Day Ninety - October 4th, 2013
The Great Ocean Road
Apollo Bay to Torquay
My promise that I'd 'never complain of the cold again' after feeling the awful humid heat of Darwin and Kakadu was short lived. Last night I complained, a lot. I must have woken up at least six times throughout the night cold to my core, and subsequently didn't sleep well. I was wearing as many layers as possible while Elly snoozed in just his sleeping bag. He was fine, I was not. Tonight, I go native.
We packed up and headed off, excited for another day in this beautiful part of the world, but sad to be leaving Apollo Bay in all its glory. We knew it would be an easy day distance wise, and we're still not used to only racking up 100km as opposed to the 800-900 we were doing in the outback. The majority of stops along the way were pretty towns and villages, replacing the magnificent costal sculptures of yesterday, but that was fine by us. We like anything that isn't flat desert by the point. We stopped at Kennett River, with one thing in mind: koalas. I'd read that the track behind the caravan park was our best bet for spottings. We took the Landy up the path and left the tourists behind tackling the national park on foot. We were glad we did as we soon came across a koala, and had him all to ourselves. He was making a grunting noise and looked like he was hiccuping. Elly jumped out the car to get a better look, and the koala made a decent down to the small space next to us! I got out too and we had another close encounter with these favourite animals of mine - amazing! He started growling so we backed off as his waddled his way over to a new tree. We deduced it must be breeding season as the next koala we saw was making similar movements and making grunting sounds. We drove on and suddenly Elliot threw the car into reverse. 'I think we just ran over a snake'. I thought, good, one less in the world! But we saw the massive thing slithering off into the scrub. It must have been 1.5-2m long, and we think it was a tiger snake (only one of the most venomous and aggressive - no big deal). Yuck.
We headed back, and I was adamant that I wouldn't be getting out the car again! We saw a few more lovely koalas (from the safety of my seat) and even got a few photos on Elliot's camera of a mum and baby having a cuddle. I'm so glad we saw more today, it's been a great few days!
We passed trough more beautiful towns including Lorne and Anglesea and pulled into the famous Bells Beach where the legendary World Tour passes through each year searching for the perfect wave. Elly was bouncing around like an over excited child, ready to get in the water, so we found a campsite ($31 a night, powered) and checked in for 2 nights, which we will most probably extend to 3 to give ourselves a break. We got the tent up and Elly was in his wetsuit before I could blink. He spent the afternoon surfing while I lounged on the beach.
We had a lazy afternoon, and nipped to Wooly's to get pizzas for a lazy supper. The showers here are limited to 4 minutes of hot water per person, so I was in and out quickly before rugging up to try and conserve body heat! I hope tonight will be a bit warmer!