Our Big Trip of OZ - 24/09/11 - ~16/01/12: Monday 21st Nov – Friday 25th Nov

Well, after enjoying the serenity of Mortlake, the weather is right to go ….just right according to Mark – good wind level – no more gale warnings on the coast, no rain showers and an ok temperature, all was good to begin the “

Great Ocean Road

”. This I had been looking forward to since starting the trip so I really hoped I was not going to be disappointed. But first we had to do some kid stuff so we called into to Warrnambool to get some supplies and let the boys run loose at Lake Pertrobe playground and to also buy a portable fan heater for the camper. Can you believe..no-one sells them this time of the year (dah! It is still getting down to 4 degrees at night but the calender says it is almost summer so we don’t need to stock them any longer!!!!) I guess we will just have to freeze!

It was after 3pm before we started along the famous coastal drive and conditions were perfect (according to Mark again – who is forever on his phone checking out the BOM site). So today we did all those touristy things – saw the 12 “obstacles” (is what Trent called them), London Bridge, the Arch, Bay of Islands and the Grotto. These were amazing although we had to battle with the tourist bus loads of Japanese to get some good photos. (Mark enjoys “bumping” into them on occasion…..)

I think, however, the boys were more amazed at the surf and were entertained by waiting to watch the big swell and the waves to follow.

Anyway after half a day (remember daylight saving so the sun does not go down until after 8pm) of driving and being a real tourist we had to set up camp…so once again the big decision. We ended up settling in at the Aire West camp ground in the Otway NP – camping on a river bank with the sound of the ocean not far away. It was quite a peaceful place until the mozzies came out. So our plan to stay a few nights had changed by the end of the night.

Tuesday 22^nd Nov – weather was not looking the best so we were undecided what to do and if you know Victorian weather – it can change in just minutes. Today we headed into Apollo Bay to visit the Info centre and get more brochures. One thing we have found is there is a wealth of info for us tourists everywhere we go! We then visited Cape Otway Light Station (lighthouse) and the multitude of wild Koalas in the trees on the way! By the time we finished checking out the Cape, the sun was out and we were able to pack up our camper and find a better spot to camp up for the night. This time we headed into the highlands and set up camp at the Dandos in Otway NP, via some narrow winding dirt tracks, in fact, we wondered if we were on a road at some stages, much to Marks delight…There was a more conventional road to get there, but Mark had a route already picked out, and I suspect he sort of knew the type of route, but kept it to himself.

The highlands off the great ocean road were absolutely beautiful.

Wednesday 23^rd Nov – today was a day for “tiky-touring” and we decided to follow the food and wine lovers tourist route. This took us to Colac, a great volcanic town, then Biregurra, Deans Marsh and Forrest. The berry farm at Deans Marsh was closed, Forrest was for sale (or the pub, café and lots else was) and Biregurra had a small speciality shop with fine foods that were definitely tourist prices. All Mark and I wanted was a decent cup of coffee but we had no luck. Anyway, the day was not wasted as the scenery was great.

Thursday 24^th Nov – we continued along the road to head to Anglesea for our next stop. This part of the drive reminded us of going to Port Douglas although a lot longer. So all of you up in NQ – appreciate what a scenic drive our local trip to Port is. Again, every time we wanted to stop to try and take a great photo we were beaten by a tourist bus. We arrived at Anglesea just on lunch, pulled up at the van park on the foreshore to charge up, wash & fill water tank. We then enjoyed the sun, sea sound and the little shops near by. Of course the boys spent their time on the jumping pillow and in the games room playing table tennis !