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.

Ballarat

After 3 overcast and drizzly days we moved in to Ballarat as there was no sun to use our solar panels for charging the batteries. There was still more we wanted to do at Ballarat so we decided to hang around for a while.

We chose our caravan park based on reviews on WikiCamps... and while it was a nice caravan park it was just across the road from the train line, which no one mentioned in their reviews! (seriously, who doesn't comment on the noisy trains while giving reviews!) The caravan park had great facilities for kids, which kept ours entertained given that it was pretty miserable with lots of rain and wind while we were there. They had 2 X-box 360 Kinects that you could play for free and we all had such a good time with them that we may have to get one when we get home!

I loved the historic buildings and houses throughout Ballarat. It felt like everywhere we drove I was commenting “ooh, look at that one” or “I love that one” and similar. I've come to the conclusion that modern house construction is boring and bland and we have taken function over form way too far. Why can't our houses still be beautiful and pretty and appealing and attractive, yet be functional and cost effective? But perhaps I am the only one who feels that way.

Years ago, when I was pregnant with Tilda, I joined an online group of mums all expecting bubs in that October. 9 years later many of us are still in touch and while I had plans of meeting many of the Melbourne mummies while there, we just didn't stay in Melbourne long enough to allow it. So I was very excited to meet one of the lovely mummies, Kristy and her 4 kids, while we stayed at Ballarat. After being online friends for so long it was so nice to finally meet one of these mummies and even better to know she is every bit as lovely in person as she is online, and her kids are gorgeous too. Tilda took over an hour of playing at the Maccas playground to warm up and stop being shy and had a fantastic half hour or so with the kids. She had such a great time she was sad when we all had to leave and wanted to meet them again the next day.

Sovereign Hill

The best part of Ballarat, according to Tilda at least, but I think I also agree – Sovereign Hill. It is quite pricey but it is a not for profit organisation and they have certainly done and amazing job there. You can go two days for the price of one, which we did as we didn't get to see everything the first day.

We got to see a 100 ounce gold ingot being poured (worth around $160,000). It was interesting to see the process of the gold being heated then poured into a mould. It was then plunged into a bath of cold water and most of the heat dissipated so rapidly that they lady doing the demonstration was able to pick it up in her hand almost straight away. I thought the heat would have lingered. Even more interesting than watching the gold being poured was listening to the lady doing the demonstration talk about the mining history of the area. It seems rather ironic that gold was first found in Ballarat at Poverty Point. The history of the area, the gold findings, the different mining types etc was very interesting.

We watched hard boiled musk drops being made. This is a very physical process, which I didn't realise. The mixture (sugar, sucrose, something else that I forget, and a musk essence) is heated until a syrup is formed. The mixture is then poured onto a table with a metal surface that has hot and cold water pipes running under it to keep the table at the right temperature for the candy to set into a toffee-like consistency. The “toffee” is folded and turned until the right consistency is reached throughout the mix. This is then hung on a hook on the wall and stretched, folded, stretched and repeated until it is at the right stage. It is then cut into square blocks which are run through a cutting and shaping machine (kind of like a Cuttlebug or BigShot for my crafty friends). It is amazing they are still using the machine today from the 1800's when it was first started by the Brown Family.

We did 2 mine tours. One was the Red Hill Mine tour, which is part of the admission price. This is a self guided underground tour where you follow the story of a young apprentice beginning his mining. It was interesting to do. We also did the Labyrinth tour. You have to pay for this on top of admission but I think it was definitely worth it. We caught a train 25m underground. As you go down it is completely inky black, so dark you can't see your hand in front of your face at all. I don't think we often get to experience this level of total absence of light. The tour of the mine workings (yes, it is a tour of a mine that was worked in the past) is very interesting, with lots to learn and examples of the gold found in Ballarat.

I also thoroughly enjoyed The Criterion, which was a store selling clothes, china, lace, tea towels, books and other similar items. It was just a very pretty shop to visit. The other thing I really enjoyed was watching the wheelwright make a wooden wheel for the carts they use onsite. It is a process that takes 5 years for each wheel as they have to cure the centre bits (that's my technical term for it as I cant remember the name of it) for 5 years and the spokes for 2. The wheelwright walked us through all the steps and it was truly very interesting.

Tilda was VERY eager to go to school there. They have daily school demonstrations and she happily went off to school on the Sunday. The teacher was dressed in time appropriate costume, made the girls form one line and the boys another and led them into school with girls sitting at the front and boys behind (this included separating out the parents). The children were told all about school in the late 1800's and were then given the opportunity to write with pen and ink. Tilda enjoyed it but found pen and ink a bit too much to manage. The teacher gave Rory chalk and slate, recognising that a pen and ink probably wasn't the best idea for him. Sure enough, when my attention was elsewhere for a second or two he stuck his finger in the ink well and ended up with a blue stained finger up to the first joint, much to the amusement of some of the dads.

 Waiting for school

 Pen and ink is pretty tricky

Rory was given a sand tray to "practice writing" in

Tilda panned for gold and found gold so she was a very happy munchkin!

Despite spending 7 days in the Ballarat region, it still wasn't enough to see and do all we would have liked to, but time is moving and so we decided to move on.

