[Sorry - trying out some new photo software and haven't cracked it! Batteriy about to go and don't have time to play around with it - so I think the photos will be at the end}
Australia – a land of false dawns and broken promises – at least as far as the weather is concerned!
The Grampian Mountains and our camp at Troopers Creek were beautiful – as was the weather, warm with blue skies and NO rain. Sandra decided to have a rest day i.e. instead of driving she spent the day in camp finishing off the wire butterflies she has been experimenting with, whilst I got happily lost driving the network of 4WD tracks that criss-crossed the mountains. The following day we explored a landscape of dramatic mountain vistas dotted with lakes and waterfalls – we could have been at home in the “real” Grampian Mountains! We then headed south again through Dunkeld, crossing the Glenelg Highway and hitting the coast at Warrnambool – the largest place we had encountered since leaving Adelaide. After re-fuelling and re-provisioning we set off one what is billed as one of the world’s great road trips – The Great Ocean Road - but first we needed a place to camp for the night.
We usually camped in the national parks but with nothing suitable along that bit of coast and wild bush camping not really available, we looked for a commercial site. The coastal scenery of The Bay of Islands Coastal Park was absolutely stunning in the late afternoon sunlight and our search for a campsite was continually hampered by yet another must see viewpoint – so it was late on in the day that we rolled into the small coastal village Peterborough. With the sun setting we sat outside the tent in the evening warmth with a glass or two of red wine – perfect. With less than a month left of our trip and our weather experiences so far being variable to wet – here was hoping that the last few weeks would be of the warm, dry, blue skies variety.
Peterborough lies on “The Shipwreck Coast” – for obvious reasons as the seas and coastline in this part of the world are treacherous and there are various plaques commemorating 19th century maritime tragedies. Interestingly many of the ships were built in Scotland and at least two of the plaques told of cargoes of alcohol being “rescued” from the waves by thirsty locals and constables being stationed on the beach to stop pilfering. The original stories upon which Compton McKenzie based “Whisky Galore” perhaps?
The next day was to be the highlights of The Great Ocean Road – natural rock formations along the coast caused by erosion including The Grotto, London Bridge, The Arch, Sentinel Rock, Loch Ard Gorge and, most famous and iconic of all, The Twelve Apostles.
Like many Australian icons including The Opera House, The Harbour Bridge, Ayres Rock, The Olgas, The Devils Marbles, Ningaloo Reef, The Flinders etc. etc. they are most frequently viewed and photographed in the sun with a backdrop of unblemished blue sky. It is only the most fortunate of tourists who manage to get photographs of these Great Australian Icons in the rain – and once again we were very fortunate and were able to add The Twelve Apostles to our long list of wet icons!
The hope of fine weather proved to be yet another false dawn and the morning skies in Peterborough were grey and blustery with a promise of rain to come – a promise kept to the full – and thus we did the Great Ocean Road wrapped in fleeces and Goretex. None-the-less the natural features of the coastal landscape were very impressive as we queued up with bus loads of Japanese/Chinese/ tourists to take our snaps. Sandra had a problem counting 12 Apostles and, amidst rumours that one of them had fallen down, I maintained they were still all there but several couldn’t be seen as they were lurking in the mist!
Sandra and I saw the Apostles separately as she marched off in the lead and assumed that I would follow. However, as I was about to follow, I was accosted in the carpark by two young(ish) girls who asked if I had a wire coathanger - a “locked-keys-in-car” scenario I thought, and so it proved. Being short of coathangers I improvised using a tent peg and an axe, managed to break into the car and, after being thanking me in the customary manner, they were on their way. I hope it actually was their car – Sandra of course didn’t believe a word of the story.
