Driving from Melbourne to Cape Otway via Colac on the M1 highway
OK. Normally when I go on trips within Australia they do not appear here. COVID has forced a change in that.
I thought it best to add this small 4 day trip over Easter to the main part of the site to ensure google does not forget me, and I do not forget how to use my own website. I am not sure which of those is a bigger problem to solve yet.
So now I am at a place called Cape Otway. It is on or just off to be precise, the Great Ocean Road, familiar to all Australians, but for those not Australian, it is about 3 hours west of Melbourne.
Cape Otway is just about the southern most point of Victoria but not quite, I thought it was but I checked. It is often the coldest place in the state, but not today, today it is 30 degrees (metric system).
The Great Ocean Road was built to keep unemployed returned soldiers entertained. It is usually very popular with foreign tourists, the smarter ones take a bus tour, the foolish try and drive, and plummet into the ocean or drive on the wrong side of the road (as we do here) and kill an oncoming family.
To limit the likelihood of that occurring, I drove the inland route, via Winchelsea and Colac. Therefore, the pics below (from my new camera) are of inland towns, with just a taste of Cape Otway at the end. I think theres lots of things to take photos of here though, so there will be more photos to come.
That is assuming the internet works well enough to make that occur. Where I am is so remote theres no tv signal and patchy phone coverage.
Bonus afterthought, speaking of stupid driving antics, as I was arriving at Cape Otway there was a 4WD SUV thing with a soft top, with people standing on the front passenger seat with their heads above the roof as the car was driving along erratically. I prayed for it to flip, my prayers were unanswered.
What an unremarkable first picture. This is under an 'historic' bridge in Winchelsea. It shows the Barwon river. Everything near here is named Barwon, including peoples heads.
A better view of the historic bridge. I could really feel a sense of history, majesty, enormity of the occasion while standing here watching a guy empty the shit bin from his caravan into a drain.
Peak Australiana. Cocky's were flying at terrifying speed overhead in every direction. None appear clearly in the photo.
The local pub has dilapidated junk laying everywhere.
Just up the road is the much bigger town of Colac. It has a big lake, a bird sanctuary and many snakes. It was the site of Victoria's largest regional COVID outbreak at the local abattoir. Exploring Colac is therefore high on my list of things to do today. I was looking for snakes.
This seat is here overlooking the lake and a metal drum thing you can burn snakes in.
It is actually a very large nice looking lake. Although the weather is a bit smoggy today, I think due to what we call 'hazard reduction burns' occurring somewhere nearby.
A bit more bird sanctuary.
In the centre of Colac is the usual war memorial thing. The town was bigger, more historic and a lot nicer than I was expecting.
Here is the main street. It is Good Friday so a lot of places are shut, but there were probably 5 or so places open. Also leaves falling off the trees and lots of guys in orange vests trying to get killed stopping traffic for the Good Friday Childrens Hospital appeal.
I took lunch to the nearby botanic gardens.
The botanic gardens were also very nice, and very large. Expectations exceeded.
After a twisty drive south from Colac, here is the view from my accommodation at Cape Otway. My shift at the lighthouse is from midnight until 6AM, this makes the accommodation cheaper.
Now for some pictures of the room. I am standing in the entry which has a day bed. It is next door to the cafe, but the place shuts at 5pm and they kick everyone out and lock the gates.
Kitchen area looking back towards the entrance.
And finally the bedroom. Now I need to find out if my limited internet coverage will allow this to upload or not, then go take some photos of the lighthouse and maybe some pelicans.
Many photo's of the lighthouse at Cape Otway
If you like lighthouse photos, you will like this update, it is all lighthouses.
The lighthouse is the main attraction, but as you shall see there are also Wallabies.
Also there is the Great Ocean Walk, different from the road, as its for walking not driving.
I walked on some of it.
The sunset was very good, it is now dark, the lighthouse is lit up. Ships are safely navigating. Soon I might go and see some stars. Sky stars, not movie stars.
