We hit the road looking for our first stop, Lorne for lunch, before we would make our evening stop in Apollo Bay to spend the night. I’ll leave the overview of the trip for the last post of this series so that I can concentrate on the actual places we went here. We had lunch by the beach in Lorne which was nice, the weather was warm and sunny, and we got pies from Grandma Shields Bakery of which I am a fan (although having to pay for sauce is not something that I do like). We were a bit tired already (haha and some of us a bit cranky too!) and decided not to push our luck too much and so did not stop at the pier this time.

From there we carried on along the Great Ocean Road which is a treat even if you’re driving (although as usual, it would probably be nice to be there around sunset or sunrise), for a bit more than an hour to Apollo Bay. I’m going to be perfectly honest when I say that Apollo Bay is quite underwhelming and not somewhere that I’d be spending too much time in the future. Both the accommodation and the restaurant we had dinner (take away) were disappointing. The Seaview Motel, the name of the motel is not a lie, but you have to look pretty hard to see the sea, the rooms are perpendicular to the road (and the sea) which means you have to look out to the side and you might see the ocean, and on top of that, there is a newer, nicer looking accommodation right in front which would have better views.

We got a take away pizza (can’t remember what) and pasta (puttanesca) from La Casalingo (rated fairly well on urbanspoon) and I could definitely do better myself, just like some cheap take away here in Melbourne, but it wasn’t cheap at all. So, overall I would pass on Apollo Bay. From there we basically got up really early (thanks Oscar) and moved on as quickly as possible, heading down to Princetown and Port Campbell National Park via the Great Otway National Park.

This is when the weather turned to shit and hopes of a photographic dream with fluffy clouds, blue skies, and amazing scenery were blown away by the Antarctic winds and washed down the drain by the “Summer” rains. Whatever, we had to make do, and at least we still had the scenery, if not the weather. The Great Otway National Park is pretty cool, the trees that line the road going toward the Cape Otway Lighthouse are very interesting and have great textures. The Lighthouse itself is not particularly interesting, and it is extremely windy up the top. After that we went down the road to Port Campbell National Park and visited Loch Ard Gorge.

I’ve seen the Twelve Apostles before, and Gibson Steps as well, so I wanted to see something else and maybe scout some sunset/sunrise locations. Loch Ard Gorge was well worth it, and finding the Geology Walk which took us past Island Arch and the Razorback which I decided looked like a great spot for sunset. With the weather the way it was, I didn’t expect many people to show up later, as I was having a look at Loch Ard Gorge just before sunset, a tour bus showed up so I hurried over toward the Razorback to capture what I could. I got to try some multi-exposure shots as well as long exposures which I think turned out quite well. There even ended up being a tiny hint of a sunset and some interesting clouds, it definitely was not a waste of time (and I finally got some good use out of my tripod!!).

The next morning, the body clock got me up about 45 minutes before sunrise, I decided to head to Gibson Steps rather than the Twelve Apostles because I thought it would be more secluded, it was empty, but I don’t think there would have been many people (if any) at the Twelve Apostles either. Again, I experimented with the same techniques from the night before, and also added in some auto-bracketing for good measure. Almost lost the stupid lens cap off my DA 21mm lens, but got some nice shots I think (again, a hint of a sunlight and clouds and the flowing water gave me some interesting elements to work with).

After that, we left for Portland via Port Fairy, but not before stopping along the way at The Arch and London Arch, both very worthwhile although I do prefer The Arch myself (but I may have missed something at London Arch). We did skip Bay of Islands, but seeing it as we drove past I must say, it definitely looks like somewhere worth visiting next time, it was raining quite persistently the whole day which made it hard to spend the required time at these great sites.

We stayed at a self-contained cottage in Princetown which was pretty nice, although the fridge froze everything we put in there (the fridge, not even the freezer). There is a selection of DVDs to watch and a couple of separate rooms which meant that we didn’t need to tiptoe around while Oscar slept in the evening. There is a stock standard pub in Princetown which is where we had dinner. I’m not sure where we had lunch, it was in Port Campbell, but the name of the restaurant escapes me, it was modern Australian cuisine I guess (it may have been The. Karoa, it’s next door to Frying Nemo any way), it was not bad, but nothing special.

I’ll leave it at that for now, next time we’ll be heading into South Australia and to the brink of Kangaroo Island.