This was a big day for us! After hibernating for much of the last two years, Mark and I were venturing out on a 17 day holiday; one that involved two flights!

I felt like a devious child as I plotted items to take, packed my bag and vacated the house… such has been the lock-down syndrome we have been accustomed to.  The relatively empty T3 terminal at Sydney Domestic airport reinforced this fear; no one else seemed to be leaving their homes! There were only a few flights scheduled on the departure board further reinforcing this concern. The flight was relatively full though which helped to ease the travel anxiety and the perfect Sydney weather soon distracted us as we finally departed for Melbourne.

However, on landing in Melbourne it became apparent that the fol here must have received the same email as those in Sydney as this terminal was fairly empty too. One benefit of this though was that it made getting across to the Avis car hire terminal relatively easy and we eventually departed in our almost new Pajero (4,000 km) by around 1.30 pm and made it Torquay by around 3 pm.

We were staying just one night in Torquay, at the Wyndam Resort Torquay, with the plan being that we could start our Great Ocean Road journey nice and fresh the following morning. Our room at the Wyndam was a lovely ocean front one bedroom apartment ( Room 254) with a huge balcony and was so lovely that I almost wished we were able to stay and enjoy the view for at least another night.

We settled in to our room and then headed out around 4 pm on a 5 km walk looping south along the coastal path to Torquay beach and then back up up to Sou West brewery for dinner, with a stop at Blackman brewery on the way.

Torquay was an interesting place but we did feel a bit like we’d landed on the set of Cocoon; In Bondi we rank among the oldest in the area but here we were one of the youngest! We covered a fair bit of territory on our walk and the dramatic coastline was most impressive. The strong afternoon wind was a boon for the brave few kite surfers and windsurfers which provided visual entertainment for the handful of people on the beaches and travelling along the coastal path.

Sou West brewery was huge, the largest we’ve ever been to and it looked fairly new. There weren’t too many people there so it felt very Covid safe and the meals were delicious. Mark opted for a traditional ‘chicken parmy’ and went out on a limb to claim it was the best rendition of this meal that he has ever had! We were pretty tired after our big first day of escape and so we wound our way home via a BWS and Woolies for an early night.

Mark is planning a bike ride in the morning and I’ll have a walk before we start our Great Ocean Road adventure and head to Apollo Bay.