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Published: November 4th 2016
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Day 11 to 18 of 165
Remember the penguins?
The Penguin Parade on Philip Island, just south of Melbourne, is regarded as one of Australia's greatest wildlife attractions, and has a visitor centre to match. Tourists have been coming here since the turn of the last century - there were photos of them prone on the sand with the penguins passing barely inches from their faces.
All is much more controlled now, a bit officiously at times eg the no photos rule, and to some extent it does sometimes feel like the penguins are being herded to the site's requirements, but they assure us that the viewing platforms and boardwalks have been built around the penguin's natural trails. The viewing from the the platforms, as they emerge from the waves is a bit hit and miss, but the viewing from the boardwalks as they waddle to their nests is superb.
One last point - the company running the facility is 'not for profit'. That may be but the standard seats hold about 4000 at aus$25 per person so that's $100k per night before upgrade tickets (underground views, closer views, ranger tours etc) , cafe catering and the
inevitable souvenirs. Just at base ticket prices that's $36.5m (about £26m) pa. Let's hope the money does go on penguin and habitat conservation.
Whilst on Philip Island we had our first encounter with koalas, albeit in a conservancy where half a dozen were kept to a set of trees by a low fence.
And we also saw our first wallabies, Swamp Wallabies, which were wild, near Swan Lake. Still think that from a distance they look like the rabbit from Donnie Darko. The Swan Lake had a colony of Black Swans. Nice to see the wild version of what they have at Dawlish.
Day 13 saw us heading for the Puffing Billy heritage railway to the southeast of Melbourne. A delightful railroad that draws about 400,000 visitors per year. An unusual feature of the PB is its open sided carriages and many passengers, mostly children but some intrepid adults too including us, travel with their legs dangling out the side of the carriage whilst leaning on the restraining bars.
Chatting to a guard on the train it turned out that he was a '£10 Pom' having left Stoke as a foundryman over 50 years
ago. He has family in aus and the UK but has never been back home. He said the move was the best decision he had ever made, and he did look good for what we guess must have been age 70+ given his passage date as a newly married man.
From there it was a trip 'through' Melbourne to Geelong near the start of the Great Ocean Road. We say 'through' but it actually only took us about 15 minutes. One of Aus's largest freeways sails right through, under and over the city in a single sweep. Try getting from one side of London to the other in 15 minutes!
Day 14 and 15 - The Great Ocean Road
The Great Ocean Road is regarded as one of the world's greatest drives, and mighty fine it is too......in parts.
The basics of the road were built after WW1 by returning soldiers as a means of providing employment for them. And by all accounts it was well paid and had good conditions. The road passes some of the most spectacular ocean scenery anywhere, let alone in Australia. In the first part, from Torquay (yes) to Apollo Bay
there are miles upon miles of empty beaches, with some of the best surfing available, overlooked by house after house perched on the cliffs, each of which could be subject to a Grand Designs programme. One of the first beaches, Bells Beach, at Torquay is the scene for the longest running annual international surf competition, and also home to many international surf equipment manufacturers. When we were there there were around 50+ surfers trying their luck with varying success.
Well beyond Apollo Bay there are the spectacular sandstone cliffs and features such as The12 Apostles, The Bay of Martyrs, London Bridge and Loch Ard Gorge.
Our problem, however is 1:- around half the GOR is well inland of the ocean And 2:- for such a important part of Australia's tourism the road condition is, to put it mildly, crap crap crap. In places it was downright dangerous. Several times Paul had to make a manoeuvre around large holes, and at its worse a combined hole and ridge. And at some of the creek crossings the level difference fair rattled the suspension. At one of these some wag had spray painted 'launch pad' but we didn't see that until
all wheels were off the ground ?
In the Apollo Bay to 12 Apostles stretch we detoured to Cape Otway. An interesting diversion for a couple of hours - lighthouse, shipwreck stories etc - but enlivened by the wild koala spotting on the return trip. At the time of early settlers the Cape Otway lighthouse was the first sign that they were approaching their new homes.
At the end of the day we went beyond our camp site to Port Fairy for fish and chips, but lucked out on that. We did have a bracing walk across Griffiths Island though past a protected colony of Shearwaters which travel across from northern Russia and Alaska to breed.
Day 16
Left the coast behind to climb into The Grampian Montains. Starting to see even more variations in vegetation and natural habitat, each stretch for mile upon mile eg huge expanses of eucalyptus, prairie grass, native bush, swamp lands, vineyards, arable farms and huge beef and sheep stations.
In The Grampians we stayed at Halls Gap and after our excitement at each previous isolated spotting of kangaroos /wallabies we were bowled over to see that on the town's
open playing fields there were herds (?) of them caring not a jot that they were sharing the field with a couple of cricket teams. We got to within arm's length of them and even then they only backed off a foot or two. Some of the females had joeys and even they were quite blasé about us.
Day 17 was mostly about travelling back to the coast at Robe for an overnight before day 18 following the coast up and round to a stop before the ferry over to Kangaroo Island.
As we crossed into South Australia we found they had quarantine dump bins into which we were expected to throw away our tomatoes, potatoes, onions and any other fresh fruit and vegetables. We knew about border controls at the airports but no one told us about internal state controls.
We also passed, in a field, Dr Who's Tardis - maybe he had got lost!
At Robe we treated ourselves to our first proper meal out, and a mighty fine choice it turned out to be - Gather, at Robe.
Day 18, today, has been mile upon mile of coastal lagoon backed by expanses
of flatlands that would make the Norfolk / Cambridgeshire fens and their so called 'big skies' seem positively claustrophobic.
Not as teeming with birdlife as we hoped but we did stop by a colony of pelicans. Were also fortunate to spot several skinks, a sort of fat lizard.
Observations
Colonial settlement very obvious and often in regional groupings
Eg The Grampians, and Balmoral
Port Fairy was originally Belfast, and nearby Killarney, River Moyne, Belfast Lough, and lots of Irish flags.
And plenty of British names eg Peterborough, Callington, Ullswater (at the end of a lake)
And rivers - Avon, Kennet, Aire, Calder and Wye.
Tomorrow Kangaroo Island beckons for two days and next week we start our trek across the Great Middle - more on them later
Written in Cape Jervis, on a farm campsite, in their restaurant conservatory with a cold aussie beer listening to a best of the 70s cd (we presume).
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