Mount Gambier

We all found the environment of Mount Gambier to be very interesting. There are many interesting spectacles to see and we only just skimmed the surface of the area. I think the main thing Mt Gambier is famous for is the blue lake, which is in an extinct volcano and supplies the town with water. When we were there it was more of a steely blue, rather that the really turquoise blue it can be in the warmer months of the year. Rory and Tilda were both fascinated that it is a volcano. 

The whole area is built on limestone and apparently there are limestone caves running underneath the town. There are two sinkholes that you can visit for free, both of which are pretty amazing. You can also tour one of the underground caves (for a price), but we didn't want to do that. We didn't really need to, as we had plenty to see and do in the two days we were there.

One of the sinkholes is located in the town centre. It is a nicely sculpted garden that provides a serene and peaceful place. There are viewing platforms along the path, so you can get a good look at the hanging garden, the waterfall and the water that flows who knows where underground. The waterfall only flows after rain, so that is one of the up sides of all of the rain that we have been " enjoying". I was quite disgusted at the amount of rubbish that is at the bottom of this sinkhole. Given that there are bins located close to the paths to the sinkhole, there is no excuse and I can't believe people could be such filthy pigs and so incredibly selfish, that they would rather spoil such a beautiful garden than walk a couple of steps to a bin. Humanity seriously has a lot to answer for that people would think that is appropriate and OK. At night they run a movie that you can view from the gardens. We didn't get to see it as it starts around 8:30pm which is just too late for Rory. 

The other sinkhole we visited in the Umpherston Garden, so named after the man who bought the land that the sinkhole is on and built a garden there. In the early days (can't remember if it was 1800s or early 1900s) there was still water in the sinkhole and they would row a boat about on it. The idea was to create an oasis of greenery and cool in the midst of the land. You can go all the way to the bottom of this sinkhole and enjoy the hydrangeas and other plantings. It is truly amazing to stand in the bottom of a sinkhole.

We went back to the Unpherston Garden at night, as I had read on WikiCamps that possums live in the holes in the rock during the day and come out at night. I had fruit to feed them, but we forgot to take it with us. It is a very surreal experience at night. As we approached the steps down into the garden, 4 possums and a couple of rats came hurrying up the steps towards us. We all paused, feeling almost threatened by them all, especially as we had forgotten the food. We were wondering whether to continue or not, leaning heavily towards not because... rats, ewwww!... but another family arrived. They had bread and offered to share with us. While I know bread isn't great to feed the possums, it was almost like we needed to pay them in order to get down the stairs. The sinkhole is beautiful at night. It is lit up softly, which just adds to the feel and lots of possums come out of the holes in the rocks and walk along the ledges. They're not scared of people at all, instead they are so used to being fed they almost demand it. There were adults and babies and it was magical. (The rats weren't magical though, although I did see a couple that didn't look like your typical suburban rat. There was a cute little black one, whose shape was all wrong for a rat, but I don't know what it was.) Tilda and Rory were both scared at first, and I must admit, being mobbed by a group of possums is pretty intimidating, but they soon overcame their fears and happily fed the possums. There were three other families there while we were and the possums received a wide assortment of fruits and bread. 

 As a town, Mount Gambier was OK. There was an interesting mix of old and new buildings, and most of the old buildings are made of limestone because it is so readily available. I still love the old buildings and houses, and I love seeing all of the variations on them in different towns. I would have liked to have a bit more time, as there was still lots to see and do, including a drive or two to some other craters and further exploration of the region.

Halls Gap, The Grampians

We had dreadful weather at Halls Gap, so we really didn't get to enjoy the place very much. It rained, drizzled and poured most of the time we were there and there were horrendously strong winds for much of it too. After the tree branch fell on Rory's head at Omeo we are very careful not to be out among trees in the wind, and in all honesty, sometimes the wind was almost terrifying, it was gusting that strongly. While the weather was disappointing for us, it is so very good that the area was experiencing so much rain, as farmers just out of the mountains (at Stawell and Ararat) have been selling off their livestock due to drought.

 The rock formations are amazing - so rugged and different. We were camped at the bottom of one section and the view was breathtaking.

