Our Great Adventure: Great Ocean Road Day 113 9/01/2015

We had breakfast at the local cafe before getting the shuttle bus back to the airport to collect our hire car that we'd booked for the next 7 days. The weather has certainly turned and it's much cooler with light rain/drizzle. From the airport we drove west towards Geelong and then south to Torquay where we stopped to get our first view of the beautiful white beaches and waves. The town isn't particularly interesting but the surf has made it very popular. The Great Ocean Road officially begins on the stretch of road just west of Torquay on the way to Anglesea. It was started in 1919 and completed in 1932, involving more than 3,000 workers in it's construction, mostly returned WWI soldiers. We took a detour just west of Torquay to see the famous Bells Beach. It was a bit chilly but lovely views. From here we drove along to Anglesea passing some very colourful, yellow cliffs rolling into the sea. We were hungry (must be the sea air!) and we couldn't resist the temptation of chips by the sea. Diane had a slight accident with the sachet of tomato ketchup, most of which is now sprayed over the hire car's passenger door! The road continues on to Aireys Inlet and passed Split Point Lighthouse where we stopped for a walk to the viewing points. The beach and sea here are all part of a protected marine sanctuary. The 34m high lighthouse was built in 1891 and is still operational although now fully automated. West of Aireys Inlet is Lorne, with hilly tree lined streets and beautiful beaches. The town itself, as with other places along the coast, lacks a bit of charm (maybe because its not that old by European standards) but the scenery makes up for it. From here we continued to Apollo Bay, one of the larger towns along the Great Ocean Road, where we stopped for tea and a rather heavy scone before heading inland to Forrest where we were staying for a couple of nights (we had tried to find somewhere on the coast but everywhere was full given it's summer holidays here). Forrest is about 45 minutes drive from Apollo Bay, a former logging town now transforming itself into a tourist destination. We arrived late afternoon after driving 245km from Melbourne and checked into the Forrest Guesthouse, which is a lovely place, formerly the club house of the local bowls club. The town has it's own micro brewery which we frequented in the evening and had a lovely meal washed down with beer brewed onsite. Diane had to drag Simon out after a couple as he would have stayed there all night sampling the very tasty beer.