Labour Day Weekend

Adventures of the "Great Ocean Road"....


This past weekend was the Victorian State Labour Day Weekend. We decided a trip up the "Great Ocean Road" from the start, Torquay, to our end destination, Warrnambool. Saturday morning we packed the car and began the journey to our first stop along the road in Lorne. It's about a 2 hour drive along the coast and I compare it to driving up to Santa Barbara on the PCH. Lot's of surf breaks, hills, tree's and plenty of beaches. We arrived in Lorne mid afternoon and headed up to our first tourist destination, Erskine Falls. The falls were situated in what the locals call their version of a rain forest. Here are a few pics of the falls and the amazing trail that goes for about 9km back to the town of Lorne along the river. This was one of my favorite stops along the way. Very cool!

The start...


The beginning of the falls above the forest canopy...




The actual falls...


The trail leading back to Lorne. It followed the river back down to the ocean and would be a stellar adventure!


The surroundings!


More of the same surroundings...



We spent Saturday night at the Lorne Hotel and had a chill evening hanging out with the locals and enjoying the scenery of the bay. It was definitely nice to get out of the city and enjoy the laid back coastal community.


Sunday morning we packed up the car and headed West along the coastal road to Kennett River to hangout with some local wildlife-Koala's. The road was very winding and reminded me of the California coast around Monterey with dramatic cliffs and lots of rocky beaches. Here are a few road pics....




The weather was damp and the Koala's weren't out and about like they would be on a sunny afternoon but we did have one sighting. He/she was just hanging out eating some eucalyptus leaves in the local campground. If you look closely you can see him hanging on the tree limbs...




After hanging out with the Koala and taking a break from the winding road we came to the next tourist attraction along the Great Ocean Road...The Twelve Apostles Marine Park. I'll let the pics explain...

Looking West (North) down the coast...




Looking South (East) down the coast...


There are WAVES! This whole trip there had been no waves (any worth riding) and finally we saw some! I was hoping that the swell was hitting Warrnambool since this was our final destination before heading home on Monday afternoon....


We arrived in Warrnambool (pronounced...Warn-a-bull) on Sunday afternoon and checked into our Hotel around 5pm and finished the drive with some stellar pizza and then an evening surf session. I have pictures of the surf sesh that I'll post later tonight. I met a local surfer and we both paddled out in about 2-3 foot waves with an occasional 4 footer. The weather was average but then turned to a steady rain and some local wildlife in the water cut our session short! I'll leave it at that.

That night we all decided to head up the coast to the small coastal village of Port Fairy for the local Port Fairy Folk Festival (a suggestion from the dude I paddled out with earlier that evening.)The Festival had ended but we got a chance to experience some amazing "table" music and local ism. I made up the term "table" music because that is the most simple explanation. It was a bunch of musicians in a local pub hanging out around a line up of 5 tables just jamming and the whole bar was singing along. Good times!!

The jam session


That morning I had another stellar surf session and enjoyed some small but fun surf! It was definitely nice to finally catch some waves after getting skunked every weekend prior. We packed the car, ate some brekky and hit the road en route back to Melbourne via the inland route which took about 8 hours less. The scenery reminded me of Minnesota with lots of dairy farms and rolling hills. It was a stellar weekend and we'll definitely be making another trip up to Lorne and Warrnambool again before my Aussi visa expires! Hope you all enjoyed the update and keep in touch until the next post!