A Visit to Lorne

The day after we hiked the Dandenongs we decided to take a longer drive with the car to the shore south of Melbourne along the Bass Strait. We didn't know the best place to go, but folks had, in conversation, mentioned Lorne as a very nice coastal town popular with Melbourne summer vacationers. It was only 2 hours from Carlton so it was easily attainable in a casual day.
     We set out around 10:30 in the morning (wouldn't want to start too early) making our way through Melbourne streets driving on the wrong side of the road (for us) feeling vulnerable and hesitant but resolute. We headed down the M1 freeway toward Geelong, Victoria's second largest city. Once beyond this urban center, the road grew smaller and the traffic thinner. We were not yet in summer holiday season so traffic was relatively light, even for a Sunday.
     There are basically two routes to the coastal town of Lorne, the inland route that uses the A1, also known as the Princes highway, followed by a secondary road, the C151 which takes you down to Lorne at the coast, or the more indirect and scenic route via the Great Ocean Road. We chose the latter as it was reputed to be replete with beautiful vistas and hairpin turns. We were not disappointed. The good bits began at Torquay with a roadside golf course where a plethora of kangaroo at dawn and dusk can be observed. The topology consists of steep cliffs and slopes right up to the water's edge. The road was built after the First World War in honour of those who gave their lives or by returning vets who needed something to do, depending on which source you consult. Although originally built by hand, today's version is completely paved with frequent turn-outs for scenic overlooks and slow traffic by-passes. It is difficult to make time on this road, and at first you would not want to. It is outstandingly picturesque. However, after an hour of this kind of driving you begin to weary of the constant turns and braking and just want it to end. For us, it did when we arrived in Lorne.
     Our first impression of this town was that it was not very busy. All of the shops face the water and between the shops and the shore are beaches, grassy parks that stretch along and up to the road. Most of the shops were up-market but casual, as one might expect for a holiday town.  In typical resort town fashion the shops offered a limited selection of clothing, food and souvenirs. We checked out some of them and came across one that was going out of business. The prices were very reasonable and the manager/owner chatted with us for a bit. He had come to Lorne some years ago and set up the business. It was quite successful for a while, but success begets success and other shops of a similar genre began appearing and competing for the business. As making a profit became more difficult, he decided the struggle to survive with such a small return was not worth the isolation of living in Lorne. So he was selling of his remaining stock and moving back to Melbourne. Well, I just had to help him liquidate that excess stock so I purchased the hat, known as a "cooper", that you have seen on my head in some of the pictures here in this account.
     Prior to our encounter with the retiring shop owner, we took a walk on the beach. We were determined to get our feet wet in the waters of the Bass Strait, even though we had done so for the first time at St. Kilda Beach on the first weekend we were in Australia. While that went very well (the water was icy cold, though) the most annoying aspect of the beach was the incessant flies that were everywhere and a persistent bother. We decided that there was no future for us on the beach this day and headed back to the car.
     We learned from the afore-mentioned owner of the existance of hiking trails up in the hills above the town. He gave us some tourist literature that included a map of the trails, their location and other important features. We were particularly attracted to a site where there was a nice waterfall, and we chose that as our next destination. We drove up a very steep hill which began at the Great Ocean road and was really an integrated part of the residential community of Lorne. A trip to the local chemist by one of the residents here might trigger a coronary on the way home! Fortunately, once up near the top of the hill, the road leveled off considerably and wound through the dense forest that covers most of the southern shore of Victoria. The road was devoid of car traffic, and it wasn't long before we reached the car park at the top of the falls. There were only a few cars parked there, and we quickly changed shoes for the hike. I tried out my new hat.
     This trail was less of a trail and more of a walk down the steps of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. There were over 250 steps down into a riverbed basin that surrounded the falls. A few platform stops were placed strategically along the decent that provided particularly good views of the falls at various heights. At the bottom there were mild, yet ineffective, restraints to keep tourists from doing themselves an injury. They easily climbed over them, making their way between the falls and the bottom platform for a pose and a giggle. You can see one just here to the right standing under a fern tree. What shocking behavior.
     The trip back up was slower and required more rests to avoid becoming dripping wet with sweat. At one of the resting spots, Edite found a particularly interesting fern tree and posed for the picture you see here. Afterward we continued back up to the top and headed back to the car for more decisions as to what to see next.
     Our next site was a place off the track just a bit. It took us through residential neighborhoods of Lorne to the top of the ridge overlooking the beach. We were in search of Teddy's Lookout. We found a small car park next to the road with signage indicating that there were two ways to get to the site. Either way required a hike along the ridge through the forest. It was our second introduction to real "bush walking", the first being the Dandenongs. The vegetation was quite what we experienced in the Dandenongs, and we were a bit disappointed that we did not encounter any significant harmless wildlife along the way. We were not interested in meeting a wombat in close quarters. However, we forgot all this when we got to the point. The scene was spectacular. One day someone will invent a camera that will take a picture that will give a better sense of the majesty of views like we were looking at. Because I had taken so many pictures in my lifetime of scenes like this only to be disappointed at the results each and every time, I decided not to take any here. What would be the point? If the picture lacked a label and I encountered it in my picture pile two years hence, I would be wondering where it was taken. I saw little need to add to my future frustration of my lack of a good memory.
     We hiked back to the car by the other route, one that took us on the other side of the ridge, was much less traveled and not well marked. As a result, we had some difficulty finding both the car and the road. However, we couldn't be that far off, so we mucked about until we came out on the road and saw our car about 100 yard further off. We emerged just a bit too soon.
     It was getting a bit late by this time, so we opted to bid farewell to Lorne and head back home. I didn't want to drive the windy road again so soon, so we took the other inland route to view the countryside of southern Victoria. We apparently were not alone. There was more traffic than we expected out in this bush area. We went through a town called Dean's Marsh and finally reached the A1 which becomes the M1 on the north side of Geelong. We were in the driveway inside of two and one half hours from leaving Lorne. We felt it was a good day's outing.