Thinking about where to camp for the night we headed inland hoping to get away from the rain - bad move. As we went up into the hills it got worse, so evening saw us back at the coast at the bottom end of the Great Otway National Park camped by the beach at Blanket Bay. A brief glimpse of late evening sun, a walk along the very attractive beach with a glass of wine and suddenly things didn’t seem too bad. It was here that Sandra had one of her biggest thrills of the trip so far – sitting outside the tent in the failing light she suddenly shrieked – a face was looking at her from a tree. Closer inspection showed it was two faces – a mother Koala and her baby, just feet away – our first Koalas in the wild.
Next morning it was cloudy and wet again, the beach didn’t seem so attractive, the Koalas had disappeared, so we packed up and left to make our way to Melbourne (although we didn’t get there)
We gave the rest of the G.O.Road a miss and, just after Apollo Bay, turned inland into the Otway Ranges and some very attractive countryside. Shortly after this I realised that once again I had been duped as, by some incredible coincidence, we found ourselves at Birregurra where there just happened to be a world famous wool producer who just happened to have a retail outlet which Sandra just happened to want to visit. However there is a God – it was Thursday, the one day of the week the shop was closed. She decided to have a look anyway and it was at this point that it was confirmed that there was a God – but he wasn’t on my side. Down a long, windy track we found the farm and, as Sandra was peering longingly through the barn window, the farmer appeared on the scene and, upon finding we were from Scotland (his wife is from Galashiels) he opened the place up specially for Sandra – who of course felt obliged to spend a small fortune on wool.
Laden down with wool we headed for Geelong (where I seem to remember Prince Charles went to school for a term or so but we missed the plaque) and had lunch in the very trendy Lambys Restaurant – part of the Wool Museum complex – wool seems to be quite prominent in this part of the world. A wander down the modern, attractive seafront development with its bigger that lifesize figures (including a sailor with a couple of floozies and some decidedly gay life guards) then north to The Brisbane Ranges National Park – a park where the Koalas are so thick on the ground you have to step over them to get to your tent – allegedly!
I am typing this next morning in the Boar Gully campsite in Brisbane Ranges NP – not a Koala in sight; the frogs have chorused all night sounding like a band of demented banjo players; the skies are grey; the wind is getting up; it has started to rain – but, as Sandra has just commented, “At least it’s not too cold” Such is life on the road in Australia.
PS Written about 12 hours later.
We spent the day in Melbourne with Sandra going round wool and thread shops in a trendy/crafty area of the city. I hung around trying not to look too bored – obviously unsuccessfully as a shop owner commented to Sandra “Is he yours?” the implication being I was scaring away paying customers. Sandra spent a small fortune on wool and other assorted nonsense, whilst I incurred a small fortune when I discovered that, although I had paid $13 for a parking ticket, I had inadvertently parked in a loading zone and got a $119 fine – $132 (about £80) down the drain - I was none too happy!
With the journey out of Melbourne during the rush hour taking the best part of two hours then getting lost in a national park looking for a campsite (and not finding one) taking us almost to sunset, things were not looking too good. Eventually finding somewhere to set up house in the Kurth Kiln State Park, we had no sooner put the tent up when there was a flash of lightning, a peal of thunder then the heavens opened and the torrents of rain were upon us. This was the last straw - after so much rain over the last few weeks (months?) I was just about ready to pack in and go home - but as Sandra said, putting on her most optimistic voice “Well at least it’s still warm - and I do like a good thunderstorm” – so I’ll probably just stick it out.
PPS Another day later.
Still raining. Holed up in a forest with a bunch of "ferals" who were digging trenches to try to keep the water out of their living accommodation. Rain let up for a bit around noon so we went for a walk in the forest. Sandra thought she was being bitten by mosquitos but when she looked down she saw he legs were covered with small slimey things - leeches! That wouldn't have been so bad but she then pointed out they were also all over me. This led to a happy 15min leech picking session before they managed to squirm anywhere more intimate!
I have been sent to look for an internet connection to firstly post this blog and, more importantly, to get a weather forecast. We will go anywhere it isn't raining - this of course may require an early exit from Australia - a country of neverending rain - at least everywhere we go. 'm not paranoid - the rain is really after us!!!!!!
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