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Published: February 9th 2007
Lakes Entrance - cormorant
Lots of cormorants sitting on posts dryoing their wings - this is just oneWell that's us out of New South Wales and into Victoria Although significantly greener than NSW there is still evidence of the drought affecting Australia everywhere, parched fields, dried up creeks and waterholes and sheep and cattle nosing about for food in dust covered pasture. One thing we didn't mention about our drive down was our encounter with Australian cowboys - as we were driving through the outback we came across a home made sign for cattle on the road - sure enough round the next corner a couple of hundred cows complete with 2 guys on horseback in full cowboy gear including stetsons
Our first port of call was Lakes Entrance, which is behind a sandspit and delta formation giving a sheltered lagoon backed by a huge area of inland lakes. The town itself sits on the mainland facing the lagoon and joined by a longish wooden bridge. Once esconced in our latest accomodation (very comfortable (and cheap)) we went for a walk out across the bridge to the ocean proper, where huge rollers smashed themselves against the beach, much too violently for anything other than a paddle as the resultant currents could drag you under very easily. We
Lakes Entrance - shell
The shell was sitting in shallow water walked westwards along the beach towards the point. The wind here was fresh enough to counteract the heat the temperature was up around 30. Not much to add though it was very pleasant lying in the lea of the sandunes in the sunshine. We were on an impressively long beach (some 90 miles long and hence called 90 Mile Beach). A rather lazy day sunbthing and paddling and watching the waves batter against the shore but none the worse for that.
After dinner, a simple salad, we went for a walk to watch the sunset. As it neared dusk the woods along the top of the spit came alive with numerous very noisy birds including cockatoos, parrakets and rosellas plus various others we didn't recognise and even more we couldn't see but only hear. In general birds here are much more raucous than backhome resulting in a noise reminiscent of Tarzan films (at least for those of us old enough to have enjoyed the antics of Johnny Weismuller and his faithful chimp Cheetah). We took various photographs from the end of the point then headed back along the shore of the lagoon stopping to watch the black swans and pelicans
Willy's foot
I got bored sunbatching and started playing with the camera to see how close it would let me get as they bobbed gently on the calm waters of the lagoon - very peaceful.
The pelicans in particular are incredibly graceful fliers, for all they seem so ungainly. Unfortunately we didn't see any of the sea eagles mentioned in all the tourist brochures.
We seem to have a hit a part of Australia which has verty few internet cafes - and the ones there are close at 5pm - which is not ideal, as we'd rather spend the daylight hours doing stuff and then sit at a pc in the evening. This week it was particularly difficult, as we were trying to tie down an arrangement to meet Cara sometime over the next week or so, depending on how long she wanted to spend in Adelaide and how long it took us to drive to Melbourne. Email was our only means of contact - and there were a lot of changes of plan. We were going to meet on Monday evening in Melbourne, but actually did meet on Saturday morning in Geelong!
Our landlady told us that Raymond Island would be a good spot to see koalas in the wild, so we visited it, but didn't see
Lakes Entrance - cedar carving
When the cedars were taken down, the stumps were carved as a memorial to WWI service people any koalas at all, or much wildlife other than parrots and pelicans. The parrots are incredible colours, but won't stay still to have their photos taken. It was curiously undeveloped for an area so close to Melbourne.
The general impression of the surroundings was still drought: cattle looking longingly at what used to be ponds, grass all brown and withered, but at least there was still grass in the fields.
We decided to head straight from Lakes Entrance to Geelong, which was a long day driving and included the Melbourne ring road. This freaked Willy out and he decided he really didn't want to return the hire car to the centre of Melbourne. Ok it was a 4 lane motorway, with traffic overtaking on the inside and cutting across you without indicating, so I can understand the reluctance. We got to Geelong to find that accomodation was difficult to get for some reason and we ended up in an expensive motel of the kind frequented by business people(not us at all). It was also very noisy at night, being within reach of the boy racers and within earshot of the trucks and their noisy engine brakes as they
passed behind the motel.
Next morning we met Cara at the train station - she'd been on the overnight Adelaide to Melbourne bus, but hadn't managed to sleep, then she'd got a local train from Melbourne to Geelong. We headed south for the Great Ocean Road, billed as one of the top 20 coastal drives in the world.
Cara had been on a day trip to Kangaroo Island, where she not only saw koalas in the wild but also one that came down its tree on to the ground practically at her feet and climbed another nearby gum tree.
We drove along part of the Great Ocean Road, which is indeed impressive, with wide sweeps around precipitous cliffs with stacks and arches in the bays. We planned to find a cabin on a camping park at Lorne, and given that the schools went back on 29th January, we thought it should be easy. No accomodation was available at all in Lorne, so we headed on down the coast - the next two places we stopped also had no accomodation it seemed most of Melbourne had decided to get away for the weekend taking over all the available
Geelong botanics
A group of cacti accomodation.
