Week 05

Day 29

Rawson - Melbourne <Map>

Today: 184kms, Total: 3319kms

Just a straight travel day today to get The Big Smoke.  It was nice having a divided highway / dual carriageway most of the way.  Getting through Melbourne with a caravan was fun(?) but Charlotte got us through without too many hassles.  Fortunately, she chose a route that avoided most tram lines.  I had forgotten how much fun (same sort of fun as above) one has when driving with trams in the middle of the road and cars parked along the curb.  It reminded me a bit of learning to drive in Brisbane while we still had trams there.

We had chosen a caravan park on the inner west of Melbourne as our base as it was close to Andrew's house as well as being on the right side of Melbourne for our eventual departure.  The park is OK, but we're parked on bitumen and it's all a bit cramped with vans less than a metre away from our awning.  Another major attraction is its position under the flightpath in/out of Tullamarine, so your ardent reggie-spotter can get their fill of aircraft at all hours as there's no curfew.  What more could you want?

It was a lovely balmy evening which we spent catching up with Andrew's doings at an outside Thai cafe in Lygon St.

Lygon Street is well known in Melbourne for restaurants (especially Italian) and it was certainly well patronised this night.  Great food and good conversation; what more could you want?

Day 30

Melbourne

Today: 12kms, Total: 3331kms

A quiet shopping / washing / cleaning day today.  As 'someone' had driven off and left the wheel chocks safely sitting on the ground when we left Rawson, a visit to a camping shop was required to replace them.  The van park is next door to a supermarket, so the resupply mission was easily carried out, as was the $10 haircut at a Vietnamese 'Beauty Salon'.  (That's half what I pay in suburban Brisbane with a Senior's discount!)

Day 31

Melbourne

Today: 65kms, Total: 3396kms

Another quiet day, comprised of washing about a tonne of mud and dust off the Beast, followed by another dinner (Indian this time) with Andrew.  He had been helping a lady friend move house all day and was a bit tired (old age setting in, Andy?  :-))

Day 32

Melbourne

Today: 72kms, Total: 3468kms

Off to lunch today with an old friend.  Nothing much else to report.  The Melbourne visit is mainly to see family and friends so there's nothing much from a photographic point of view to report.  Stay tuned, though, as we're heading back into the countryside in a few days!

Day 33

Melbourne

Today: 50kms, Total 3518kms

Another family day today as we went over to have a goodbye coffee at Andrew's coffee shop in Fairfield.  Lovely coffee, and it was hard to say goodbye, but we'll see him again in August back in Qld, so that's something to look forward to.

Other than that, shopping and getting ready for tomorrow's departure from The Big Smoke.

New Vehicle Update (#2) added

(Warning - Geek-ish content)

Day 33

Melbourne - Point Cook - Cape Otway <Map>

Today: 215kms, Total 3733kms

Finally we've left the chaos of Melbourne behind and headed for...  another aircraft museum.  :-))

RAAF Williams at Point Cook is the world's oldest continuously operating military airfield.  On March 1st, 1914, Capt Eric Harrison made the first flight in a Bristol Boxkite from an area that is now the base's parade ground.  Between 1914 and 1992 Pt Cook was the centre for military pilot training in Australia.  In 1989, the RAAF bases at Pt Cook and nearby Laverton were amalgamated into RAAF Williams, named after the Father of the RAAF, Air Marshal Sir Richard Williams - the first person to complete his flying training at Pt Cook.

Again, in the interests of those without AvGas in their veins, I will restrain myself and only post two aircraft shots.  :-)

The Pacific Aerospace Corp CT-4 Airtrainer aka 'The Plastic Parrot'.  I have a soft spot for this aircraft as it was in its predecessor, the Victa Airtourer, that I amassed my (very few) legally logged flying hours.

At the other end of the performance scale from the trainer above is this recently-retired F-111.

Tearing ourselves away from Pt Cook, we headed off further south onto The Great Ocean Road.  We last came along this stretch of road in the early/mid '90s from the other direction.  I'm glad to report that the scenery is still as magnificent as ever.  This Heritage-listed road was built by returned soldiers between 1919 and 1932, and is the world's largest war memorial; dedicated to casualties of WWI.

Generally accepted as being among the ten best scenic drives in the world, it winds west from Torquay to Warrnambool along Victoria's coast south-west of Melbourne.  It is not a road to take if you're in a hurry as it has a mainly 80kph speed limit, hundreds of slow speed hairpin bends around headlands and inlets and very few passing lanes. 

Outside the Visitor's Information Centre at Apollo Bay were a collection of statues carved from tree trunks.  This family of seals is the work of John McColl assisted by Brad West and is carved from a single block of cypress. It is about 3m (10') tall.  It was commissioned by the Colac Otway Shire and was unveiled in 1999.  The initial block of timber was too big for the council's equipment to move, so work started at the local council tip.  Works by about a dozen local artists are displayed nearby.

Beyond Apollo Bay, the road turns inland for a while as it negotiates Great Otway Nat Pk.  Here the road climbs into the Otway Ranges with its cool / temperate rainforest.  Tree ferns and tall eucalyptus are everywhere.  We turned off the main road and headed south back to the coast along the Cape Otway lighthouse road (do you feel another lighthouse moment coming on here?).  About 5 kms before the lighthouse is a caravan and camping area that promotes 'Camping under Koalas'.   While we tend to treat similar claims with a touch of scepticism, this one really did mean what it said.  Even on the morning of our departure, there was a koala in the tree immediately above our van.  Now we know who had been throwing gumnuts at our roof all night!

