Stepping back in time: Yanakie to Tidal River: A seagull stole oursandwich

Let's rewind from the last post. Before Perth, back across the Nullabor, long before the Eyre Peninsula and even the other side of Melbourne, we were spending the night in the village of Yanakie.

It was a nervy night for Annie, who was rather put out by the cockroach and large spider (a huntsman? We're not sure) that fled the barbecue plate while cooking dinner. The night of Saturday 26th October 2013 was windy, which was not helped by Yanakie's position on a low isthmus protruding into the notoriously rough Bass Straight and the lack of effective wind breaks. In keeping with the theme of the last week, it was raining, with yet more rain forecast for the approaching week. 

We woke to broken skies of rays of sunshine blasting through cumuli, a brisk southwesterly and great promise. Just South of Yanakie is the control gate for the Wilson's Promontory National Park, then we were driving through pristine bush on a ribbon of tarmac unsurpassed in quality, and all the more out of place for it. Annie was on animal spotting duty, but our late start probably didn't help the poor showing. The drive was excellent, a really windy road that would be great to time trial, though crashing in a UNESCO World Heritage Site and Oz National Park probably wouldn't be appreciated. Just in case I don't mention it when describing something specific in Wilson's Prom, the views are amazing. All of them. From close-ups of dense, seemingly untouched bush to magnificent saddle-point vistas, it's just beautiful. 

Arriving in the only permanent settlement in park, Tidal River, we gawped at the enormity of the camping area, deciding to pitch near to the amenities to put some food together. We fought the wind all the while, watching that the filling didn't fly out of the sandwiches, then as Annie turned to me for the mayo, the bugger swooped. A cacophony ensued as the flock of seagulls fought over the top half of our sandwich, not even dispersing as Annie angrily chased after them with a tea towel. We soon realised that the surplus of campsites needed to be investigated, and relocated away from the amenities where the seagulls (and rainbow lorikeets) had picked up their taste for chips and, apparently, ham sandwiches. 

Wilson's Promentory is a tropical desert island, or at least it might be. It was quite clear to us that while there were several activities available to us (fishing, swimming, surfing), all we wanted to do was explore. Our first day saw us meander through the campsite, over the watercourse and then brought us to a complete stop when I brought Annie's attention to the badger-sized animal immediately to our right. Talk about tame - this wombat was 5 feet away and couldn't care less about us as it scruffled for tasty greens on the side of the path. As Annie took photos (and I took photos for Annie of her with the wombat in the near background), a few more people came by, but the wombat didn't care, and kept ignoring that it was meant to be both shy and semi-nocturnal. What a badass. Seeing the wombat sustained us for most of the rest of the day,  though that isn't to say that Squeaky Beach was actually quiet, or that the views weren't inspiring. Our path took us over the headland to the next bay, with great viewpoints, down to one of the finest beaches I've seen, to lunch on remarkable rocks (not The Remarkable Rocks, they're on Kangaroo Island in SA), then back over the hill to the campsite. Squeaky Beach gets it's name from the sound of ultra-fine quartz sand rubbing together when walked on - a funny sensation, though actually replicated in several places along the coast in Oz. Coming back over the hill, the importance of fire to the Australian landscape became apparent. We saw burnt stumps, but also half-burnt trees that were quite alive, burnt tree grasses redoubled in growth and many burnt hollows that were obviously housing some form of wildlife or other. From a lovely granite outcrop, the landscape could easily be divided along recent fire lines - the fewer burnt limbs above the thicker the canopy, the longer ago the most recent burn.


Old fire lines are really obvious from above

 A nice feature on the walk (sadly amiss in many other places in Oz) was the presence of informative signs that related the lives of the traditional owners of the land and how they used some of the plants, along with details on the plants themselves. I liked learning that the tree grass flower sap hardens as a resin used for attaching spear heads, amongst other uses. 



