The Great Ocean Road Revisited

The Otway Farmstay and the young Aussie couple who stayed there with me.

Some of the locals.

A platypus.

Sue and John.

The rolling hills of their farm.

California Redwoods planted here in 1938.

One of the beaches along the Great Ocean Road.

Another koala at Kennett River.

The rainforest on the Grey River. 

The view from the lookout at Lore.

Sunday, November, 20^th.

In the morning Andy took the Aussies for a tour and John took me to the dam and pond on their property to see the platypus. We saw one three times or three once, but I did finally get a chance to see a platypus in the wild.

Today was a beautiful, hot, sunny day. This is a really beautiful and scenic area of Australia. Sue and John had something to do in the morning so I headed off and decided to drive the Great Ocean Road back to the city.  On the way I revisited the forest of California Redwoods that were planted here in 1938. I was here before but it is a beautiful stand of trees. They are so majestic and tall even though they are not as large in girth as the ones in California,.It is very quiet with no undergrowth and little sunlight reaching the ground. And just outside the forest is the native Australian rainforest complete with tree ferns.

The Ocean Road is a beautiful winding road along the coast. It follows the shore, up and over big hills, past beaches and sand dunes and through some rainforest areas. The vistas along the way are stunning. When I got to Kennett River, where I had previously fed the birds, I drove up the dirt road to the Grey River picnic area where I found several koalas in the gum trees and a great walk along the river through a beautiful rainforest full of prehistoric looking tree ferns.

I retraced my route back to the coast and continued to Lore, which is a really nice town with probably the best beach on the road. I had a bite to eat here before following the signs up a couple of steep roads in town to a great lookout of the coast and the road.

Then I drove inland to get back to the highway to Melbourne. When I arrived in town I stopped at MSAC for a swim before getting my groceries. I swam in the 50 metre outdoor pool. It felt great to swim outside. Then groceries and home to chop them up.