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Other entries in Geelong

Geelong suburbs

Have worked our way back to near Geelong (one of the suburbs) and will take Bob and Jean for a walk along the bay area in the morning. For now, I think we've "walked them out" so they are back at the ranch putting their feet up and taking it easy.

We left Adelaide a bit later than usual yesterday morning. Wendy and I had gone out the night before to visit with my friend Lynne who I knew from my days in London. As with Fred earlier in the day, it was the first time that I had seen her in over 32 years so it was a real treat to see her again and get caught up with her.

We spent last night in the Grampians, a mountain enclave west of Geelong and a bit of an oddity. The road to the Grampians was non descript, to be blunt. Once you crossed the Adelaide hills just east of Adelaide, the road flattens out and is a bit of agriculture and a bit of this and that but not a lot of anything. Not a lot to commend itself to future visits and having done that trip once, that would be enough for me. About the only thing of real note (and this is important, of course) was passing through the town of Keith, state of South Australia. A "with it" town council if there ever was one.

We had to stop here for a little bite to eat and I got yet another pie. I'm hoping my doctor doesn't have this web site address because if he reads much more of my eating habits, I will be looking for another doctor when I get back to Edmonton. Today's pie was not quite a Canada Health Guide recommendation, it was called a Ned Kelly (and infamous bush man of yester year) and was the special of the week. The usual chopped steak and onions topped with an egg, wrapped in pastry and covered with melted cheese and ham. That sound you heard earlier was the sound of the walls of my arteries getting just that much thicker......

As you get closer to the Grampians, the terrain gets a bit more interesting, more trees, more cattle and sheep, more birds, more of just about everything. The Grampians are much like the Cypress Hills in Southern Alberta. You have a flat prairie and the hills rise out of nowhere rather abruptly. One of the mountains on the leading edge of the Grampians is called Mt. Abrupt and that about describes it all. The road wound and twisted up a narrow road (it would have been a deadly road to cycle) and we took a 10 km detour to get a view from one of the cliffs looking over the terrain to the north (see photo). How's that for finally being organized? The photos are in place before I even do the commentary!

We got to the main town (Hall's Gap) and didn't really expect to find anything available (Friday night in a poplular area in the middle of summer) but were able to get something right in town. After looking at the campground, Wendy and I realized that this was the one that we had stayed in the last time we were here (10 years ago. Earlier in the day we had stopped at a "kangaroo spot" but didn't see anything. While we had seen kangaroos in the game park, we were hoping to catch a few "real" 'roos in the wild.

As it turns out, we needn't have bothered trying to see kangaroos, at this campground they come all but to your door. After dinner (and at dinner we introduced Bob and Jean to clean skin wines, this one a local chardonnay) we looked outside and saw 7 of the creatures just a few feet from the door of our cabin. So out came the cameras and away we went. We watched them eat the grass and bounce around a little (it is quite neat to watch them boing boing boing around). Jean, Wendy and I went in and left Bob outside talking to the kangaroos. I think he enjoyed the wine!

Quare, though. Are kangaroos that come up to your cabin wild? Something like seeing elk or deer wandering down the back alleys of Jasper townsite. Wild but not really.

It cooled off quite a bit over night to the point that when we got in the car this morning we actually turned the heat on for a few minutes just to take the chill out of the air. It is interesting how much there is a temperature variation from one day to another. It got to the high 30's in Adelaide yet was quite chilly up on the mountain overlooking the city. Same thing here, it was rather warm (though not overly hot) the evening before and the next morning it was almost chilly.

The drive south to the coast was a real treat. The road through the Grampians ran about 75 kms and we saw one other vehicle in that time. The road wound through various gum forests and views of the rock cliffs occured periodically. Along the way a sign advised us to watch for kangaroos and emus and it seemed that I was weaving the car through a kangaroo/wallaby maze. There were a lot along the road as well as rabbits and at least one emu. Like Jasper, if you want to see the animals, head out first thing in the morning. So, at the end of it all, we saw a whole pile of more wild animals that disappeared in to the bush as you approached. Most headed in to the bush on the same side of the highway in which they were located but the odd one decided that it was safer to cut across the road in front of the car. We've been told to stay off a number of the roads at dusk and sun rise (we were on them this time about an hour after sun rise) and I can sure see why now. It also explains the large amount of road kill on the roads that we see.