Day 34

Cape Otway - Lighthouse - Hopetoun Falls - Beech Forest - Cape Otway <Map>

Today: 125kms, Total 3858kms

(Hopetoun Falls is south of Beech Forest and west of Binns Track, but is unknown to Mr Google)

An exploration day today.  First stop was planned to be the lighthouse at Cape Otway, but before we'd driven the 5kms, we had stopped as there was a mini-traffic jam of tourists who had abandoned their cars and were staring up into the trees.  Here was the biggest collection of Koalas we had even seen in the wild.  Just by standing in one spot we could see about 8. 

After sleeping 19 hours per day, one needs to rest a bit between meals...

One interesting fact about Koalas is that they have 2 thumbs and 3 fingers on each paw, as can be seen here.

Cape Otway Lighthouse at the entrance to Bass Strait.  If you sailed west from here, your next landfall would be on the Argentinian coast south of Buenos Aires, having missed Western Australia and all of South Africa.  No wonder it was windy!

Cape Otway Lighthouse is the oldest surviving lighthouse on mainland Australia, having been here since 1848.  It, like all the others we'vwe visited, has been converted or replaced by modern unmanned solar powered lights. The one here can be seen just to the right of the the original lighthouse on a small metal structure.  

The walls are this thick!

Lt. Governor-to-be LaTrobe gives us his impassioned speech for lighthouses to guard Bass Strait.

In September 1845 La Trobe presented a summation and final argument to the Select Committee for Lighthouses, established to determine the location of a lighthouse on the entrance to Bass Strait. La Trobe argued passionately for a lighthouse on both Cape Otway and King Island - one flashing and one fixed.  The route through Bass Strait between Cape Otway and King Island was know as 'Threading the Needle' and was to be attempted only in daylight.  It saved vessels a longer route around the south of Tasmania, but was risky as most had had no sight of land since leaving South Africa, or in some cases, Europe up to a month before.

The signalling flag pole at the lighthouse station would receive messages from passing ships and send them via the new overland telegraph cable to Melbourne, advising them of the ship's ETA and allowing papers to print the shipping lists before the ships' arrival in port. 

The first undersea communications cable across Bass Strait was laid from Cape Otway to The Nut at Stanley via King and Three Hummock Islands.  Unbeknown to the cable layers, sharp rocks around King Island started cutting into the cable shortly after it was laid, and it eventually failed in 1861.  To keep this in context, the distance from Cape Otway to King Island is 80kms (50 miles) and the previous longest cable laid underwater anywhere was 22 miles across the English Channel. 

After a refreshing cuppa, we set off back through the koala-festooned bowers to the Great Ocean Rd, and then off into the Great Otway Nat Pk up the Binns Track (not to be confused with the Binns Track in the Northern Territory).  Part of this area is State Forest and is logged, so we were especially wary and kept our 2-way radio on the logging trucks' frequency.  Our target was Hopetoun Falls, which we were told was flowing.  Not surprising as the Otways have one of the highest rainfalls in Victoria.

We weren't disappointed.

Hopetoun Falls, Great Otway Nat Pk.

The sign at the top of falls indicates that it's a 40 minute return walk to the base of the falls.  They omitted to say that it's 10 minutes down and 30 minutes back up some very steep steps!  Fortunately, there were a host of subjects to be looked at from a photographic point of view while one caught one's breath on the way back up.

We moved on to Beech Forest (it's a village, not an actual forest) for lunch at the brilliant Ridge Cafe.  Views from the cafe at nearly 1800ft (570m) across the whole area was magnificent, as was the lunch.

Awaiting a scrumptious Beef Goulash Pie while admiring the view (or The Age).

Back home 'the long way' via Lavers Hill to the koalas completed a very rewarding day.

Day 35

Cape Otway - Warrnambool <Map>

Today: 155kms, Total 4013kms

Looks innocent, doesn't he?  We're sure this was the one throwing nuts on our van roof last night.  :-))

He was in the tree above the caravan when we departed, anyway.

If the first half of the Great Ocean Road (Torquay to Apollo Bay) was beautiful, the second half (Glenaire to Warrnambool) is just spectactular.  Most Australian have heard of the limestone sea stacks called The Twelve Apostles and this is the stretch of coastline where we come across them. 

The last visit here was about 1994(?) and from memory, we just pulled off the highway, got out and admired the view.  Now, there's a huge bus, car and caravan parking area, a cafe, visitors' centre, toilets, a helicopter terminal with scenic flights leaving every 5 minutes of so, and an underpass so foreign visitors don't find themselves impaled as bonnet mascots on huge tour buses.  Despite all this, the Twelve Apostles (and all the other lookouts), have lost none of their ability to impress.

Ubiquitous Twelve Apostles Photo.  Every tourist has this shot!

Trivial Pursuit Bonus Points: There were only ever nine sea stacks to start with. There were never twelve.  Current count is about 7.5? 

Other vistas along the coast were...

The Razorback near Loch Ard Gorge.

Loch Ard Gorge, where the three masted clipper Loch Ard was wrecked on 1st June, 1878.  Out of the 18 crew and 37 passengers, only 2 survived; a ship's apprentice and an 18 year old daughter of an Irish immigrant family.  They were washed ashore through this gorge.

Bay of Martyrs (no idea about the name, sorry).  As you can see, it's getting just a bit windy!

After all this scenic grandeur, we battled our way into an increasing headwind to our destination for the next few days, Warrnambool.  We had a very wet and windy night but didn't realise how windy it was until we read next morning that a couple of yachts off the coast we had just been viewing had been wrecked that night in gale force winds.

Continue to Week 6