Continuing on into the city centre there was no parking anywhere, but after doing a couple of laps I got lucky with a prime spot right on Eastern Beach as someone was leaving. We stopped in to the Town And Country Pizza restaurant for lunch, which was funny because a local place in Mitcham that operates under a different name uses their pizza boxes for some reason - maybe cardboard is cheaper in Geelong. After lunch there was time for a quick lap along the waterfront, past Cunningham Pier and some of the bollards trail which seems to be famous - even people on instagram have heard of them.
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| Geelong. |
After getting some snacks at the local Westfield it was back on the road and past another famous landmark, Kardinia Park, or whatever they call it now. I was quite surprised by how big the Geelong city centre was, definitely a worthy poor man's Melbourne if you had to live there, it exceeded my expectations and I wouldn't mind going back again with a bit more time to spend. Soon we made it to nearby Torquay, there was a bunch of surf shops right alongside the highway which seemed worth stopping for:
- Billabong - had expensive stuff
- Quiksilver - had relocated somewhere
- Rip Curl - had even more expensive stuff, like $120 for board shorts!
Back into the car again, I realised the highway didn't go through the actual city centre, but I figured I might come back through Torquay again tomorrow instead. Soon the actual Great Ocean Road began, which was exciting and scenic in about equal amounts. The road was pretty straight until about Anglesea, but then it was all bends and windy roads which slowed things down a lot. I didn't stop at Lorne either, but got to pass through the city centre at least, which was really just a main street.
I think it was after Lorne that the road went inland for a while, then back to the coast before the final 23 kilometres from Kennett River to Apollo Bay finally arrived - a preview of the entire route for tomorrow's Great Ocean Road "half marathon" - since an official half marathon is a shorter 21.1 kilometres. I was a bit worried at the start with some tough looking hills, but it turned out to be limited to the first half of the race, the rest was casual downhill and a lot of flat road.
The hotel was a couple of kilometres before Apollo Bay, so we checked in quickly and went in to check out the town. Again the city centre was one main street, but there was lots of runners out and about stocking up on supplies for the night - no surprise that the sports drinks section of the supermarkets was the first thing to sell out. There was even a newsagency selling magnets, and I managed to find a decent one.
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| Apollo Bay. |
Then it was back to the hotel for the night, the location was great, right next to the ocean, the only downside was all of the TV channels except seven were a bit sketchy, but I needed an early night anyway.
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| Hotel view. |
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