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Published: April 2nd 2011
We arrived at Melbourne airport to collect our hire car but when we went to the allocated bay there was no car to be seen!!! So we had to return to the office and be allocated another one (never did find out what happened to the original one!). We thought we would have Victorian number plates this time but the car had a NSW plates instead. Again we could not negotiate on price although we have used Hertz this time which was cheaper on the quote than Avis. We set off using our own Satnav from the airport heading out to Somerville to see Ros again. Before long the Satnav instructed us to turn off the motorway, which we duly followed only to realise that we had set it to avoid any toll roads and therefore we ended up going through some of the busy city centre of Melbourne which we had tried to avoid– say no more!!! We finally got to Somerville and it was lovely to see Ros again it was like meeting an old dear friend and again we settled in very quickly – when we arrived at the door she said ‘welcome home’ and it really felt
that way. Ros had received the free tickets to the Frankston Sand Sculpture display so we all set off to view these. They were based around creepy crawlies this year and built on the Frankston Waterfront where a team of talented International sand sculptors had created a weird and wonderful world of Creepy Crawlies. From beetles, bugs and butterflies, to spiders, slugs and scorpions, the tiny creatures that inhabit our lives were transformed into giant sand sculpture very impressive. Later we walked along Frankston Pier watching the local youths jump off into the sea whilst others were sat fishing and we all spent a lazy time watching the world go by. We stayed with Ros for a couple of days and again did not want to leave but we have to move on otherwise we will never get around this large island….. We will miss her but hopefully when she comes to the UK next year to see Margaret and Peter we can meet up again, if not we will definitely be back to visit her in the future. The next morning we set off for Sorrento (no we are not in Italy) to catch the Ferry to Queenscliff which
will avoid having to drive through the centre of Melbourne again!. Before boarding the ferry we walked around Sorrento but the weather was not too good which was a shame. The ferry was on time however and as soon as we set off a pod of dolphins arrived and followed the boat all the way across the bay. Apparently there are a few hundred resident dolphins in the bay and they often follow the ferry and other boats crossing the channels. We met a lady on the ferry who said that she swims with them all through the summer. We arrived at Queenscliff and set off for Torquay to meet Paul’s cousin. We stopped at Ocean Grove to watch the local surfing school and then went on to Barwon Heads to walk along the cliff top and saw two pairs of Kestrels soaring over the headlands. We finally arrived in Torquay the surf capital of Victoria and home of the famous Bells Beach, legendary amongst surfers worldwide for its powerful break as well as hosting a world-championship surfing contest every Easter. It was wonderful for Paul to meet his cousin for the first time and Diana and her husband Peter
made us feel so welcome. For those of you who do not know, Diana had been ‘key’ to putting Paul in touch with some close family members and history that he never knew existed after we had put an article in a Norfolk Magazine. Amazingly she had been sent the magazine from someone in the UK and just happened to see our article and realised that she was related. Peter and Diana ran a holiday letting business and let us have a studio apartment on the ground floor of their home which overlooked Fishermans Beach. That evening Peter who was once a cook prepared some lovely homemade tomato sauce and pasta as well as homemade bread which was delicious and Diana made an apple pie, yummy it was just like being at home. We spent a lovely evening with them and Paul and Diana poured over mountains of information she had gathered on their family history. Diana had spent many years doing family research and had traced the family tree back to the 1600s. The next day we decided to travel part of the Great Ocean Road (GOR), Australia’s most famous stretch of road which winds its way almost 250km
from Torquay to Warrnambool. It truly does have stunning scenery with dramatic views of the wild coastline around every bend and there were plenty of them. We set off early and soon arrived in Anglesea a sweet little town with good beaches and continued on to Aireys Inlet where we visited the Split Point Lighthouse and walked along the coastline.. We then travelled on to Lorne a larger town which becomes quite busy during the season but it was relatively quiet on our visit. We called into the information centre which had masses of information on walks in the area and displays on GOR attractions. We decided to travel inland to visit the Erskine Falls one of the most amazing waterfalls in the Otways National park. The 30 metre falls were quite an easy walk to the first lookout over the falls (300m) but we travelled on down a steep climb to the second lookout (700m) to view the waterfall from the base and this was a little harder going especially because of the recent heavy rainfall. We continued on for a while crossing the river on stepping stones but the going was extremely slippery and after nearly falling in