Annie getting up close to the first wombat

He was quite happy with close-ups

 

The revelation of the evening of 27th October was that Wilson's Prom doesn't just have the one fearless wombat, rather several burrows worth of them, including a burrow right in the middle of the campsite. Stop! I know what you're going to say, and don't worry - Annie took enough photos of them to last a trip to the other side of the world, almost. After a sunset stroll on the beach, we also saw several bunnies (cue mixed feelings) then - get this - a deer. I can understand bunnies managing to thrive, even in a National Park, but deer? Deer are surely the easier feral creature to hunt/capture/remove, and I've not seen any others at all across Australia.

{one of the campsite locals}

We extended our stay in Wilson's Prom to two nights, allowing us time to scale Mount Oberon, with silly chanting and exercises on the way up the (rather dull) forest track, though unfortunately the good weather from day 1 decided not to stay with us and we reached the summit in cloud. We kept getting smug looks from the predominantly German walkers descending as we climbed. They had obviously made more of the "a few showers" weather forecast than we had, though in our defence that seems to be the only description Victorians know for anything from vaguely threatening cloud cover to all-out torrential downpours lasting several hours. Never mind, we're British, and a little rain was hardly going to keep us from our sandwiches.

In the clouds, Mt Oberon.

 

Oh, we saw emus when we were driving out. Nice.

Overcast, yes. Stunning, also yes.

Poowong and beyond: Giant Earthworms live there

The Poowong campsite was a very peaceful woodland clearing which made it a great place to spot birds and other wildlife, we spotted a kangaroo hiding in the long grass, just the other side of the stream. We explored the local area, including coal creek, a reconstruction of an historic mining town which also randomly had an excellent exhibition about Anne Frank. From there we went on to Loch, another charming little town where we found out more details about the giant earthworms of South Gippsland. We first learned about them from Bill Bryson's book, 'Down Under'. Sadly, the  place where Bill went to see these strange creatures pickled in jars has, for some reason, closed down. So our only option was to look at the info panels located under a motorway bridge in the tiny town of Loch. Unlike David Attenborough, we didn't hear them gurgling under ground, they would have been drowned out by the rain anyway.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxeT_GDKv9g&feature=youtube_gdata_player

From there we made our way through the Gippsland countryside, stopping at a couple of wineries on the way. Lyre Bird Hill and Drummond's estate were both very small operations producing lovely wines so we replenished our stores and continued South for Wilson's Promontory National Park.

Queenscliff to Blairgowrie: The Mornington Peninsula

The ferry crossing to Sorrento was pretty quick with a few penguins to spot on the way. In Sorrento, a well-to-do town where we thought we'd spend the night, the camping options were limited with many of the public municipal sites not open until December. We caught the tourist info just as it was closing to prevail upon them for some camping options. 'Are you in a tent or a van?' The lady asked.... Never quite sure how to reply to this question we replied truthfully that we were in fact sleeping in the back of our station wagon. The lady seemed concerned that this might not be acceptable to the nearby caravan park, at which point we assured her that we had stayed in numerous caravan parks so far and no one else batted an eyelid. In fact this lady was the only person we have encountered so far who did bat her eyelid! Eventually, we made it to the charming Blairgowrie caravan park where we would spend the night.
The next day led us to explore the beautiful region of the Mornington Peninsula, where fortunately for us they also make excellent wine. It is a cool climate area and offers Pinots and Rieslings more than Shiraz which had been the most common variety so far. The real surprise favourites were the Chardonnays, which if we didn't have to store the wine in our car, we would easily have bought numerous bottles.
Montalto was the first vineyard and chosen primarily by its proximity to Flinders. Named for Captain Flinders who was a distinguished navigator and cartographer, the first to circumnavigate Australia in 1801-1802 as well as carrying out a lot of explorations and expeditions. A great deal of land features are therefore named after him, from the historic town in Victoria to the university in South Australia and much more in between. In Flinders we partook of a record breaking custard slice. The shop we bought it from holds the Guinness World Record for the largest ever custard slice, weighing in at 500kg, our slice came in at 500g! Still rather too much for us! We went to a second vineyard called Ten Minutes by Tractor mainly because of the name and unique because it's the only vineyard where we left empty handed!
While on the peninsula, we also took the time to visit the Cape Schanck lighthouse where we took a walk along the cliffs, nearly getting blown over before turning back to the safety of the wagon. Back in the carpark we admired the bravery of a surfer heading out into the high seas, high winds and rocky shores. Following our adventure in the peninsula, we originally planned to stay in Frankston. Though this was thwarted when the caravan site was full. Free camping is limited in the region so for the second time that day, we opted to go somewhere for the name. Poowong. Not only is it a great name, but the campsite was free. We stayed there for a couple of days, all the while exploring the South Gippsland area. It's very lush and green, beautiful pasture and rolling hills that are quite stunning, even in the continued rain.

