My last day driving the Great Ocean Road….

Gday again,

I did not elaborate on my final leg of the Great Ocean Road in my last post because there seemed to much to say and, to be honest, I was both hot and a bit strained from the long drive over some very difficult road lol.. well they did warn me it would be the worst stretch!

I had no idea about the festival being held at Port Fairy until I wandered into the information center at Lorne the day before I left. It came as a shock to realise I might not be able to find somewhere to stay for a night or two.. I don’t mind free camping but when it is a long weekend it is not as easy as one might imagine. Lots of places frown on motorhomers pulling into picnic spots or parking overnight on the side of the roads.. to be honest I didn’t fancy doing that anyway with so many people about. One does have to be careful of being vulnerable to all sorts of stuff, including fines and people with less than honourable intentions lol… I do have my Alex and he has become quite the protective guard dog, always letting me know if someone is about; although he is never aggressive he certainly makes people pause in their tracks (not a bad thing for a woman travelling solo).. Too, I enjoy the peace of doing my own thing when I want to and not because I do not have a choice.. what to do?? After speaking with the lovely helpful lady in the information centre, I headed back to the motorhome and began calling around some parks… well they were full to capacity already, it being the long weekend AND a big festival.. hmm. There was one last resort. The lady had mentioned a little caravan park not far from Port Fairy in a little Irish town called Koirot. She suggested I give it a try.

I was not expecting much luck but you never know, I figured, if you don’t give it a go! Sure enough when I called the caretaker, lady by the name of Rhonda, I was told that unless I only had a tent, there would not be enough space. I thanked her for her time anyway and told her I had not planned on the way things were, being from New South Wales and this being my first trip.. must plan better next time I informed her and had a laugh. I figured I would just have to find a quiet street somewhere and wing it lol.. Not if Rhonda had anything to do with it apparently. She asked me to come on the Thursday if I could and she would guarantee a place for me. It wouldn’t have electricity she told me, was that ok? I told her that was just fine as I have a little generator and I have a couple of solar panels on the roof. Great! It was all set. I did tell her though that it might not be until Friday though I would pay for the extra night to secure the site… Rhonda refused that idea, said she would keep it for me and I was not to pay for a night I had not had the site for 🙂 Fine by me….

Well I had great plans of getting on the road by nine on Thursday morning.. LOL best laid plans of mice and Sandy right? I was ready in plenty of time because of my previous night’s preparations… I was laughing as they say! Nope, I had reckoned without Lorne’s one and only fuel station LOL….

Now the motorhome needs diesel.. no problem to get to usually; Lorne of course was the exception to the rule! Not only was it stuck off to one side where anyone with a vehicle bigger than a ute would have difficulty getting to it but to make it more of a challenge, some bright spark had erected a chain barrier just behind it.. not a good look for those of us who unwittingly pull in at the right place to negotiate our way over. Now to compound all of this, my tank is on the driver’s side; the only way you  could pull up to the bloody diesel bowser was if your tank was on the passenger’s side lol.. and the hose to the bowser was nowhere big enough to reach around it either! Bloody hell! I went in to talk to the person on duty about it only to be given a blank look and the sage(?) advice to go back out, come in the wrong way and reverse up to the bowser… fine! Just another bloody challenge for a woman who thought she was gonna have an easy run today LOL…

When I walked out of the shop, I found to my horror that not only was there a large truck blocking my path to getting out from the front but a huge bloody Coke truck blocking me from the rear! arghhhhhhhhhh LOL… the truck at the front was not going anywhere for awhile by the looks of all the ice he was stacking in all four of the holding machines; the coke truck might just be mercifully quicker than that! I took a deep breath and settled in to wait as patiently as I could for a chance to get out!!!