There are at least some other people here in some of the other buildings, but they are far away from me. There is also a story about a guy who crashed his Cesena into the ocean after seeing a UFO. So who knows, I could be attacked by an alien Wallaby hybrid.
Lighthouse, with the walkway and stay 1.5m away from me or I will stab you repeatedly COVID signs.
That is the cafe, with my accommodation on the left. The cafe has wifi, I think I can get connected if I go press my laptop against the glass. I am about to try that!
Getting closer to the lighthouse.
The view back towards Melbourne in the late afternoon.
Wait, what is this? IT IS THE ACTUAL LIGHTHOUSE! A pathetic little light down the cliff out of view. My lighthouse is just an ornamental fake tourist lighthouse!
I came face to face with everyone's greatest fear. They cannot walk backwards. If they attack, get behind them (I stole this joke from a famous comedian).
Further proof, I rolled part way down a cliff and here is evidence of real lighthouse with fake tourist lighthouse.
Disheartened that I had been tricked into operating a tourist lighthouse, I set off on the Great Ocean Walk to find myself.
I went quite a distance away before I could bring myself to look at the lighthouse again.
It was tempting to just keep going, forever.
Eventually I turned back, and got back in time for the sunset.
Behold, sunset on lighthouse.
Sun going into the sea. Photo of the day. Big cliche. I don't care.
Sinking sun and lighthouse.
I climbed up a hill to observe from afar....
And then I found a world war 2 radar station. Turns out Japan flew reconnaissance flights right over here, using the lighthouse for navigation! They quickly built a radar as a result.
Here are all the buildings of Cape Otway. Including a wooden whale, flag poles and portable toilets.
Along the Great Ocean Road between Cape Otway and Lorne
Today was all about huge crowds of people and traffic. I knew this, I was prepared for this. Lorne was far worse than I thought but everywhere else was OK.
There are lots of little places between Cape Otway and Lorne with beaches, rocks and views. I visited a few of them.
Some highlights along the way were seeing nude girls doing the instagram beach pose, a fire, and a chlorine spill.
The fire was in a rubbish bin and the chlorine spill apparently injured 15 people at the Apollo Bay swimming pool.
I had no actual plan, just decided to follow the brown signs and walk around wherever they lead me. This was a good plan.
Lorne however was not. This is where the rich folks go to be seen, there were over 9 million people there. The photos won't really explain how busy it was. You can however see many of the same boutique stores you see in Central Melbourne, in case you feel like driving a few hours to see them in another location at the beach. I bought some pointy leather shoes with steel bits on the tips and a summer scarf.
I got up at dawn and walked along the lonely road. Here is a farm and the ocean. There were cows. I yelled at a few cows. Later in the day I saw a cow suck in mud in a creek, then later I saw a few more cows stuck in the same spot in the same creek. They never learn.
My goal in walking along the road was to find the dead tree forest I passed on the way here. Here is a dead tree, the forest of dead trees was further than I thought on foot, but I was determined.
Behold, the dead tree forest, in attractive early morning light. Now for some more dead trees.
I am not an arborist, but it is clear to me these trees have had their bark and foliage consumed by the flying tree snake. They are a real pest in this area.
Time to head back along the lonely road, before the lighthouse opens and its full of tour buses.
Next stop was a nearby rainforest. It is free, small, but really nice. Much cooler at the bottom than at street level. Very well maintained metallic grid path.
Some of the trees are very high. So high that I took a photo to show how high. There are signs explaining what the trees are.
Some areas are brown and ferny. Areas such as this one.
Here are some less brown more green variety of rainforest ferns.
Next stop was the town before Apollo bay, Marengo. It has beaches with rocks. So lets take photos of rocks.
Never turn your back on the sea.
Apollo bay is over there somewhere, you will see it soon.
I turned my back on the sea to take this photo. Brave.
In Apollo bay now, and it was not too busy yet pre lunch time. Here is a little local market.
Street full of Chinese restaurants which due to COVID now have about, zero customers.