Torquay to Queenscliff: oil leak ahoy

We left Torquay and headed to the next major town, Geelong (pronounced Je-long, as in the French Je). After some supplies and an explore we hopped in the car with the hope of exploring the areas wineries. It had been raining pretty solidly since the previous evening and when we arrived at Jack Rabbit vineyard, the water on the ground showed up iridescent rainbow blobs in our tracks, in other words, we were leaking oil.
We decided to carry on to the next town, a small place called Queenscliff and get the problem (hopefully) sorted out there. Once again we decided to get out of the rain for the night and so booked ourselves into the local dive centre accommodation. It is as it sounds, a place where you learn to scuba dive but they also have great rooms and a large open kitchen for tourists or scuba groups to stay in which must help things along in the off season. We were welcomed by Dave and Johnny. On our asking for a mechanic in the area, Johnny, who also happened to live in the centre as he's a dive instructor, offered to look at the car for us so Tom and he went out in the rain to have a look under the bonnet. I thought it best to leave them to it, yet five minutes later on going out to see how things were looking, there were not two but four men peering into the engine! One of whom was on the phone to his mate (presumably a mechanic) saying "If I were a Commodore station wagon leaking oil, where would I be leaking from?" The overall view was that it could be anything, however they did suggest a mechanic to take it to the following day. It was great though and that helpful and supportive attitude has been echoed in other circumstances on our trip.
We dropped the car off at the mechanic and decided to take a walk to see the nearby Marine Discovery Centre. Someone must have found people walking this stretch of road peculiar as they stopped to offer us a lift. Don't worry Mum, we didn't get into a stranger's car as we didn't have far to go! The marine centre was essentially a small but very informative aquarium focussing on the eco-system in the wetlands of the region and nearby Port Philip Bay (where Melbourne is). Happily, we arrived at feeding time so had a great tour around the tanks including that of a Blue Ringed Octopus. We stood and watched/listened in abject horror/surprise as the guide hand fed one of the most deadly creatures in Australia. He also recounted a story of a friend who for some unknown reason had decided to keep one of these poisonous cephalopods as a pet. In a tank. In their house. The guide himself had also kept one and his friend rang him to tell him to get rid of it. The reason being that his wife had woken up one morning to find all the fish dead in the tank and having scooped them out with an ice cream tub was laid out paralysed for half a day. Even though the tank was huge and the amount of poison secreted by the octopus was very small, it was enough to knock out this lady and mercifully she survived. It was as he told us this story that he put his hand into the octopus' beak to feed it, its rings getting more blue by the second, something that happens when it's aggravated or threatened. Bizarre!
Before too long the mechanic called to say the car was ready and the problem had been caused by the oil pressure switch. Unfortunately, it was cup day in Geelong (horse racing) so he wasn't able to fit a new part, so a second hand one would have to do for now...
We had delicious fish and chips in Queenscliff town centre before getting the ferry to Sorrento to explore the beautiful Mornington Peninsula.
x Annie & Tom

