Ferry, Point Lonsdale, walking and Apollo Bay 4/8/22

We were out early and arrived at the ferry terminal over an hour early. The view of the fancy houses with their own stairs and jetties as we pulled out was a treat.

We even saw a seal (followed by lots of gulls) having a snack in the water. I managed to catch a very bad picture of a Gannet (I won’t make you look at it, but it was enough for an ID) Here is a much better pic of one. This was good , because we hadn’t noticed ever seeing them before.

When we exited the ferry, we headed out to point Lonsdale (across the heads from Point Nepean where we were just the other day. The had quite an interesting lighthouse area, remnants of searchlight placements and a rocky beach. We found some tiny snails collecting in the small eroded basins in the rocks.

The grey buildings were the remains of an old internment camp for Italians, which later became a Toc H camp. It is now surrounded by a high fence to keep people out and a warning about asbestos. The other building of interest was a board riders club rooms. I’ve never seen that before!

We picked up some less expensive fuel just a little later (730 km since the last fill) . The fuel station was called APCO and advertised that their products were local, they were locally owned and they even told us the split of how much of the cost went where. 7% goes to the station, 35% for tax and the rest to the distributors.

We were now heading down the Great Ocean Road for the first time in many years. We stopped at the giant arch over the road before driving onwards to just outside Anglesea. Here we chose to do a little loop walk up the hill to get some great views. The area had been burnt fairly recently which meant we had great views of new growth coming through. Lovely furry Yakka growth, fresh leaf growth, some delightful wattle and tiny white flowers of the sundews popping up.

They had separate ovals for cricket and football here!

We had quite a few km of the bendy Great Ocean Road before we stopped again to do yet another little walk. The lure of a waterfall was just too much and we pulled in to a little parking area and followed a track and boardwalk inland to Sheoak Falls. We were greatly entertained by the lovely wrens on the way (at least 5 females to one male) before finding the lovely cascading falls.

Then it was onward towards Apollo Bay to find our home for the night.

It’s hard to believe, but there are suburbs in Apollo Bay – we were staying in Marengo (just heading out of town on the other side). We drove back in to town to find some tea before watching a little more Commonwealth Games and dropping into bed.