We are currently on the Great Ocean Rd, chasing the surf and the sun. Before arriving at the coast we spent a couple of days in the Grampians, bushwalking and reliving Luke's climbing adventures (not literally - there is no way I would be going anywhere near Tipan Wall). Now that we're at the coast we have been surfing (nice little beach break out the front of our campsite in Warrnambool) and when the surf has been heaving, like at the 12 Apostles, we have been watching the lunatic surfers with awe and amusement - seems to me that surfing in heavy waves and big swell includes altogether too much duck diving and paddling and not that much actual riding of the waves. I'll stick to my 2 footers!
Last night we went for a sunset viewing of the 12 Apostles ... and encoutered every other bloody tourist in Victoria as well!! The view was amazing, but the serenity a bit lacking.
We are continuing along the GOR for the rest of the week and then will hop across to the Mornington Peninsular. We have discovered that caravan parks are charging upwards of $60 a night for a campervan site over the easter hols, so we will be sticking to the national parks. Means no more blogs until we eaten all our chocolate eggs!! Have a good break, for those that work (ha ha).
Some selected photos up on flikr. Gramps and GOR photos
We have made it as far as Horsham, Vic where we are hanging out in the library to update the blog. So far we have travelled from Adelaide along the coast to Mt Gambier, and through the SA south east into Vic. The key attractions / stop-overs have been:
- Surfing in the Great Southern Ocean - at Middleton, where Ailsa got a bit scared by the very murky water coming out of the Murray Mouth and at Beachport, where the 2 ft waves were peeling left and right perfectly (check out the photos)
- Driving along the Coorong - especially since there is water in there
- Seeing the Murry Mouth from Hindmarsh Is - very, very murky
- Being the only ones overnighting in Little Dip NP (well, apart from 1,000,000 mozzies)
- A tour of the Bat Cave at Naracoort Caves to see the endangered Southern Bentwing Bats
- Bird-watching at Bool Lagoon, a huge wetland that is fully inundated
- Visiting Mt Arapiles and reminiscing about Luke's climbing adventures
- Lunch at our favourite winery Blok (big bowl of soup and a glass of red on a rainy day - perfection)
- Catching up with friends in G-town and Horsham (hi to all)
Photos have been uploaded onto flikr
Photos - Adelaide to Horsham
We are about to roll out of Adelaide and hit the road on our grey nomad adventures. Our trip over to Adelaide was event free and via Wagga, Mildura and the latest big thing (check out the big thing page). We were amazed by the amount of water lying around on the road between Wagga and Mildura, and saw lots of birds to start off the twitching list. Troopy's highlight was a ferry ride across the Mighty Murray River at Mannum, SA (see photo below). We've had a couple of days getting organised in Adelaide and managed to fit in a Tuesday midday surf (19oC, 1/2 ft waves!!) - got to love not working!!
