Surf coast near Eastern View, Great Ocean Road
Today we completed our trip on the Great Ocean Road. The terrain to the east of Princetown is quite different, as the coast is much less rugged and rocky, and there are many more surf beaches. The road itself though is narrow, twists and climbs over the hills along the shoreline, so travel was slow. It was rare to get much above 40 kph as you would have to slow down every two or three hundred metres for another hairpin bend. At several spots the roadway has collapsed, so they have a traffic signal and the road is one lane wide. Several times we met vehicles that were well over the white line, so that was a bit scary when our lane was barely big enough for our motorhome.
We stopped at Marengo beach which is just west of the town of Apollo Bay. We thought about going snorkeling, but it wasn’t really warm (the day was mostly high broken clouds) and was quite windy. Because of the wind the water was quite choppy, so we decided not to snorkel.
Coast near Apollo Bay, Great Ocean Road
Instead we stopped on the east side of the town at a turnoff and walked along the beach. It was quite flat and rocky. As we walked to the beach we saw a park warden with two japanese men and their fishing rods, and he was escorting them from the beach. A caucasian woman was with them, and we heard her state her name. I assumed that she was a tour guide with the men. It was obvious that they were in some trouble, as there was a sign saying “No collecting” of any living specimens above the two metre depth mark. We went down and walked along the beach for about a kilometre. I got my feet wet when taking a picture as I didn’t see a breaking wave.
We walked back to our motorhome to eat. When we got there the male park warden was talking to four men. He had a clipboard in his hand and gave it to the woman. She wrote on the board. Up to this point I thought she was with the fishermen, but then the warden and she got into the four wheel drive vehicle, and she drove away. As she got in I could see that she had handcuffs on her belt, so I’m guessing she was probably a police officer, though she wasn’t in uniform at all, unlike the park warden. In any case they had about a two litre bag of confiscated abalone with them as they got in. I saw them stop farther down the road and the warden got out and walked down to the beach (I imagine he put the shellfish back into the water). Then they parked up on the side of the hill on a narrow dirt road where they could see a long way down the beach in both directions. They were still there when we left. The fishermen were very polite and defferential while the officers were there, but when the officials left they threw their shoes down violently onto the ground in disgust, and then drove away.
We drove on to Geelong which is about 70 kilometres from Melbourne city. We stopped at a caravan park here, defrosted our refrigerator, and planned our route into the city tomorrow so that we can get our awning repaired, and our windscreen replaced. We stopped to buy groceries, and when we got out of the store it was pouring rain. It didn’t last too long, but it rained heavily again as we were buying diesel fuel, and then rained again after supper. While it rained it was heavy rain and some lightning. It’s been quite a while since we were in rain. The weather forecast for Northern Victoria, the part we ran away from by going to the South Australian desert and Eyre peninsula is once again under flood watch tonight.