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Published: October 12th 2005
Back in the car
At Point Addis, near the surfer town of AngleseaHAPPY BIRTHDAY NATHAN!!
On Wednesday (14th September 2005) we picked up a hire car in order to drive c1200km Great Ocean route to Melbourne.
Still in South Australia we visited (briefly) the German town of
Hahndorf but left when we couldn't find any decent apple cake. We stopped for lunch at
Meningie before driving the Pelican-filled lagoons of the
Coorong National Park. We overnighted in
Robe in a cabin at a very good YHA-affiliated campsite (with an indoor heated swimming pool!) and visited the towns attractions (Old ruined clifftop Gaol and Obelisk).
The next day (Thursday) we drove through
Beachport before stopping at the volcanic
Mount Gambier region. We drove around the crater rim of the "Blue Lake" and went for a walk in the wildlife sanctuary of the "Valley Lake" crater (spotting wild koalas, emu, kangaroos, wallabies but sadly no wombats, who were all in their burrows, and happily, none of the black, red-bellied black nor brown snakes that the information board warned about).
Later afternoon we crossed the border into Victoria and through the towns of
Nelson,
Portland (stopping at "the Crags"),
Port Fairy and finally stopped at
Warnambool where we overnighted in the Victoria
Hotel (would've been nice in about 1935 but now looking a little 'worn').
Friday morning, we drove out early to
Logan's Beach to spot Southern Right Whales who come to the area to calve - but we got very cold and saw zilch...well, one seal and lots of surfers but nothing 18m long! We then started the "Great Ocean Road" proper - Bay of Islands, Bay of Martyrs, Grotto, London Bridge, Port Campell, Loch Ard gorge, the 12 Apostles, Castle Cove lookout (where we were caught in an hail storm!!), Apollo Bay (where they're building a fantastic solar-eco-hostel but it's not finished yet so we couldn't stay). Finally, the sun came out and we drove the amazing windy roads along the Southern Ocean to the pretty town of
Lorne.
We overnighted in the YHA there which we highly recommend despite having our sandwiches stolen from the fridge (we had to give a statement and description to the cops**). There are lots of wild Cockatoos, Parrots and Loris in the woods and the hostel provide seed for you to hand feed them - very cool if not a bit scratchy.
On saturday morning, we visited the
Erskine Falls Thunder Cave
Near Loch Ard Gorge before stopping at the
Point Addis lookout and driving through the surf towns of
Anglesea and
Torquay.
We arrived in
Melbourne late yesterday afternoon and went to the Hard Rock Cafe for live music to celebrate our safe arrival.
** WE ARE NOT JOKING
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