Today was the start of the proper part of our road trip. With Kevin now officially on holidays for a week it was time to start our drive along the Great Ocean Road. Packing is always more of an ordeal than you expect and with Kevin’s work sending things home with us, we didn’t end up with the extra space we had expected. After Kevin rearranged and packed the car we set off about 8.30. Our first stop was Geelong, where we charged the Tesla and walked over to a nearby petrol station to buy Pie Face for breakfast. Not the ideal choice but it was what was on offer. We decided to try the vegan sausage rolls and I’m pleased to report we both enjoyed them (though I did need tomato sauce on mine to cut the meaty flavour). By the time we had finished eating the car was almost fully charged, and we headed of to Torquay. First up, the Australian National Surfing Museum. I’m obviously not a surfer but it’s something I find fascinating and they have quite the collection.
Kevin really wasn’t interested in this museum at all but he knows I enjoy it so was a good sport about it. I found it interesting reading about the origins of surfing in Australia. And we watched some of a documentary, part of which focused on women in surfing and how big a roll the movie Gidget played in making surfing more popular with women. Another thing I learned was that skating boarding was invented by a surfer.
On the way out I made a little purchase at the gift shop and then we visited a number of the nearby surf shops to try and find a part for the gopro – I’m missing the part that attaches it to the car mount ! Sadly only one sold any parts but only for the older models. Apparently either surfers no longer use go-pros or they (like Kevin) already have ALL the parts they need.
I had two places listed as lunch options for today. – both of which were vegetarian. We drove to the first one Ginger Monkey – which looked really cute but there wasn’t really anything on the menu that we felt like and I don’t think either of us were feeling this cafe. We decided to hop back in the car, drive to Bunnings (for Kevin to pick up some double sided tape to try and fix my cameras wind muff) and then drive to my other suggestion – Little Things Big Things cafe. This turned out to be another cute cafe but empty when we arrived and thankfully had more appealing things on the menu. I opted for the create your own salad and Kevin had a peanut butter & jelly chia pudding.
Before leaving Torquay we visited the Super IGA to pick up a few things including dinner. I got very excited to discover they had Gardein Mandarin Chicken – just one packet left, which I scored. I’m sure they usually had more varieties but the shelves were empty. They had quite the number of vegan products and I picked up a few other goodies. A quick stop in at Bakers Delights for some bread…
Then it was time to visit Bells Beach. We stopped at the carpark, took photos and Kevin flew the drone. I wasn’t feeling up to walk to the viewing area. As we were leaving Kevin pulled into the next carpark (since I told him we had to stop at ALL the lookouts today) and it turned out we could see Bells Beach from here. No walking required. Silly thing is I think we did exactly the same thing on our visit here in 2008.
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Not too far from here was the Great Ocean Road Chocolaterie & Ice Creamery. Loved the caution sign on the way in. There was a viewing area that you could see chocolates being made but this is mainly a store. A very beautiful store I must say, esp. with their Christmas items. Kevin found quite a few things he wanted to buy, and we got some stocking stuffers for the kids. And of course I got a few of the vegan chocolates to try. And since it’s an ice creamery Kevin felt he had to have one. They did have a few vegan sorbet options but I didn’t have any.
Back in the car (yep, there was LOTS of in and out of the car today) again and we were off.
We thought we must have missed the memorial arch but finally I spotted it, yelling at Kevin to pull over into the parking bay. I mean have you really driven the Great Ocean Road if you don’t have a photo with the sign? :-).
From here there were many, many photos stops (I won’t bore you with pictures from all of them).
The town of Lorne was especially pretty. At first I didn’t get why it was such a popular town, and then I spotted the beach… and this was at a cloudy moment in time !! Kevin flew the drone again but didn’t get any photos.
Finally around 5.30pm we arrived at our airbnb. Right on the Great Ocean Road in a cute little area/town called Sugarloaf. And boy did we hit the jackpot.
Can you believe that view? From the couch and from the bed !! Once we lugged up all the luggage (yep, the downside of this place is stairs) we sat and enjoyed some tea while watching the waves for a good hour or so. Later Kevin cooked up the Mandarin Chickn, which we enjoyed while watching some vlogs.
A great surprise was that, though we faced South, we still managed to see the sunset from the balcony.