Meanwhile a four wheel drive with  a bloody caravan had pulled up beside me while I was in the shop and was now upset at ME because he could not get out again! Well join the bloody club mate, at least you are all fuelled up! Lucky bugger uses normal fuel in his tank! Ten minutes later the Coke truck left; the guy in the caravan pulled as far forward as he could so I could bloody well back out, leaving him enough turning space to get out from the front. By now I needed a bit of fresh air and a calming walk and I was not the only one. Poor bloody Alex was hot and grumpy too lol….

I went up to the nearest round about and came back down the street, finding a big enough park next to the main shops where I could also keep an eye on the damn fuel station. I figured when it had a quiet time I could have a go at doing what I was told to do to get the fuel. I had asked around town but the closest fuel station was a long way away unless I wanted to retrace my steps and I had less than a quarter of a tank! Ok! Alex and I went for a walk to clear our heads..not before I gave myself a bit of a scare though lol.. I was so frazzled I forgot to put the hand brake on when I pulled up. I thought I was suffering badly from stress when I felt like the motorhome was going backwards lolol.. oi vey! Thankfully it was only seconds before I realised why and I put on the hand brake, so relieved no one had pulled in behind me! Yep I needed that walk to clear my head and get my sense of humour back LOLOL so I took it!

About half an hour later I noticed the traffic was very thin, great! A quiet time! I hightailed it back to the motorhome, clipped Alex in and started her up! Just as I did a bloody fourby turned in to get some.. you guessed it! Diesel LOL.. arghhh..never mind. I turned off the motor and waited again. I saw him go in to pay and I turned the motorhome back on; nope, another bloody RV came around the side street and in behind the fourby.. well bugger me! Here we go again, I thought, gonna be an interesting day! Now I decided there was another way to handle this. I went in the way I did the first time but I pulled in vertically where the coke truck had been, staking my claim to the bowser next in no uncertain terms! Hahahaha omg did I cop an eyeful as I watched the other RV .. a hired one with a Japanese driver.. try to get to the bowser. I wonder how many had been caught? and why they don’t bloody well fix the problem! After all there are so many motorhomers now, lots of them in Lorne when I was there and it hadn’t even gotten busy yet!

Anyway, the driver realised finally that the bowser pump just would not fit around the RV lol.. duh… and so he decided to back out..or should I say in..you see he backed into the roof of the fuel station! hahahaha I cringed as I heard the screech of the metal on metal..well it was probably metal on mostly plastic for it was the air con that did the damage! He didnt go too far thankfully though I suspect that was because he couldn’t. The staff came running out, shouting at him to stop LOL..now how to get him out without ‘bringing the house down’ if you get my drift LOL.. slowly is how they did it.. great chunks of what looked like plaster fell away but the roof stood.

Finally someone did something! They unhooked the bloody chain so that the guy could get to the bowser.. now why did they not do that in the first place? I went in after him, got my diesel and could not believe it as a guy with a caravan pulled up behind me! NO space for backing out and nowhere to go! grrrrrrr I had enough by now and stalked over to the guy, leaned down to his window and politely asked him if  he would mind moving back so I could get out without hitting him! LOL he did though with ill grace. In the meantime a very nice guy came over and gave me a hand. He acted as extra eyes for me as it isnt easy to see out the back of a motorhome without a reversing camera…

Finally I was on my way, having thanked my helper profusely for his courtesy. Yayyyyyyyy on the road again.. lol…

