It was a cool night, but apparently not as cold as Port Campbell that got down to 5 degrees.
We left Johanna beach and made our way toward Port Campbell, stopping briefly at Princetown which is basically a 2 shop town. Does have a caravan park and a Camping Reserve down by the river, cost $15 for unpowered site. We had planned to stay here but the gas was running very low and we had to do a run into Port Campbell to get fuel so we thought we may as well just stay at Port Campbell.
We stopped at Gibson’s steps on the way. Apparently a guy called Hugh Gibson carved some steps into the cliff to get down to his favourite fishing spot; don’t think the steps there now are the original ones. The coast line is amazing, rock stacks sticking up out of the surf, such rugged beauty of the cliffs and the steps would have been a major feat. It was great to be down on the beach below the cliffs instead of viewing them from the top.
A short distance further on we also stopped at the Twelve Apostles Centre where there is a huge parking area, even with parking attendants. Don’t know if they are always there or just due to the end of a long weekend. They have plenty of parking for caravans, trailers and motorhomes. All that is there is parking, toilets and a kiosk. From here you walk 500m through a tunnel under the road to the viewing platforms for the Twelve Apostles. The place was very busy.
Further on are Lock Ard Gorge, Razorback, Island Archway, Elephant Rock, Thunder Cave and the Blow Hole, which we didn’t stop at on the way to Port Campbell. All of these places including Gibson’s Steps and the Twelve Apostles are with 20km’s of Port Campbell.
We have booked into the Port Campbell Holiday Park, which is the only caravan park in town. It seems to be a nice park with plenty of grassy sites. The lady at check in was very friendly cost is $28 a night for a powered site; we have booked in for 2 at this stage. After setting up we went for a walk up the street, it is nice small town, there are 3 places that sell fish and chips, a pub, a supermarket come newsagent and post office and a couple of other shops, at least 2 servos in town.
We got ourselves ready to go back to the 12 Apostles viewing area for some sunset shots, briefly stopping at the Loach Ard Gorge area. Ha what a joke the place was packed to the ridicules and this was just the car park. We thought forget it, again it may be cause it’s the end of a long weekend or it could be like that all the time, we will try again another night.
We raced back to Loch Ard Gorge and took a few photos there but the sunset was a fizzer, so we just took some shots as the sky got dark and a wee bit cold.
We thought some nice hot fish and chips would be nice but a 6.30pm they were all closed. We planned to get up early and get some sunrise shots with hopefully not as many people at the 12 Apostles.
