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Published: December 25th 2008
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Entry by Jules Sunday 21/12/08
We left Robe bright and early on Sunday morning as we knew we had
plenty of sights to see that day, en route to the start of the Great
Ocean Road. One sight I have been hoping on encountering all the trip
is a Wombat and we did manage to see one beside the road out of Robe.
No, it wasn't road kill, but it wasn't alive either; just a road sign
unfortunately. As wombats are nocturnal it was unlikely that I would
get to see one in the wild.
We made a brief stop at Beachport, a lovely seaside town with an
extremely long pier. We strolled along to the end and back again
before chatting to a local fishermen about his catch so far that day;
he was after whiting but had managed to catch something else (I can't
recall the name of the fish). He wasn't disappointed though as these
were going to be used as bait for his shark fishing that evening! Not
great whites though...
Our next stop was at Mount Gambier, a large town
named after the now
extinct volcano beneath which is lies. The centre of the volcano is
now a series of lakes due to the level of the natural water table in
the area and these provide the towns water supply. From November until
March the lake turns a spectacular cobalt blue; nobody really knows
why.
Driving out of Mount Gambier I noticed several groupings of religious
buildings, clearly from different faiths and I recalled seeing this
type of arrangement elsewhere. I remember learning about agglomeration
of certain types of services in geography at school, such as
solicitors, so that the companies could feed off each others clients; I
wouldn't have thought that this would work with churches however!
Further south we headed to Cape Bridgewater where there is a colony of
fur seals. The day was getting long by this point so we were unable to
make the 2 hour return walk to see them. Instead we headed to the end
of the cape, through the many wind farms in this area (which creates a
strange, yet beautiful, contrast to the landscape of the
conservation
area) to see the various cliffs and rock forms created by the sea. One
off feature was the so-called petrified forest. Not what you might
immediately think; a load of trees looking scared, but something
entirely different. I wish I could explain more but we didn't have
time to read the information board as we were surrounded by sand flies
- which bite! Hopefully the photo will suffice.
We stopped at a small town called Port Fairy for the night. Part of
the town includes Griffiths Island, on the other side of the River
Moyne. We strolled onto the island before dinner and were pleased to
see three wild wallabies slowly wondering about. Although wild they
were clearly used to people as we were able to get up very close to
them.
Monday 22/12/08
Leaving Port Fairy we took a detour to Tower Hill, following a
recommendation from Shane, the owner of the B&B we stayed at. Tower
Hill is another extinct volcano but this one you can drive down one
side, across the base and back up the either side. Due
to the volcano’s
nutrients and fertile soil it is a haven for flora and fauna. We were
primarily on the hunt for koalas but instead came across plenty of
emus. The whole experience had a bit of a Jurassic Park feel to it
(further increased when Rich player the theme tune to the film on the
ipod!).
Finally we arrived at the start of the Great Ocean Road, the whole
reason for us choosing to drive between Adelaide and Melbourne. The
GOR was built as a memorial to all the Victorians who fought and died
in the Great War of 1914-1918 and snakes along the coastline. All
along the route are lookout points affording views of the incredible
coastline including the various rock forms created by the sea, each
given a specific descriptive name, location of shipwrecks and other
views of the vast landscape.
There are probably far too many lookouts to list and describe here so I
shall let the photographs do the talking. Unfortunately Bob doesn't
make an appearance here; you'll see why from one of the signs.
The most famous
rock form is probably the 12 Apostles. Unfortunately
you can't see all 12 rocks from the viewpoint and are couple look to be
collapsing - the view is probably best from the air.
From the 12 Apostles we travelled through the Otway National Park
heading for a town called Apollo Bay. Within the National Park there
is a tree top walk where you can walk between the canopies of the
trees, up to nearly 60m above the ground. As we didn't scale the
Gloucester Tree at Pemberton (purely as a result of the weather you
understand) we thought we had better complete the tree top walk
instead. Rich was a little nervous as the walkways and turrets swayed
slightly in the wind, particularly when we walked across a cantilevered
structure.
We arrived at Apollo Bay in the early evening and checked into the best
hostel we have stayed at so far on our trip (and likely to remain so)
called EcoBeach. It's run by Gilbert and Gay and is designed to be
environmentally and ecologically friendly. The building wouldn't be
out of place on
Grand Designs and has been extremely well designed and
built. Far too good for mere backpackers??!
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