Great Ocean Road - Day 4 Port Campbell to Apollo Bay - PM

After the main sights, the GOR heads away from the coast and through the Great Otway National Park, so we decided to head even further inland and stop for lunch in Camperdown, a quaint old town about 1 hours drive from the coast.  

The drive was mainly through farming land, with soft rolling hills and really quite beautiful.

We got ourselves a little lost in the outskirts of town so stopped to ask a chap mowing his grass verge where we would get something to eat.  His immediate reply was "Come on in, I'll make you a sandwich" - I don't think he was entirely joking either.  However he gave us directions to the main street and we found a lovely little cafe where, as always, the price of what you were ordering remained a mystery until it came to pay - then a nasty shock.  Eating out here is the national pastime and everything is priced to take advantage of this.  That said, the food was the nicest we'd had so far.

No pictures of Camperdown itself, not sure why but the towns really don't lend themselves to photographs, although in "real life" they are lovely to see.  We got chatting to an elderly resident who told us there was quite a big drug problem in the area and lots of robberies - shame as it seemed a really nice, old fashioned place.

We then drove up to Mount Leura where the views all around were superb.

There are numerous lakes in the area and on a clear day you can see vast distances.

The top was heaving with butterflies which really are the most frustrating of insects to try and photograph.

Apart from the charred conifer plantation we drove through couple of days ago, this is the nearest we've been to the Bush Fire Crisis and the first fire appliance we've seen.  In fact there is very little mention of it in the Victoria news.  The main reason I think is because of Australia's huge size, something we still don't fully appreciate.  Flying from east coast to west coast takes 4 hours, the same as it does to go to the Canaries from England, so it's no wonder really the whole country isn't jumping up and down about something that affects such a relatively small portion.

We drove past this graveyard of old farm vehicles, which reminded me of the film Cars.  There were signs up saying stuff was still required, but I think maybe they should deal with their existing stock before acquiring any more. 

This one so reminded me of Mater, one of the main characters.

We then took a slow, winding drive through the National Park and once again had the place virtually to ourselves, which was just as well as the speed limit for most of the time was just 20kms as the road was really twisty.  We couldn't believe that the rainforest was so close to the agricultural areas we'd just driven through, but within a short time we really were in the middle of a semi-tropical rainforest and the humidity increased accordingly, fogging up my camera lens.

There was nothing interesting to see in the way of flora or fauna, although we could hear some distant bird calls.

After what seemed like an age, we were out of the rainforest and towering above the coast, the view was spectacular and we screeched to a halt at a viewing point.  One small criticism of Aussie roads is that you don’t get much warning of anything.  We were able to pull off the road quite safely but the car behind us (probably Chinese driven) copied our manoeuvre, except they had a truck and trailer close on their tail so a lot of angry hooting went on.

We’ve been amazed at the profusion in which Agapanthus grows here, both blue and white forms.  Although it’s a native of South Africa  I guess the climate  suits it perfectly and huge clumps can be found all over the place, even in quite deep shade, all evidently self sown.  I believe it is officially classed as a weed here which is a shame as it is glorious.

We drove on to our next overnight stop of Apollo Bay – OMG what a dump, it was Margate complete with funfair and kiss-me-quick hats.  We’d struggled to find anywhere to stay and having booked at the Iluka Motel the reviews were not too encouraging (understatement) but for one night we can manage most things – providing they're clean.  I knew the rooms were above a restaurant, so we pulled in opposite and I phoned to ask where to park and how to get to the rooms.  The young lady (eastern European) gave me the briefest of directions which made no sense when we tried to follow them, so Ian went in and spoke to someone else.  Anyway we found the back entrance and walked up the stairs, along a corridor  littered with dirty linen and back down more stairs into the “restaurant” and I use the term in its loosest possible sense – fish and chip bar would be the best you could say.  I asked to speak to whoever was in charge and pointed out the disgusting state of the place – wholly unacceptable given it was by then 17:00 and check out was 10:00 and having stayed in premises the whole world over I had never been subjected to such an appalling first impression.  I got profuse apologies of course and to give her credit she didn’t try to invent excuses, merely stating that she didn’t know what had gone wrong that day.  Their main customers are Chinese tour parties who tend to arrive late afternoon so I’m guessing the celebrations for Chinese New Year the previous night meant they were behind schedule.  Anyway although the room resembled more an office than a bedroom, it was at least clean and with asking 3 times we did get the extra pillows and milk we wanted. 

We quickly decided we would not in any circumstances want to eat in any of the establishments along the strip so drove to Kennett River, a well known beauty spot about an hour up the coast,  where allegedly you can easily spot koalas.  We parked in the small car park and Ian went into the cafe (which looked quite nice) to see if they were still serving – unfortunately not,  but they were happy to do us some chips.  I think chips must be the Australian diet because everywhere you go huge boxes are on offer – Ian went to order a large box between us at AUD10 but I thought that too much and we were glad as we didn’t even finish the medium size.

We then drove up the dirt track for a couple of kilometres and sure enough found this little beauty in the tree, not particularly active but maybe not actually asleep.  

A bit further on up the road and we met a couple of grey kangaroo – they really are most obliging the way they wait patiently for me to faff around with my camera settings and then pose so beautifully.

Ian with our Mitsubishi ASX still trying to finish the chips.  Neither of us is used to automatics, but after a few days driving one, I’m sold.

When we drove back down to the bottom of the track there were a couple of people gathered under a tree, watching this koala feeding.

This poor wallaby was no doubt soon to be another road kill statistic.

Back at Apollo Bay the funfair was in full swing , as was the throbbing music.  

The rest of the hotel guests had arrived given the shouting coming from the other rooms.  Past 23:00 and the noise was still going strong but never mind revenge will be ours in the middle of the night when we keep them awake coughing – hahaha!!