a few time decided to retrace our steps and eventually climbed back out of the gorge. We then continued on to Teddy’s Lookout which had an excellent view of the GOR even though the weather was poor you could still see the road wrapping around the ocean and cliff edge way beneath us. The GOR is also known as the ‘Shipwreck Coast’ due to the hundreds of ships sunk by reefs, foul weather and the treacherous Southern Ocean and we saw several sites where ships had sunk leaving behind reminders of those vessels many only to be seen at low tide. We continued on to Sheoak Falls where we were hoping to do a short walk but this was closed as the forestry commission was carry out some controlled burning of the area following recent bush fires. We moved on to the Kennett River where you could walk up into the bush to see koalas but it was getting late and we decided we had better return to Diana’s as it would be a long journey back around all those bends……….. The next day we decided to walk along the beaches of Torquay and first headed for Fishermans Beach opposite
Diana’s house. We continued along the sands to Zeally Bay, Yellow Buff, Front Beach which was ringed by shady pines, Point Danger and Back Beach. Finally after about an hour we arrived at Jan Juc surf beach where we were unable to get around the bay any further but just over the headland was Bells Beach where they hold the world championship surf contest every Easter. We headed inland and walked along the cliff top back to Torquay where we stopped for coffee and cake in a little café in the main street. That evening we spent some more time with our hosts and again Paul and Diana had their heads over more family research documents and it also emerged that they may be related to Nelson - that’s why Paul likes boats and Diana lives by the sea!! We also discovered that Diana and I share the same birthday, 12th April although she is a little younger than me! Peter had cooked us a lovely supper of Barramundi which was absolutely delicious. The next day it was time for us to move on again and it was sad to say goodbye to Diana and Peter who had made us
feel so welcome in their home. That evening we discussed where to go next and we were going to head inland towards Ballarat but finding accommodation was proving difficult as it was Labour Day, a public holiday weekend in Oz and lots of accommodation was booked. In the end we decided to travel the remainder of the GOR as we managed to book three nights at Lavers Hill, a junction just before the Twelve Apostles, a major landmark on the GOR. We drove along the GOR again stopping at the Kennett River and walked up the winding bush track and were lucky enough to see a few koalas hanging out of the gum trees before continuing on to Apollo Bay, a fishing town with a lovely beach setting where we had lunch. We then had a choice of two roads to our accommodation at Lavers Hill but one of the roads through the forest said that ‘if you are prone to travel sickness, do not go down this road’ so we decided to do the other route!!!! We finally arrived at our accommodation…………….well we will not go into details in this blog but it’s a shame we had booked three
nights in this dreadful place, the only good thing was that it was near to some good walks and scenery and we remained out of the ‘room’ as long as we could each day. The first day we travelled more of the GOR arriving at Gibson Steps, hand carved into the cliffs in the 19th Century but now replaced with concrete ones leading steeply down to the beach below. You can walk along the beach but have to be aware of the tides as there is no way up the steep cliff apart from the steps! We walked a little way along the beach and it was the most dramatic scenery you could imagine, no wonder so many ships foundered on this rugged coastline. The Victorian coastline between Cape Otway and Port Fairy was a notoriously dangerous stretch of water in the days of sailing ships and more than 80 vessels came to grief on this 120km stretch alone. As we got back on the road and travelled along we noticed hundred of small white moths flying across the road with many hitting the windscreen the air was thick with these tiny moths it was like it was snowing. We
