Crusing down the Great Ocean Road and Halls Gap
Trip Start
Jun 14, 2008
1
52
93
Trip End
Jun 20, 2009
Port Fairy,
Victoria,
Australia
Thursday, January 8, 2009
One of the most famous parts of the drive is the 12 apostles, rock stacks formed by the erosion of the limestone cliffs
Rain rain go away
. Continued erosion means only 8 or 9 still stand, but they are truly impressive. It's a shame the weather was poor, otherwise I would have been tempted to stick around for sunrise....or at least sunset. (Yes the whole sun sucker thing again.) There were dozens of Japanese tourists there getting helicopter flights over the stacks, not sure I'd spend all that money just to see them from on high. After that blustery stop, the poor weather pretty much made our minds up not to linger on the road longer than a day. We pulled into a seaside town at the end of the drive called Port Fairy for the night. We had kindly been lent a tent by our Adelaide friends Bec and Steve, unfortunately we forgot to ask them for a loan of their sleeping mats as well. After the a quick bite to eat we tried to settle down for the night, but a chorus of crazed cockatoos and the cold hard ground made for an uncomfortable time. I was tempted to escape for the car, but stuck it out until first light, when we packed up our tent and made a swift exit.
It was onto the Grampians National Park the next day, famous for its amazing rock formations and abundant wildlife. The sun had come out at last. It was a pretty short drive, although it took longer because we kept pulling over to look at wild koalas in the trees
beautiful coastline
. We must have seen fifteen, which is pretty incredible considering some of my Aussie mates maintain they have never seen any in the wild. They really are amazing little creatures and if it was legal or moral to keep one as a pet, I definitely would. Although I'm not too sure how himself would feel about that seeing as I am still trying to talk him around to a dog! Our campsite was conveniently located in the centre of the village, which pretty much consisted of one street with a few restaurants and shops. The setting was amazing, huge gum trees towering over us, dwarfed themselves by the rugged mountains. We spent the day checking out some of the local sites, including the McKenzie falls which looked so good we both wanted to jump in. Unfortunately swimming is not allowed, so we had to satisfy ourselves with the incredible view. Later that night we treated ourselves a slap up meal in one of the local restaurants, we both wanted to try kangaroo. I have to admit, seeing a little joey jump about with his mother in our campsite on the way over did tug at my would be vegetarian heart strings and it was with a guilty conscience I tucked into skipper later. I won't be eating roo again. It was cooked the right way, which according to Aussies is pretty rare, I just didn't take too much to the taste.
The next morning we arose early as we were racing back to Adelaide to get there in time for Kim's birthday
what's left of the 12 apostles
. Dusk or dawn is the best time to spot roos, and spot them we did in the dozens!! We saw a baby joey jump into its mother's pouch and also saw a pair of roos boxing, the video of which I've put up for your viewing pleasure. It was hilarious, but it was also very disconcerting the way every single Kangaroo stopped and stared at us as we drove slowly past. Maybe they knew we had eaten one of their brethren! Unfortunately we couldn't escape their evil eyes as you have to go really slow as they can hop out and crash into the car really easily. We saw loads of road kill and in fact nearly saw a roo killed like this the day before. I don't know if we cared more about hitting a Roo or the fact that we hadn't opted for any extra insurance on our car rental!! Anyway, in the end I think we may have been lucky to escape Kangaroo karma. 
