Day 17 to 20 Grampians and Great Ocean Road

Day 17 - 20/07/12 The Grampians  38 km

Since it was a very grey old morning, we had a lazy time and didn’t get away from the cottage until 11am. We didn’t go far, though, just to the zoo, which we can see from the cottage. For a regional, family-owned zoo, and only costing $22 each to get in, it is pretty good. We spent 2½ hours wandering around, even though we got rained on a couple of times. The Close Encounters were pretty cheap too, but we didn’t bother with them, as they were only with things like meerkats, snakes, lizards etc – no big cats there!

As always, the meerkats and monkeys were fun to watch. The dingos were pretty laid back

Surprisingly, the tawny frog-mouth was wide awake

But the wallabies must have had a big night.

To show you how close we were staying to the zoo, this is our cabin, photo taken from the zoo.

 

Whenever we go to Taronga Zoo, we love watching the red pandas, and were looking forward to them here, but alas, they weren’t very active.

The pygmy marmoset monkeys had just recently (as in a few days ago) had babies. Here is Dad carrying them around (you can just see the curly tail of one of them).

On the way back to the cottage, we decided to go and see what Pomonal (the closest town to our cottage) looked like – and it wasn’t a total waste of time, because on the way there, we got to see a pretty rainbow!

Back to the cottage for lunch, then into Halls Gap for the internet (free wi-fi at one of the cafés so we had to have afternoon tea there). When we got back to the cottage, a mob of kangaroos were eating right up close to the cottage. One of them had a very young joey in her pouch.

Day 18 - 21/07/12 The Grampians  121 km

Today was always going to be a full day, as we were planning to do 2 walks, but by the end of it, we actually did 3!

It was a clear morning, and Les was up with the birds to take photos as the sun rose. There was a pretty good frost, and fog rolling across the hills.

Once we had breakfast, we were on our way to Mt Zero, in the northern Grampians. Along the way, there were so many grass trees, Joy just didn’t know where to look. Unfortunately not many had spikes, but still, she was SO excited!

Once we got to Mt Zero, the big decision – morning tea before or after the walk? We decided to do the walk first. The brochure said it was 1 to 1 ½ hrs, and graded medium, so off we went. It started off with a very pleasant track

 

But it soon became a bit of a scramble.

But we made it. Then after a short rest, it was back down the mountain. This time, we took the alternative route, through a very narrow space. Les was wearing the backpack, so couldn’t turn sideways to fit through – it was a bit tight!

Turns out the walk was more on the 1 ½ hours than 1 hour, and more on the harder side of medium, so morning tea was very welcome at 11:30am (Joy was hanging out for a coffee!!!).

The next walk was to Beehive Falls (Les was really looking forward to this). The brochure said it was 1 to 1 ½ hrs, and graded medium, just like Mt Zero, so we were expecting the same type of walk, but it was more on the 1 hour, and more on the easy side of medium. We were back at the car by 1:15pm, even with Les spending time taking photos of the waterfall.

We drove to Troopers Creek for lunch, and had fun fighting off the local wildlife. First, a kangaroo wanted his share, but gave up and sat under a tree and sulked.

But we never thought we’d have to protect our lunch from a Jenny Wren! These were quite aggressive, and even tried to pick up one of the knives! Joy was keeping her arms folded, but one still jumped up on to her arms – desperate for food!

We then drove around to Wartook, and along the same road we had travelled a number of times before, because we figured we would have enough time to do the walk to the Grand Canyon.

It had been such a lovely day until then, but it was threatening rain – dark grey clouds hanging around. But we took the risk, and did the walk anyway. It was definitely worth it, and photos don’t really do the Grand Canyon justice.

It started to spit a bit on the way back to the car, but we didn’t really get very wet.

Back to the cottage at around 4pm.

Day 19 - 22/07/12 The Grampians to Glenaire (Great Ocean Road)  385 km

We had planned to get away at 9:00 and we actually left right on 9:00. The first stop was to be Piccaninny for a 1 to 1 ½ hour walk but along the way we saw more of the damage that the major rain event from last year had done

After arriving at Piccaninny and with fog around we decided to give the walk a miss and move on. We arrived at Penshurst and we were looking for a covered picnic table and by luck we took the road to Mount Rouse Reserve and found a covered set of seats to shelter from the rain and fog. After morning tea we walked to the top of the mountain (an extinct volcano) and just on queue the rain cleared.

