The Great Ocean Road

We left Bruthen in a steady drizzle and made our way in a generally southerly direction to, of all places, Stratford which according to the promotional signs on the outskirts of the town is on the River Avon.  Of the Stratford on Avon bard we saw not a jot, but we did find a Dutch cafe, complete with Delft tiles, model windmills and Dutch music in the background.  Somehow it didn’t seem too out of place that the lady serving was Chinese.

The River Avon wasn’t up to much, being little more than a trickle of water in a large bed of sand.  We moved on.

The most southerly point in Australia is a place called Wilsons Promontory.  As usual it started to rain as we approached Tidal River, the furthest south it’s possible to drive.  Declining the 15 kilometre walk (each way) to a pile of rocks that marks the most southerly tip, we checked out the loos and came away, heading firstly north and then west, arriving in sunshine at Phillip Island.

Phillip Island is famous for its Little Penguins, the smallest of the species.  At just a foot tall, they’re cute little critters that come ashore at night after a full days fishing at sea, to feed their young who are waiting hungrily in their burrows in the soft sand.  They come ashore in groups as protection from predators and waddle their way up to half a mile inland.  We watched fascinated as group after group made their way past us, some stopping for a rest, to socialise or to preen.  It was a truly magical experience.  Unfortunately we can’t show you pictures as it’s dark when they come ashore and photography is banned as flash damages their eyes.  So instead, here’s a picture of a sign in the car park!

We made camp in the dark, another new experience, and hit the sack dreaming of little penguins.  Next day we drove directly to Melbourne.  With all the rain we’d been though, Vin Rouge had been leaking badly which we’d traced to the front vents, the seals of which had perished after 18 years.  Craig Leiberman at Ritters arranged to have the parts ready and so they were.  I happened to mention that the fan belt had been squealing and in a trice Craig had the bonnet up and had traced the fault to a seized idler roller spring.  This he changed in double quick time and then advised that he’d spotted a fuel leak.  He reckoned that a couple of copper washers were causing the problem and so these were ordered to be collected the following Monday.  All good and we were delighted with the expertise and the service.

Leaving Melbourne, we fought our way through the early evening traffic, making a short stop at Torquay which is the first town on the Great Ocean Road.  we found this road to be most interesting.  It literally follows the coast for about half its length before turning inland for a while and returning once again to the coast.  The views were very special and we found a delightful camp site at Kennett River.  

Taking an evening walk we spotted three koalas in the trees.  These were the first we’d seen that we not in some form of sanctuary.  I’m hesitant to call them ‘wild’ as koalas don’t do a lot and the adjective somehow just doesn’t fit.  Of the three, one was eating gum leaves and the other two were asleep.  They were still there the following morning.

Continuing the Great Ocean Road, which was built in memory of the fallen in the two world wars and is the world’s large war memorial, we dropped off at the Twelve Apostles (some rocks) although we could find only nine of them, and London Bridge, which has an arch missing.  That fell down in 1990 stranding a couple of visitors on the new ‘island’ who were eventually rescued by helicopter.

We’d arranged to spend the weekend at Port Fairy (at the far end of the Great Ocean Road) with Peter and Carol.  Mike worked with Carol in London some years ago so the weekend naturally included some reminiscences.  Mike also had an interesting conversation with a new friend, as did Peter.

We stayed in a converted railway carriage and made full use of our time to visit, amongst others, Kate Smith, an artist who specialises in pastels and John Condron, a photographer of outback scenes - and for once enjoyed unbroken sunshine.  Altogether it was a great weekend and a good time to bring this episode to a close.  Thanks Peter and Carol for a splendid weekend, even though we did gatecrash Peter’s birthday.