finally pulled into a car park where their was a small visitor centre and a pathway under the road which led to several viewing platforms overlooking the ocean and the mighty Twelve Apostles where these huge rock stacks have been abandoned just out to sea by the ever eroding headlands. Today however their number has been whittled down to half with only six still visible. However are not the only rock formations in the area as the waves and tides have relentlessly sculpted the soft rock all along this part of the coast into a fascinating series of rock stacks, gorges, arches and blowholes – some really amazing scenery. We walked to one called Loch Ard Gorge, the narrow track leads around the coast to a cliff top cemetery where there are four poignant graves, two males and two females which were the only bodies found from the sinking of the iron-hulled clipper Loch Ard, which foundered off Mutton Bird Island on the final night of its voyage from England in 1878. Of the 54 passengers and crew on board the vessel there were only two survivors. Eva Carmichael clung to wreckage and was washed into the gorge, where apprentice
officer Tom Pearce heard cries and rescued her, Eva and Tom were both 18 years old. Tom managed to climb out of the Gorge to raise the alarm to local pastoralists who immediately set into plan a rescue attempt. Although there was talk of a love story between the two survivors, Eva eventually returned to her grandmother in Ireland having lost all the rest of her family in the tragedy and never saw Tom again. We then walked on to a Blowhole but were unable to see it as the track was closed due to a collapse of the rock sides. We continued on to Thunder Cave and Broken Point and then the track ran across the headland where the Sherbrooke River meets the raging sea. We stayed for ages on this beach watching the fierce seas crashing on the sheer limestone cliffs towering high above, the noise was deafening but mesmerising nonetheless. We finally arrived at Port Campbell another delightful seaside town with a small harbour and we had lunch in the renowned ‘Waves Restaurant’ a local legend for its unusual pizza concoctions including chocolate pizza (no we did not have this). We walked around the visitor centre and
museum which had a good display of artefacts that had been washed in from the numerous shipwrecks as well as an interesting display of the lives and times of the people of the area. On our way back to our accommodation we stopped and walked out to view Mutton Island where the shearwaters nest but all was quiet as they were still out to sea before returning at dusk, although again dramatic rock formation abound – a truly lovely vista. The next day we decided to carry out a few walks in the Otway Forest. The Otways are a bushwalkers paradise with many good walking tracks in the area. We drove to the ‘Otway Fly’a rainforest treetop walk in the beautiful Great Otway National Park and the highest and longest of its kind in the world. The views of the forest canopy are wonderful and we continued even higher by ascending the spiral staircase to the 47m high lookout tower, although at this point I wanted to go back down pretty quickly as it made you quiet giddy walking around the spiral staircase way up in the tree tops. We then decided to walk to the Triplet Falls, a one
hour return trek which was a stunning walk through magnificent fern gullies and mountain ash forests, walking to the base of the falls where a viewing platform showed the lower cascades and then a further walk uphill came out on to a platform where the three cascades thundered past, one of the best waterfalls we had seen for quite a while. We then returned to the carpark and continued to Little Aire Falls which was another two hour walk but we felt that these falls were not as magnificent as the Triplet Falls, although most guidebooks would differ. On the way back though we saw some magnificent fungi on the dead branches and one in particular looked just like a lily (see picture). The next day we left Lavers Hill and were glad to see the back of the accommodation although we had some amazing experiences as the scenery and walks in the area were quite outstanding. We returned to Port Campbell visitors centre to collect an onward map towards Port Fairy where we were hoping to spend the next few days. The lady also informed us that the road that we were going to take later on towards the
Grampian Mountains was closed due to serious flooding so we needed to look at detours. We continued around the coast road stopping at some more ocean sculpture, The Arch, a rocky archway offshore from point Hesse and nearby London Bridge, although this has sadly ‘fallen down’. Once a double-arched rock platform; in 1990 however the arch nearest the coast suddenly collapsed, leaving two tourists stranded on what now was an island, luckily a helicopter was employed to rescue them. From here we continued westward stopping at the Bay of Martyrs, the Bay of Islands and Boat Bay, again viewing amazing rock formations. We finally arrived in Port Fairy and headed for the information centre when we noticed a huge number of people and loud music, we had arrived at the end of the Port Fairy Folk Festival one of Australia’s biggest and best music festivals which is held on Labour Day long weekend in early March with people travelling for miles to attend. We stood and watched the last band of the festival and the air was alive with everyone thoroughly enjoying the music – it was like something out of a country and western movie. The visitor centre which
