Day 13 Torquay to Aireys Inlet

Sunrise at Jan Juc

Pretty flowers observed outside in the gardens of the homes just below the amenities block

An unpleasant chore for Bill this morning. He noticed a few flies around the bonnet of the car. On further inspection he discovered a dead bird there. We must have hit it on our travels ☹️ 

Bill had to pull part of the bonnet apart to remove the dead bird

My back had been getting increasingly worse each day. 

It was such a beautiful sunny day that I decided to roll out my mat and do my exercises out on the grass in the sun

Time to head out and on our way

Bells Beach here we come, seeing as that was the next place we were to get to on the Great Ocean Road

Bells Beach Road







We stopped off along the way to the beach first for the views



Amused by this warning sign 









The first beach along the way

Then the famous Bells Beach

Views from the lookout

Lots of photos 



No one down on the beach or out surfing 

We parked the car and van at the top of the cliffs in the car park. We noticed a couple of young lads putting wet suits on so we went over and chatted to them, Nice young lads, quite happy to chat to us. Kai and Woody were with Kai’s Pop Les who lives locally. The lads are very keen surfers. We watched them go down and we chatted to Les for a while before going down to the beach





Bill  - the only person on the beach

Thought I would take a panorama shot to show the whole beach 

We stood for a while watching the boys surfing

We came across a guy walking along the beach from around the headland. He told us that we could get around to the other beach and see other surfers there so we decided that we would walk around

We did get to see the boys catch some waves



The tide had started to come in so we had to go over the rocks - me clambering!!!

I stopped to take a photo of Bill



and the cliff face





When we got around the rocks there were no surfers there - they had finished and gone!! There were a few people walking further along the beach to the Nude Beach

These signs were beside the track on the way back up



Pleasant walk back up to the top although quite steep

More pretty wildflowers beside the path

The Wikicamps map showing where we were

This was the beach that we had just walked up from

We stopped at the top with good views down from the top to Bells Southside beach

We then continued on the track back to where we had parked at the Bells Beach Carpark

Pleasant wooded walk back

With views out to the ocean





Quite a long walk back with steps along the way

Back at the carpark had a look at this plinth and the building behind it which was a toilet block but was locked up. There were portaloos there instead. Who knows why!!



Had a last look back down to the beach to see the boys down there still surfing and a further chat with Les, Kai’s pop

Had to do a bit of manoevering to turn the van as it was a dead end road 

One of the keen cyclists we saw

Next we drove down to Point Addis

To experience more views of this magnificent coastline a few more people down in the ocean surfing







The lookout at Pt Addis-more great views 

and more pretty wildflowers

Bill spotted that there were bees flying around them but I don’t think I got that in my photo

More interesting warning signs here



A few lookouts up here to view the coastline. Lots of cars lower down the road, presumably going on the Koori walk that we passed. Had tried to find suitable parking but too busy. Fortunately there was plenty of space at the top of the cliff with lots of room to turn around. It is visible in this photo at the top of the cliff 









Passed this magnificent entrance to a scout campsite. Fabulous camp place for the scouts here 

Next we reached Anglesea - another British named seaside town -this one Welsh though



Stopped off here to see if there was anywhere that we could get some lunch we found a bakery that was obviously very popular it was fine though we got ourselves a wrap and a roll and sat out in the warm sun to eat them,

but the bonus of being here was that we found an IGA it had a liquor store attached so we were able to stock up on our supplies of fruit and wine

Crossed the Anglesea river





and pulled up beside the road next to the information  centre to see if we could pick up some useful information 

But we did find this artwork



When we got back to the car we noticed a man studying our van. Turns out he is looking to upgrade from a Topaz to a Quantum or a Matrix and he was trying to make up his mind which he preferred so we opened the door up so he could look inside.

We had a long chat with him about where he had been, he told us some great places to travel to not around this area but in Western Australia

Continuing along the coastline, stopping off to look at the view across to Point Roadnight

We decided not to do this walk but it would have been nice. The walk along the cliff tops goes all the way along the coastline 

On our way to Aireys Inlet

Weather not looking so good ahead 

We weren’t sure where we were going to spend the night 

We had contacted a couple of places here and left messages 

More great views of the surf as we drove along close to the ocean

Several lookout spots along the way

But we decided to keep going until we got to Aireys Inlet

We turned off towards this lighthouse 

and parked on the road below and walked up to see it

Now we see why it was called Split Rock






Plenty of information signage on the walk out to viewing platforms



View down the coastline with weather looking even more threatening 





Went crazy with photos of the lighthouse - it looked so majestic in the sunshine

Views down from the side where we walked back down to the car

Another pretty walking track down to the Inlet

Views of the inlet on the way down

Took this panoramic shot of the Inlet

A few people down on the beach here

Another of these interesting sculptures that we have seen along the way

On the way around the backroads to get back onto the highway came across this Bark Hut in a park





Whilst visiting the lighthouse we got a call from one of the places we had rung to say that we could stay there so we headed there, not really knowing what the set up was, we were just happy that we found somewhere to stay the night

Turned out that it was just on someone’s small property where we set up in their driveway!!! Not too bad though as it was level on dry gravel

Bonus was - a nice clean shower and toilet and washing up facilities that we utilised.

And it was nice and peaceful until this van turned up and parked right next to us!!!! 

I took photos of it the next morning!!! 

This was our route for the day - not far but lots of sight seeing