We drove up to Mackenzie Falls as it really got talked up as a great waterfall, but I am guessing the serious lack of rain the area has been experiencing for years has affected it, as it was not overwhelmingly impressive. We had hoped to do a couple of bushwalks but weren't able to because of the wind and rain. We did a 100m walk to the Grand Canyon at the start of the walk to The Pinnacle, but couldn't go any further because of the steep climb and the shocking weather. Still, we did see a very pretty creek which was flowing very well thanks to all of the rain.

 Mackenzie Falls (from the lookout so it doesn't look that big. It would probably look much more impressive from the bottom, but the weather was too horrible to do that walk)

Locking back towards Halls Gap (this is what most of our time there looked like!)

 The water is very stained with tannin

 Rock hopping across a creek in the rain

I fell on my butt to get this photo so it had to be included :)

We drove to Stawell on the only sunny afternoon we had, primarily so Greg could check out a creek for gold, but with all of the recent rain it was flowing too fast to be able to pan. We found a working underground gold mine at Stawell, which everyone found very interesting... even Rory as he could watch the diggers loading the rock into the crusher and Tilda really did enjoy reading and learning about the underground mining operation.

Tilda and Rory standing on the 1 million ounce gold bullion replica

 (to give some indicator of just how much gold had been mined)

Our caravan park was full of roos, sulphur crested cockatoos, long beaked corellas and emus ranged just outside the camping area. This was fun for the kids. One afternoon there was a large kangaroo just outside our van. He looked cold, wet and very bedraggled and I felt sorry for him, so I decided to give him some food. What I didn't realise was just how tame they are! He came right up to the door and took the food from my hand, before I could even step out of the van! It would have been OK except I thought he looked like he would come inside for more... and he was a BIG boy, bigger than Tilda, so a bit over 4 foot high. We spend the next 15-20 minutes trapped in our van as he wasn't leaving and Rory insisted on locking the door so he couldn't come in!

The "standover" guy in the background, after he'd moved away a bit

Great Ocean Road - Apollo Bay to Warrnambool

This is probably the more spectacular part of the Great Ocean Road, as the cliffs are more dramatic and it contains the Twelve Apostles, Bay of Martyrs and Bay of Islands. We drove first to Cape Otway to see the lighthouse, as Rory loves lighthouses, and it is the oldest standing lighthouse in Australia. When we got there we discovered it was going to cost us around $50 to see the lighthouse and while the whole lighthouse precinct looked interesting, we weren't willing to pay as we really just wanted to see the lighthouse. It turns out you can't even see the lighthouse from the car park. So we did a short walk to a lookout, but it's not great and unless you want to pay to enter the grounds, don't bother with the 14km (one way) drive. Still, it was a nice drive through forest and farmland to get there.

We stopped at the Twelve Apostles, where it was blowing a gale. At that viewing area you can actually only see 7 of the Apostles. It was definitely worth seeing. The colours in the rocks and cliff faces are amazing. Tilda got an impromptu lesson about erosion when we were explaining that in fact there are only 11 Apostles still standing. Kids definitely learn heaps on these trips (whether they want to or not). Something pretty funny happened here. While walking to the 12 Apostles two different tourists nearly ran us down (walking) because they were too busy looking at their phones to watch where they were walking. What's the point of travelling to another country, to see a top tourist destination, only to stare at your phone screen rather than the thing you are visiting? Perhaps they were underwhelmed by the 12 Apostles and didn't want to miss out on something else.

We drove past the Bay of Martyrs but it looked beautiful. We saw the sign for it, but with our big caravan, we didn't know if we'd be able to stop and successfully get back out of the car park. It wasn't until the last minute that we saw the car park was circular and we could have easily navigated it, but with a very large van you can't do anything last minute, so we watched the very pretty sight disappear quite quickly. We did stop at the Bay of Islands and it was very picturesque but I think, from what we did see, the Bay of Martyrs was a better sight than both the 12 Apostles and the Bay of Islands. I guess that just goes to show that research and google maps in the satellite view is needed to help us make the most of this trip. Photos below from Bay of Islands.

We finished at Warrnambool. We had ummed and ahhed about whether to stop at Warrnambool or Port Fairy but decided, mostly due to the amazing looking adventure playground and also due to the kids rattiness at the length of time in the car, to stop at Warrnambool. (We drove to view Port Fairy on our way to our next stop and found it to be a quaint little town full of gorgeous old houses and shops and we both decided we'd have definitely preferred to stop at port Fairy rather than Warrnambool.)

