Warrnambool to Robe

We drove around 350 klms today, from Warrnambool, through Port Fairy then across the border to South Australia (this time without incident), ending up at Robe, a historical village on South Australia's rugged Limestone Coast.

We took things slowly this morning, enjoying a drive around Warrnambool's coastline and stopping at the whale viewing platforms at Logan's Beach, hoping we'd be lucky enough to see the Southern Right whales that return to the beach to calve at this time of the year (June - September). 

But sadly, we weren't lucky enough to get a sighting this morning!

But we learnt a lot about Southern Right whales in the process (and the even rarer Blue whales) .......

Next stop was Tower Hill (Koroitj), an inactive volcano about 15klms NW of Warrnambool.  We were lucky enough to see the Rachel Griffith Art program on the ABC the previous evening and so knew all about the Eugene Von Guerard painting of Tower Hill (completed in 1855). Being a botanist, Von Guerard's painting was accurate enough to guide the massive revegetation project undertaken in the area from 1961 when the Tower Hill Wildlife Reserve was developed in partnership with the local Worn Gundidj people.

We loved our visit to beautiful Tower Hill and the adjacent historic village of Koroit this morning.

And it looks almost the same today as it did in Von Guerard's painting around 170 years ago!

It was only a short drive then to the beautiful town of Port Fairy. Established as a whaling station in the 1830s, it shows its early European history gracefully while attracting well-heeled holiday makers and retirees in more recent times. The pics below are of where Port Fairy's Moyne River meets the Southern Ocean (looking less wild than usual today). 

We enjoyed the best coffee and late breakfast ever at Bath St + Co at Port Fairy, before taking a look at the very mild and gentle East Beach .........

... and the historic (and picturesque) port area on the Moyne River.

Although the sun was out today it was still freezing cold whenever we ventured outside our beautifully heated car, so no time to stand still. Next stop was at Mount Gambier, over the border now, but without the trauma of our last SA venture into the Clare Valley (resulting in a $400 fine for our unaccounted apple!).

We had to stop and admire Mt Gambier's Blue Lake (Warwar) which fills one of the craters of another extinct volcano (they're common in this region apparently!). The lake is famous for its vibrant cobalt blue colour during the summer months. In today's conditions it was steely grey but still quite luminous - a stunning sight!

Away from the coast we drove through miles and miles of plantation timber forests all around Mt Gambier. There were quite a few big lorries loaded with cut logs on the highway too. We also passed at least one big sawmill in Mt Gambier and the distinctive smell of freshly milled timber was everywhere too.

We got to Robe a few minutes before 3.00pm (so we thought) in a rush because this iconic seafood supplier closes at 3.00. We were after fresh rock lobster - the beloved product for which Robe is most famous!! 

Lucky for us, we'd forgotten that we'd gained half an hour when we crossed the border so there was plenty of time for them to prepare our amazing picnic lunch of fresh locally caught rock lobster.

We tried setting up our picnic at a sunny table on the waterfront - but it was blowing a gale and FREEZING, so we ate this luscious and memorable dish at our (very ordinary) Robe motel and "loved ourselves sick" as the young ones would say (and yes it was even better than it looked!)!

Later we walked down to Robe's Lake Butler Marina ..........

.. and paid our respects to the fishermen about to head out for the night's catch - hopefully more rock lobsters for the markets tomorrow.

Factory Bay, facing out to the Indian Ocean ......

... and a very futuristic looking lighthouse ........

Robe has a lot of historic buildings from its early days as a significant port. These are now mixed in with a diverse range of simple beach cottages and motels from the 1960s and very contemporary and expensive contemporary homes. It's an intriguing mix.

Wet and windy on the G.O.R

We set out from Geelong this morning a bit before 8.00am - ready for our sight seeing drive along the wild and wonderful Great Ocean Road and our first night's stop in Warrnambool.

After a coffee break in Lorne we were in new territory for us. Our first stop was at Cape Patton, about an hour and a half out of Geelong, which looked spectacular this morning. Sets of beautifully formed rolling waves off the cape had even attracted a hardy band of winter surfers. 

Past Apollo Bay we took a small detour south so we could see the lightstation at Cape Otway, the oldest surviving lighthouse on mainland Australia and considered the most significant!

At this part of the G.O.R. we were driving through the winding roads of the The Great Otway National Park. It was slow driving but very atmospheric - and the forest trees were spectacular.

