Grampians National Park, Great Ocean Road, and Phillip Island

The next part of our trip had some highs and lows.

We started on a high. After Kangaroo Island we had a very long day of travel (12 hours start to finish) to Grampians National Park. I really don't remember how I was alerted to this place, but it was a worthwhile detour. We arrived after dark to our ultra-cool YHA Eco-hostel. It was a beautifully designed modern building, very clean and comfortable. The managers encouraged us to help ourselves to eggs from the chickens in the back, so the boys woke up early to get some. Unfortunately, the chickens only "pooped out" three of them (or, more likely, someone else got to them first).

Brody in the chicken's egg pooping station

So, after fresh eggs for some of us for breakfast, we went to the Hall's Gap visitor centre to learn what we should do for the day. The woman there suggested a really great hike that took us through a canyon, along rocky cliffs, through a narrow crevasse, and finally to "The Pinnacle", an overlook at the summit. It was a hot day, and so pretty tough-going, but we all really enjoyed it. Afterwards we had a picnic lunch at another scenic spot, decided we were too hot for another hike, and then decided to start heading towards our next stop: Port Fairy.

Cool crevasse

This was our first mistake. We should have spent another night in the Grampians. It was pretty and we liked it, but we were anxious to get started on the Great Ocean Road. And we had reservations. Damn my over-organization!

We stayed at another YHA in Port Fairy. It was quite unlike the previous place, but also quite charming. It was in the former home of the founder of the town, so a Victorian-era home. To be honest, it didn't have a lot of "curb appeal", but inside was cute. The stable had been converted into rooms and there was a courtyard and garden in the back. Our room was huge, and we had a washroom right next door (a big plus in hostel-living!). Another guest worked at a local bakery and he brought home scones and delicious muffins to share! (Another plus plus in hostel living!) And finally, it had the biggest tv I've ever seen and satellite! We liked the accommodations and really liked the quaint town, but had booked only one night. Second mistake.

At the Pinnacle

We started our Great Ocean Road tour by exploring Port Fairy's Griffith's Island. It was an hour long walk around this nature reserve, and it had informative placards about each of the areas of significance. It was a beautiful walk on a beautiful day, and we saw a huge ray in the harbour, shearwater (birds) burrows, hunting kestrels (they hover in one spot for minutes at a time before dive-bombing to attack their prey -- like UFOs!), a lighthouse, beaches, and wild flowers. It was a nice, easy, pretty walk.

Griffith's Island lighthouse

Griffith's Island beach

A short drive from there, we made a quick detour around Tower Hill, another nature reserve that was once a volcano. We immediately saw some emus and Brody spotted a koala tucked in the crook of a tree. We were still on a high.

Emus at Tower Hill

We soon after got on the Great Ocean Road and began our tour along the coast, or so we thought. In reality, a good portion of that first day of driving was actually through countryside. From time to time, there were scenic views, and we stopped at a few, but we didn't see much we hadn't seen before. Admittedly, we've seen a lot. We're hard to impress. It was really hot, 26C, so we stopped for lunch at a beach (in Peterborough) and let the boys have a swim to cool off. I made friends with a dog.

Boys cooling as my dog friend looks on.

Soon enough, we were back in the car and finally reached the Twelve Apostles.

The Twelve Apostles are large rock formations jutting out of the ocean, close to the shore. There are closer to 11 than 12, they get knocked down and new ones form every couple thousand years. If you've been following my blog, you know we've seen a lot of rock formations. These were nice, but we didn't find them extraordinary. If we hadn't seen the Pancake Rocks in NZ, we might have been more impressed. Actually, I liked the Remarkable Rocks on KI better too. Maybe I was just grumpy. We took our photos and hopped back in the car and continued through the countryside down the Great OCEAN Road to our next stopover, Apollo Bay.

Some Apostles

A couple more Apostles

Apollo Bay was a surfer town on the beach. Souvenir shops, cafés, and restaurants lined the main road. We had a little shop around after checking into our next place, another cool YHA in the style of the Grampians one. Great facilities! We decided we preferred the YHAs to the Top 10/Big 4 cabins. The boys enjoy the social nature of hostel living, I do too actually, and you don't have to go outside to pee. And the price is right! And no, we aren't the oldest people there! Well, sometimes we are, but not at these nice ones.

So, you guessed it, mistake #3 was booking Apollo Bay for only one night. Mistake #4 was leaving behind our canvas bag full of food "staples" the next morning.

The good news is that from Apollo Bay to our next stop in Torquay the Great Ocean Road actually followed the ocean and the views were quite stunning. The bad news is it was raining, so we didn't want to get out of the car. We did make a couple stops to sightsee and play tourist, including a quick visit to watch the surfers at Bell's Beach. Those of you who are Point Break fans during the 100 Year Storm. It was so windy and cold, I half expected Swayze to reappear!

Why would anyone surf here?

We arrived in Torquay at lunch time and when we stopped for our picnic lunch, we realized we were missing the food bag. We debated about whether or not we should drive the hour back to Apollo Bay, but decided against it. However, the more I thought about it over the next few days I realized we left a lot more valuable stuff behind than I originally thought. Suga'nuts!

Pretty beach along the way

Fortunately, there was good shopping in Torquay and we were able to replace the most important stuff (like Bill's coffee plunger). The rain cleared up somewhat, we had cappuccinos, and I bought a really bright floral beach cover up (retail therapy). We made the most of the day!

The next day was a longer driving day. We made a stop at a surprisingly interesting war memorabilia shop in Geelong that Jack wanted to see (to buy some military badges), then continued up through Melbourne and down again to Phillip Island.

Things get mostly bad now.

We stopped at the information centre on Phillip Island to see what there was to see. We had two days to fill. Unfortunately, we had already had an amazing animal experience on KI, so we were a little limited on what we were willing to pay for to see again. We decided we would see the Little Penguin Parade (Phillip Island's claim to fame) that night because the weather was due to take a turn for the even worse the next day. We went to check in.

It was an ugly, old 1970s trailer. Clean, but depressing. There was a sign in the toilet stall asking people to treat the place like their own home, "and that means mopping the shower and using the toilet brush." Well, that unreasonably annoyed me. I mean, I'm on vacation. I'm paying to have my toilet cleaned for me! (I still can't let it go!)

We went to town and had a much too greasy dinner, regretted it, then went to see the little penguins. "Little penguins" is the breed. They're the littlest penguin breed -- go figure.

Brief high point: That night, according to park rangers, 1788 little penguins came ashore while we watched. It was amazing! They washed up in the tide, waddled up from shore in big groups, crossed the beach, and made their way up to their burrows. As we returned to the car park, we watched them waddle right by us. Some of the males were having chest bumping arguments over who deserved the nearby female. Pretty funny! No cameras were allowed = no pictures.

Really low point: The next morning I woke up totally depressed for no apparent reason. It was the "nothing-can-make-me-happy-today" kind of feeling. The weather was lousy, and I wanted to stay in bed all day. (DON'T WORRY MOM, IT WAS JUST FOR THE ONE DAY. I FEEL JUST FINE NOW). It was strange. I told Bill how I was feeling, and he said he felt off too. Maybe it was our greasy dinner from the night before. Every time I went to the washroom, I wanted to rip that toilet brush sign down! I ate a bunch of chocolate, had a cappacino, and went to browse around town by myself. I made a comfort food dinner of spaghetti and meatballs, and garlic bread with cheese, and then I was mostly better. By the next day I was back to normal.

I took no photos on Phillip Island. I was too sad. Like I said, all good now.

The next day we left for Melbourne. (the r is silent)