Our first stop today was in a little place called Aireys
Inlet. There we walked to the Split
Point Lighthouse (known as ‘The White Lady’) – it’s an iconic lighthouse (34
metres high) in a spectacular setting.
There’s a short walking track beyond the lighthouse for views over the
cliffs and ocean. We walked the track
which took us into town and then walked it back up to the lighthouse.
Birds in the water at the bottom of the walking trail
On our way to our next stop, we stopped at the Memorial
Arch. It was built as a tribute to the
soldiers from the First World War who were engaged in the construction of the
Great Ocean Road.
Memorial Arch
Lorne was our next stop where we wanted to see Erskine Falls
– one of the highest waterfalls in the Otway Region. We had to drive 10kms from Lorne along windy
roads to get to the carpark from which we walked to the falls. There were 200 steps to walk to the base of
the waterfall. Water crashes down a 30
metre drop into a fern-lined valley. It
was a lovely waterfall, but when you have seen Niagara Falls, any other falls
pale in comparison. J
Erskine Falls
Before lunch, (meat pies), we took a walk along the Lorne pier as I had read that there were seals hanging around in the hopes that someone fishing from it would throw them a tasty morsel. But, alas, there were none to be found here. After lunch, we went for a walk along the
Lorne Beach/Foreshore Cliff Walk. It’s
wonderful to walk beside the ocean and we wish we could have taken a longer
walk here, but we needed to keep going.
View along the Lorne foreshore boardwalk
This sign is posted all along the Great Ocean Road to remind visitors which side to drive on
View on the way out of Lorne
Kennett River was our next stop and this was to tick off an
item from Dad’s bucket list – he wanted to see koalas in the wild. We have seen them at zoos here and in a
reserve, but he really wanted to see them where they naturally live. We drove to the ‘Koala Café’ which is at the
start of Grey River Road - we were told that we would spot many koalas along
the road. I had also read that we could
buy bird feed at the café to feed to the parrots and rosellas which were in
the trees beside the café. As soon as I
put the birdseed in my hand, the birds when crazy – they flew to me and started
eating out of my hand. Then, some flew
and landed on my head – now that smarts! J It was fun, though, and after Dad had a turn,
we gave the rest of the feed to some people who were hanging around.
.JPG)
Dad holding a rosella
The big treat, though, was finding koalas in the trees along
Grey River Road. We started walking
along the road, but after talking with a couple who were driving back down the
road, we decided to drive up the road a bit.
We stopped when we saw some people looking up at the trees – a good sign
that a koala had been spotted. At first, it was hard to spot them, but the
more we looked, the better we became.
Dad was so thrilled to finally see koalas in their natural habitat!
Echidna we saw on the side of the road - when I tried to get a picture of its face, it turned away from me (like it was not impressed!)
On our way into our final stop for the night, we stopped at
Marriner’s Lookout. It had a great view
of Apollo Bay which was our destination for today. We stayed tonight in another B & B (Picnic
B & B). It was a lovely little
semi-detached cottage out the back of a house.
After dropping our things off there, we took a walk along the breakwall and
actually saw a seal this time.
Our bed at the B & B
Seal in Apollo Bay
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