|
  | |  |
Beaches and Craters tour of SA and Vic
Entry 77 of 85 | show all | print this entry |
|
Before entering Victoria, all the evidence that I'd gathered pointed in the direction of this state being the one that's most similar to England. The stormy weather that greeted us upon crossing the state border further confirmed this assertion.
Opting to break for the beach, in the hope that surely, the weather couldn't be as bad there as in England, could it... we passed through Nelson, and somewhat precariously down to Cape Bridgewater on single-lane roads, having to veer off onto the dirty beside it whenever a vehicle came the other way.
On approach it was as if the clouds lifted, revealing clear blue lakes in the forefront, fringed by aquablue waves lapping white sand beaches, stretching out to spectactular sandy cliffs. These fleeting views disappeared soon disappeared, as if only figaments of our imagination, as once the road wound down to the Cape we were yet again left to cower from the wind and rain inside the van, having breakfast, of sorts, on the beach.
 
A few k's up the road, we decided it would be worth braving the weather to see the sights of the Cape, of which, somewhat surprisingly, there were many. Stopping to see the blowholes, the benefits of the blustery weather became clear, actually enhancing this scenery, whipping up frothy waves to hammer the already battered cliffs. At this point the winds were comparable to those I experienced on the Costa Brava, aka, determined to blow both you and your posessions as far apart as possible.
  
The situation was thankfully much calmer with the wind at our backs, heading inland for the Petrified Forest. The intriguingly named Forest was in fact a series of sand pipes, supposedly resembling scared trees, although I likened them more to organ pipes. This was yet another example of the variety of scenery we found in this country, stumbling on it without even realizing it was there, almost.
 
Literally as soon as we made it back to the van, there was a great downfall of rain, clattering down on the roof of the poor van. This pre-empted our decision to head inland, through Portland, the "Gateway to Victoria", in attempt to leave behind the misery of rainy coastline. We were headed for Mount Eccles National Park, a now dormant volcano, in this the third most volcanic region in the world, and possibly one of the biggest kept secrets in the world!
Again, the rain magically eased off as we plucked up the confidence to emerge from the van, and the sun even descended upon the crater for a brief period while we traversed the 2 km ridge walk around the crater, offering pretty views of Lake Surprise below - a brown lake (supposedly blue in summer), that filled 3 of the 4 craters within the volcano - apparently making it a unique fissure explosion if the forming of all these craters occuring together.
  
Before the ridge walk we'd ended a 60 m long lava cave, with only a small entrance hole, fringed with rocky rubble, which previous inhabited this hole, and thus little light to guide us to the back if the cave. Thus after the walk, we returned with a torch, which illuminated the black and white stripes running up the side of the cave - different rock forms deposited by the solidified lava once the flow through the caves had dried up. I swear I saw a bat aswell!
On the walk we managed to spot some colourful birds and a kangeroo, whilst conquering the mighty peak of Mount Eccles... after the walk, we understood why the guidebook referred to as "not really a mountain"...
Our next mission consisted of following a wayward sign to the Turuli Lave Blisters to satiate our curiousity as to what lava blisters actually were. 20 km later, and who knew where we were. They turned out to be small, partially risen lumps/piles of blacky/green lava rocks, randomly spotted around fields now inhabited by vast numbers of sheep. Yet another strange piece of scenery we had no idea was even in existance...
Two stupendous rainbows lit up the drive back to the coast, and Warrnambool, as the sun poked its majestic head through the rain-infused sky. This little drive featured a vist to Koroit, apparently the place with the large Irish community in Australia... the welcome sign featured a little leprachaun, and a poster for an Irish festival, held on St Patricks Day last year... nice to know they update these things regularly.
In Warrnambool, the start of the Great Ocean Road, we pulled up at Logan's Beach, an acclaimed whale-watching site, somewhat mired by the poor visibility of the day. Despite that anti-climax there was a superbly odd orange beach, lapped again by glorious blue waves.
 
The cold drove us inside the van, for another weather-battered night - at times feeling like we were going to wake up at the bottom of a hill, the wind having carried us there.
*356 km driven*
|
|
If you like this entry, search for other entries by sianeth, from Australia or try a new search. |
| |
Back to Entry - Back to Home
|
56 votes 
