The Port Campbell Holiday Park is a Top Tourist and one of the nicest we have stayed in so far this trip. The amenity block was new, large, and very clean. I'll give 4.5 Stars for this one. The laundry room was great as well. The sites were generous in width but just long enough for large vans. We were lucky to be able to drive through ours from the adjoining site to the rear but would be very tight to back into as the road is quite narrow.
We enjoyed a relaxing afternoon with a short walk to the beach and a lookout followed by stroll down the main retail street. We grabbed a couple of groceries before returning to the campground. We managed to get some nice close up pictures of some wrens later in the afternoon.
Saturday morning there were glimpses of sunshine but still cold and windy. Sandra reckons the wind is coming straight off of the Antarctic and she may be right. We all hopped in the Ransley's car for a ride exploring the sights South of Port Campbell. First stop was the local lookout which is on the hill leaving town. We got a good view of the town, beach, and a few surfers braving the cold. We also got another close up experience with a Koala as we returned to the parking lot. Don't know how we missed it when we walked by the first time.
Our next stop was called "The Arch". As the name suggests there is a large rock arch with water pounding through the opening. The skies were still a bit cloudy while we were there but starting to clear over the cliffs in the South. The wind was cold and the water was very choppy as you can see in the photos.
"London Bridge" was the next notable sight. There are several "London Bridges" throughout Australia that we have already seen. The section of rock joining the remaining arch to the headland fell in 1990 stranding two people. Once again the rock formation and surrounding cliffs/beaches were impressive as was the amount of water rushing through the opening and crashing against the rocks.
The sun was out with blue skies by the time we arrived at our next stop "The Grotto". A bit different than the other sites as you walked down a series of steps to have a look out at the ocean through another rock formation. Quite beautiful and so much different coloured green vegetation along the coastline as well.
We stopped for a bit of a break in Peterborough down at Wild Dog Cove. The skies were blue but the surf and wind were strong! We had a quick look around town before heading on to our next stop.
We then stopped at the "Bay of the Martyrs" where we did a short walk out to Halladale Point. There was beautiful colour in the cliffs and rock formations here which looked wonderful with the blue skies. The water was crashing against the rocks producing spectacular water sprays.
Our last stop on our trip South was the "Bay of Islands". Once again incredible colours and rock formations highlighted by the pounding waves. We all agreed later that some of these locations are on par with the "12 Apostles" for beauty although much less publicized. All are definite must sees if you visit this part of Australia. Most of them were much less crowded as well with some of the lookouts not suitable for caravans or buses.
We returned to the caravan park for an easy afternoon and a nice BBQ dinner. Unfortunately, it was still cold and windy so was an early night inside the caravans.
Sunday morning was the Bewell's turn to drive as we headed North on the Great Ocean Road. We had our first stop at Gibson's Steps. The weather was beautiful with warmer temperatures, very little wind, and blue skies. We first walked to the lookout before taking a series of steps down to the beach level. The tide was coming in and a number of tourists were getting wet feet. We enjoyed a nice walk along the beach before returning to the steps for our return climb. We managed to keep fairly dry although the steps were wet and sandy.
Our next stop was the famous "12 Apostles". We parked in the large carpark before walking underneath the highway to a number of lookouts. There was a lot of people there but probably not many compared to really busy times. That being said there was numerous lookout points and we didn't have any problem getting a good view and photos from each location. We enjoyed a good hour taking in the sight from the various lookouts. Lots of photos of which we had to delete many duplicates/triplicates.
Back in the car we travelled only a few kilometres before our next stop at "Loch Ard Gorge". This was actually a couple of different parking areas with several walks/viewpoints. Our first walk took us to the rock formation called "Razorback".
We then took walk along the North side of Loch Ard Gorge getting a shot of the sea beyond the opening to the gorge. We returned to near the parking lot and took a set of steps down to the beach at the base of the gorge where we watched the waves crashing into the opening between the cliffs.
Once we returned up the stairs we relocated the car to the second parking lot where we did some longer, much less busy walks. We walked down to "Broken Head" and "Thunder Cave" before completing the return walk via "Muttonbird Island". We had much of these walks totally to ourselves and we only encountered a few other couples. Not as dramatic as the "12 Apostles" but still very beautiful and well worth the effort.
We returned to the caravan for a late lunch and a relaxing, sunny afternoon. Rans and I took advantage of the warm weather to have a swim at the beach which was only a few hundred metres from our caravan. The weather may have been warm but the water was a bit on the cool side. It still felt good to have a bit of a swim and soak our sore muscles. I think we did over 20Kms of walks in the two days we spent exploring the area.
This short section is definitely the highlight of the Great Ocean Road. Beautiful scenery and a must see! The road on the other hand leaves a lot to be desired. Very poor condition with no shoulders in most places. The road is also shared with cars, trucks, caravans, buses and cyclists. The cyclists in particular are a problem because there is no place for them to ride safely at the side of the road. Nothing like coming around a sharp corner on a steep hill to find a truck coming at you in the opposite direction and a cyclist in the middle of your lane. Given the amount of tourists and traffic that travel this road every year the state of the road is a disgrace in our opinion.
On the plus side the Port Campbell caravan park is one of the nicest we have stayed at and was offering a $29/night deal for 3 or more nights. This is considerably cheaper than most parks along here which are up to $40/night. Highly recommend! This is our last official night on the Great Ocean Road as we will be in Port Fairy tomorrow which is back on the Princes Highway.
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