Great Ocean Road - Part 1
Woke up to rain falling on the roof...so not a great start. But we pushed onto Port Fairy anyway. Unfortunately it was raining too heavy for us to get out and enjoy anything, but we did a little drive around the streets to see some of the old buildings which were mostly nice little seaside cottages. We then drove onto Warrnambool where our first stop was at the Visitor Information Centre to ask "what can we do that is warm and dry?!". The lady there suggested a self-drive tour of the city and to a few points on the coast, some shopping, a drive out of town to a waterfall and a visit to the Flagstaff Museum and Village (but that was partly outdoors). So we decided to skip the museum and shopping, and drove to Thunder Point, where we managed to jump out and get a few photos before a really heavy shower came through. But we can appreciate what a great seaside town Warrnambool would be in finer weather with lots of swimming spots and playgrounds for the kiddies. We then drove the 15km or so out of town to Hopkins Falls, which was more of a cascade than a waterfall but still pretty awesome with the floodwaters spilling over it! Occasionally a gust of wind would throw a heaps of foam up into the air too. From there we drove back towards the coast and stopped at Cheeseworld at Allansford, for some free cheese-tasting and a yummy milkshake. We bought some of their local cheese, some wine and chocolate - yum! Then it was onto the Great Ocean Road proper, and we stopped at all the lookouts between there and Port Campbell including: Bay of Islands, the Grotto, London Bridge and The Arch. We spent quite a bit of time at the Grotto, but not by choice...because there was more fuel trouble with the bus! Kent changed the fuel filter and tried fixing it for over an hour and a half, and eventually it came right. But that wasn't all our trouble for the day. As it was getting late, and dark, and we didn't have a camp spot planned, we decided to try and find a nice quiet little spot down a country road. When the road we picked didn't turn out to be so appropriate (houses at the end), we tried turning around but the back wheels went off the road and got stuck in the ditch. And of course because of all of the rain, they weren't coming out in a hurry! In the end, we managed to get out, and the woman whose driveway we had tried to turn around in came out and said we could park at the side of her shed for the night. Ah, such a sigh of relief! Hopefully, tomorrow will be a better day....we just have to get back out of the dirt driveway and up the hill first. No problems, right?! Fingers crossed we don't have anymore dramas like we've had today! And the weather is better...is that too much to ask?!