Next stop was Tower Hill Reserve near Warrnambool. This is an amazing site as it is an extinct  volcano that then had the top of it blow off. What is now left is an outer rim, lake and a central outcrop of islands.

We did a walk and were lucky enough to spot a Koala with a baby!!

Lunch was Calamari and Chips (yummy!) at Warrnambool. By the time we left Warrnambool it was 2:50 so we were running late as we still had a fair way to go. Along the road to Colac there was a section that had “dry stone walls” as fences. These went on for kilometres and kilometres.

Stopped at Colac for shopping and left to head south at 5:15. Arrived at Glenaire at 6:25 in the dark and fog.

Day 20 - 23/07/12 Cape Otway, Maits Rest and Otway Treetop Walk (Great Ocean Road)  139 km

As we had arrived the night before we had not seen the view so when we got up this morning we had a great view but cannot wait until we get a sunny morning.

We had breakfast on the verandah and had to share with the resident Rosellas

 

Headed off at 10:00 with the first stop being the lookout just down the road. It is amazing how close to the beach they farm.

From here we headed to Cape Otway Lighthouse

 and had a wander around the grounds and also climbed to the top of the lighthouse. We followed up with morning tea at the café. On the way out we spotted many Koalas. We never thought we’d get to the stage of saying “oh, just another koala”.

We did a walk at Maits Rest which was through some old forests and had some massive trees that photos cannot do justice.

unch was at Apollo Bay and then on to Otway Tree Top Walk. The road to the walk (from Apollo Bay side) is very pretty but windy and through some magnificent forests but it has a 40 kph speed limit and we were doing about 30 kph. The Tree Top walk follows some old trails down to where they have built an impressive steel walkway that is about 25 metres above the ground. Les was nervous about going on the walk but did well until he got to the highest part. Joy then went out on the cantilever section whilst Les headed for firmer ground.

Back to the cabin for a quiet night.

16th to 19th July Grampians

Day 13 - 16/07/12 Ariah Park to Shepparton  420 km

It was wonderful to have breakfast cooked for us. Les had cereal first, then both Les and Joy had a cooked breakfast. But we were very restrained – only scrambled eggs, bacon and tomato, when we could have also had sausages, mushrooms and toast with jam, fruit, yoghurt etc, etc.

We planned to leave by 9am, but when we went to pay for the accommodation, we ended up chatting to the people who were staying in the other carriage, and then with the owners, so we didn’t get away until 9:30am.

Because we didn’t really have a long way to go today, we decided to take some back roads rather than the direct route. First stop was Ganmain. The Ganmain Bakery was marked on the map, so we thought it would be a good place to stop for morning tea. But it ended up being a bit of a disappointment. We still bought a couple of slices, but we drove on to Matong to actually eat them and have our cuppas.

Driving onward we took another back road – this time to go via Urana. There is a lake there that we thought might be good to see. It was quite interesting, but not as interesting as the emus we saw beside the road!

We had lunch at a little place called Berrigan, and made it to Shepparton before 4pm, which was good, as we wanted to check out what was for sale at the SPC Ardmona factory shop. If you are ever going through Shepparton, it is definitely worth stopping at the shop, as the savings that can be had are pretty good. We spent about $90 and saved about $40 or $50 or so. It isn’t just SPC Ardmona things that are for sale – they also sell Cadbury chocolate, Heinz soup, Arnott’s biscuits, Finish dishwasher tablets, and heaps more.

We checked into the motel around 4:30pm, and spent some time on the internet, as we had free wi-fi. Neither of us really wanted to get dressed in decent clothes to go for dinner, so we found a takeaway pizza place and ate our pizza back in the motel room, whilst watching Masterchef.

Weather today was overcast and cool, with patchy rain most of the way.

Day 14 - 17/07/12 Shepparton to the Grampians  361 km

Another overcast day, but at least it isn’t raining.