was trying to help us tourists through deafening music gave us a couple of self contained units to see and one of them was called Maisie’s Cottage which of course caught our eye first, so we walked around to it and met the owners who were cleaning it out from the last occupants who were leaving following the festival. The cottage was massive and very nice but probably too big for us two but they said they also had a smaller unit, Maisie’s Overniter near the sea front and they said to wander down and have a look as it was open but waiting to be cleaned once they finished cleaning this one. We wandered down to see and it was just right, a lovely small bungalow with kitchenette and separate bathroom but with the added benefit of a huge garden and sunny verandah so we took this and settled in – absolute bliss particularly after our last accommodation disaster. Just a short walk from our new home was the beach front and a boardwalk to Griffin Island so later we walked down and crossed onto the island where a circular walk lead around the island to the lighthouse. The
lighthouse c1859 built of local bluestone stands on the eastern tip of the island and still sends it light out to sea. The light-keepers cottages were demolished in the 1950s, however their gardens live on with many hardy plants still flowering. We continued on around the island to the Shearwater (Mutton Birds) viewing platform and later that night we returned to see the birds returning home to feed their young – a sight not easily forgotten as they dive bomb in from the sky and amazingly have no trouble locating their correct nesting site. The birds arrive on the island in September from the Aleutian Islands near Alaska and remain until April. We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Port Fairy it was a friendly town with scenic old bluestone and sandstone buildings and whitewashed cottages just out of a picture book. The town was settled in 1835 by whalers and sealers and it still has a large fishing fleet with nice walks all around the harbour and river side. The next day we drove out to Tower Hill Reserve just outside the town, a volcanic area where Aboriginal artefacts unearthed in the dust show that indigenous people lived in the
area at the time of the eruption over 30,000 years ago. There are excellent day walks in the park and we covered most of them including the steep ascent to the Peak with spectacular 360 views where we came across both wallabies and kangaroos. On the Crater Rim walk we just turned the corner and came across a couple of emus sitting on the track watching us walk around them - just amazing. We then walked around a boardwalk around a extremely dry lake where there were several bird hides but we did not see very much it was very dry, although on our return to the car we spotted some more kangaroos in the bush and a very sweet koala asleep in the trees avove our car. We left the park and drove around the edge where there were several lookout points giving excellent views of the crater floor plateau where we spotted a group of kangaroos and many emus basking in the sunshine on the grassy plains, it looked like how you imagine the ‘savannahs’ would in Africa (hopefully our next lot of travels) but of course they do not have kangaroos or emus there! On our last
day we wandered around the harbour and met a nice couple from Melbourne who we stopped to speak to on the boardwalk around the harbour. We ended up swapping email addresses and as none of us had any writing materials we both hoped we would remember each others email address – hopefully one out of the four of us would!!!!. Bronwyn and Alan hoped to visit the UK in the future and we may be able to help them with a house exchange. If any of our blog readers fancies a house exchange and a visit to Melbourne in the future let us know and we will put you in touch with them, that’s if we do not do so ourselves of course. The next day we diverted inland from the coast and made our way north towards the Grampian Mountains where the area has an abundance of accessible walking trails and aboriginal rock art on the unique rock formations. We had found out earlier that there had been some serious flooding in the area and we were unable to travel direct to Halls Gap (central town) via the usual road between the mountains but had to detour to get
