21st March - Great Ocean Road to Bonbeach

Not such a great start to the day, the weather is total crap – raining now and with the winds we got wet again, the tent was satched.  My Darl went to get the “pantry” box out and it collapsed into pieces outside, he cut his finger, it was still raining – could’ve been worse, we could’ve been camping in dirt/mud but we had nice grass.  I made a call to my friend Belinda at Bonbeach, she said to come over tonight, saved!   We waited for the rain to stop, managed to get everything dry – then it rained again, had to wait another ½ hour.  

Drying out the camp

Before heading off we ventured out to the mouth of the Gellibrand River – my Darl just had to cross it and waited for the waves to recede before dashing across, damn he got one shoe wet (he had his shoes and socks on). On the other side on a small rock, the waves crashed in, both shoes now soaked…..the waves here were ferocious.  

He got there, gotta get back now

The seas roughest we have seen

It is a very picturesque, windy drive along the edge of the coast from Apollo Bay, Lorne, Angelsea, Torquay.   This is big dairy farm country, I’ve lost count of the dairy farms we have seen along the way from Portland.  The coast is abundant in wildlife also including echidnas, bandicoots, black wallabies, rufous bristlebirds.   We did this stretch in pretty quick time, it would be great to come back here and spend a good couple of weeks exploring further, doing some walks and the hinterland areas.

Darl's good deed for today....

Cape Patton and yep that there's rain following us....

Cliff drive awesome, windy, hilly, coves

Most of my shots, fly bys....through dirty, wet windscreen

Awesome! House on right is a holiday rental and booked out forever......

THEN, we hit the city!!  I was busy taking pics and trying to navigate my Darl at same time.  Best concentrate, if we miss the exit we may not be able to get back too soon.  We went over the Westgate Bridge into the city – there was a boat fire and a huge plume of smoke.  We were on the M1 which takes us through the city and into a tunnel under the Yarra.  This is a toll road, lucky we have had the e-tag on the windscreen since leaving Brissy, knew it would come to use sooner or later.

M1 somewhere between Geelong and city

Negotiating the Westgate Bridge

Chinese, Japanese, dirty knees - what are these!!!

We got to Bonbeach okay, now to find Belinda’s place.  Off to the shops to ask directions or find a map of the area.   In the pizza shop asked the young lads, one of them said, I live in that street!  He was giving directions then said no wait, why don’t you follow me I’m going there now, thank you!   We got to Belinda and Olivers around 6.30, it was a long day and so great to have a cosy bed in a warm, dry house!   And of course so great to catch up with these guys and their gorgeous 9 mth old boy, Lucas.

Aahh, we made it -  nice, dry, warm, cosy home - thanks Belinda, Oliver and Lucas!!