Days 3 and 4: The Great Ocean Roadtrip

We spent most of the late morning wandering about the 12 Apostles Marine National Park, which is really worth the ramble. Note: Eat breakfast if you're planning to do this - it'll take a good hour and the nearest shops will be a 15 minute drive away in Port Campbell.

Limestone stalactites

A reasonably decent panoramic effort near the Sherbury (?) Estuary

X and I kept look out for each other as we answered our respective calls of nature

The Blow Hole

Thunder Cave, which I believe leads to the Blow Hole

Starving by now, we drove towards Port Campbell and wound up at the charming Room 6 for brunch. I had the Big Vegetarian Breakfast (mushrooms, spinach, hashbrown, toasted turkish bread, scrambled eggs and a yummy unidentifiable relish) and X had the Big Breakfast (bacon, eggs and the lot). Mine was gorgeous. Highly recommended, though be prepared for a couple of hungry sparrows.

We decided to skip Warrnambool in lieu of a more leisurely drive, though in hindsight, including it would have still allowed for a decent pace. The journey inland from Port Campbell to Colac (past Timboon, Camperdown and Cobden) was lovely. We drove through the lush Cape Otway National Park. It was amazing how beautiful and thick the vegetation was, and in certain areas, how tropical. We were told that the year had brought much needed rain and how some years back, most of the land had been parched and brown.

The breathtaking view from Mt Leura, which is really a volcano in the volcano of Leura Maar.

X's brother who lives in Geelong suggested we do lunch at Colac. Unfortunately, we were both ridiculously stuffed from the brunch earlier. We did stop at the Otway Estate Winery (12 km off the main road) nonetheless. The restaurant there has won some kind of Food Award for 2008 - 2010 and the dishes did smell divine. X and I plopped ourselves on the couches for some dessert and drinks. This is where the Best Iced Chocolate exists. The milk was thick and the ice cream was probably homemade, with a slightly gritty texture and dark cream colour. The chocolate syrup lacked the sweetness of most commercial brands. It was beautiful.

We lazed around, reading magazines for a bit before resuming our journey. The initial plan had been to stay the night in Colac, but the caravan parks had looked extremely uninviting (the one near the lake is pretty, but lacked linen).

We wound up in Winchelsea, which is about 20 minutes from Geelong. The Winchview Cottages are run by the hospitable Graham and June Rowe. It was all incredibly charming and I had the best night's sleep there, with the electric blanket turned up to the maximum temperature.

The cottage is actually a mobile house (yes, they actually cart houses off to be replanted elsewhere in this country). I believe this one was from Geelong.

And finally, this one for the American and Israeli friends. At least us bloody Asian drivers get this one right (most of the time).