there. We had been informed that it was still worth visiting but once we arrived and asked at the visitor centre they informed us that the recent heavy rainfall and strong winds had indeed devastated the area. In fact most of the more scenic walks were closed due to the damage caused by flooding and landslides, with rocks and trees blocking many roads and walks covering a huge area of the National Park. It would take a long time to recover and re-open some of the roads and tracks. We saw pictures of the damage and it was lucky no-one had been killed. One story told of a group of backpackers who were discovered by rescuers with the front and back of their car flatten as well as a huge tree sticking out of the roof but they had manage to drive through to be rescued and all were OK. The information centre gave us a list of available accommodation and we made our way to the first one where the owner said that she only had two left. The delightful timber framed cottages were spread up the hill between the gum trees and the mountains and just in front of the cottages were a couple of kangaroos munching on the grass. It was an idyllic location and we decided to stay straight away and chose the chalet facing the mountains which would receive the evening sun where we could sit on the verandah and watch the kangaroos in the surrounding bush. That evening we walked to Clematis Falls following a short track through the open forest to the foot of the falls but there was only a trickle of water which is strange seeing all the floods they have recently had but as it is mainly fed by rain water alone it is usually only active just after heavy storms and then dries out until the next downpour. On the way back we saw a couple of kangaroos on the edge of the forest and then noticed many more on the cricket oval below. On arrival at the cricket field there were about 30 kangaroos, many with young Joey’s munching on the grass, they definitely do not need lawnmowers here! That evening we had a barbeque on our verandah whilst watching the kangaroos in front of us with the sun setting over the mountains behind – bliss. The next day we travelled a short way to see some Aboriginal rock art known as the Binjil Shelter which is located in the Black Range Scenic Reserve. It is the only rock art painting of Bunjil known and is widely regarding as one of the most significant cultural sites in south eastern Australia. Bunjil appears in many of the creation stories of the Aboriginal people of south eastern Australia and is know by different names across the area. The exact age of the painting is not known although pigment samples in the red colouring and the white outlines of Bunjil and his two dingoes indicate that they were painted using traditional clay ochre. The two dingoes in the painting are Bunjil’s helpers (see photo). You had to view the paintings through a steel mess fence which was put up to protect it. We continued on past the painting to a lookout but the track was quite overgrown however after a little bit of scrambling we finally made our way to the top with good views out over the mountain ranges. The reserve was burnt by wildfire in January 2006 and continues to recover although there was still a lot of damage to the huge trees that used to dominate the site – it would be a while though before it fully recovered. We returned to our accommodation and later in the afternoon had a swim in the pool in a wonderful bush/mountain setting, which we had to ourselves which was not surprising really as the water was freezing!! Walking back to our chalet we came across several kangaroos lazing in the grass and also noticed a giant toadstool which at first we thought was wooden (it was the size of a small footstool) but was actually ‘real’ not sure what it was though. The next day we visited the Brambuk National Park and Cultural Centre and then walked the Fyans Creek Loop walk, a gentle track which lead through Fyans Valley to Tandara Road, crossed Fyans Creek and then continued back along the forested foothills of the Mount Williams Range returning to the Centre. We saw a huge amount of damage to the forest, both by bush fires and the recent terrible flooding. Amazing though the animal and bird life was in abundance and we saw hundreds of kangaroos, some emus and several wild deer as well as some Superb Fairy Wren, with the brilliant blue male outshining the brown females and young. Even though the Grampians had been so damaged we so enjoyed our short time in Halls Gap. Tomorrow we head towards the Murray River leaving the state of Victoria and venture into South Australia - – see you there.
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Charmian
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Creepy crawlies
Love the sand sculptures, very similar to those on Weymouth beach, but probably larger & more of them. They look like something off a Disney film title. Fancy being related to Nelson-does that mean we have to salute every time we see you now? Many happy returns for your birthdays, we will have a drink to celebrate (any excuse). Keep well & enjoying your adventures. x