Port Fairy to Apollo Bay

What I forgot to mention about Port Fairy in my last post was that, due to it being the off-peak season, we had the whole floor to ourselves….there is also only one floor in the hotel (the rest of the rooms are individual lodges). And, as the hotel already had a ‘spooky feel’, having the whole floor of an old hotel (with creaky floorboards) didnt help…

Anyway, as you can guess, we survived the night and headed down for breakfast at about 8.45 (early for us). Breakfast was pretty good however I felt slightly out of place…as i’ve basically only packed shorts and t-shirts, i headed down in just that. The only other people sharing the breakfast buffet with us had; jackets, boots, woollen jumpers and the mother of the family was also sporting a body warmer…Amy even let me down by wearing a cardigan and the familiar sight of ‘leggings’…thats the legs covered up again until the next summer holiday (in 2016 after the cost of this month…).

After breakfast, we got back in the wagon and headed off for the Great Ocean Road. As we’d gone a little further down the track, we had to return to Warrnambool first before we could find the road. However, as time was on our side, we dedcided to turn off the sat-nav and put away the travel book and just drive…I know, we’re crazy. This allowed us to explore the town of Warrnambool a little and then also see the area ‘off the beaten track’. As enjoyable as the town was to see, it had one major highlight that we wouldnt have found if we’d stuck to the main roads….the Warrnambool Cheese Factory! I’d been talking about trying to stop at the Timboon Cheese Factory on the way to Port Fairy but due to the late departure from Melbourne, we didnt really have time. So, with some no real plans apart from driving the Great Ocean Road, we stopped in for a visit.

The factory was amazing…pretty much everything you’d hope for in a cheese factory I guess. There was lots of local produce on show (including a ‘cow-based’ horoscope which nearly depicted all of Amy’s traits, called ‘Daisy’ i think) and, of course, a cheese tasting stall. As fate would have it, we missed the ‘tasting session’ by about 5 minutes so had to wander around for half an hour until the next session. Upon our wander, at the back of the shop, was a museum dedicated to all the old farm equipment that was used on the farm from 1800-1960. Some of it was pretty impressive kit, especially the old engines that they had to import from the UK. In the museum was a team of ‘proper engineers’ (old fellas with a love for some hands on engineering) who got all the engines running, a couple of them nearly a 100 years old, still working as good as new. As our accents clearly stuck out, we had the pleasure of chatting to two Aussie guys (who were called Graeme and Graham – good guys), one (Graeme McLeod) who had just returned from Scotland. He had a pretty good trip all round but missed out going to Bearsden….the jewel in the crown of Scottish sightseeing i thought…

After leaving the engine museum it was back to the cheese factory where we arrived (a minute or so late surprinsingly) but got to enjoy all the the Warrnambool Cheese Factory had to offer.

After the cheese tasting, it was back on the road and onto the Great Ocean Road properly. The weather wasnt particularly good but the scenery was amazing. Of particular highlight was the 12 apostles (or I think it’s now 7 as 5 have been eroded away) and also an outcrop of rock called ‘London bridge’. London bridge was so named as the larger rock formation was bridged to the mainland by a rock bridge…I’m sure it would’ve looked amazing had the bridge not collapsed in 1990. The funny/unfortunate thing about it was however that, when the bridge collapsed, two tourists were then stranded on the worlds newest island! As much as I would’ve enjoyed it if we found another ‘bridge’, I doubt Amy would’ve joined me in the crossing….given the history of the London bridge formation, probably not unwise.

‘London Bridge’ rock formation

Whats left of the 12 Apostles

After the rock formations it was on towards Apollo Bay but, as the Navigator was having her daily siesta, I decided to take a wee detour to the 2nd most southerly point in Australia, the Cape Otway lighthouse. Unbeknown to me it was a $17 pp cost to visit the lighthouse (if I’d known this it may have changed my decision) however, on the way to the lighthouse, we had to stop behind a large queue of cars…an odd sight on a relatively empty side road. As I was getting ready to overtake however, we noticed that the other car owners were outside their cars taking pictures of the trees…upon closer inspection, the trees were eucalyptus trees and they were in fact taking snaps of wild Koalas! As you can imagine, as Amy’s new favourite animal, she instinctively knew and woke up straight away. Although we’d seen some Koala’s in Kuranda, it was really good getting to see them in the wild. A nice treat given that we may have passed right by!

Some of the wild Koala’s

After finding out the cost of the lighthouse added to the fact that we still had to find a place to stay and it was pushing 16:00, we decided to pass and head on to Apollo Bay.

We reached Apollo Bay not long after 16:00 and as we were refuelling, Amy spotted a very nice looking collection of beachfront apartments. As we had no place to stay, it wouldn’t hurt to ask if they had anything for one night, even though clearly we only needed a room not an apartment…worth asking as we were there. Anyway, after checking, Amy returned to the car with the news that they only had the Penthouse apartment left. After a very brief discussion and a quick look at the place, with the phrases ‘ach, we’re on holiday, why not’ and, ‘when in Rome…’ Being mentioned a couple times, we decided to take it. As it effectively doubled the cost of the last room in port fairy, we decided to eat in (given that we now had ample space for a family of 4, never mind the two of us with rucksacks) and got some fish and chips. Fish (or ‘flake’ – aka shark) and chips is really very good. I’m sure it’s as bad health wise as back home but the batter is a lot lighter and the fish is likely a bit fresher…anyway, it was very good and as we paid for such a nice apartment, we wanted to get full use of it.

The night was nice and chilled out with me catching up on some of the essays (sorry, I meant blogs) and Amy getting the chance to have a wee bath in the jacuzzi. I should point out here that she did have a minor accident with said jacuzzi by not filling it completely meaning that when she pressed the ‘on button’ for the jets, instead of offering a gentle massage, it fired water past her and across the bathroom for a good 5 seconds before she resolved the situation…as you can imagine, the bathroom was quite a mess…

However, with the exception of the bath incident, the night was very chilled out and ended up in a relatively early nights sleep. Tomorrow’s plan was to finish the great ocean road and head back to Melbourne…I would also get to catch up with two of my oldest mates (Matt and Nick) who had just moved to Australia…presuming we could keep to a good enough time scale…

Quick note: I’ve honestly got no idea how i could write so much about visiting a cheese factory…sorry about that…and by writing so much, i’ve allowed Lairdo back into the book race…it’s now 2-2 for those counting!!

Our car for the Melbourne leg, posing outside Port Fairy