Port Campbell to Warrnambool, Ellerslie, and Ballarat

The day starts at Port Campbell after a great snooze and lie in. Again the weather is with us - rain that is.

Doll Heads displayed at the Port Campbell Tourist Information Centre found from ship wrecks.

The view of Port Campbell.

Well, who'd have thought such a little distance could take such a long time to travel.
So much to see:)))))))) Grotto, London Bridge, Bay of Islands, Bay of Martyrs, Crofts Bay, Boat Bay, Massacre Bay probably more.

London Bridge has fallen down

Kept watching the waves crashing on the coastline.

We had the tourist information staff laughing at Warrnambool when we said we'd had a busy day so far. We had left Port Campbell the largest suburb next door to Warrnambool and travelled 6 hours. The distance travelled way less than 100 kilometres lol. Too busy having fun, stopping every five minutes -  well it seemed like that anyway - to traverse the tops of the GOR coastline, take photos, gaze in absolute
adoration at the sights before us, and wonder at Mother Natures magnificence. So much in fact, anyone who asks, will get a descriptive monologue of everything you can see while driving on The Great Ocean Road.

Stopped in to the supermarket and picked up supplies for a picnic. Then there was the - do we stay here or do we gone on monologue. We decided to go on a bit further. On the top of the mountain range I was perusing the maps when His Lordship mutters - whoa- and slows the car. He thought there was a dog sitting in the middle of the very busy road. In fact, it was a weary looking adult male Koala!! Soft, grey fur fluttering in the breeze. All I could think was, please let the car coming the other way see it - we put our flashers on and pulled to the side of the road so other cars could see why we were stopped as we tried to usher him off the road. The other car coming towards us came to a halt - in the middle of the highway - and opened his car door onto the Koala's back pushing him on. He didn't move, so together with the other driver we scooted him off the road and into the line of gumtrees we could see some 200 metres from the road.  I hurried back and drove the still running car of the other person onto the side of the road as there were some big prime mover trucks coming up. The driver nodded in appreciation and both cars headed their seperate directions. Thats even closer than the last Koala encounter. Lucky for this one - he did not get run over.

At the side of the road at Ellerslie is an old bridge with the cleanest BBQ/Toilet and picnic area we have seen throughout our travels. So we stopped and partook our feast before travelling on to Ballarat.
Got onto a website to help us find accomodation for the night, booked it and stopped. Busy road though - a little noisy, but Lord S did not notice as as soon as his head hit the pillow he was out like a light :) Nite S No cuppa tonight - the proprietor forgot to give us milk.

Nite all :)) Till the moro comes

Saturdays Adventures and what amazing ones they were!!!

What to do today? We planned to visit the markets in Apollo Bay and what else, well we hadn't planned though we had an idea but weren't sure if we could do it.

So we drove down to the 'markets' only to see four stalls in the carpark with little to look at. I know it was drizzling and wet the previous days but there were only dark clouds and spittles of rain today. I really thought there would be some great artesians work here to see :( 

Oh well - next plan? We thought hard about a helicopter trip as we had seen a sign at Marengo which is the next suburb along the GOR. SO we drove in and asked the young fellow there - Jay - what was on offer. We saw a small plane and thought aha. Is this what we would be going it. It was confirmed by the pilot. He shows us the map and explained which flights we could do with him, He told us the price which we were happy with and so we then chose the flightpath to The Twelve Apostles and back!

In the single engine Piper plane :) About to go! I was apprehensive, scared, excited and all other sorts of feelings were going through me.

Amazingly beautiful coastline GOR

Our first view of the coast was of the oceans shoreline. Places we would never have seen by car as the GOR doesn't get that close in some parts. The plane was jumping all over the place. The wind and the sea were taunting us. Ooops I hit my head and Lord Steve laughs. Jay our pilot explains the currents in the air, and I still keep my foot braced and my hand on the chair next to me for safety feelings. The adrenilin running through my body must have been at its peak, because I was scared but I was smiling with excitement.  Worked that one out. Just truly amazing and other words I can't even think about . WOW.

And then the Twelve Apostles :))))

We never imagined how beautiful the Twelve Apostles were. Words can not describe the feelings we had. I was now calm, happy, excited and feeling so small and insignificant when viewing the majesty of this coastline.

WOW WOW WOW OMGoodness !!!

Heads in the clouds

I had to take the photo of the clouds. It felt like we were walking among them. Soft, fluffy and very white. If this is what you can see from heaven, everyone will be happy to know.

Caves and sheer cliffs.

OOPs - hit my head on the roof.

Sometimes the gusts made the plane jump, in turn so did we. Laughing when my head hit the roof. Even with the seat belts on! I was safe and Jay checked on us that we were okay.

Approaching the Twelve Apostles.

About to land back at Marengo.

Amazing. Has 45 minutes passed already! We were having so much fun.

Dancing amongst the clouds

The adrenilin running through us has made us calmer than we could have possibly ever known.

