Overlooking Bass Strait, perched high on a bushland hillside with a wonderful view of the coast, above the Great Ocean Road, Chris's Beacon Point Restaurant and Villas, is a mecca for gourmet travellers. True to his reputation, the Greek culinary legend laid out a feast and regaled with interesting stories. The night-halt at the Studio overlooks the shoreline with the sound of the distant waves making it a perfect end to an eventful day.

Port Campbell is next on the agenda. The road now leaves the coast and heads beneath towering trees, past delicate ferns and enters into the heart of the Great Otway National Park where the Cape's ruggedness is matched by the lushness of the rainforest enveloping it. Sheltered by cliffs and Norfolk pines, it has the atmosphere of a haven on the edge of wild nature. Port Campbell was named after Captain Campbell - a Scotsman in charge of Port Fairy's whaling station - and began as a small fishing port with surrounding pastoral runs. Buffeted by wild seas and fierce winds, the coastline around Port Campbell has been sculpted over millions of years to form a series of striking rock stacks that rise out of the Southern Ocean; the celebrated Twelve Apostles is just one of them.

Although four of the Apostles are long gone, the stunning limestone stacks just off the shore is easily the most famous landmark on the Great Ocean Road. Known as the 'Sow and Piglets' until the 1950s, the name was changed to the Twelve Apostles, even though there were only nine standing at the time. The ninth Apostle crumbled down in 2005. These remnants of what were once limestone cliffs of mainland are a dazzling sight during the sunset and sunrise when the entire area is tinged with enthralling glow of the sunrays. Some of rock stacks are as high as 45 metres, formed after the ferocity of the ocean and the wild winds eroded the cliff for millions of years, shaping them into a group of rocks that have become one of world's seven wonders.

This part of the Great Ocean Road holds an entire series of geological phenomenon - the Loch Ard Gorge, the Razorback, London Arch and the Grotto.

The London arch, once known as the London Bridge, is a rock stack which took the form of a double-span bridge by a gradual process of erosion.

We are now in the zone known as Victoria's Shipwreck Coast. About a hundred ships lying in their watery graves are a testimony to the treachery of the coast. The Loch Ard Gorge, about 10 minutes drive from The Twelve Apostles, was named after the clipper ship Loch Ard, which sank on nearby Muttonbird Island in 1878 at the end of a three-month journey from England to Melbourne. Of the 51 people aboard, only two survived - Tom Pearce, the ship's apprentice, was washed ashore and managed to rescue a nineteen year old girl called Eva Carmichael.

With night closing in, we halt at Warrnambool, a city that lies amidst green countryside and overlooks the deep blue of the southern Ocean. At Warrnambool the tales of shipwreck come alive as we watch the stunning sound and laser show about the Loch Ard crash and its two survivors. The Flagstaff Hill has a recreated an entire coastal village belonging to the early nineteenth century. We walk along the cobbled streets of the recreated village with lanterns in our hands through the stables, inns, stores and pubs as these were during the 1850s.