The Great Ocean Road ………Day 43

6 May 2014

We woke up to a cold morning again. Lance was having trouble keeping his ears warm so he found these to put on. Need I say more?

Finally after I managed to get my act together we left to explore the Great Ocean Road from Apollo Bay to Torquay. This is about half of the famous road which was built from 1919 to 1932 by returned servicemen from WWI. While driving this road and looking up at some of the mountains where the road is carved out, you can’t help but remember these brave souls who came home from a war to work on a road with only picks, axes and wheelbarrows. There is a special archway across the road near Lorne to remember these men.

The current Memorial Arch is the fourth to be erected. fire, storm and road widening removed the previous three as well as an earlier arch which stood over the old toll gate at Grassy Creek. the Arch commemorates the construction of the road and symbolises the sacrifice made by so many  in WWI.

Here is the statue dedicated to those 3000 men who built this road.

We stopped at Kennett river for morning tea. given our friends surname is Kennett, it was a given that we would stop. We were in Koala country but they were no where to be seen.
At the cafe there were heaps of various birds.

We passed through Lorne, Aireys Inlet, Anglesa Bells Beach and Torquay. we decided to go to Geelong which is a large city so we back tracked to Torquay quickly.

We went to Bells Beach which is famous for the World Surfing Championship competitions it hosts. Part of the carpark was fenced off as workmen dismantled the grandstand and removed toilets etc from a recent surfing event here.

And here below is a photo of the famous Bells Beach.

The weather made if difficult for taking photos but here are a couple of what we saw from the great Ocean Road.

In this photo you can see where we have just been on the other side of the valley. John & Denise stopped their car so we could photograph each other on opposite sides of the valley.

Tomorrow we will drive the other half of the Great Ocean Road.