First stop, Bells Beach. The beach gained its international fame as the location of the annual Rip Curl Pro event. The event is nearly sixty years old.  High cliffs provide a dramatic backdrop to the natural amphitheatre of the beach and large swells from the Southern Ocean, which slow down and steepen over the reef-strewn shallows, create the outstanding surf. Yep, well no surf….just a man and his dog when we arrived 🙂

Next to Airey’s Inlet, the Split Point Lighthouse, which stands as a stunning sentinel to the Shipwreck coast. It is still a vital working lighthouse for vessels navigating the treacherous waters of Bass Strait and still operates every night by an automated system.

Loved the adjacent Lighthouse Tearooms…..a limited but delicious brunch menu.

The 1976 Pole house at Fairhaven is still as I remember….iconic and eye catching as ever – a stilt home which maximises the coastal view….an architectural landmark!

Kennett River our stop for 2 days…..what a sunrise the next morning!

The photogenic and active koala posing for the paparazzi was no longer in evidence (but to be fair, that was about 10 years ago), now just a lazy one lurking in the caravan park precinct.

We were brave and did the Otway flyer walk. The ancient Otways rise away from the Great Southern Ocean and provide sheltered gullies of cool rainforest from which flow rivers and streams surrounded by wet sclerophyll forest with canopies of giant Myrtle Beech and Blackwood. We panicked a bit on the cantilever bridge when other’s footsteps would rock it from side to side (quite a bit!!)…but survived the experience to marvel at the engineering feat and beautiful walk above the canopy.

Lavers Hill for a coffee and a beautiful and naff photo! haha!

Well look at you Port Campbell National Park! A visitor information centre! That wasn’t there in 2009, the last time I visited. Gorgeous views as always…and plans for further enhancing.

Loch Ard Gorge was a delight and London Bridge too, but the latter a windy location.

Worm Bay provided our wonder dog Mitzy with a much needed energy expenditure outlet.

Bay of Islands, stretching out across 32 kms along the coast between Peterborough and Warrnambool, offers astounding ocean views and a collection of geological features (rock stacks, sheer cliffs). Black faced cormorants have a colony here.

Next to Port Fairy, a coastal town, inhabited initially by the indigenous Pyipkil Gunditj clan. Early 19thC brought sealers and whalers to the region. Swamps were drained, land was subdivided and sold. In the 1840’s, significant conflict occurred between pastoral squatters and Aboriginal people (the Eumeralla wars). Its current main industries are fishing and tourism. What a fabulous morning’s walk to the inlet and then to the Griffiths Island Lighthouse…and then dinner at the Merrijig Inn.

The sedimentary rocks that comprise the Grampians were deposited over a period of 50 million years, now a landscape of jagged sandstone ridges. The indigenous name for the range is “Gariwerd”.

When we reached Halls Gap in the Grampians, we saw some very timid kangas lounging and basking in the sun, on the oval. Off to Boroka Lookout and Broken Falls.