Mornington Peninsula to Nelson, SA Border

February 14 to February 21

Car Park at Winki Pop, Bells Beach

We took the vehicle ferry from Sorrento to Queenscliff to commence our trip towards South Australia. It had been about 18 years since we drove the Great Ocean Road, and the first half was just as we remembered it.

Building a "unique" sculpture, Carisbrook Creek Beach

Johanna Beach

Obviously the marketing of this area to the Chinese tourists is excellent, I would guess more than 50% of visitors and drivers were Chinese. We did stumble on Carisbrook Creek Beach (past Wye River and the other areas devastated by the recent bush fires) where stone sculptures have become a thing. We added our piece and headed to Johanna Beach for the night. The weather turned nasty that evening, strong winds and dropping temperature so the next day we were dressed very differently for our visit to 12 Apostles. 
Jumpers and beanies were needed as the maximum reached 13 and wind chill way lower. The car parking and tourist management had improved greatly in this area, so we just followed the masses to get the obligatory photos (you all know what the rocks look like, no need to publish any with us in them). 

Lava Flow Caves, Byaduk

Overnight near Warrnambool, then on to Port Fairy and a change of scenery, we spent the next two days exploring the Kanawinka Geotrail, a large area of recent (8000 years ago) volcanic activity.
Checked out craters, cones, caves and lava flow areas, and frequented small country towns. More tyre troubles heading to Portland (will make a funny story one day), got that sorted out the next day and on to more coastal scenery. 

Cape Bridgewater Coastal Walk

The weather hasn't been great this week for walking, but we have still done numerous short sections of the Great South West Walks. Cape Bridgewater with it's wind farms and volcanic formed coastline was interesting.
More detours inland, including a great free camp in Dartmoor, and we arrived in Nelson yesterday. We'll be off today to enter South Australia, and slowly work our way North and West.