Why is it that breakfast at motels is so expensive? We hadn’t brought our plastic bowls with us so couldn’t do our own breakfast with the cereal we had, and we refuse to spend so much for just a bowl of cereal and a juice. So, it was off to McDonalds, thinking Joy would be able to get cereal there – last time we had breakfast at McDonalds, they did cereal, but then that was some years ago. Now, no such luck – or maybe it is just in Shepparton that they don’t? Anyway, she had to settle for the hotcakes – tragic!

By the time we’d finished breakfast, it was just after 9am, so we were almost on schedule for departure. We thought we’d be able to have morning tea somewhere along the way, but after getting through Bendigo, there were no picnic areas to stop at. It was 11:45 before we found somewhere, and that was in Maryborough.

The weather had started to clear, and we had sunshine with scattered clouds. It made the lambs look lovely and white.

We had to slow down at one point to let an echidna cross the road.

Lunch at Stawell in the park. We had to prepare and eat our lunch in the car – not because of the weather, but because the swans and ducks swarmed around us as soon as we sat down. There was no way we’d have been able to have our lunch in peace.

We also did the grocery shopping in Stawell, as the shopping in Halls Gap is very limited and very expensive.

Arrived at our cabin at 3pm, and we love it!

We have views across to the mountains, and outside the front door is a bush that is home to a chirpy little bird.

There are kangaroos and emus everywhere.

And we can sit at the dinner table and look at the view.

Once we’d unpacked, we went into Halls Gap to get an update on which walks are closed (they had serious flooding here and some roads and walks were damaged). Joy also took the opportunity to have a cappuccino (what a surprise!). We had the pleasant surprise that the coffee shop has free wi-fi, so we will probably take advantage of that later in the week.

Once it was dark, we could check out the night sky – there are so many stars up there, and out here where there isn’t any ambient light, you can even see the Milky Way.

Dinner on the lounge in front of the TV, but without the open fire going, as it simply wasn’t cold enough to light it.

Day 15 - 18/07/12 The Grampians  67 km

We were planning to have a reasonably early start today, as one of the walks we wanted to do said it was best in the early morning as you would see the kangaroos. But, despite these good intentions, we didn’t get away from the cottage until around 10am. The weather was fine but cool – perfect walking weather.

We still did the “morning” walk, which was Fyans Loop, from the Brambuk centre (an indigenous information centre). After a false start, that we are blaming on poor signage, we enjoyed the walk, and saw enough kangaroos and emus to keep us happy, despite not getting there at the “best” time.

Back at Brambuk, we had morning tea, and checked out the photos of the Grampians after the fires in 2006 and the floods in 2011. It was absolutely amazing! In January 2011, they had 300mm rain in 3 days. They are still trying to recover from that, but only doing what needs to be done to make things safe. Let nature do what nature does.

Since Joy had been treated to a cappuccino at morning tea, it was only fair that Les be treated to a waterfall. So, it was off to walk to Clematis Falls. It was a pleasant walk, and worth it for the falls at the end. On the walk we saw a beautiful bright red and brown little bird, but it must have been shy because it wouldn’t stay around long enough to have its photo taken.

Lunch back at the cottage, then off for another short walk – this time the Serenity Walk that goes from down in front of the cottage. Took about 10 minutes.

In the afternoon, we went to Reed Lookout and The Balconies. On the way out from the cottages, Joy’s eagle eye spotted one of the little red and brown birds. After scaring Les by yelling out “STOP” at the top of her lungs, she managed to get a photo.

Reed Lookout and The Balconies are best seen in the afternoon so the sun is in the best spot. We got there just as a mini-bus-load of Italian tourists arrived, so after checking out Reed Lookout…

…we walked briskly to The Balconies. We also wanted to miss the rain that was threatening. We had The Balconies to ourselves (back in the old days you could walk out on the bottom level and they were called “The Jaws of Death”).

We made it back to the cottage at around 6pm – a long day! Still not cold enough to light the fire, but we ate tea on the lounge in front of it anyway.

Day 16 - 19/07/12 The Grampians  120 km

We definitely had an early start today as were up at 6:15 am as we wanted to head up to Boroka Lookout to watch the sun rise. As we headed away for the cottage at 6:25 am it was looking good as we could see stars in the sky. The lookout is about 25 km from the cabin and with all the kangaroos and other wildlife plus the windy road we took it easy but as we turned off the main road onto the lookout road we got our first patch of fog. The further we went the worst it go. When we arrived it was fog everywhere.