We were heading to the road known as the Great Ocean Road, some say it is the most spectacular piece of road (others say "ocean road") in the world or at least Austalia. It is also regarded as the largest war memorial in the world. The road was built along the coast just after the first world war by returning (and unemployed) vets and it was dedicated to the soldiers of Australia in that war. It runs for well over a hundred kms and certainly has spots of interest although it is a bit of a stretch to consider it the most spectacular road in the world.

The road can be divided in to several pieces. The western part is a section that has a lot of the rock formations the most famous of which is called the Twelve Apostles. It was originally called the Sow and Piglets (I personally prefer this name) but was later changed. The Apostles are rocky columns that are left about 100 feet in to the sea and stand about the same high. They are created and ultimately destroyed by the strong and repeated wave action of the area. In fact, one of the columns collapsed several years ago (since Wendy and I last saw it all). You know that you are getting in to tourist country big time, a sign at every entrance to the highway notes "in Australia drive on the left side of the road". I'm guessing that there have been a few accidents along this route.

There are also a number of arches that have been carved out by the wave and water action. One of these was called the London Bridge and people could walk across the "bridge" to the tower sitting out in the ocean. Apparently in 1990 two people walked across the bridge and were standing on the pillar when the bridge collapsed behind them leaving them stranded. It took a helicopter to rescue them several hours later.

This part of the highway is mostly inland far enough that you only really see brush adapted to living along the ocean. Whenever there is a spot to see something, there is a side road to get to the view point. For this part, other than the views (which are quite impressive), it is a bit of a non descript drive.

Further on, the road is carved right out of the hills that drop in to the sea. It was quite reminiscent of the drive around Cape Breton except that this is longer and has much different vegetation, of course. The road winds and twists and is not one to be on if you are in any type of hurry. We stopped in Apollo Bay for lunch and to say that it is a tourist town is a bit of an understatement. Sidewalks were full of people, parking was at a premium and people were wandering all over the streets assuming, I guess, that cars didn't exist on this highway. Not a good philosophy to guarantee a long life span.

At this point the day was getting on so we looked at the options. One was to stay in the last town along the road (with zillions of partiers). Another option was to continue on down the road in to more and more congenstion, a third was to backtrack slightly by heading in land and head to Geelong. We took option #3 and immediately climbed away from the coast over the hills which ended a short time later in a fashion very reminiscent of the Grampians. We got a good view of the plains north of the coast and all of a sudden the roads were straight and flat again and we could actually do the speed limit for more than a 100 metres at a time.

We haven't seen much for cycle tourists since we got the car (one only and he was in Canberra). We expected to see a few more along this route as it is one of the real "must do's" in Australia. And we weren't disappointed here as we saw three pairs of cyclists struggling up various hills. While it is a pretty route, I'm not sure that I would cycle it, especially the western part. It is a narrow road and there is little to no shoulder. Couple that with a lot of drivers driving unfamiliar vehicles on the "wrong" side of the road, it makes for a rather dangerous cycle. If you could do it at a time when there are few cars on the road, it might be OK (but it would still be a lot of work) but parts of the road don't really have a lot for accomodation and supplies.

Now, the road leaving Hall's Gap would have been an absolutely fabulous cycle and we both commented that we would have loved to have done it. Another time?

Got to the Geelong area without having to execute a U-turn which is quite something. I'm getting very, very good at U-turns. Usually they are needed as we drive by the road, street, caravan park, store etc that we are looking for. There it is! Was! Oooops! we missed it, throw out the anchor and turn around! I'll just pull a U'ey and voila! right where we want to be. Jean noted that I could give lessons on making U-turns. Fortunately they seem to be legal here. We did see one stop light that had one of its lights that appeared to give (and take away) the right to make a U-turn. Right up my alley. Whoever said that travel is about learning new thngs hit the nail on the head although learning how to do U-turns may not have been quite what the author intended.

We're planning to go to Ballarat tomorrow and probably spend a couple of nights there before heading off to Bendigo to get the bikes and then on to Melbourne to catch our respective planes. I just can't believe that the three months in Australia are reduced now to less than 100 hours. Where does the time go?

Cheers! 

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