Magic Helicopter ride, a cheese factory and Geelong Harbour

Port Campbell is not an easy place to find food in the evening, nor in the morning. We left the hostel at 8am to try and find breakfast and had to settle on the one takeaway that was open. It seems nothing opens in that town til 10am on a Sunday, this is not good for travellers!

We headed back to the 12 Apostles so I could get another look at them, and try

12 Apostles at dawn

and get some dawn photos (as the light was behind them at sunset). We stopped at Lock Ard Gorge on the way and once again marvelled at what the wind, sea and weather has carved out of the shoreline - it really is quite amazing and like nothing I have ever seen before.

Lock Ard Gorge

Lock Ard Gorge, Port Campbell NP by Air

After adding approximately another 100 photos of the Apostles to my memory stick (can you ever have enough photos??) Bek set off on her final suprise for me. We walked past the Apostles carpark to an airfield where we were to set off on a helicopter flight over the coastline. Seeing the coastline from the air was surreal and beautiful. The pilot had a good laugh at how nervous I was looking (I have never been in a chopper before) but as soon as we took off I quickly discovered helicopter flying is much smoother and easier on the body than an aeroplane. It was awesome!

Up up and away!

12 Apostles by air

Back down to earth

After our flight we started the trip back to Melbourne, stopping at "Cheese World" at Allansford for me to get a cheese fix. We stopped in Colac for lunch and ate an 'interesting' fish and chips from the chicken shop - the fish was covered in chicken salt, an interesting taste sensation to say the least.... After Colac we headed to Geelong (we had about 4 hours left before we had to be at the airport) and sought out the beach. Neither Bek nor I had been to Geelong before and we had a lovely afternoon walking up and down the beach, eating soggy icecream and being entertained by 15 year olds trying to 'one up' each other at the ocean pool. It was great, they have a really interesting shoreline there with plenty to do and watch - Andy would have loved all the boat racing going on in the harbour.

Geelong Beach Bollard art

We headed back to Melbourne at about 6pm where we dropped off the car and did all those 'end of holiday' things - like wish that we still had another week off to see more.

I was asleep pretty much on takeoff (9pm) and didn't wake up until we landed back in Canberra.

It was an awesome trip and I have been so incredibly spoilt by Bek and I can't even begin to thank her enough for all she did for me. It has definately made me want to go back and spend more time on the Great Ocean road, checking out all the little towns and villages and doing more rainforrest and coastline hikes/walks. Just amazing!

written by

Cath & Andy on February 25, 2007 from Melbourne, Australia

from the travel blog: A journey to the alter and South America

Send a Compliment

comment on this...