (did not have time to go to the lighthouse): the paved park road is very quiet and cuts through eucalyptus forest. We parked on the shoulder, walked for short moment and saw 2 more koalas perched high up in tree crowns. Melba Gully (recommended) was another nature walk: real tropical rainforest so rich and beautiful we could not believe. Great contrasts to rocky coastline.
Melba Gully
Next few stops were at very popular sites: Gibson Beach (steps were closed which was a bit disappointing, because we wanted to go down to the beach), Twelve Apostoles, Loch Ard Gorge with walk down to the beach (recommended), Sherbrook River, Bay of Martyrs (walked on beach a bit), Bay of Islands (walked down to boat launch). At each site we tried to walk all local trails or as many as possible. We spent some more time near Sherbrook River beach (recommended), just walking around on the rocks watching waves crushing in. Very relaxing place and almost no other visitors. We liked Bay of Island (recommended), it was already very quiet by the time we got there late afternoon. It was pleasantly slow going all day long. We checked-in 22 Banyan St airbnb (recommended) in Warrnambool before sunset, with enough time to make drive/run to see the beach before dark. With all the food from Victoria Market in Melbourne, we prepared dinner at home. It was another good place to stay, high quality and comfortable. We had nice conversations with the owners – fellow travelers.
Twelve Apostoles
Bay of Islands
Crowded or not, all the views from GOR were great – everywhere, as we moved from point to point for couple of days. The crowds got thinner as we drove further and further west, and very often there were few people on trails beyond couple hundred meters from parking lots. Our favorite places where Kennett River (koalas), Melba Gully and Loch Ard Gorge (with Sherbrook beach).
