Great Ocean Road and more

Suzy Swift and I hit the road this morning, leaving Adelaide and heading for a small coastal town called Robe. Quite an uneventful drive, just getting used to the car and the roads as this was my first time driving in Australia. It’s pretty easy going - some long straight stretches of road and the occasional windy bit.

I made a couple of stops along the way, one at a small town called Kingston SE where they have a big lobster and crayfish industry. People who have been to Australia before will have seen many of these big icons before, and probably everyone’s heard of the Big Banana, but this was my first - ‘The Big Lobster’ - a giant (18.2 metres high) fibreglass lobster about the same size of the building it stood in front of. The lobster’s name is Larry by the way.

Robe is a quaint little town on the coast, and I spent a day just wandering around on the coast and up to the lighthouse and the obelisk and looking at the various shipwreck monuments and so on. I did wander down to the beach but too cold for swimming, although I did see some people out surfing - it’s meant to be a very good surfing area down here.

When I checked into the motel at Robe, I had laughed when the owner showed me how to change the aircon on to heating and when he told me how to operate the electric blanket. I was so glad he did though - either I’m getting really soft or it is really cold at nights just now! I had my electric blanket on, and my bed was so cosy and toasty, it was great!!

Leaving Robe, I stopped briefly in Beachport which is famous for the “Pool of Siloam” which is seven times more saltier than the sea, but far too cold to be trying that just now!!

Next stop was Mount Gambier, which is South Australia’s second largest city, and is known as the blue lake city. The city is founded around many extinct volcanic crates. The most famous crater lake is the blue lake which changes colour from steel grey in winter to brilliant turquoise blue in summer. This whole area is known as the Limestone Coast, and as well as being used for building, the limestone is also used in making toothpaste and talcum powder.

I carried on along the Limestone Coast through Portland and on to Port Fairy, which is, I think, the official start of the Great Ocean Road.

After that, just more driving along the coast and stopping off to see the various coastal features along the way. I saw London Bridge which has fallen down. Wind and waves had carved out a natural archway in the limestone and it originally looked like a bridge, but then the erosion kept going and eventually the bridge collapsed into the sea.

Next came the 12 Apostles, which are limestone stacks coming out of the sea, some as high as 45m tall, again formed by coastal erosion.

There are many sweet little towns along the coastal route and I stopped off in a couple of them for a wander or some food, and stayed overnight in some.

After the great ocean road ended, I carried on along the road to Melbourne, and spent a couple of days there. I toured around the city on the city circle tram and the tourist bus - they are very good to the tourists in Melbourne - both of these services are free, and take in pretty much everything in the city centre that you would want to see.

So as not to be sitting down all day, I went for a nice long walk along the banks of the Yarra and walked up to the MCG, although it seemed to be closed so I couldn’t go in.

Leaving Melbourne, I had decided to take the inland route to get back to Adelaide, and so when I eventually navigated my way out of Melbourne, I headed up to Bendigo, an old town formed during the gold rush. Like so many places in Australia that I’ve seen, they’ve kept many of the original features of the old buildings - like the corner hotels with the big balconies, or the shops with the big verandas.

The gold rush in Bendigo began when 2 housewives found the first gold. This was one of the world’s most exciting gold rushes: more gold was found here between 1850 and 1900 than anywhere else in the world. Around 22 million ounces worth 9 billion dollars of gold has been found here, making it the 7th richest gold field in the world.

After Bendigo I headed down to Ballarat, another gold rush area, but also home to the Eureka uprising, one of only 2 civil uprisings in Australian history.

My journey after this took me through some farming country and skirted along the edges of the Grampians National Park, and eventually back to Adelaide, where I had one night before getting back on the train.

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