Coming to the end

Earlier on I booked into the best hotel I’ve stayed in during the whole of my visit to Australia. Without exception. It’s not a hotel actually, it’s a motel in Torquay and Basil Fawlty doesn’t come anywhere near it. It’s called the Bellbrae Motel, is not run by a large chain as far as I can tell but is privately owned and is beautifully appointed in a lovely position surrounded by gorgeous grounds.

Torquay is at the eastern end of the Great Ocean Road just to the east of Lorne which is officially recognised as the first town on the Great Ocean Road. It’s about 100 km west of Melbourne, about 1 1/2 hours, so I’ll have an easy final drive back to the car hire depot at Melbourne Tullamarine airport tomorrow. Maybe too easy. I think I’ll have to kill some time.

Here are some shots of the motel and my room which has everything I need – a fridge, a kettle, a microwave, crockery and cutlery all spotlessly clean and washing up stuff, just the way I like it. It’s also got a Philips Barista coffee machine which shows the level of quality we’re talking about. Plus it’s got full toiletries including a face flannel, which is always nice.

The hotel I stayed at last night was rubbish in comparison. The proprietors seemed proud of the fact that their accommodation offered no refinements, such as a kettle and tea and coffee making facilities, let alone a microwave. They said clearly in their guest notes that if you want such things you have to purchase them at the bar during opening times or at a local cafe in the area. This meant, of course, that I had to make do with my last two Marie biscuits and some of the milk I’d brought with me for breakfast before departing as the bar wasn’t open at that hour.

The room didn’t even have a chair and table let alone an en-suite bathroom and shower. The communal men’s toilets and showers were at one end of the corridor and the ladies’ at the other. There was a small hand basin in the corner of my room but some idiot had mounted the mirror above it so high I couldn’t use it for shaving this morning. And I bet I know what happens if anyone wakes for a pee during the night…

My original thinking was to take the faster direct inland route from Warrnambool to Torquay but on reflection that would get me to Torquay too early, so having missed several of the sights on the Great Ocean Road yesterday I decided that instead I’d retrace my steps in the opposite direction stopping at those I’d missed.

And I’m glad that I did because some of the ones I’d neglected (like The Grotto) turned out to be very special. I was going to do a full posting about the Great Ocean Road once I’d arrived at Torquay but I’ve decided against it. The amount of video material I’ve got is huge and it deserves to be carefully edited and sorted so I think that it’ll have to wait until I get home.

I was thinking about posting some ‘tasters’ but I’m not even going to do that because picking images at random from the huge number I’ve accumulated just wouldn’t do justice to the incredible experience that driving the Great Ocean Road, one of the best ocean drives in the world, turned out to be.

And guess what. Today I saw my first, and probably only, koala! I stopped later to see if I could find another but wasn’t lucky enough to do so, but instead I had the good fortune to be able to video a small echidna, an Australian hedgehog, with a very long nose snuffling around on the forest floor, so that was a good consolation prize.

When I arrived at the motel it was dull and gently raining. It stopped later on so I went outside again to take some exterior shots to replace the ones I’d taken earlier and there in front of me was a beautiful double rainbow which I took a photo of from inside my room. I hope that it bodes well for my upcoming trip home.