Roadtrip, Part Deux - 3014km later

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And onto the second part of our insane road trip.

So we had made it into Victoria, staying the night in Portland in a caravan in a backyard. We decided to head up to the Grampians, as by now we were used to driving all day.

On the way to the Grampians, we decided to stop at Mt Eccles, which had a little blurb written about it in the Lonely Planet. It was an extinct volcano, rich with the trees koalas love so much. On our drive, we saw what we thought must be Mt Eccles, as the mountain in the distance had a distinct volcanic shape to it. Like a Mt Fuji without snow. But the signs led away from our volcano, and it turned out that the hill we had seen was Mt Napier.
We eventually found Mt Eccles. It was much smaller that we had imagined (it looked more like a small hill), but there was still a fairly steep climb to the summit. As we walked up, we looked for the lake that supposedly filled the extinct crater...and at first all we saw was marshy land. As everything in the area was dry from drought, we at first figured that must be all that was left of the lake...but surprise! A bit further along was the actual lake, which was called Lake Surprise.

We also ventured down towards the lava caves, but as we didn't have proper footwear nor any sort of light, we decided against getting lost in the dark. As we ventured towards our car, we kept our eyes peeled for koalas, and koalas we did find! Prior to this, I had never been able to spot a koala on my own...they were always pointed out to me by others. Which I found frustrating, as someone who finds four-leaf clovers in a patch and spots the smallest details with ease. How could I not be able to spot a koala? But then I spotted one, then another, then another. They were everywhere!

After a quick bite to eat, we stared on our way north to the Grampians. We decided not to drive all the way into the touristy part of the Grampians, but rather stay in the southern part and just do a leisurely drive. We stopped at one point to take a look around, and found we had stopped in an area ravaged by bush fires the year before. It was a bit erie walking in the ashes, but it made for wonderful colour contrasts with the newly sprouted plants. We were also bothered by flies the whole way.

It was also in the Grampians that we spotted our first wild echidna. So we're driving along a stretch of road, doing probably 100kmph, and suddenly Tue cries out some utter nonsense and comes to a complete stop. I wondered what the devil he was trying to tell me, and very excited, he told me to look behind us...now we had not seen another car for at least an hour, possibly a couple of hours, so I wondered what he was going on about, until I spotted a little black creature ambling along the side of the road. "Oh, an echidna!" While he tried to insist that he had said echidna, I just laughed and we grabbed the cameras and started running back towards the creature. The poor thing was camera shy, and we certainly weren't about to touch the spiny creature...so after a few shots we let it be and we were on our way.

After a stop in Hamilton for lunch, we continued south. Our goal was to make it to the Twelve Apostles by sunset to see the penguins. We drove straight south to Warnambool, and started along the Great Ocean Road. The sun was peaking through the clouds, but it didn't look like it would clear up much. We stopped at Bay of Islands, Bay of Martyrs, London Bridge, and finally the Twelve Apostles for sunset. We waited and waited, but only a couple of penguins were visible...apparently they came up on the beach earlier. Perhaps they were anticipating the fog, which rolled in as the sun set. I was a bit dissapointed to not see heaps of penguins again, but Tue didn't seem to mind. We then checked into our hostel in Port Cambell (which happened to be the same one I stayed at last time...I was hoping Ride Tours would be there but instead it was Groovy Grape, a much noisier and larger tour group). Before heading off to bed, we made our way along the beach and up a path that was probably part of the Great Ocean Walk, to get a view of Port Cambell by night. We headed back when we heard thunder, and it started raining by the time we got back to the hostel.

The next day we took our time along the Great Ocean Road. After an entire week of driving all day, this day would be easy in comparison. It was raining on and off all day; when it rained it poured. We saw Gibson's Steps and Castle Cove, then drove onto Apollo Bay where we had coffee and lunch at a funky cafe called Gravity. We waited out the rain there, then went back to Mait's Rest, the rainforest walk. And as it had just rained, it made the rainforest walk that much cooler!
We also stopped at a waterfall, which I imagine was dry the last time I was on the road. After driving through very arid lands, it seemed a bit strange to see so much water. We could hear the water roaring down the hillside as we walked along the path to the lookout.

And we spotted heaps of koalas along the road. We were very amused by one turn in the road, where a few tourists had stopped to take photos of one koala, oblivious to the fact that there were at least 20 more koalas in nearby trees.

At another curve, a wrecked car sat, seemingly as a reminder to drivers to keep their eyes on the road and not on the landscape or the koalas. It's a bit ironic to drive that section of the Great Ocean Road, for some of the most breathtaking scenery is viewed as you come around sharp bends and curves.

And thus we made our way along the road towards Lorne, where we stopped for a swim. Nevermind that it wasn't very warm, and that it was still raining slightly...we had to have a dip in the ocean at the Great Ocean Road! Once I finally got into the cold water, I had fun body-boarding in the waves until Tue pointed out that perhaps a bikini isn't the best style of swimwear for such activities.

Weary of driving, and tired of the rain, we drove back to Melbourne, attempting to navigate using a Lonely Planet map of the city (note to future road-trippers: Lonely Planet maps are for pedestrians, not for drivers!). And I attempted to find us a place to stay for the night, as we had forgotten that the tennis had brought heaps of tourists to the city. We finally found a couple of beds in a guy dorm at Hotel Bakpak, which I would not recommend to anyone as the place didn't exactly have high cleanliness standards. The opposite, more like it. Not to mention the place was in dire need of a few plumbers to fix all the creaks and groans of the pipes (which seemed loudest at 3am of course). We met up with Dino & Emma for a nightcap before passing out on our last night of our trip.

After tanking up and cleaning the car, we handed in the rental car. Tue had driven 3014km in one week.

Our road trip was over. The rest of the day seemed like a transition; the road trip was over, but we were both still in Melbourne for a few hours. We had breakfast at Tropicanna on Elizabeth Street (my favourite breakfast place in Melbourne...try the South American Delight or a banana smoothie!), and were later joined by Dino & Imran. Sadly, it was soon time for me to leave, and we all walked to Spencer Station, where I would catch the shuttle to the airport.

As I boarded the shuttle, my head was swimming with all the memories and stories; I knew this was just another great chapter in my Aussie travels.

Thank You, Tue, for a wonderful road trip. And for letting me borrow your aviators. Signed, your Navigator.

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Photos

Where's the koala?
Mt Eccles park, Victoria

Surprise!
Lake Surprise, Mt Eccles, Victoria

The Grampians
The camera doesn't do it justice.

Growing in the Ashes
A grass tree growing in a blackened section of the Grampians

Echidna!!
Along the highway in the Grampians

Great Ocean Road, 2nd time around
I think this is from the Bay of Islands.

The Fog Rolls In
At the Twelve Apostles at dusk