But we found the incredibly significant Cape Otway lightstation was CLOSED on our visit today!!! 

Although disappointed we were determined to get a view of the cape - the most southerly point (that is accessible) on mainland Australia - and where the Indian Ocean meets the Pacific Ocean in Bass Strait. We had a kilometre or so of walking before we got the view we were after ......

We even managed to get far enough to see the lightstation in the distance (but hard to see in this pic) - the visibility wasn't good today, disappointingly!

Another hour or so drive west from Cape Otway we pulled up at the iconic "Twelve Apostles" (although only seven of these remarkable limestone stacks are visible at this point). It was incredibly cold and windy at this stage of the day's drive and we had to hang on tight to our phones as we took these pics, and fight to stay upright despite the force of the wind.

Pre-Covid, in good weather, there would be HUNDREDS of tourists crowding this viewing platform - but not today (lucky us!)

A few kilometres further on we landed in Port Campbell, looking forward to thawing out in a warm space and enjoying a lunch break.

Port Campbell looked like a nice small town, but extremely wind swept today ......

But the pumpkin falafel and green hummus and quinoa salad from the portside 12 Rocks Beach Bar Cafe was exactly what was needed given the conditions! 

Last stop on the G.O.R. today was a few kilometres further west of Port Campbell, at the London Bridge lookout - for a view of this amazing rock formation. Thirty years ago it was fully connected to the mainland, and the way the seas were swirling and crashing around its base today it made us wonder what part would break off next. It was even more windy here at this point than earlier in the day at the Twelve Apostles. it was hard to stay upright in the face of the wind.

This was the view facing south, but we couldn't stand looking at it for too long as we kept getting sand blowing in our eyes from the southerly bluster.

There's a lot of dairy country around Warrnambool (and especially green and damp at the moment after all the rain) and we were struck by the huge Saputo dairy processing plant just outside Warrnambool in Allansford as we drove the last few kilometres into town. 

We drove in around 4.00pm, at the end of our first days drive on the very wild wet and windy G.O.R. 

Back in Geelong

We had a dream drive south, across the border, into Victoria on Saturday - under blue skies all the way, through deep green rolling landscapes, fields of iridescent yellow canola crops and every species of wattle tree out in brilliant yellow blossoms - just beautiful! We stopped midway at Euroa for lunch on the banks of Seven Creeks (a tributary of the Goulburn River) where we both admired this group of beautiful River Red Gums, recently voted Australia's favourite native tree. 

We got to Highton in Geelong around 3.00pm, in plenty of time to admire Ros and Pete's beautifully maintained house and garden and Ros's obvious talent for growing Cymbidium orchids - this beauty has flowered magnificently 'like this for at least a couple of years now........

Yesterday, like most days here, we started the day with a long walk along the banks of the nearby Barwon River. This time Ros directed us eastwards in the direction of the James Harrison Bridge .........

........... with the reward of a coffee break at Sweet Adeline's pop up coffee van at the 4.5klm half way point along our morning walk.

There is a great space for shooting hoops at the back of the van ........

Two sisters ........

Ros always plans lovely, scenic lunch dates for our stays here. This time we headed for Scotchmans Hill Winery about 33klm from Highton on the picturesque Bellarine Peninsula.

We enjoyed a long slow Sunday lunch in the classy surrounds of the winery restaurant, making it a great opportunity to catch up on all the news of the young ones (and be amazed at how much Sammy and Lili have grown since the last time we saw them).

Lili has a great talent for photography and did a great job of taking this shot of the family at the end of our lunch date.

The family, with Lili this time ........ (you can see the tall buildings of the Melbourne CBD in the far distance from this part of the winery grounds).......

This morning Rob and I headed west along the river on our morning walk (Ros and Pete went much earlier - a work day for them!) - as far as Buckley Falls on the Barwon River (just past the back of the old Fryansford Paper Mill.

Like most other regions on the East coast of Australia, Geelong's had a lot of rain in the past year. We could see the Buckley Falls are raging with a lot more force than usual at the moment.

The weather turned against us today after our walk so my stroll around the trendy Pakington Street Newtown area this morning was cut very short and we moved to the Sailors' Rest on Geelong's iconic waterfront for an earlier lunch break than expected.

We'll have one more night with Ros and Pete tonight before heading towards the Great Ocean Road in the morning. Its been great to have this short but sweet stay with them in Geelong!!