 The sun was due to rise at 7:35 but on the lookout it made no difference so at about 8:00 we gave in and headed to MacKenzie Falls for breakfast and a walk to the bottom of the falls. This is one of Les’ favourite waterfalls as he has a full size poster print at home from a shot her took back in the 80’s (remember cameras with film in them….)

View from Top

  View from bottom of Falls

The walk is 2 km return but is “steep and strenuous” (extra dessert tonight!). You can see the damage the 2011 floods did to the bridge at the bottom of the falls.

Back to the car park for morning tea and then we drove out to Zumsteins which is one of the more popular picnic areas however the flood has all but wiped out the picnic area. The Park workmen were there working on repairs today but they have lots to do. We also saw a deer in the picnic area which was a bit of a shock.

We wanted to go to Burong Falls but had not brought the map that the info centre had marked it’s location on, so we tried a well signposted road that headed in the right general area and 9 km later we were there.

Then back to Boroka Lookout and the fog had cleared by now…

… and then home for lunch. Quiet afternoon reading, knitting, doing the blog, etc (and watching the fog roll back in over the lookout which we can see from our cabin).

10th July to 15th July 2012 Bathurst and Blue Mountains

Day 07 - 10/07/12 Bathurst  ?? km

Yes, we are seeing Bathurst not at its best – overcast mostly, and chilly.

As we didn’t have any house inspections organised for the morning, we did some drive-bys, and got ourselves a bit more familiar with the various parts of Bathurst. It helps to know what the areas are like, so when we know where a house is, we have an idea of what the area is like. We have been told to avoid Kelso as it has a bad reputation, but what we’ve found is that there certainly are bad areas there, especially the older parts of it, but there are also some very nice parts.

We had a couple of inspections in the afternoon with one real estate agent, and they were OK. Two of them, though, had the rather strange plan that meant one of the bedrooms in the house had no windows! I suppose in each case there might have been valid reasons, but still…

After the inspections, it was off to McDonalds for the free wi-fi. Unlike our experience on holidays last year, the wi-fi was working, AND Les was able to get a strawberry thickshake – yes! Whilst the wi-fi might be free, it certainly isn’t fast. But at least it meant we could put up the blog and check our emails. Les did all the hard work whilst Joy passed the time trying to do a crossword.

Back at the terrace in time for the rain to start coming down. It rained on and off during the evening, but later during the night it absolutely bucketed down! We found out later that it was about 26 mm in 12 hours.

Day 08 - 11/07/12 Bathurst  0 km

Wow, did the rain come down last night! We were a bit surprised to wake this morning to find we hadn’t floated away. Whilst it was overcast in the morning, the sun came out during the day, and by the afternoon it was mostly scattered cloud. It isn’t forecast to last, though.

Today was basically full of looking at properties. You can certainly tell that what you get for your money in Bathurst is much more than you get in Mudgee. We saw a lovely house out in the new part of Kelso that had the perfect aspect to catch the winter sun in the living area, and a view across the farmland (well, it’s farmland now, but who knows how quickly that will become more housing development). The house is less than 10 years old, has 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, plus a large living area, lounge, etc, etc, all for $419,000. In Mudgee, that will get you a 10-15 year old house, with 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, in a nice area.

But, the big question – do we want to live in Mudgee or Bathurst? Is the difference in house price worth it? Bathurst, whilst a nice place, appears to have a less friendly atmosphere, and more problems with the less fortunate in society.

We had tea out with Lisa at the Schnitzel Bar. Very nice and reasonable price.

Day 09 - 12/07/12 Bathurst  0 km

Well today was washing and more inspections and it was raining on and off. 3 inspections this morning starting at 9:20. Liked 2 of the 3. Then we headed to a cafe for a hot chocolate (Joy) and Milkshake (Les) plus some pastries – we are testing out a new café each time.  Next was off to another real estate agent that we had not met last time we were in Bathurst. We saw 6 houses, some higher than our budget and some we just did not like (ie pool, etc) but we really liked the last one we saw. Solar passive, meaning that nearly all the rooms face north and it has a slate floor to trap the winter sun’s heat but in summer the sun goes straight over the top of the house.