Our plane

After the plane ride what more could excitre us?  Koalas!!!! A colony of Koalas were living in the trees above the road to Cape Otway. Eating there way through many many trees. You could see where they had been, A great concern though as the trees that they had eaten the leaves from looked like they all have died,

Koals colony on the road to Cape Otway

Give me that leafNOW!!! 

The walk to Port

The thirty minute walk seemed tro take ages. The trail was sigposted at the Great Ocean Road walk but we couldnt fint he one for Cape

The above pic shows the view to ....

Our journey took us throughOtway National Park to where we saw amazing rock formations on the shoreline. The beach was clean and oure with much seaweed. WQe spoke to a local man who was about to go fishing and he told stories of how he thought he had a great catch pnly to find he had caught a massive piece of kelp!

Blanket Bay Camping area

Rock formations at

The rock formations weree colcanic and sedementary, hard basalt pebbles that had been carried through an ancient river and thn ecame the rock you can see here

Again I say WOW

Lord Steve looks a little worried huh? LOL

Got his Lordship to stand near a great mound of rock, saw some waves coming in and let him know. He said hurry up and take the pic before I get wet and freeze woman!!

Our little dinosaur - Otto

ALong the trip so far, I have see 'Fairy Houses' at Triplet Falls, Hidden Caves near cliff faces of the shoreline and now the remnants of 'Otto" - only kidding. It certainly looked great enough to write about so I hae made him up to be my little dinosaur friend......maybe a friend of the fairies that live in Cpe Otway National Park :))

The adrenilin has abated nbow and this traveller is very weary. So again Goodnight and sweet dream to all

Dee

Day Four - Into the Hinterlands

Its still dark! So we snuggle back under the covers and wait till the light comes through the curtains. What's that you say? The curtains at my window seclude one inside and unless you open them, you don't know that its 5am or 7am. Woke up to birdsong amid the howling westerly winds. So, I opened the curtains and was happy that it definitely was a gale and not rain :))  Trips planned today was from Skenes Creek to Colac and back via Triplet Falls and Apollo Bay. There was a bit of rain along the way, but the day grew dryer as it went on. A little warmer in Colac than we thought it would be too.

At the top of Skenes Creek is Cape Otway National Park

Stephenson Falls were closed  :(  Flooding had almost ruined the camping area and is closed off till November 2012. Repair work is being completed for the Christmas rush I suppose. Well there was another we went to see as well, but the weather had beaten us. This caused Sabine Falls walk to be extremely wet and dangerous and was too difficult to traverse for me and another sign said a three hour return trip. So we headed to Colac Information Centre where the staff advised me which other falls were still open. Thanks to you both :)

At this juncture, we travelled towards Colac to see what it had to offer the traveller. Not quite what we expected - a big town but a quiet town - though we don't know what that was exactly. His Lordship went off to look at some things that he has a hobby with while I went looking for Patchwork or Craft outlets. Only found one in town - McMahons. You walk through the door to be greeted by window dressings, a little further in is the store and toward the back or is that side, I found what I was looking for.  Two more bits of fabric for my Victorian GOR Hexagonal Quilt and a pack pf lovely Moda Antiuque Rose coloured fabrics for similar...... not sure what to do with them at mo - just divine fabric for the stash :)) I also found a lovely pattern too!! The lady who served me said it was the last one and she was a little disappointed that I wished to buy it. Should have put that one away methinx.

McMahons Colac - Patchwork

After a bite tp eat we headed off back towards Binn Road to the GOR. So Triplet Falls was the destination and the advised time to complete the track to see them was a  2 hour trip! .  The sound of the water cascading downwards was amazing. To walk or not to walk? My head said maybe but the body said you have to be joking.!  So we set off, amazed by the scenery, and the coldness of the dampened forest. Guess what ? We finished it in two hours 15 minutes. Not bad with dicky tickers, and back and knee surgery go wrongs. I am very proud of myself that I did it and so is Lord Steve. Even he with his current medical woes was happy to see these beautiful falls. Mother Nature in her fury gave us such a show to behold. Well worth the trek. Can't believe how well this photo came out as I was a little tired with the ups and downs of the track. Invigorating really. Triplet Falls in all their glory though today there was actually Five seperate falls.

I found a very large tree and just had to give it a hug. Reciprocal really. It was begging to be hugged and I just had to oblige. The aroma of the eucalypt was truly uplifting. Around this area a gent called Mr Knott was the owner of a mill which he and his employees fell an amount of huge eucalypts for building.

You just had to be there and look up towards the sky. These trees are wonderful.

Heading back' to our accomodation we stopped to take in the vista of Apollo Bay - from the western side this time. The sun was abating though it gleamed upon the sea as I took this photo. Lovely huh?

Markets to come this weekend -  hope I can see and purchase some lovely local crafts and foodstuffs tomorrow. Then heading off to see some more of GOR coastline and probably the lighthouse at Cape Otway. We also have plans for seeing the remnants of the Twelve Apostles, a cheese factory and a chocolate factory. Will tell you more tomorrow.

Nite from the weary bodies - Dee