The Royal Conspiracy and Port Campbell National Park

 Cape Nelson Lighthouse

 The Bay of Islands

 The Grotto

Port Campbell

The surf at Thunder Cave

 Unsuspecting tourists

Spectators

 The fog on the road to Otway Farmstay.

Sunday, March 13^th.

When I got up this morning I resolved to book a place to stay for tonight to avoid last night’s stress. So I used AirBnB and found The Otway Farmstay. That sounded intriguing, so I tried to reserve it. That caused some other issues as this was the first time I had used the service. The service requires that you send proof of your identity. So I had to take a photo of my driver’s license front and back and email it to the host. It all worked fine but was a bit confusing at first. I will know better next time.

Then I had to wait to see if my reservation was approved, so I went down to the lobby where they had a dining room which was set up for breakfast. I had a substantial meal of cereal, fruit, yogurt, toast and peanut butter. All ready to go. Back to the room to find I was accepted. I had a shower and headed out.

I decided to visit the Cape Nelson Lighthouse that is located 15 kms out of town. It was the same type, all white and located on a rocky point of land. I came to realize, not for the first time, that lighthouses are almost always remote and in very isolated locations. It must have been a very lonely job!

Then I drove back and through Portland to pick up the highway back to the Great Ocean Road. En route I saw a woman hitchhiking in the middle of nowhere (she had been let off by the previous driver at a farm). It is so strange to see hitchhikers now a ways, especially a woman. So I decided to stop and give her a lift. She had two bags that were, although not over large, were very heavy. After a few pleasantries and finding out where she was heading (to a historical and sacred Aboriginal site called Tower Hill) she launched into an incredibly convoluted monologue about the most intricate and involved story that I have ever heard. I will try to summarize it: Apparently there are no Catholics allowed to sit on the throne of Britain, but the Queen and the Queen Mother have some Catholicism in their family. Any children that were sired by the Catholic branch of the royalty and who might have a claim to the throne were banished to remote areas of the world, including New Zealand, Australia, Tasmania and Hawaii! She claimed that her mother was related to the Queen Mom and that they looked very similar and even aged with the same physical complaints. She told me that the show "The Prisoner" was all based around this scandal and that the show was actually based on the life of her father who was the head of Rothmans but resigned when smoking was linked to cancer. Then the SAS was after him trying to find out what he knew. Eventually the SAS knocked him off, and then went after her mom. They infiltrated a hospital that she was staying in and changed her medicine causing her death. She is traveling around the world connecting with all the descendants of the banished people, who apparently know each other by wearing pale blue. She claims that they have developed a secret way of communicating because the British government monitors everything they do, and that her access to the internet is limited by the SAS, because they know what she is doing. YIKES!! This went on for over an hour. I couldn’t believe any of it, but there is no doubt that she does and I’m sure she didn’t make it all up on the spot. She went into so much detail and it was so convoluted I got totally lost and gave up asking questions after I got bored. There was much more to it than I have typed but that gives you the gist, I think.

When we arrived at Tower Hill (a strange name for a valley that we had to descend into) I drove her about two kilometres into the reservation to the information area (because I could not imagine her carrying her bags into that area) and she was told she had missed the talk! So I drove her another half hour to the next town, Warnambool, where she had pre-booked a hostel. I dropped her off there and high-tailed it! It was the most bizarre one sided monologue that has even been inflicted on me.

I continued driving along the Great Ocean Road until I got to Port Campbell and the Port Campbell National Park where there are the rock cliff formations I had visited yesterday. Because of the sunset and the lateness of the hour I had left to find accommodation before exploring the whole area properly. So, I visited a number of the scenic spots including Bay of Islands, Loch and Gorge, London Bridge, Thunder Cave, the Grotto and Razorback Lookout. In the late afternoon I finally reached the Twelve Apostles, where I had left off yesterday. Again I got there with the sun on the wrong side. This is the one formation that they promote as the best place and the only one to have a visitor centre, but I actually think several of the others are better.

At Thunder Cave I saw a group of tourists further out standing on a large formation taking selfies. I thought it would be a nice photo with the people as silhouettes in front of the sea, so I zoomed in with my 30x lens, just as a huge wave smashed into the rock and they were drenched!

From there I decided to drive to my home for the evening the Otway Farmstay where I had been invited for dinner. I paid extra for that, but I thought it would be a good meal and a chance to talk to the couple and I didn't want to eat alone in a restaurant. As I drove up the hills to the farm the fog rolled in over the highlands and it became very eerie again.

Sue and John Marriott, my hosts, met me and invited me in, where we sat and talked for an hour or so before dinner. As we talked white cockatoos flew past the windows squawking loudly. They provided snacks of crackers, brie, grapes and beer (they drank wine) and they told me about their life here. I will share more of that on tomorrow's post. As we sat down to eat a Chinese Australian couple arrived to stay in one of the other two rooms. Sue served a delicious mussaka and salad fresh from her garden. Dessert was homemade custard. We had a very pleasant evening talking about farming, traveling and Australia. We all turned in about 10. I drove 380 kilometres today.