Johanna Beach / Cumberland River / Torquay

As we have been doing for much of our trip, we left Johanna beach without a particular destination in mind that day. So we drove the winding roads of The Great Ocean Road with glorious sunshine, stopping for lunch in the pretty town of Apollo Bay. We then headed on to Cumberland River, a very pretty  and popular place where we managed to secure one of the last campsites for the night. Turning up at one of the most popular caravan parks on this stretch of coast on a weekend without a reservation is risking it, but there was still room, so we were in luck. There was lovely scenery here, with dramatic cliffs rising from the river and yet another beautiful sandy beach where we watched surfers and fishermen do their thing.
We were just getting to cook dinner when seemingly out of nowhere we were overwhelmed by hundreds, nay thousands of flying ants! Many of which soon expired in the flame of our gas stove and we had to seek refuge and eat in the car! Annoyingly the plague soon stopped and had we waited a little longer, we probably would have missed it. Ah well, such is life.
The next day we did a bush walk in the morning to see a local waterfall, (the name of which escapes me) before carrying on the road to Torquay via Anglesea for lunch. Both lovely towns, Torquay was our stop for the night as we had an all important and essential Aussie experience of a surfing lesson booked the following day. Torquay is also where surfing in Australia really got started.
Our campsite was just over the dunes from the ocean and even better, a great little cafe a mere two minutes away, overlooking the beach. So as it was up and at 'em at a reasonably early hour to be on time for our lesson and we decided to fuel up with incredible bacon sandwiches from the Third Wave Cafe - highly recommended! The sunshine may have gone but the rain held off for the duration of our two hour surfing lesson. It was great fun in spite of the inevitable intake of seawater and wipeouts, we both managed to catch a wave by the end.
xAnnie & Tom

Warrnambool to Johanna Beach: The Great Ocean Road

This section of the road was quite a drive, with the first lot of really winding roads and where we saw a lot of the sights that makes The Great Ocean Road so popular. It was spectacular scenery for much of the way and thankfully, the rain cleared up and we had great views and sunshine. It was a bit windy, but you can't have everything can you?! We had a recommendation to visit Cape Schank lighthouse which is in the Great Otway national park and on the way, we noticed a couple of people had stopped beside the road, pointing their cameras into the trees. They had seen koalas snuggled amidst the branches so we quickly pulled over to have a look. They didn't seem too bothered by us and one of them woke up for a moment and blinkingly looked at me as if to say "I was having a really good dream until you came along." Thankfully, they didn't make the noise of our previous koala encounter in the Narrawong forest nor did they aim their poop in our general direction. In fact, they were more interested in rearranging themselves in the trees to continue their sleep and who can blame them? They looked so comfy and it was early morning after all. On arrival at the lighthouse, we climbed the spiral stairs to the top to hear the stories of the shipwreck coast and the history of the lighthouse and admire the spectacular views. We also took time to wonder around to see some former defences and communications from WWII as well as some Aboriginal artefacts and information which was all fascinating.
Onwards to The Great Ocean Road and we saw the incredibly beautiful rock formations that make this coast so dramatic. The Bay of Islands, the Grotto, the Arch and of course, The Twelve Apostles. We didn't stop at London Bridge as it's no longer a bridge, it collapsed in the early 90's leaving two tourists stranded! All these sights are absolutely stunning rock formations caused by the unrelenting winds and the waves of The Southern Ocean pounding the cliffs. Apparently, Australia is the only country to recognise The Southern Ocean, so to the pommies reading, it's the Indian Ocean, OK? This is what we've read here so if in fact you are a pom that recognises it, please let us know!! There aren't Twelve Apostles but more like 9, apparently they were given the name to make them more appealing to tourists, something which was pretty successful judging by the number of people there.
That night we stopped at Johanna beach, a free campsite that was nestled in the hills next to a beautiful sandy beach. The relentless wind and strong currents meant it was too dangerous to swim but we had a paddle before setting up camp for the night.