The stresses were soon forgotten as I once again got lost in the beauty surrounding me. Just as before the views were stunning and the road I had been informed was so narrow and winding, not to mention hilly did not seem to me to be too bad so far 🙂 I was getting so comfortable with going up and down the gears by now that I did not find it a hardship at all and I simply could not understand why some people had gone over the edge. Mind you I was not speeding; I did treat the road with the respect it deserved I think and that does count for something. I found though I could still look at the view without losing concentration or my my place on the road; the times when I came to ‘hairy bends’ were also the times when there was not much to see lol… I could go on ad nauseum about the beauty but I think by now you get the gist. I planned to stop for lunch at Apollo Bay, about forty k’s down the road.. I did that, no more dramas yayyyyyy lol. I would have liked to stop off at so many pretty spots along the way but time was of the  essence now thanks to the dramatic beginning to my day lol… I did a mental salute to Wye River for a friend who fell in love with it, having to forgo the drink I promised to have for him on the verandah of its local pub.. ahh well maybe another time. So many times I wanted to stop and snap pics but time marches on relentlessly when you least want it to … I pulled up on the  very outskirts of Apollo Bay, in a little parking bay right on the beach. I figured it would be good for Alex to have a bit of a run on the beach, work off some of his natural energy and give him some joy.He is such a good traveller, putting up with the restrictions when we are on the road and I wanted to show him some appreciation back. Nope, not in Apollo Bay, leastways not off a leash and on this spot not even on one!

Yet another less than dog friendly part of the world dangit! Ahh well, I put him back in the motorhome after he had a cool drink of water and headed into town. I found a place to park and we got out to explore. I was not hungry yet so a walk was definitely in order! We were parked right next to a lovely picnic park so we began our exploring there. I found a path that led to the beach and this time it stated dogs were allowed on the beach. We ventured down the steps and, though Alex was not all that happy with having to stay on the leash, we both managed to enjoy the walk and I in particular enjoyed the opportunity to take some pictures for those back home 🙂

Afterwards we wandered back down the street where I found a lovely little health food shop, ordering a fresh large juice as I still didn’t feel hungry enough for solid food. They were lovely, giving Alex a little bucket of water so he too got to quench his thirst. I took a picture of the wall on the inside because it was so unusual and we wandered off again. I took the opportunity to do  a bit of window shopping and wound down before starting off again. I know its a highly sought after place but for mine, it was too touristy. I guess Lorne had won my heart already but I would rather be there than in Apollo Bay lol.

More oohing and ahhing at the magical vista and then suddenly our path took us away from the ocean.. a long,winding and very steep path actually filled with my least favourite bends.. hairpins! I guess this was the road they were talking about lol… I took this part very steady,  and so I guess it took me longer than a lot to get to Warnambool.The forest surrounds made for a beautiful trip nontheless and it was beautifully cool; quite a change from the long hot days I had been having on the coast lol.  Long before I reached Warnambool, at a place called Port Campbell the road became straighter and a hell of a lot flatter. We were also back along the ocean. Here the most magnificent part of the journey was about to begin.. ohhhh how to describe the beauty of the Twelve Apostles? The Bay of Islands.. and all in between. I couldnt stop sighing with wonder as I drove along this stretch, stopping only for the scenic tour of the Twelve Apostles and The Bay of Islands; so many tempting spots went begging as now it was very late in the day and I really wanted to get to my destination before settling down.

By the time I made Warnambool I was already very tired and it was quite late.. around six I think. I had been on the road most of the day and was longing to get off it lol… Not that much further to Port Fairy, the sign stated.. ok then I could do it… Wearily I negotiated the city’s busy traffic and traffic lights, focussing on getting back out onto the highway… steadily I mowed down the remaining kilometres and about nineteen k’s from Port Fairy, I saw a sign that offered a turn off to Koroit! Oh joy, when I looked at the map earlier in the day it had inferred that Koroit was further than Port Fairy… I happily turned in, parked up at the lookout on Tower Hill and phoned Rhonda. I was hoping she was still in the office for it was now around seven or so. Yep, I was in luck. Rhonda gave me exact instructions to get to the park. I was there in five minutes and shown to my spot. There was a lovely bonus for it turned out Rhonda had fanangled a site with electricity for me; a bonus for  being early lol.. here I will stay until Tuesday morning when the crowds have gone and I can explore Port Fairy and maybe retrace some of the journey so I can see more of that lovely road where the twelve apostles are 🙂 Have a lovely weekend all, blessings from Alex and I till next we converse via my blog xxx