The Great Ocean Road, Geelong to Portland 15 Feb 2017

After a pleasant overnight stop in Geelong, we got going fairly early, hoping me might escape some of the tour buses headed for the Great Ocean Road, the road that heads round the southern tip of Australia. A forlorn hope as it turned out!

First, we headed down to the coast at Anglesey although the official start is at Torquay. We chose not to go there as the stretch from Torquay to Anglesey is actually not right on the coast! This turned out to be a familiar trait to this iconic road trip. Whereas Route 1 down the Californian coast follows the ocean almost exactly, the Great Ocean Road tends to spend a lot of its time away from the coast.

Perhaps the most spectacular part of the road is between Anglesey and Apollo Bay where the road hugs the cliffs and beaches all the way. This part of the road was originally built as a memorial to the Australians killed in WW1, and indeed built by returning soldiers. It is very touristy, but very beautiful.

After Apollo Bay, the road crosses inland of the Otway headland in dense eucalyptus forest. We took the turn-off for Cape Otway lighthouse and not long after found several Koala Bears in a eucalyptus grove. We stopped and took photos, they are very photogenic. We carried on to Cape Otway, but it was A$20 to visit the area, so we declined and returned to the main road.

The road then resolutely stayed out of sight of the ocean for 20-30km and instead wound through miles of forest. Eventually, at Princeton, we got back to the coast. The car parks were all very full here too. We found a space at one, and I walked down to the beach and walked to one of the sea-stacks. Not far down the road, the car-park for the  12 Apostles overlook was jammed full, so we didn't stop choosing to continue to Port Campbell and look at a sea-arch instead. The Apostles, were visible in the background!

From here, we picked up speed as the road left the coast and took us to Warrnambool, a fairly large town. We were going to stop for some refreshments, but didn't see anywhere that took our fancy!

The last 100km were on the Princes Highway to Portland, the first British settlement in, what  is now, the State of Victoria. It's a nice little town now, and has a deep-water port that seems to trade in timber and wood-chipping. We stayed at a delightful motel, the Mariner. It seemed to have been newly decorated and despite being on the main road was quiet .

In the evening, we saw three or four species of parrot feeding down by the port too