Back to the apartment for a late lunch and rest before starting to prepare to pack stuff away.

Day 10 - 13/07/12 Bathurst to Faulconbridge  140 km

Dawned a nice sunny day and we had one more inspection this morning. Average place but had an aviary, chicken and ducks as well as cat and dog!!!! Yes it was in the middle of the suburbs.

Left Bathurst 10:00 and arrived at McDonalds at Lithgow 10:45. This must be one of the busiest McDonalds in the state based on floor size. Again Joy had a coffee and Les a thickshake and YES the machine was working and so was the Wi-Fi. Spent 1 hour 10 minutes checking and sending emails (we did say it was slow). Had lunch at the pie shop at Wentworth Falls before doing the grocery shopping at Springwood. Arrived at our accommodation (Rachel’s Retreat) at 2:30.

We are spending 2 nights here along with 12 other people, being the Onley clan, partners and children to celebrate Joy’s mother’s 80^th birthday (17^th July) and Joy’s sister Jill’s 50^th birthday (14^th July). We had others arriving at all different times up to about 9:00 that night. Les and Matthew got the wood fired pizza oven fired up and cooked some pizzas made by Jill and Kate, even though Les was not having pizza for tea.

Day 11 - 14/07/12  Faulconbridge  17 km

A lazy morning today. Glenn cooked up a big breakfast for those who wanted it, which I think turned out to be a few. Weird, though, because Glenn didn’t have any of the cooked breakfast. I think Jill volunteered him to cook it.

Some of us headed out for a walk at about 11:00. Found a 1.2 km track that was listed as “medium”. First 100 metres was easy but it got progressively harder and Joy’s mum was starting to have a few problems with some of the big steps down so we took a side track back to a picnic area. What do you do with your mother for her 80^th birthday? Take her on a bush walk! Not too many 80 year olds would be able to do that.

So the 1.2 km ended up about 500 metres. Then 4 of the walkers, including Les, walked back along the roads (about 1 to 1 ½ km) to get the cars and come and collect the rest of the group. Back to the house for lunch and a lazy afternoon watching the rugby on the ABC and home-made scones, cream and jam prepared by Joy.

Headed to the Springwood Sports Club for tea and then back to the house for birthday cake and a video of Mum’s life (or at least the high points) put together by Joy and Les.

Day 12 - 15/07/12  Faulconbridge  to Ariah Park 419 km

Woke to another beautiful sunny day (well in the Blue Mountains anyway). Packed the car and said our goodbye’s and left the rest of the group to finish getting out of bed (as we left at such an early time of 9:00 am!!!!) and do their packing and look after the house.

Headed back west again, we seem to be going back and forward a bit. Have done almost 900 km since leaving home and we are only about 100 km from home now!!!

As we headed down from Mount Victoria the weather set in with cloud, fog and showers. So much for the sunny weather! Stopped in Yetholme for fuel and it was very cold and windy. Back to Bathurst for morning tea and then through Blayney and to Cowra where we had lunch at the lookout as the rain had stopped but was still cool and overcast.

After lunch drove through to the train accommodation near Ariah Park Country Carriages and unpacked and settled in. Along the way we spotted 2 camels which was quiet a surprise in this part of the country. It’s sheep and cattle, isn’t it? Not sheep and camel?

While we were sitting in our carriage, listening to the sounds of the country, we heard a sound we couldn’t identify. It turned out to be a fox! It was bold, walking calmly around the carriage and along the fence to the farm house. The woman who runs the B&B told us they have seen a lot of foxes this year, and that they are not at all shy. It’s a bit worrying as they have ewes about to drop their winter lambs.

The B&B owner also told us they have a cat plague this year – apparently something to do with having a mouse plague last year?

We had a beautiful tea cooked by the owners, of Pumpkin Soup with Garlic Bread, Shepherd’s Pie and vegies (not as good as Les’ mum used to make but still very nice) and Apple Cake with ice cream and cream for dessert.

Played 3 games of Pool and Joy won 2 of the 3. There was only 1 game that actually went to the end as the first and last was won when the other person sank the black ball at the wrong time! It is challenging playing pool in the train carriage, as the lack of space on the sides makes it difficult to make the shots.