Coffee time, eventually it was found at the lolly shop, staffed by some of the craziest looking people I ever saw. The coffee was ok though.
Here is the main beach at Apollo bay. I thought it was busy, busier beaches were to come later.
The next stop was surprise of the day. A very hard to see brown sign said waterfall walking track. OK THEN. It said it would take 15 minutes to the top, this was false, it was no more than 10 minutes, but the views on the way up were excellent.
More view. There was room for about 5 cars to park at the bottom. I feel this place is highly underrated.
There is the surprisingly huge waterfall. I was impressed.
Random view shot from Jamieson Creek (I think?).
Now for some shots of the badly over crowded Lorne. This one is not too bad cause up the road the country fire service had it blocked off due to a rubbish bin fire.
Traffic just basically did not move at all. I turned around soon after and it took a long time to drive back out of Lorne.
Lorne beach in one direction. Very busy.
And the other direction. I fled before I was arrested for operating a camera on a beach. I think thats illegal now unless you are a girl posing nude. Then its ok as its your job.
I dont even know where this was, but enjoy the view.
And the last photo of the day is photo of the day. I think this one is from Mount Defiance lookout. Theres hundreds of spots to stop and take view photos. I showed some restraint.
Hiking at dusk at Cape Otway
Long day was long. And theres no food options at all where I am staying, no shops, no internet, no other people, just Wallabies.
That meant buying food and cooking it in a hotel room. I hate doing that. An electric frypan was provided, it was dirty, it made a mess, it took ages, cleaning it was nearly impossible, this attracted flies. ETC ETC.
That meant that after dinner it was almost dark, and by dark, REALLY DARK. You can see the milky way with the naked eye levels of darkness here. I had time for just a quick hike along the Great Ocean Walk in the other direction from that which I went on last night.
This provided a couple of nice views, however the amusing bit to me was when I returned. A large family group had just arrived in the car park. Where I am staying is inside a gate and fence, but there is a public car park outside. The lighthouse shuts at 5. I assume they thought they could go see the lighthouse at 8pm in the dark. No. Undeterred, they saw the Great Ocean Walk sign, and so off they set, into the night, up a completely dark hiking trail, in thongs (flip flops), jeans and dress shirts. Perhaps they will never be heard from again.
There are many ship wrecks along the coast. This one made it some way inland.
This is the hiking trail mentioned above, as I started on it. It was too dark to photograph when I came back and saw another group startig on it.
Oh look, the lighthouse. This spot on the Great Ocean Walk is named 'Lighthouse lookout'. I used my zoom.
I missed the actual sunset, this is just post sunset. I was running out of light fast, time to turn around and run back.
The path is very well maintained. There are professional walking tour companies taking people along here every day. Day being the important word in that.
Annnnnd photo of the night. The lighthouse. They light it up just for us for a couple of hours at dusk. Then the light goes out so you can see the stars more. Perhaps tomorrow night I will take a photo of the lighthouse in complete darkness, just a glowing white phallus. Something to look forward to.
There are currently 1 comments - click to add
mother on 2021-04-03 said:
nice lighthouse shot. Pity there are no places to eat.
From Cape Otway to Port Campbell via the Twelve Apostles
Today I went to one of the most visited sites in Australia. Probably on one of the busiest days. However due to COVID there are basically zero bus tours so it was manageable.
The place is the Twelve Apostles. There are less than 12 now. Maybe 9? They keep falling into the sea. There is also London Bridge. It fell down a few years ago so I did not bother going.
Also today is the first day sans daylight saving, so that's worth noting.
There was actually less traffic than I expected, only once did I get annoyed at a slow family in a hire car who were driving for the first time in their lives.
The sites were good, even with other people. There will be too many photos of said sites.
So which way is the better way to go from Cape Otway? West or East? Yesterday I went East (towards Melbourne), today I went West (away from Melbourne). I think East, but the weather was better. I think that mainly because some of the places visited yesterday were surprises and places I have not been to before. Where as the sites today, which were spectacular, I have been to before, and so has anyone else who ever set foot in Australia.
