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Apollo Bay 2016 |
What's covered?
The first stop on our journey from Melbourne to Adelaide via the Great Ocean Road.
27 September
We took a taxi to the Avis pickup in Franklin Street and there seemed to be a problem from the start. The lady looked at the screen for ages and I didn't get a real response when I asked if the problem was having a car in the right category. She seemed to be concerned about the quantity of luggage and I said that from looking at a Camry boot (the taxi), I thought it would be OK (I subsequently found it was not but that's a story for another day). She then suggested a Holden Caprice for an extra $30 per day so I said that my understanding was that if the correct category is not available, they have to bear the cost. Not so I was told but in Melbourne I was told I was correct! Eventually I was offered a Holden Captiva so I asked if that was the same category as the Camry. I was told it was but in Melbourne I was told it was a category down! The car proved to be fine but I didn't like the way things were handled and being lied to. Fortunately Avis redeemed themselves later on.
The journey out of Melbourne was easy enough but we soon saw signs stating that the Great Ocean Road was closed because of a landslide, not what we wanted to see. Eventually we came to a junction signposting Great Ocean Road without any closure signs so we thought that would be OK. We stopped at The General Store in Dean's Marsh where had a light lunch and were told we were still the wrong side of the the landslide! Fortunately we only had to backtrack along part of the road from the main highway and were then able to detour via Forrest.
When we got to Captains At The Bay in Apollo Bay, Duncan (the owner) told us we could go back part way along Great Ocean Road and said we should. We went as far as Kennett River Holiday Park and the Kookaburra Cafe. One of the staff at the cafe was feeding the kookaburras strips of bacon and had them trained so that if they flew up vertically from the ground to the outstretched food before she signalled, they did not get the reward. They were trained like dogs!
We saw a koala sitting up a tree and some bird seed we were given had various birds around us quickly. One parrot sat and fed from Gill's hand and another sat on my shoulder, pirate fashion.
We returned to Apollo Bay and had a little walk around the shops where Gill found herself a nice and much needed fleece for just A$29.
We had a pasta dinner at Castalingo for A$62.
Photos
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