Day 13 (13/9) – Along the Great Ocean Road

Towed the van up the road for a look at the famous Bell’s Beach – surf a bit rough but nothing much else happening so moved on (we’re clearly surfers, not). Moved on towards Lorne and Apollo Bay. Can see why this is considered one of the iconic drives in both Australia and the world. Coastline ruggedly dramatic, with great eroded sandstone cliffs crumbling away almost as you watch. Constantly changing backdrop – sun and bright blue ocean one minute, grey and forbidding sky and sea the next. Visited the lighthouse in Aireys Inlet  (Split Point Lighthouse). Another Fiona gave us a tour and a history of the area and the various shipwrecks along that stretch of coastline. Nearly blown away at the top of the lighthouse but the view was fantastic. Moved on to lunch at the Willows tea rooms just down the hill – succulent fishburger and gourmet foccacia with pretty good hot chocolates (not fair to compare to the Belgian chocolate shop in Torquay really, but oh well!). Headed up to Erskine Falls ~8 km inland from Lorne. All went fine until the last few hundred metres – caught the sign saying “steep descent, not recommended for caravans” too late and ended up trying desperately to back the van into a turnaround but ended up going the wrong way with an ever increasing line of traffic queuing up in both directions (ok a couple of cars). Chris had to take over as it wasn’t going well! Eventually parked the van up top, unhitched and drove down without it. Waterfall probably worth it but strangely enough I wasn’t driving the final stretch of the day!
Twisty, windy road most of the way to Apollo Bay. Completely missed turn off to Grey River Rd (supposed to be a good spot to view koalas in the wild). Decided to push on for Bimbi Park Caravan Park “Camping under koalas” in Cape Otway. Certainly some koalas in the various gums around the camp site on inspection next morning. Mostly doing nothing (nothing new there). Committed to 3 nights and then discovered we had to pay an extra $1 for every 3 minutes of shower time (to conserve water!) and that there was no drinkable water on site (none of which was mentioned on their website either! Freezing cold so thank God for power and the fan heater!