Smythesdale

We spent our first 3 days in the Ballarat area 20kms out of town at a place called Smythesdale. This little town offers a camp spot for travellers, complete with water, toilets (BYO loo paper!) and hot showers, for a donation that you leave at the Post Office.

I saw my first genuine (ie, not overly touristy and not overpriced) antique shop in the main street of Smythesdale and I hugely recommend a visit there for anyone in the area. There were all sorts of unique, interesting and quirky items. I felt quite nostalgic seeing a number of things that were similar to items that had been in my Gran's and Nana's houses when I was a child. I found a book I was so tempted to buy... but had no reason to. It was like a kids exercise book from school for working with pastels. It had velum sheets in between each drawing page to protect the work. It was done by a female and each page was dated from 1928 (making it 88 years old). Each page had a simple drawing on it, eg balloon, an orange, a rabbit etc. There was something so simple and elegant about it. I wish I had have bought it but really, what could I do with it?

We also found a BMX (or in Rory speak a "Mex") track that the kids had a ball on. Rory rode it on his balance bike, which is really quite funny if you think about it and I can just imagine what the teenage BMX riders would think if they saw it. Tilda managed to do her first ever jump over one of the jumps which she was rightly very proud of! Despite riding in the rain, the kids loved it and keep looking for new BMX tracks now.

Greg had a fossick in the river and found some more gold. In fact, while helping him, I panned my first lot of gold! Super exciting stuff... I found three flecks of gold!!!. So all up now we've possible made a dollar or so. We have a long way to go to even recover the cost of the gold pans (yep, pans plural because Tilda needed her own).

(I don't have any photos of Smythesdale, just videos from the "mex track")

Melbourne & Melbourne Aquarium

Melbourne was a quick stop; just one day in Melbourne and our day at Werribee Zoo. We absolutely made Rory's day (week, and maybe even his year) by catching a train into Melbourne for the day and doing a City Circle loop on the tram. He loves all things transport – planes, helicopters, trains and especially the tram.

We started our day at the Melbourne Aquarium. It was good to see some of the sea creatures up close and personal (and very good that some of them were behind glass.... and very thick glass at that!) There were a couple of exhibits I especially enjoyed. Of course, one of the was the weedy and leafy sea dragon tank. In case you haven't figured it out yet, I love these creatures :)

Love them!!!

I really liked the massive, circular reef tank they have. The tank has all sorts of tropical reef fish.  These fish seem to spend all day just swimming circles around and around the tank. I can't help but wonder if they are bored or if they think they are swimming miles because the scenery outside the tank (the people looking in) changes regularly.

I also really enjoyed the penguin display. They have two different types of penguins – King Penguins and the Gentoo Penguin. The King Penguins were the more majestic looking but they just stood around not doing much while the  Gentoo Penguins swam in the tank, climbed up on rocks and dived in, so were more entertaining.

The other thing at the aquarium that was quite fun was a 4D animated film, called No Time for Nuts, based on the Ice Age movies. This is a very cool experience. The 10 minute movie is in 3D and then there are added touches of activity to make it 4D, like when an arrow got shot at  Scrat's head and you felt a puff of air at your head or when he went into a waterfall and you got sprayed with water.

Tilda liked the yellow tang the best.

.

 (Photo credit: Tilda)

When I asked Rory what he liked most about the Melbourne Aquarium his answer was “trams and trains”. Good thing we didn't have to pay for his entry!

After the museum we did a City Circle loop on the historic tram. Rory was in his element... he was as happy as a dog with its head out the window.

We were in Melbourne on ANZAC day so we didn't get to see the town at its busiest, which was good in many regards, but in some ways it was a bit sad as the town seemed run down and dirty, which I am sure it is not. 

A trip to Melbourne without kids sure would be a different experience... and one I hope to enjoy one day in the (hopefully) not too distant future.

Werribee Zoo

I feel like I keep starting all of my blog posts with “we had a great time....” and it is totally true for Werribee Zoo as well (but I'll try to think up new ways to start my posts in future). The Zoo is fantastic for kids. It is not as heavily populated with animals as some zoos, in part because it is an open range zoo and in part because they just don't have the variety of animals. What they do have is a couple of “extras” that I thought made it very worthwhile.

At the entrance are a bunch of mosaic African animal statues, which keep it interesting for the kids while you wait in the queue.

Another is the safari train. Because it is open plain and many of the largest animals roam, in order to see them you need to take a ride on the free (included in admission) safari train to the open areas behind the exhibits. Here you can see giraffes, Texas Longhorn Cows, Camels, Ostrich, Zebras and more, all roaming freely in an open grassland. Some of the animals came up quite close to the train which was fun for all of us.

The other thing that I think made it a great zoo for kids is that they have these extra “walk out” bits where kids can roam along a windy path next to the main path, which is full of long grass and interesting things where they can pretend to be lions. Another one is where they an walk through a patch of plants on a log walk and a rope walk etc, that loops from one path to another. And finally, they also have themed playgrounds, like the hippo playground. I like how they have taken the time to make these extra activities for kids that are fun just for them.

Some of the other animals we saw

The only negative of this zoo, I think, is that the Australian animal section is very light on and not very well done. For anyone wanting to interact or observe Australian animals then I think there are probably a lot of better zoos or places to visit.

The endangered Eastern Barred Bandicoot (trying to spot the little blighters in their enclosure was worse than finding Wally in "Where's Wally")