The Great Ocean Road. Dec 2016

Early Sunday morning the road, the sea and gorgeous scenery was exclusively mine. Cruising in an all white Toyota rental car along this impressive road. I made many stops just to watch the rolling waves into cliffs or a virgin beach and with the hills and mountains watching over this. Those are beautiful moments, alone and nature at its best. A few hours later  the beaches are crowded with families, swimmers and surfers. On the road are the cars with surfboards or bikes mounted on their roof racks. Mostly folks from Melbourne for their weekend outings. From Melbourne its only a 2 hour drive to towns like Lorne and a bit further to Apollo Bay.

Close to 7.5 Million people are visiting the Great Ocean Road, the road itself curves along 240 kilometers of coastline in South West Victoria. Typical coastal tourists towns with many eat and drinking places, souvenir and outdoor gear shops. My drive was limited (due to time constrains) to the Otway Natural Park and stretches from Anglesea to Apollo Bay. I stayed overnight in the Mantra Lodge in Lorne, along the shores of Loutit Bay where the beach meets rainforest. Lorne has a population of 1.000 and during the summer it reaches 20.000. Dec is spring time with most pleasant weather. Close to Lorne is the Erskine Falls.

A deep stairpath awaits people to experience the 30 meter water drop, very nice I must say. Interesting to note there are no garbage bins on parking lots, just a simple sign: please take all your rubbish with you! After the Erskine Falls I drove to Apollo Bay, a former fishing village with 1.200 people, welcomes guest with a road sign:"Apollo Bay, Paradise by the Sea", also here a spectacular scenery with a nice marina and a well located 9 hole golf course.

Many people told me the coffee is very good in Australia, there is real coffee culture. As a serious coffee consumer, with my own imported coffee from Brasil I felt the need to get one more cup of coffee for the road and made a stop at Kafe Koala. Smashing place with baristas of 70+ and coffee that reminded me of the late 80ies in the U.S! The place looked kool, the people were nice, the visitors mostly surfers and one day tourists seemed in a hurry to rush back. And for the coffee....

My Great Ocean Road weekend coincided with the release of the Rolling Stones new album: Blue and Lonesome. Scanning the radio I discovered a classic rock station with loads of AC/DC, INXS and the likes but also every hour 2 hits from the Stones altered with tracks from their new album. 
American blues with deep cuts from Howling' Wolf, Little Walter and Magic Sam and others. Mick, Keef, Watts and Wood produced an amazingly strong album. For me the Great Ocean Road is forever united with Blue and Lonesome. What a trip it was!