Womadelaide :: Day 3

So it's time to pack up, hitch up and say farewell to Apollo Bay.  Today I'm heading to Portland, which is about a four hour drive. On the way, I detoured down to the Cape Otway Lighthouse. 

The drive towards the Light Station was through a lovely forest of gums and I spotted quite a few koalas as I drove through.  But then as I came closer to the coast, the vegetation changed remarkably.  I was driving through what I can only describe as a "skeleton forest"!  All the gum trees had died for some reason and there was only tea tree and smaller shrubs.  It was a really weird feeling driving through it.

Having arrived at the Light Station, I was able to visit the Lighthouse itself and then afterwards there was an historical talk in the Light Keeper's Cottage, which was really interesting.

I discovered that the Cape Otway Lighthouse is Victoria's oldest working lighthouse, built in 1848.  It helped prevent a lot of ships from being wrecked off the coast of Cape Otway, but some still were.  There is a lovely sculpture of a shipwreck near the entrance to the Light Station.

After that, I headed off to my destination of Portland, following the Great Ocean Road again.

On the way, I stopped off in Port Campbell to view the amazing limestone cliffs, the Twelve Apostles and London Bridge.

The Twelve Apostles

London Bridge, which actually fell down in 1990!

I arrived at the Holiday Village Caravan Park in Portland at about 4 o'clock and set up.

My lovely clean van picked up some mud spatters
during the trip!

I didn't go out for dinner this evening - just had a quick lasagne and salad in the van, watched some TV and was in bed by 9:30.