At Warrnambool we all enjoyed the adventure playground. There was an approx 70m (according to Greg) flying fox suitable for 12+ so of course Greg, Tilda and I all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves on it. There were also a couple of very large slides that us adults could go on and enjoy too, as well as loads of play equipment for both Tilda and Rory. Tilda's bravery in doing the flying fox amazed me, as it was high and long, but by now I probably shouldn't be surprised. I was also very surprised that Rory happily went on a giant curly slide. About the only thing he is scared of is slides that are fully enclosed and pitch black. I'm not sure if it is a 2yo lack of fear or if he really is braver than most.

We also visited Flagstaff Hill, which is similar to Sovereign Hill but with a maritime theme and much smaller. Greg loves all things boats so we thought we'd give it a try. If you haven't been to Sovereign Hill (or not recently) then you would definitely enjoy Flagstaff Hill I think. There are authentic 1800's buildings including dressmaker, sail maker, bank, shipping office, newspaper etc. Flagstaff Hill is also home to the Maremma dogs which guard the fairy penguin colony on Middle Island during the summer months. This is the story the Oddball movie is based on. There was a 6 month old puppy there on the day we visited. It is being trained ready for next summer. The Maremma's protect the breeding penguins from foxes and the population has gone from less than 10 penguins (which is how many were left when the original man and his granddaughter trained Oddball to protect them) to, I don't remember how many now, but it is a viable penguin colony once more. Amazing stuff!

 

The Loch Ard Peacock

 (it was recovered from the Loch Ard years after it sank - amazing!)

Great Ocean Road - Torquay to Apollo Bay

We drove from Ballarat to Apollo Bay (for a 2 night stop) and then Warrnambool. The sights are amazing.

You drive along the coast, seeing one great view after another, while on the other side there were either steep hills or rolling green pasture. There had been very strong winds, gusting up to 90kmh, the day before and the seas were still up. The waves were massive! I was surprised by how many surfers there were at almost every headland, I mean, don't people have jobs to go to (oh wait, we don't so I guess others don't necessarily either). I found it interesting, although perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised, but a lot of this stretch didn't really have beaches, it was more rock platforms adjacent to the land. I'd never thought about it before and I guess I just assumed that all of the “beaches” would have sand on them all around the coast of Australia. (It would seem that somewhere along the way while studying 3 unit Geography for the HSC and and environmental degree at Uni, I still managed to miss this bit of information).

We stopped at the Recreation Centre at Apollo Bay for 2 nights and just passed our campsite, at a place called Marengo, there lives a seal colony on the rocks off the headland. You can actually see the rocks from the campground entry. So despite not being able to see the seals clearly at Phillip Island, we got to see them here. They are close enough to see with the naked eye (but better with binoculars or a good zoom lens). I was pretty happy about that... actually, very, very happy about that. I have seen seals quite a lot at Taronga Zoo and the Sydney Aquarium but it's not the same as seeing the just going about their lives in the wild. This was an amazing privilege.

We drove up into the hinterland towards Forrest. We stopped at Stephensons Falls, which was nice to see, but perhaps the best part was the drive there, which is very pretty, and the awesomely typically fairy like mushrooms (or are they toadstools?) we found. We played in the creek and explored the nearby pine forest. Rory amazed me with his physical capability climbing around the rocks, although he didn't surprise me when he stuck his foot in a deep hole full of water. I should know by now that if he can get dirty or wet, he will at the very first opportunity and usually fairly spectacularly too! 

Stephensons Falls

We also drove to Lake Elizabeth. On the brochures it looked lovely and apparently if you canoe on it you can see platypus sometimes. Despite telling the lady at the Information Centre that that is what we wanted to do, she didn't bother to tell us it is a 1km, very rough, very steep climb to the lake and that dragging our canoe to it wasn't a possibility. So we only discovered that after we drove there. Apparently you need to go a very long way around to another place to put your canoe in. Still, it is a lovely drive around the area and we did enjoy our trip to the mountains. They are so vastly different in climate and vegetation to the coastal strip just 20+ km away. And we did get to see this little guy on our way home

Of course, there is also a great playground there. I think I will have to do a playground summary blog post soon.