My third blog entry – a bit after the fact – but hey, I’m
going to try and finish this thing even though we’ve already arrived home and
are trying to overcome our severe jet lag!
Week three brought us to Australia and the Great Ocean Road
and The Grampians. The Great Ocean Road is
a favorite tourist destination just a bit south and west of Melbourne.
(The name says it all as the road follows the Ocean in all its scenic
splendor.) The Grampians are an inland
mountainous region west of Melbourne. So we actually made somewhat of a loop, first
taking in a segment of the Great
Ocean Road, and than completing the loop through
the Grampians and back to Melbourne.
The Great Ocean
Road, apparently, has an official entry
point. It was one of those times when we
drove right by the sign and I made Tom turn around and go back so we could have
a photo of it!
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| Great Ocean Road |
Scenic barely begins to describe the Great Ocean Road. We wanted to stop all the time, but would
never have made it to any destination if we’d stopped everywhere that
beckoned. However, we went through one
small town where we just couldn’t pass through without stopping. There was this wonderful white walking bridge
that went from the roadside across a lagoon – there was even a group of kids
having kayak lessons in the lagoon – they provided us with all kinds of
entertainment. And the Sulfur Crested
Cockatoos were everywhere! (Note the
yellowish colored trees in the photos.
They are called Golden Cypress Trees – beautiful!)
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| Sulfur Crested Cockatoo |
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| Kayaking Class |
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| Bridge Across The Bay |
Next significant stop was the Historic Otway
Lighthouse
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Grounds at The Otway Lighthouse
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Otway Lighthouse
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While the lighthouse was interesting and photogenic, our
favorite part was the drive in and out to the lighthouse. The surrounding forest was pretty much all
gum trees and a favorite habitat for Koala Bears. As you probably know, Koala Bears will only
eat Eucalyptus Leaves (which are found on the gum trees). I could hardly contain myself when we saw our
first little bear! They are beyond cute!
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| Climbing To The Top |
During this same day (it was a big one), we experienced the
Otway Fly Treetop Walk. This was a very
fascinating place where one could do a zip line tour through the rain forest
canopy or take a walk through the forest and up into the canopy. Obviously, we opted for the canopy walk -J
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| Path Through The Rain Forest |
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| Mushroom Family |
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| Bridge Through The Rain Forest |
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Next To A Big Tree
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Just for the kids (and adults, too), there was a short
dinosaur trail.
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| Dino 1 |
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Dino 2
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The ascension to the forest top was accomplished by the use
of metal walkways, or bridges as I like to think of them.
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The First Bridge
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These bridges were at different levels through the forest creating
quite the dizzying effect when looking down.
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| Top Of The Tree Fern |
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| Looking Down At The Trees |
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A Walkway Below
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The two images below show a connector landing near the top
of the forest and a view from the forest floor.
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A Connector Landing
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Treetop Walk From Below
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Alright, so this is called the Great Ocean Road, but there haven’t been
any actual pictures of the ocean yet.
We’re about to get to that. The
main ocean attraction is called the Twelve Apostles. Early one morning, however, before making our
way to the Twelve Apostles, we stopped off at a “non designated” lookout. I actually liked this better than the Twelve
Apostles. We had the place to ourselves
and it was beautiful!!!
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The Big Splash
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Hole In The Rock
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Surf Over The Rock
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After getting our fill at the “non designated” spot, we did
move on to the Twelve Apostles. This is
a national park, and it was also beautiful, but lots more people.
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Twelve Apostles
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After passing the official sign for the park, we came upon
this sign that I have included here especially for my sister in law, Pat.
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Snakes!
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And finally, a couple of images of what is referred to as
the Twelve Apostles.
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| Apostles Shoreline |
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| Apostles Shoreline 2 |
One of our favorite little towns on the Great Ocean Road was Port Fairy. Our B & B was located on a channel that
went right out to the ocean. Which means
it was a local hangout for the water birds – especially the seagulls.
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| Yes, I'm Cute |
The town was quaint – a visual (and a photographer’s)
delight.
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| Port Fairy Home |
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| Port Fairy Home 2 |
At the end of a peninsula, just down the road from our B
& B was the classic Port Fairy Lighthouse.
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| Port Fairy Lighthouse |
About 10 miles away, was my favorite place in the entire
area - The Tower Hill Reserve. Tower Hill
is an extinct volcano that is believed to have erupted about 30,000 years ago. Over
the years, a shallow lake and several ponds formed in the crater, along with a
diverse range of vegetation. Within this
reserve there are koalas, wallabies, kangaroos, emus, echidnas, possums, and
several types of birds. We liked the
area so well that we actually visited twice!
Here are images from some of our wildlife encounters:
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| Paws On My Baby |
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| Black Swan Fantasy |
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| Taking Notice |
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| Wallaby With His Breakfast |
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| What's Up Doc? |
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| Kookaburra |
Speaking of kangaroos, I’m sure that Australia has more kangaroos than Wisconsin has white tail
deer! They are hopping everywhere, all
the time! Unfortunately, they often have
fatal traffic encounters. Signs like
this were very, very common.
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| Kangaroo Crossing |
After leaving the Great
Ocean Road, we made our way to the mountainous
region of the Grampians. Unknown to us,
until we arrived on the scene, was the fact that the area had suffered a
massive bush fire in January. (The
middle of their summer.) This would be
just like a forest fire in our country – literally destroying all of the
vegetation. Most of the structures were
saved, but even some of those were lost.
The fire had burned through the area less than 3 months before our
arrival, but we were amazed at some of the green that had already popped
up. Look at the size of these ferns – in
just under 3 months!
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| New Ferns |
Fortunately, the ONLY restaurant in the area did not burn to
the ground. The Wander Inn was run by
this very unique Aussie couple – the woman was the best cook in the world, and
they were both very interesting and full of information. The grounds made for some fantastic photo
opportunities, and because they fed the birds and the wildlife… Well, you get the picture.
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| The Wander Inn |
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| Kookaburra Portrait |
To top off our stay in the Grampians, we stayed at the most
elegant and beautiful place – The Meringa Springs Resort. They hadn’t had rain since the fire: and even
though the ground was brown & the grass was nonexistent, it was still
beautiful. There were views of the
mountains and a pond out back that attracted wildlife, especially the
kangaroos. This is one of the many kangaroos
at the pond.
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| At The Pond |
There was a spectacular sunrise from the front of the resort
and a great view out the back from the dining room.
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| A Cloudy Sunrise |
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| Meringa Springs View |
The unbelievable accommodations are shown below.
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| Bedroom With A View |
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| Elegance |
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| The Bath |
That does it for our first leg of Australia. Next is our stay in the Melbourne area. But that will need to wait for another
day. Hopefully, a day sometime soon!
Melissa
