Day 6 - Port Fairy to Geelong


Today was the day of sun, sea and sandstone.  And flies.  Millions of them.  Very, very persistent ones.  Several abortive attempts to have lunch in the open air failed as the sandwiches became completely covered in the things.  Finally, swatting the things away in a crazed dance known locally as the "bush salute", we retreated to the car to find a relatively insect-free environment.

One of Mark's safer photosBut that was after a morning on the Great Ocean Road, exploring the many bays, coves, gorges, cliffs, beaches, stacks, arches, grottos, and other features forgotten from 'O' level geography.  Mark in particular loved this part of the trip, and was watched by the others with a combination of amusement and alarm as he bounded perilously across the unstable sandstone from boulder to precipice while seeing how much the memory card on his camera would take.  It would take a lot - far too much to be uploaded - but you can see a few of the snaps here.

Surf's up!At the end of the process, we found a beautiful sandy beach at the bottom of a flight of hundreds of steps down the cliff, where the sea broke in spectacular foaming surf.  Time for some more plodging.

Three very wet SATWOTHERs (swearing photographer not pictured)And also time for some more photos.  Mark marched out into the water until it was up to his knees, then turned back to face the shore and lined the rest of us into a photo pose.  "Right," he commanded, as a bloody great wave came up behind him, "whatever you do, make sure you warn me if a bloody great wave comes up behind m... - WAAAAAH!"

Silliness in the poolWell, it didn't take long to dry off.  And so on to Geelong, where the motel had a small but perfectly-formed swimming pool.  Time for more childishness.  All four of us discovered that if you put your belongings at the side of the pool, they get very wet indeed if you all jump in the pool simultanously.  Mark discovered to his consternation that the water was not nearly deep enough to do his famed back flip into the pool in any form of safety, and that Rupert is far too heavy to stand on anyone's shoulders.

A jetty.  And a perfectly good one at that.Geelong is a perfectly pleasant port city, in which we didn't do much.  We had a pretty good meal within view of the jetty and the marina, failed to find the way to an historic ship, and got to the old grammar school building after it was too dark to photograph it.  Some other time....
 
 
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