Great Ocean Road - Apollo Bay to Warrnambool

This is probably the more spectacular part of the Great Ocean Road, as the cliffs are more dramatic and it contains the Twelve Apostles, Bay of Martyrs and Bay of Islands. We drove first to Cape Otway to see the lighthouse, as Rory loves lighthouses, and it is the oldest standing lighthouse in Australia. When we got there we discovered it was going to cost us around $50 to see the lighthouse and while the whole lighthouse precinct looked interesting, we weren't willing to pay as we really just wanted to see the lighthouse. It turns out you can't even see the lighthouse from the car park. So we did a short walk to a lookout, but it's not great and unless you want to pay to enter the grounds, don't bother with the 14km (one way) drive. Still, it was a nice drive through forest and farmland to get there.

We stopped at the Twelve Apostles, where it was blowing a gale. At that viewing area you can actually only see 7 of the Apostles. It was definitely worth seeing. The colours in the rocks and cliff faces are amazing. Tilda got an impromptu lesson about erosion when we were explaining that in fact there are only 11 Apostles still standing. Kids definitely learn heaps on these trips (whether they want to or not). Something pretty funny happened here. While walking to the 12 Apostles two different tourists nearly ran us down (walking) because they were too busy looking at their phones to watch where they were walking. What's the point of travelling to another country, to see a top tourist destination, only to stare at your phone screen rather than the thing you are visiting? Perhaps they were underwhelmed by the 12 Apostles and didn't want to miss out on something else.

We drove past the Bay of Martyrs but it looked beautiful. We saw the sign for it, but with our big caravan, we didn't know if we'd be able to stop and successfully get back out of the car park. It wasn't until the last minute that we saw the car park was circular and we could have easily navigated it, but with a very large van you can't do anything last minute, so we watched the very pretty sight disappear quite quickly. We did stop at the Bay of Islands and it was very picturesque but I think, from what we did see, the Bay of Martyrs was a better sight than both the 12 Apostles and the Bay of Islands. I guess that just goes to show that research and google maps in the satellite view is needed to help us make the most of this trip. Photos below from Bay of Islands.

We finished at Warrnambool. We had ummed and ahhed about whether to stop at Warrnambool or Port Fairy but decided, mostly due to the amazing looking adventure playground and also due to the kids rattiness at the length of time in the car, to stop at Warrnambool. (We drove to view Port Fairy on our way to our next stop and found it to be a quaint little town full of gorgeous old houses and shops and we both decided we'd have definitely preferred to stop at port Fairy rather than Warrnambool.)

At Warrnambool we all enjoyed the adventure playground. There was an approx 70m (according to Greg) flying fox suitable for 12+ so of course Greg, Tilda and I all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves on it. There were also a couple of very large slides that us adults could go on and enjoy too, as well as loads of play equipment for both Tilda and Rory. Tilda's bravery in doing the flying fox amazed me, as it was high and long, but by now I probably shouldn't be surprised. I was also very surprised that Rory happily went on a giant curly slide. About the only thing he is scared of is slides that are fully enclosed and pitch black. I'm not sure if it is a 2yo lack of fear or if he really is braver than most.

We also visited Flagstaff Hill, which is similar to Sovereign Hill but with a maritime theme and much smaller. Greg loves all things boats so we thought we'd give it a try. If you haven't been to Sovereign Hill (or not recently) then you would definitely enjoy Flagstaff Hill I think. There are authentic 1800's buildings including dressmaker, sail maker, bank, shipping office, newspaper etc. Flagstaff Hill is also home to the Maremma dogs which guard the fairy penguin colony on Middle Island during the summer months. This is the story the Oddball movie is based on. There was a 6 month old puppy there on the day we visited. It is being trained ready for next summer. The Maremma's protect the breeding penguins from foxes and the population has gone from less than 10 penguins (which is how many were left when the original man and his granddaughter trained Oddball to protect them) to, I don't remember how many now, but it is a viable penguin colony once more. Amazing stuff!

 

The Loch Ard Peacock

 (it was recovered from the Loch Ard years after it sank - amazing!)