Great Ocean Road - setting off

What a beautiful day, back into shorts and tee shirt. Tidied and cleaned the house where we have been staying, packed Bertha and set off. We started off by turning the heating off!

It’s great to be back on the road with the mystery of what’s around the bend, where are we going to stay tonight, the feel of the wind through my hair 😂 with new and sometimes unexpected things to see.

The GOR starts in Torquay and mostly follows the coast. It winds, rises and fall around the headlands and bays. Driving Bertha in the bright sunshine it was delightful but a convertible sports car would be fabulous .... and then frustrating when you come up behind Bertha! There are many pull off areas encouraging slow vehicles to allow others to overtake.

The surfing film Point Break (Patrick Swayze, Keanu Reeves etc) features Bells Beach where we stopped and watched the surfers. Although the final scene of the film is set at Bells Beach, the scene was not filmed there. In the film Patrick Swayze doesn’t return from riding the ultimate wave. What they didn’t say in the film is that the reason was because 2km down the road there is the Great Ocean Road Chocolaterie & Ice Creamery where Patrick stopped off at and ate so much chocolate and ice cream he wouldn’t have been able to swim. He never made the ultimate wave but drowned in a pot of Ma’s Carrot Cake ice cream. We had to research the place and I felt I had to try new flavours, I had two scoops, the carrot cake and then the spicy avocado ice cream. I will never again eat avocado ice cream 🤮. Wisely, Bun had the coffee flavour.

We detoured from the town of Lauren up to Erskine Falls where it was good to come across a 30m waterfall with a decent amount of water flowing.

The sun was setting behind the hills as we arrived at “The Coast House” 5001 Great Ocean Road. This is a beach house owned by a friend of a friend of a friend. We have been given permission to stay here, but will sleep in Bertha.Read more