Great Ocean Road to Port Fairy

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When the alarm went off at 6 am, we seriously considered skipping our 12 Apostle sunrise which we knew we would share with a few hundred other people, especially when we opened our tent to see cloudy skies.  BUT, we’ve come this far and it wasn’t a complete bust after all…we saw our first wallaby up close and personal!

After an anti-climactic sunrise we walked down the Gibson steps and had the beach to ourselves. After yesterday’s searing heat, today revealed itself to be cloudy, windy and cold but fortunately we were bundled up and enjoyed our walk along the beach watching the light change on the cliffs as the sun occasionally peeked through the clouds.

We’d planned for another night on the coast before heading back to Melbourne to catch our flight to Tasmania and we couldn’t decide whether to return a different route or to backtrack to one of the beach towns we passed yesterday.

After much deliberation we decided to continue north to the historic whaling town of Port Fairy, stopping off at the same Great Ocean Road viewpoints we’d gone to last night to see them in a different light. We did some short coastal walks and concluded that the lesser visited spots, the Bay of Martyrs and Bay of Islands were our favorites. One beach in particular was simply stunning and we were the only ones there, well, just us and a couple of seagulls hanging out on a rock.

When we first arrived in Port Fairy our initial reaction was “holy cow, what will we do here for the rest of the day?” but honestly, by the time we left 24 hours later it had cast a spell on us, what a lovely little town!  There were so many cafes (this town takes it’s coffee and cake seriously!) it was hard to choose where to grab a late lunch but we settled on Bank Street + Co where I had a fantastic roasted veggie sanger and iced coffee.

Refueled, we wandered around town and the surrounding residential streets taking in the historic buildings with the help of an info map we’d picked up from the surprisingly large visitors center. 

After that we took an invigorating (i.e. windy) stroll around Griffiths Island accessible from town via a walk along the causeway.  There were birds and wallabies along the way, but the star of the show was the 1850’s lighthouse at the eastern tip with its bright red door and dome roof which looked striking against the inky blue sea.

Griffiths Island Lighthouse Port Fairy Victoria
Griffiths Island Lighthouse, Port Fairy

Home tonight was Southcombe Campground right on the edge of town. The facilities were great; large clean and modern shower blocks and a couple of small kitchens with BBQ’s and picnic tables. 

We had thought we would eat in town tonight or grab fish and chips but with the BBQ beckoning to us and a well-stocked supermarket just up the street, we decided to enjoy a relaxing evening in camp.  So, lamb steaks were grilled up with some veggies while we relaxed and sipped down a nice bottle of Shiraz and finished off with some cheese and crackers. 

We’ve covered quite a few miles over the last few days and Mike was already feeling like he needed a vacation from his vacation, needless to say, we were tucked up in bed shortly after sundown.

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