Despite a rather disturbed night with a hay-fever-like attack, we made a relatively slick departure from our rooms in Port Fairy – we are getting better at managing our packing/unpacking routine – and stopped off in Tower Hill once again to do the Last Volcano walk that we\’d spotted the previous day. Very pleasant and with some nice scenery, plus company from emus within the inner volcano structure in this really rather remarkable park.

We were both pretty tired to start with, and this got worse as the day wore on, simply because of all the walking, climbing, stopping and starting we did along this stretch of road.

We got to the small town of Allansford, which is where the B100, the Great Ocean Drive, officially starts when driving from Adelaide to Melbourne. No sign of the ocean at this point – the most interesting thing was a really rather ugly cheese factory! However, it wasn\’t all that long before we got out into open countryside and started motoring along this astonishing coast.

What we didn\’t realise was how well signposted the various scenic views are along this road. This was both a blessing and a curse – often the viewpoints were very crowded, but at least we had good weather.

Picture Overload Alert!

First up was the Bay of Islands:

These pictures typify the landscape in terms of the geology, but the impact on the senses was generally stunning. It\’s all about erosion of this limestone coast over hundreds and thousands of years.

Next, within a few hundred yards. was the Bay of Martyrs, but that was similar enough to the Bay of Islands that it\’s not deemed different enough for photos.

To The Grotto:

Then London Bridge – see the picture of the poster for the famous story:

Then Loch Ard Gorge – to me, this was probably the most fantastic:

This included the truly remarkable Razorback:

To be honest, the much-celebrated Twelve Apostles were something of a disappointment compared with what we had seen earlier, although magnificent in their own right. The experience was not enhanced by the literally coachloads of Asians all over this very large site.

We didn\’t dally long here, being somewhat knackered, sceneried and Asian\’d out, and drove to our destination just a few kilometers east of the resort of Apollo Bay.

This proved to be another very different stopping point – we are here for two nights. It is an arrangement of self contained villas at Beacon Point, just above Skenes Creek, in a wooded location with some really quite steep and rough roads. However, it is roomy and well appointed with a log fire, forsooth. The view is also stunning:

We were both far too tired to consider self catering, and we had seen a signpost on this site to Chris\’s Restaurant. I think we were both expecting a burger joint or similar, and were very pleasantly surprised to find that it was modern, well appointed and remarkably busy for a Monday night. Even better, the meal was excellent and well served, with a lovely view.

We both decided that tomorrow was going to be a Day Of Rest (although washing needed doing and there was no food in the place apart from what we had brought with us). We could always enjoy a leisurely breakfast on the balcony, couldn\’t we?