Wednesday 7th February ,2018
Yesterday evening we arrived at a decent time at our B&B, Merton Manor, run by Pamela and Ivan Beechey in Warrnambool ( such a difficult name to pronounce!!). Pamela made us feel very welcome and showed us to our suite with a private lounge a jacuzzi in the bathroom. As we hadn’t eaten yet, we made our way back to town – Warrnambool is very historical with a maritime village and trading port dating back to the late 1800’s and is situated at the heart of the notorious Shipwreck Coast. After visiting Flagstaff Hill, we ended back in town at an Italian Restaurant and had a good plate of pasta! By the time we arrived back at the B&B we were ready to soak into the jacuzzi and get ready for bed!
Following morning, we were up on time for a 9 am breakfast – the lady of the manor really looked after all the guests – there were 6 of us at the classical breakfast table and we were the last ones to join! Then off we went to continue our coastal trip along the Great Ocean Road.
Our drive today was as follows:
Port Campbell – a laid back coastal town with a lovely, sandy, sheltered and safe beach
Loch Ard Gorge – a gorgeous U-shaped canyon with high cliffs and and deep blue sea. One of the more famous and notorious shipwrecks took place here when in 1878, an iron-hulled clipper foundered on its last night of its voyage from England and where only 2 passengers survived this shipwreck. Further along woe came across the razorback rock and island archway which were fascinating.
Twelve Apostles – this is the most enduring image for most visitors to the Great Ocean Road and actually we were swarmed with Asian tourists who were busy taking pictures and not taking into consideration that others would also like to take pictures……Apparently there were never twelve rocks jutting out the sea and off the mainland but it seemed that some wise guy thought it a better name back in the 1960’s and it would attract more tourists – the previous name was Sow and Piglets!!! These limestone rocks are quite dynamic as they are changeable due to the erosion from wind and waves.
Cape Otway Lightstation – We had a really long way to drive to get to the light station – well nearly 10km of winding and hairpin bends through a dense forest. By that time we were both peckish but I was determined that once we had gotten this far then I wanted to see the oldest surviving lighthouse on mainland Australia! It was built in 1848 by more than 40 stone masons without mortar or cement. It was interesting to walk around and I could feel how for thousands of immigrants , Cape Otway Lighthouse was their first sight of land after many months and sea. They, of course were the lucky ones as a great many lives were lost in shipwrecks off Cape Otway which led to the building of this lighthouse.
After we made our way back to the Great Ocean Road, we continued driving till we got to Apollo Bay and we thought we would stop here for a meal. This was a pretty beach and we were told that there was a very good restaurant up the hill towards Colac with great food and views. As this was on our way back to Warrnambool, we thought it would be great to have a meal here – in the meantime it was just after 17.30 and when we got to the restaurant – Chris’ Beacon Point – we were disappointed to learn that the restaurant was fully booked. Well our next place was Colac which was more than an hour’s drive through the Otway National Park and forest. By the time we reached Colac, I had had enough of hairpin bends and driving up and down hilltops – and I was ravenous!!! We ended up at an Italian restaurant in Colac and although very noisy with kids, the food was good!
Our last leg of our homeward bound drive was on the A1 which was just over an hour and much as I wanted to keep awake, I kept dozing off and felt somewhat guilty that Gerry was doing all the driving on his own. It was around 23.00 by the time we got back to our B&B …….. dead tired!!
