Day 5 - Apollo Bay to Blairgowrie
About 150kms

Today was quite the meander - enjoying the coastline and all it had to offer.

It started early-ish. Mr8 and I walked across the road to the beach to enjoy a spectacular sunrise over Apollo Bay.

We got on the road about 9am, and took our time, stopping at lookouts and historic monuments along the way. At Lorne we had morning tea and the kids enjoyed a play on a pretty awesome looking playground. At Aireys Inlet we walked up to the Split Point Lighthouse, and more wonderful views of the coast.

We detoured off the main road to get a glimpse of the famous Bells Beach surf break, however a big international surf carnival ended up putting this idea into the too hard basket, and we just cruised past the surf beach at Torquay instead.

We pushed on to Barwon Heads, where we enjoyed a nice cafe lunch instead of our picnic ham sandwiches that we'd been making along the way so far. Barwon Heads is where the ABCTV series Seachange was filmed all those years ago.

After lunch we realised there was a faint chance of making the 3pm ferry, and although unlikely, we hotfooted it to Queenscliff. As expected, we arrived just in time to see the ferry pulling out. So, we took advantage of the time and climbed a nearby tower for a great view of the local area - including the mouth of Port Phillip Bay.

At 4pm, we drove onto the car ferry, then headed up to the top level to enjoy the 40min ride across to Sorrento. We spotted dolphins riding the bowwave of a nearby ship cruising into port, and pretty sure we spotted a seal frolicking in the distance too. It was incredibly calm on the water - which of course was quite a relief.

Our stop for the night is a little place called Blairgowrie - which is about 10mins up the road from Sorrento. We hadn't booked ahead, so did some googling over lunch for places to stay. With Easter approaching, the options were slim, or the other options that were available were a bit pricey. While our modest accommodation suits our brood, the lack of side rails on the top bunk is a little concerning. Hopefully Mr8 doesn't fall out tonight!