The big news story at the moment is the number of bushfires in the North-eastern part of Victoria. The big threat is that smaller ones may join together to create a monster fire and the weather conditions aren’t helping matters. For most of this week there have been warnings that this weekend was to be the crunch-time, with temperatures predicted to reach 40C. We drove the final part of the Great Ocean Road (on 9th Dec) in blistering hot temperatures and in a light haze which we presumed to be smoke from the fires (even though we were hundreds of miles away).
The main photo opportunity today was of one of the icons of the Great Ocean Road: The Twelve Apostles. Actually there are only 8 of these limestone stacks still viewable from the main viewing platform – the last one tumbled on 3 July 2005 – but they continue to make an impressive sight. There are apparently 13 of the stacks in total, but you have to take a ‘flightseeing’ tour or a boat ride to see them all. It is not known when these stacks first became known as the Twelve Apostles; originally they were known as The Sow and Piglets (with Mutton Bird Island at the mouth of Loch Ard Gorge being the sow). Something else that is not known is when the next Apostle will crash into the sea. According to an expert on such matters, it might be next week or sometime in the next 10 years.
We also made brief stops at Loch Ard Gorge and London Bridge, until recently a double arch until one of them collapsed, stranding tourists until they were rescued by helicopter. The stops were brief because of the scorching weather; it was the sort that only mad dogs and Englishmen would be out in! The ever-present bush flies didn’t really help, either, but at least they only buzz around without biting.
According to our map, the Great Ocean Road ends just before Warrnambool. We rejoined the A1- the main road around Australia – which at this point is called the ‘Coastal Explorer’s Way’, and picked up speed. At Allansford we stopped at ‘Cheeseworld‘. We had been anticipating this stop all day, expecting to find a huge cheesearium – something we’re always keen to visit. However, it turned out to be quite a small room within a large shop, with only a small number of cheeses to sample. We consoled ourselves with a cheese platter from the restaurant area. It was nice enough, but we were disappointed with the lack of their allegedly ‘award winning’ cheddar on the plate, and the number of rather frou-frou fruit and nut packed sweet cheeses, which aren’t really to our taste .
Our stop for the night was Port Fairy, a small but hugely picturesque town on the Moyne River. We had been concerned with it being a Saturday that we would find it difficult to find somewhere to stay, however these worries were unfounded. The whole place was seemingly empty! We got a room at the Seacombe Hotel, an old hotel classified by the National Trust. Having had the cheese-platter earlier, we didn’t fancy a huge meal out and so enjoyed a bag of fish and chips sat on the riverbank. Thankfully we were sat near other picnicking people who had already got the seagulls’ interest, so we were able to enjoy our food without being surrounded by squawking birds begging for scraps. Rather like New Zealand’s Coromandel Peninsula, it seemed like we were the Saturday night life – presumably the locals all went elsewhere that night!
