Too expensive here to be doing any stocking up!

When we woke up Monday morning, the first thing on our agenda was a short walk. We had bumped into a local who told us that we should hike down the path near where we had parked.

He was right!

The pictures don't do it justice, but it was a fantastic sunrise view.

Sunrise Monday morning.

Heading back from our morning walk.

Next up was to actually head back down the hill itself! Good thing there wasn't much other traffic, although we did encounter one works vehicle at a place where it was easy to move over enough to let him by.

Back in the town of Apollo Bay, we decided to take a day off "maintenance day". We were due to get laundry done, and it was such a beautiful day. We could open the windows and the vent and let things air out.

One of the problems with being in a confined space at this time of year is condensation. So when you've got the opportunity to let things dry out, it's a good idea to do just that.

We even had our solar panel out collecting some energy for a couple of hours!

The route back down to Apollo Bay.

The main drag in Apollo Bay.

A couple of galahs... the rosella cockatoo.

Apollo Bay is the start of the Great Ocean Walk.

I had mentioned yesterday that we were surprised by the number of Asian tourists. And we are! Lots of tour buses with lots of different cultures. Hard for us to tell, but probably lots of Chinese. Like Mexico, they have a growing middle class, and they like to travel!

And so the businesses on the main drag cater to those tourists.

Apollo Bay has a nice quiet beach.

We love the area, but not the tourists.

Yes, we know... we are tourists too!

We finished our laundry and got a few grocery items. Too expensive here to be doing any stocking up. We will save the major grocery shop for when we are at the Aldi in Torquay.

As we left, we took the road up to the Mariner's Lookout.

These sheep have a nice view!

This is their view!

Further down the coastal highway is the community of Kennett River. They say there are a lot of koalas there, and especially near Grey River Road. So that is the route we took. 

Sure enough, we didn't go 200 meters and there was a small tourist van parked near the side of the dirt road. We learned when we were in Africa that if there is another vehicle parked on the side of the road for no apparent reason, it must be because they are looking at an animal.

This koala doesn't look very happy.

But I think this is the way they always look... happy or not!

Once again, we had to be cognizant of the time. It was already after 3:00pm when I took those koala pictures, and it gets dark at 5:15pm. And we had no idea where we were spending the night.

The community of Wye River.

They were doing some serious highway repairs just east of Wye River.

Scenery along the way.

We decided to head inland at the town of Lorne. Once again, it's not easy to find free camping along the Great Ocean Road, but you don't have to head very far inland to do so. This time, we went to the Sharps Track Camping Area, about five kilometers (3 miles) up the mountain road.

Camped for the night at GPS -38.551448, 143.931846

This free national forest campground has only six sites... and we were the second to arrive. However, a half an hour later all six sites were taken. It's first come, first served, so I would suggest arriving a little earlier than you would think necessary! Even on a Monday evening during slow season!

We had some good talks with Robin and Paul from Tasmania, as well a single girl from Germany. Interesting to get some insight from the people you meet along the way.

Supposed to be a rainy day tomorrow, so we'll see if that is the case. Might be another library day in the making!

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