We did notice that there's a waterfall near Lorne called Corra Lynn, which we suspect is named after one of the Falls of Clyde, though the spelling is slightly different.
Eventually we found a cabin in Apollo Beach, which had seen better days, but was clean and had comy beds. Cara made spaghetti bolognaise and I went out and bought a pair of board shorts in the sales, so I've got all the gear now - I just need to learn how to stand up on a surf board.
After dinner, Cara fell asleep and slept for about 14 hours. Willy and I went for a pleasant, though not stunning, walk along the beach then spent the remainder of the evening reading quietly.
On Sunday, we set out again on the Great Ocean Road, past a groupe of very impressive stacks called the 12 Apostles, where we stopped for a photo op (it is probably the most photographed view in the who;e of Australia after Sydney harbour bridge. We were absolutely plagued by flies - bluebottles. They were in your eyes, ears and up your nose, as well as just generally buzzing about your body
so rather hang arounf we continued our way westward
. On the next stretch of road, we saw our first echidna, which we didn't run over, so that was a good thing for Australian wildlife.
We stopped for the night at Port Campbell - in a cabin again on a caravan park. The cabin's in a really nice situation, looking over a small river with marshland in front that is covered in tall reeds and grasses. We've seen as many as 14 pukekos on the grass in front of the cabin as well as black swans, ibises, sparrows, a blackbird and some kind of hawk - possibly a marsh harrier. We're staying here for three nights, so have the luxury of not having to pack up and move every morning.We also have the pleasure of a flock of pukekos they're rather strange birds like ungainly oversized moorhens and as Cara says there's something almost prehistoric about them they can barely fly and strut around between our cabin and the nearby creek, (rather reminiscent of an old maths teacher I had at school).
This area seems much greener than anywhere else we've been in Australia, though that"s maybe just
Geelong industrial zone
- I thought it looked quite exotic, like a distant view of minarets. the coastal fringe.
We returned to the 12 apostles to watch the sunset, as it was a sunny evening. Every other visitor on the Great Ocean Road had the same idea. It was absolutely mobbed.
This morning we decided to go to Port Fairy further along the coast - a mistake, it's a settlement founded by Irish Protestants and the name is the nicest thing about it. The weather was supposed to be very hot, about 37 degrees, and so it was over most of Victoria, but where we were, it was about 20 with a fresh wind that made it feel cold. Willy even put woolly socks on.We blame him for complaining at the thought of 37 degrees and sunshine, and think the weather gods are punishing him - or maybe his cold weather dance was a bit too effective.
After dinner drove along the coast to find a beach to see if we could see any fairy penguins coming in to land. Still cold and despite trying 3 different beaches (all incredibly beautiful - sea stacks of red and yellow rock, golden sand etc) - no fairy penguins. Eventually as the light disappeared (too
Great Ocean Road 1
12 apostles, but if you look, youll see the collapsed stack, which makes it only 11 apostles. cloudy for any kind of sunset) we gave up and headed back to the warmth of our cabin.
Next day was still cold and windy, so we pissed about for most of the day, then we repeated the search for fairy penguins. This time we went to the 12 Apostles viewpoint, which my mum tells me appeared in a photograph on a question on a Geography paper she marked a couple of years ago. It was cold and windy, Cara had three hooded jackets, I wore a fleece and Willy had his thick winter jacket on. After an interesting and pretty sunset with lots of coloured clouds, we waited and waited, but no fairy penguins. Patience was rewarded, when at the moment it was almost too dark to distinguish anything, what looked like little stones got washed up onto the shore. Yes they were fairy penguins, totty wee things that waited till they had a group (15 or so in one group; 30ish in the other) and then toddled en masse up the beach in the almost pitch black. Even binoculars didn't help make out much if anything of them.
Just checked out trains to Geelong from
Melbourne - decidied to drop car off there instead of having to get into the city centre, cos driving there looks scary
Left Port Campbell and headed back along GOR to Lorne, not the one that's home of square sausages, another one. We've got a cabin again on the forshore campsite, but it's not as nice as the Port Campbell one they couldn't squeeze more people onto the site if they wanted to. The site itself is rather picturesque at beside the Erskine river just up from the beach. On the downside we have a flock of crested cockatoos (the noisiest birds we've encountered) roosting in the trees around the campsite.
We went for a walk up the hill to see Cora Lynn - have a look at the pictures. It's not as big as its name sake. We also saw the Erskine Falls - perhaps the Erskine drip would have been a more appropriate name at the moment though all the postcards show quite a torrent (obviously taken after the winter rains).
On the way back from the falls Cara spotted a little echidna, which stayed obligingly still to have its photo taken and even poked
its nose out for one.
Made a detour on the waty back to visit QDOS - an artist's studio cum gallery cum cafe (fabulous carrot cake) with some nice sculptures and a lot of crappy paintings.
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