Great Ocean Road – Day 5

After a busy few days, we decided on a little sleep in. We then headed over to Tower Hill, by the time we got there it was already getting very hot. The weather for the last few days had been wonderful, but now we knew it was Summer. Instead of the long walk to the top, we made the shorter (more sheltered) walk along the Lava Board Walk. Apart from a few brush birds (finch and such) we only saw a few curious emus. Tower Hill is an ancient volcanic crater, now a wildlife reserve.

We then headed out to Mailor’s Flat to visit a supposedly really cool antique/junk store (which of course was closed), then dropped into to Koroit to check that out – not much there! Finally we made our way over to Port Fairy. In the distance we saw what we at first thought was smoke, growing larger as we got nearer to Port Fairy, however we could not smell smoke and the radio said bush fires in Portland, so we assumed it was from that. When we arrived in Port Fairy…….it was like something out of a horror movie, The Fog! Technically it’s called sea mist. It was still very warm and quite humid, but allowed little visibility.

We stopped by Artillery Hill to see the guns and defences, then drove around the Port and Breakwater. Eventually we drove to the little walk bridge that leads to Griffith Island (and another Light House). The Sea Mist by this stage was getting worse. Made for some eerie, dramatic light house shots!We walked the 1.25 kms to the Lighthouse, saw a little black faced wallaby and explored the island as much as we could see.

We continued our drive onto Portland, hoping for better weather, we saw many desolate and abandoned buildings, burnt out, decayed with age and neglect. It is kind of sad, but beautiful in their own right, and quite frankly a photographers dream.

Sea mist had dissipated only marginally, we drove around town for a bit, then headed out to Cape Nelson for another lighthouse, some 4WD tracks and wind farms. We gave up on any of the look outs, could not see a thing, but we did find another wallaby.

Heading back into town we went to Whaler’s Bluff, with the skies clearing. Looks like a great sport to shoot sunrise, IF the weather holds clear.

There are 100’s of ship wrecks in and around this port, most of which cannot be seen from land, many have never been found, some are for divers only. We had hoped to visit the Tram Depot, Seals by Sea, Artillery after shooting sunrise in the morning. But by now getting late, time for dinner and a hotel for the night.

-Julz

 

 

 

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