Port Fairy to Warrnambool - We slept in a shed

Port Fairy is a lovely little town on the coast, on the estuary of the Moyne river, recently voted one of the most liveable communities in Australia. It's easy to see why as everything about this little fishing community is rather charming, from the lovely shops and harbour to the occasional power cut. As has become habit, we headed straight for the tourist info to find out about the area and to see what our options were for free camping. The man we spoke to came up trumps when he suggested a nature walk around the nearby island to see the lighthouse. It was sunny and dry which was a nice change as we'd seen a fair bit of rain so far. Not only that, he also let us know we could camp for free in a small public park area by the river so if we're only there for the one night, we'll probably get away with it - which we did. Conveniently, there was a public toilet there as well as a BBQ, so we spent what we would have paid at a caravan park and bought a massive steak to cook on it. So apart from the devious Raven which insisted on landing on the car repeatedly and giving me the evil eye and the heavy rain for most of the night, a small leak and being freezing cold, it was a decent place to be.
The next day it was onto Warrnambool and for that I've copied Tom's diary entry from our interesting stay there:

Thursday 17th October
It's raining and we're in a shed. The wind noise is overpowered by the rain (hail?) On the wooden roof and I'm starting to believe the comments about there being six seasons here (in Victoria at least) with March winds, gusts in spring and why the "Shipwreck Coast" isn't just a fanciful nickname. This is Warrnambool a pleasant-if-quiet town in South West Victoria, 300km from Melbourne. The shed we're in is one of 6 that formed the soldiers barracks as part of the Warrnambool battery. They are replicas of those used by the artillery circa 1887 during the height of Anglo-Russian aggression in Crimea and the related home-guard suspicions in a relatively poorly-guarded colonial port and we're spending the night in one of them. Our thinking being that it would be warmer and dryer than the car (it rained so much in Port Fairy we had a small leak in the rear passenger window).
We woke in Port Fairy to rain, departed Port Fairy with hail and arrived in Warrnambool with yet more rain, and despite the best efforts of some valiant blue skies in the afternoon, will probably fall asleep to the stormy sounds as well. Annie seemed to be under the impression that the forecast for today was good, well that may have been the case in Darwin, but not down South. [Annie would like to add that we've since realised that Australians describe any amount of rain as "a shower or two" whether it is a shower or two or in fact torrential rain.] Today was a bit of a wash out. We visited the replica historic port (and location of the sheds) as it would have been in 1887. Had tea in the cafe there before heading to the town's art gallery comprising two rooms to escape the rain before negotiating various tat shops ( including one that was amusingly called 'The Reject Shop') before making an essential purchase of some warmer socks. The art gallery here punches well above its size due to well-curated and engaging themes. I enjoyed the conservation exhibit which showed damaged works and what would be done to repair or restore them alongside restored works with photos of their damage so you could see if you could spot the repair. Interesting stuff.
Tomorrow we're off to the Warrnambool cheese factory and we'll be making our way to The Great Ocean Road, Port Campbell and the 12 Apostles (yeah yeah, there's only 7,8,9 something) one of Australia's best known drives and most popular tourist destinations. The enthusiastic Michael (he's Canadian, which probably goes some way to explaining the enthusiasm) suggested the cheese visit and as this isn't outdoors weather and Annie loves cheese, we'll have to stop by. Apparently the milkshakes are the best in Australia, so it won't hurt to try those either!

So it was certainly an interesting place to stay. Thankfully the weather broke for just enough time to sort out dinner and so on and though it was noisy, it was comfy, warm and dry. We did visit the cheese factory where there's also a museum of farming and dairy equipment and we did some tasting of the Warrnambool flavoured cheddars which were interesting, we bought some herby one that'll be great on pasta. We did have a milkshake and it was delicious, though the best in Australia remains to be seen... Our next stop: Johanna Beach
x Tom & Annie