We started the day early and full of hope for a cracker sunrise with Sky Candy predicting 83% chance of a colourful sunrise.
As we sat in the car in the beach carpark and it was dark and raining we remained optimistic. As soon as there was some light we carefully made our way around the lagoon to the beach.
Our sunrise never appeared. The cloud cover was too thick and we abandoned the beach and headed back to our room for breakfast.
I did take a few shots just because wll we were there. But nothing brilliant. It was nice to see the lighthouse with the light working from the beach.
After breakfast we headed along the Great Ocean Road to Apollo Bay. After a frustrating drive stuck behind a silver Nissan X-Trail who could neither corner or pass an oncoming vehicle at higher than 40km/h. He also decided the slow vehicle turn outs were not for him but I feel the queue of cars behind him disagreed.
A quick stop to check out the beach before following the road into the mountains and to our next stop the Cape Otway Lighthouse.
After a drive in off the main road and a struggle to find a parking spot we got to the entrance and found that it was $20 each just to walk in near the light house. Well we were not having that so settled for a 1.5 km walk to the “distant view” of the light house.
The road in had some interesting signs and cool trees that had obviously suffered from a very intense fire.
After our stop at the lighthouse we headed back to the Great Ocean Road and towards Lavers Hill. We stopped there for a bite to each and it was cold and rainy and windy.
After lunch it was onto Port Campbell but not before hitting the big tourist spots. We skipped over Gibson Steps because they are temporarily closed and headed for the main event, the 12 Apostles. There were cars and people and it was big and busy but man it’s an awesome view. We braved the gale force winds and got some photos. The wind was so strong that I had to turn by f-stop down and shutter speed up to try and stop the photo from blurring. It was hard to hold the camera still. The scene is stunning. Even if you hate crowds you must stop here.
Before we headed for our accomodation we stopped in at Loch Ard Gorge which was also busy and had a few pretty scenes.
Then we went to The Arch which although pretty does not have a good vantage point to take photos.
Our last stop for the evening was London Bridge. This place is also spectacular. Particularly if you look for the small pathway on the right of the main viewing area that pops you out a bit further west and with a much better aspect. There used to be a rock bridge connecting this to the land but a decade or so ago it fell down and tourists had to be rescued by helicopter from the rock.
We ended the evening at the Port Campbell Hotel an easy walk from our cabin. I had the most amazing fettuccine marinara with a home made tomato sauce. It was full of local seafood including scallops, ocean trout, muscles and king prawns. We plan to return tomorrow night to try something else on the menu.