Day 9 – Great Ocean Rd area

The weather today was perfect for a bit more exploring along the Great Ocean Road – 24º and sunny!

Yesterday, I neglected to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land we’re currently on – this is the land of the Gadubanud people, and we would like to acknowledge their elders past, present and emerging.

Today started with a quick visit to the Visitor Information Centre, conveniently just across the road from us. And also with a quick visit to the post office to get a few postcards on their way.

Then we headed back east on the Great Ocean Rd, back to Aireys Inlet. There, we headed to the beautiful Split Point Lighthouse! For those of our generation, you will recognise this lighthouse as the setting for Round The Twist. The kids and Debbie have been reading through a Round The Twist book over the past week or so, with a few stories / episodes from Round The Twist, along with some insights from Paul Jennings and some of the actors about the making of the show. The kids have now watched a couple of episodes as well, which they’ve loved.

And if you’ve got the theme song stuck in your head now – sorry not sorry. 🙂

We headed into the lighthouse, and got a wonderful introduction from the lady who was at the entrance. And then it was time to climb all the way to the top. 136 stairs. It didn’t feel intense in the end – there were a series of landings with pictures and signs on the wall to learn some really interesting things on the way up, including questions to keep the kids interested as well.

The views from the top were just incredible! It was fairly windy up there, but thankfully not as bad as it might be on days when the weather wasn’t as perfect. We spent quite a bit of time up there just looking off in all the directions, trying to spot things. It was hard to leave!

After we reached the bottom, we wandered around the site – there are a few different lookout platforms around to look out over Eagle Rock. Of course, we needed to do a bunch of perspective photos of the lighthouse as well.

We thought we’d head back along the Great Ocean Road toward Lorne for lunch. We had lunch all packed in the car, so we just needed to find somewhere to stop and eat it. We pulled into Lorne’s main beach and found a perfect picnic table overlooking the beach to sit and eat lunch. Despite the kids asking repeatedly for a park to play in after lunch, turns out they were more interested in playing at the beach. We still had all the beach stuff sitting in the roof pod, so it was easy enough to get them changed into their swimmers and send them off down into the water. I didn’t go near it – but Debbie tells me it was freezing. They loved it, and it was great to have the time and space (with nothing else to do all arvo) to watch them getting lost in sand games and jumping waves.

We eventually headed back to Apollo Bay later in the afternoon, and with a bit of down time the kids wrote in their travel diaries. Some days are a bit trickier than others to get that done, but on the whole, it’s been great to see the kids embrace their travel diaries and think back on their experiences each day.

Our motel receptionist had recommended the Fisherman’s Co-op to us when we checked in. Although we’ve done quite a few meals out, and quite a bit of fish & chips, it seemed only right to go somewhere that would probably do some amazing fish & chips (being a fisherman’s co-op, and right on the water). And it was the right call. Hands down, one of the best fish & chips I’ve ever had – sure, fairly expensive, but the taste was just amazing! Everyone was happy as we wound up our short time in Apollo Bay.

My stomach clearly wasn’t finished yet though. Once the kids were in bed and Debbie settled into writing in her travel diary, I walked down to the Great Ocean Road Brewhouse. After stumbling on a locally made beer when we were on Phillip Island a few days ago, I looked ahead to what was around at Apollo Bay and realised that these guys make a bunch of beers (Prickly Moses) and some gin as well (Apollo Bay Distillery). It was a quiet night for them (their beautiful big old pub I’m sure would be a great place to be come the weekend), and they were good enough to talk me through a few of the beers. And being in Victoria, it was actually handy to have pots to be able to try a couple of different beers. Sitting in a very local pub was a fun way to finish up Apollo Bay.

Tomorrow, we’ve got the last bit of the Great Ocean Road to explore!