The Ferry trip itself was relatively smooth and without incident. Once we unloaded in Queenscliff we took a winding route along the coast eventually joining up with the main highway into Torquay. From there we continued along the coast joining the Great Ocean Road. It was amazing how busy the roads got with tour buses and tourist traffic as soon as we passed through the Memorial gate at the East end of the Great Ocean Road. We continued on through Lorne which was very busy before arriving at Kennett River around lunch time. Kennett River is a very small community with not much more than the caravan park and a general store. The caravan park was a Top Tourist with nice wide sites. The amenity block was dated but kept relatively clean. I'll give 3 Stars. This is a great little caravan park right across the road from a lovely sandy beach. One of the few non rocky ones we saw along the Great Ocean Road. The weather was a lot better here as well so Rans and I had a swim on the first couple of days. The only downside to the caravan park was the water pressure which was abysmal. We had to use our pump in conjunction with the water feed to get any amount of pressure.
TOnce we had some lunch we took a short drive to explore the immediate area. First stop was Carisbrook Falls just South of Kennett River. The walk in was fairly short but did involve a fair amount of climbing up & down. There was water flowing over the falls but would be a great deal more it looks like after a heavy rain.
We returned to the car headed back through the caravan park to the Grey River Road. A gravel road that winds up the hill to the Grey River Picnic Reserve. We had many stops along the way as there were numerous Koala sightings. It was great to see so many of them in their natural habitat. Lots of pictures as you will see. The picnic area itself was on a lovely river/creek bed with beautiful rainforest vegetation. Unfortunately the walking trail and the picnic area were quite overgrown so we didn't explore very far. Lots more Koala sightings on the return trip as well a large quantities of colourful parrots in the park.
From there we took a short drive around town and down to the foreshore area. Looks like a lovely place to stay and wasn't nearly as busy as Lorne.
Back on the Great Ocean Road heading South we stopped at Maits Rest. A beautiful short walk of about 1Km winding through fern gardens and huge moss covered trees. Very enjoyable walk with good paths and boardwalk that is a must see from our perspective. Lots of pictures again of which a few are below.
We then headed West before turning South towards Cape Otway. This turned out to be one of the biggest disappointments of our trip so far and one I would recommend most people skip on their way through the Great Ocean Road. The road was sealed but was narrow and not very good. Lots of cars pulled up wherever because of Koala sightings. Great that there are so many of these lovely creatures here but not great that there are no decent places to pull off the road to enjoy them safely. Once we reached Cape Otway we discovered that you can't see anything without paying $19.50/person to get inside the gates. This included the café, the grounds and the lighthouse. A total ripoff as any other lighthouse location we have been at you could walk the grounds at no charge and only pay an admission if you wanted a guided tour of the lighthouse. We took a short walk to the only free lookout which again was a joke; with a 6 foot section of trees trimmed slightly so you could peer through at the coast and lighthouse in the distance.
While we were there we observed 90 percent of the people arriving in the parking lot, leaving without paying to get in. The few we met on the walk to the lookout all shared our frustration and were disgusted with the experience. Such a shame when compared against Wilsons Promontory and the more spectacular locations along the Great Ocean Road like the 12 Apostles which are all free.
We returned to the Great Ocean Road heading West, then North to Lavers Hill. We turned off the Great Ocean Road here heading North East towards Beech Forest. The road was very good and we made good time before turning South towards Triplet Falls. This road wasn't suitable for caravans but was fine in a car. We enjoyed our picnic lunch here before heading out on some walks.
Our first walk was to the Little Aire Falls. This was a fairly challenging 4.5Km return walk with lots of climbing up and down in both directions. There was beautiful rainforest vegetation and huge Sequoia Redwoods and Mountain Ash along the walk. At the end we were treated to a nice platform view down at the falls.
Once we retraced our steps we took the shorter but still challenging circuit walk to Triplet Falls. More of the same glorious huge trees, ferns, and moss along another undulating walkway. As the name describes there were a series of 3 falls with the top one being the best from a photography point of view. There was a few remnant pieces of old forestry equipment along the return leg to the carpark. We were fairly tired by the time we made it back to the Ransleys car.
From here we made the return trip to the caravan park via Beech Forest and Skenes Creek. The section East of Beech Forest was a very narrow and winding, forestry road. No room to pass another vehicle in large sections of this stretch and no visibility around the corners made it a stressful return trip. Luckily we didn't encounter any logging trucks and only one car travelling in the opposite direction.
Great day of exploring and total walks of some 14Km which left us very tired. We all had a fairly early night!
Thursday morning we enjoyed a bit of a sleep in before heading off in the Jeep for a day trip exploring North of Kennett River. We made the return trip to Lorne where we first ventured up to Teddy's Lookout. The route we took through town would be one of the steepest roads we have ever been on. We couldn't see the road over the hood of the Jeep in a few sections. Once at the top a short walk took us out to a lookout which gave a great view of the Great Ocean Road. We were lucky enough to have another close encounter with a Koala in a tree adjacent to the lookout.
We descended the hill by a different route which was considerably less steep before taking the road out to Erskine Falls. The car park was quite full when we arrived but we still took both walks to the upper and lower Falls viewpoints. The lower falls walk was short but challenging as it consisted of some 250 steps. The view of the falls was very good but photo opportunities were challenging due to the number of other tourists. Beautiful green creek bed was a nice cool location though. We returned up the steps to take the short walk to the upper view point. This was a much easier walk but I don't think it was as good a viewpoint.
We decided to continue our trip North to Airley's Inlet. We enjoyed a good walk around the lighthouse precinct and out to a couple of great lookouts. There were some very interesting rock formations in the area which were visible from the lookouts.
We also took a drive further along the beach road where we got some good views back at the lighthouse area.
We then turned back South stopping at the Memorial Arch which is the beginning of the Great Ocean Road. Interesting to find out that the road was built as a project by returning service man to integrate them back into the economy. Too bad our current batch of politicians don't have this sort of foresight and compassion towards are current military veterans.
Our final stop was in Lorne where we enjoyed a walk around the downtown and a lovely lunch. We returned to the caravan park where we enjoyed a relaxing afternoon and prepared for the next leg of our journey.
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