Now onto too many shots of too similar a view, some of them are ok though?
This morning at dawn I went further along the other way up the Great Ocean Walk. Here is the local graveyard, with shipwreck and lighthouse graves.
Much of the Great Ocean Walk has no view of the Ocean.
Eventually, an Ocean view arrives. Not bad.
I went too far, and needed to turn back at about this point. I did not see any other people until just about getting back to Cape Otway. There are camping sites in the scrub for people doing the entire walk. The people I saw coming out of the camp sites looked like they had spent their entire lives in camp sites.
On the road now, and the first stop is the Castle Cove lookout. Behold the view.
And the view the other way.
Not having done enough Great Ocean Walk yet, I walked along it a bit from Castle Cove and took this photo. That's pretty exciting right?
Coffee break was at Lavers Hill. A cafe in a town that claims to be where the forest meets the sea. It is where the logging camps meet the farms really as its not close to the sea and they cut most of the forest down. However the cafe does have a nice area where they feed parrots and a semi abandoned rainforest garden.
A bit more of the cafe garden. Coffee was good here. Might go again tomorrow on the way home.
Just before the Twelve Apostles is this duck hunting lake area. Strangely full of backpacker lodges. Backpackers now have guns and shoot ducks. You heard it here first.
Just before the Apostles is Gibson's steps, where you can get down to the beach. Here is the view from the top of the steps.
Behold, beach, with no people!
And here are the steps. It is a tight squeeze.
More beach, now with people, and cliffs. I kicked the cliff of course.
Annnnd less people, same shot, further away, people for scale (I added them in afterwards).
There they are, the Twelve Apostles. I only count 4. Did 8 of them fall down now?
Hmm, no more in the other direction. I want my money back! Please note there is no cost to visit, not even for parking.
OK, now I count 5 or 6. There are still at least 6 missing.
2 more! That makes 8! My final tally is 8. Change the name.
I now realise this is the only photo I took of Port Campbell. This is the last town on what most people consider the Great Ocean Road driving day trip route. I have seen shop owners here on the news complaining about the drop off in bus tours due to COVID. Some places were closed down but most were open, and being poorly managed. Trying to get a seat and food was almost impossible, with places suggesting it would be a minimum 45 minutes wait etc. In the end I got a muffin.
Back at Cape Otway now, and here is the top of the lighthouse. Yes I finally went up there. This is where you sit to, do stuff. I read the signs, it stopped operating in the 90's, up until the 50's it was still clockwork operated and people had to stay in it all night and pull weights up which would then pull the light around like a cuckoo clock.
There is the view back up the path I photographed previous days / nights with my accommodation on the left of the building at the top of the path.
Great views from the top of the lighthouse in the late afternoon sun with cloudy skies.
And perhaps saving the best for last? I like the light shooting into the sun for some reason. Despite taking shots of famous sites all day, I declare this, photo of the day.
The worst photos of the Cape Otway lighthouse
Just when everyone thought there would be no more lighthouse photos, here are 3 more. Behold it in all its phallic glory.
I threatened to take such a photo, and now I took 3. You were warned.
Tomorrow, no lighthouse photos I swear, unless it is on fire as I leave in the morning.
There is still an adventure to be had on the way home tomorrow.
Yes, it is the lighthouse, with the white rail. Not so dark tonight due to the cloudy conditions.
More lighthouse. This one was 1/4 of a second handheld.
And the final lighthouse shot, an extra spooky double exposure.
There are currently 1 comments - click to add
adriana on 2021-04-04 said:
lots of people wandering along the cliff top looking at the apostles.
There are currently 4 comments - click to add
bobule on 2021-04-21 said:
lack of beef
jenny on 2021-04-02 said:
So I wonder what else there is to do there.
David on 2021-04-02 said:
Those are escape codes, I thought single quotes broke my coding but I must have fixed that at some point
adriana on 2021-04-02 said:
Excellent start. Why all the / in your writing? also should be dilapidated lying, delapidated laying.