{"id":1265,"date":"2018-11-12T08:20:00","date_gmt":"2018-11-12T08:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.holloway.me.uk\/?p=1265"},"modified":"2019-04-27T17:02:56","modified_gmt":"2019-04-27T16:02:56","slug":"on-the-great-ocean-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.holloway.me.uk\/index.php\/2018\/11\/12\/on-the-great-ocean-road\/","title":{"rendered":"On the Great Ocean Road"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"VIC<\/p>\n

Heading out of Melbourne after a terrorist attack (luckily we were seeing Annie); getting into a traffic jam on the M1, we are now hoping re-find Australia on the Great Ocean Road.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"11\/10\/18\"<\/p>\n

Obviously the first thing we did when we saw the sea was to eat fish and chips and walk on the beach – I was brave enough to paddle – tad colder than Port Douglas but no crocodiles. There were a few surfers waiting patiently for the wave.<\/p>\n

\"Anglesea<\/p>\n

\"VIC<\/p>\n

We then stopped along the way at Split Point lighthouse which was obviously on everyone else\u2019s itinerary too!<\/p>\n

\"11\/10\/18\"<\/p>\n

It was built in 1891 and opened with John Halfrenny, a trade-unionist and founder of the 8 hour day. Lighthouses were essential along this \u2018shipwreck coast\u2019 with over 200 wrecks from 1830 to 1930. For a lot of those coming from England to make a new life (forced or otherwise) their hopes were dashed literally on the \u2018home straight\u2019.<\/p>\n

\"11\/10\/18\"<\/p>\n

Next was Erskine Falls – 230 steps down – a scramble downstream (David spotted our first crimson rosellas) to the lower fall & back up again.<\/p>\n

\"11\/10\/18\"<\/p>\n

\"VIC<\/p>\n

The eucalyptus trees here are enormous – at least 140 ft tall and elegant and beautiful.<\/p>\n

\"11\/10\/18\"<\/p>\n

Beneath them are tree ferns and jungle<\/p>\n

\"11\/10\/18\"<\/p>\n

\"11\/10\/18\"<\/p>\n

Then we headed up Grey River Road in search of koalas<\/p>\n

\"11\/10\/18\"<\/p>\n

We saw 8 and, how can I put it?, one pair having loud energetic sex! – very high up in the canopy leaping from branch to branch – fortunately they were both holding on tight to the tree! So much for sleepy koalas!! Photos have been censored. (Too high!)<\/p>\n

\"11\/10\/18\"<\/p>\n

I also saw sulphur-crested cockatoos, crimson rosellas and king parrots being fed by tourists next to a sign saying \u2018please don\u2019t feed the cockatoos\u2019<\/p>\n

\"11\/10\/18\"<\/p>\n

\"11\/10\/18\"<\/p>\n

We drove onwards down the beautiful twisting road; views of crashing rollers and deep blue ocean on the left and green rolling hills on the right – sort of like Devon but with less traffic and wider roads.<\/p>\n

\"11\/10\/18\"<\/p>\n

We arrived at Apollo Bay in time for dinner & a visit to a craft ale bar where a guitarist played, Buddy Holly, Don Maclean and even ‘rock around the clock!’ And some Aussie country songs – everyone else knew all the words. Of course we danced with the biker Aussies and David\u2019s hat was much admired and borrowed – they seem to have forgotten about hats here (but secretly love them!)<\/p>\n

Exhausted we fell asleep to the crashing rollers of the Southern Ocean (this is the view from our room – the rollers are out there beyond the sand bar).<\/p>\n

\"11\/10\/18\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Heading out of Melbourne after a terrorist attack (luckily we were seeing Annie); getting into a traffic jam on the M1, we are now hoping re-find Australia on the Great Ocean Road.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.holloway.me.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1265"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.holloway.me.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.holloway.me.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.holloway.me.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.holloway.me.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1265"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.holloway.me.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1754,"href":"https:\/\/blog.holloway.me.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1265\/revisions\/1754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.holloway.me.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.holloway.me.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.holloway.me.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}