Great Ocean Road, originally uploaded by gypsy woman1.
After 4 days the rain was clearing so we are on the move again. It was a refreshing stop in Mt Gambia and refueled our batteries…
So now it was heading for another of the great Australian icons, The Great Ocean Road.
On the way we stayed in Nelson and had a cruise down the Glenelg river. Again very high due to the floods in Victoria and a very chocolately colour.The cruise took us to the Princess Margaret Rose caves, Impressive look at the under world of this volcanic region.
Next stop Bridgewater beach and cape and went for a 2 hour walk up to 130 metres above sea level to look at a seal colony, it was a very windy day and sort of tested our heart rates. Then we went round to see the blowholes and petrified forest only to see a sign telling us that the walk to the seal colony from that side of the cape was not so steep…. Oh well we told our selves we needed the exercise…
That night we stayed at Portland and found the first Aldi store since we left Queensland, very good wine prices, some at $2-99 so of course we stocked up to keep us in “happy hour” supplies.
Next stop Port Fairy, a beautiful seaside village with charm and character. We got the bikes off and biked around the art trail and looked at the stone heritage listed houses and buildings. Weather was perfect for biking.
As we left we went to see the Hopkins river waterfall it was roaring and almost like a miniature Niagara falls. This is volcanic area and every where there is evidence of the past volcanic activity. Tower Hill is a large crater formed 12000 years ago. That seems a long time ago but to put it in context it is said that the aboriginals were here back then and have many dream time stories of the eruptions. It is now a national park and has been restored to the original vegetation after been stripped in the mid 1800s for farming. Native flora and fauna are now back in the area and we saw koalas and emus, in fact had a bit of a scary encounter with an emu as he got very close as I videoed him…
Then it was on to Warnambool where we planned to stay for the night. We have had no problems getting into camp grounds because even though it is middle of the school holidays many people have cancelled due to the floods every where, so we just look for some where to stay as we arrive in each area. Well suddenly the holiday high season caught up with us and we were told camp grounds would be approx $50 a night for a powered site. There is no freedom camps in this area, with fines if you try to stay any where but in a camp ground. So we just kept going and Warnambool missed the pleasure of our company….
We did find a place just outside Warnambool at $35 even that was hurtful to the budget.
Then it was on to the Great Ocean Road..
gypsy life 