Oz report 3 GOR day 3

Strictly the next few photos belong to Day 2, evening thereof, but I figures the Day 2 post was getting a bit long.

Evening light at Port Fairy beach

Our second Airbnb

Breakwater with lighthouse in distance

Lone evening paddle surfer, Life of Pi?

Having eaten, slept and leisurely eaten again we checked out the lighthouse on Griffiths Island, which marked the most westerly point of our Oz trip, before embarking on the journey back to Melbourne and our third Airbnb.

Between Port Fairy and Warrnambool is Tower Hill, a volcanic feature best described by the map below, a nature reserve and the subject of a famous painting. Not famous to me, mind you. We drove the one-way road entering by the westerly isthmus where we saw two emus, but this was a place with many nature trails that might occupy a whole day exploring. Maybe next time. But will there be a next time? It is sobering at my age to wonder whether I will ever get to see places I visit again.

Tower Hill à la Google Maps

Eugene von Guérard’s famous 1855 painting of Tower Hill

Westerly isthmus

These two emus posed just for us

View of the lake as we exited Tower Hill

Our route from Warrnambool to Geelong follows the A1 road which in turn follows the Warrnambool railway line, single track in broad gauge (5' 3"), stopping at Camperdown for lunch and to check out the Leura Maar, another volcanic feature. Indeed the whole of this vast flat plain across which we travelled is dotted with the remnants of inactive volcanoes. I imagine a desolate and fiery landscape those many thousand years ago. Conveniently there is a paved road that takes us virtually to the summit of Mt Leura, but to surmount the conical Mt Sugarloaf required walking which we were apparently not up to in this instance. Maybe next time...

Leura Maar, we parked at the red marker, those lakes are also craters

In Oz you must always do as instructed

Read all about it

The dreaded hooded picnicker

Mt Sugarloaf

Train on the Warrnambool line

With a view from the top

Lake Corangamite (not to be confused with Vegemite), and other inactive volcanoes

The original crater rim referred to in the plaque

The plaque referred to above

Thence to Colac where we had a McDonald's loo break...

Lake Colac

And then to St Kilda suburb of Melbourne for our third Airbnb experience extraordinaire complete with rooftop infinity pool.

Infinity

Melbourne and Yarra River

Panic

Let him that glorieth glory in this

The 7th floor apartment, Airbnb No.3

Melbourne at night

Made in Australia

Day 4 was spent in Melbourne's Victoria Market and apart from a single photo place marker I make no further comments. Although the lunch was good. And so ended our fantastic holiday within a holiday.

Queen Victoria Market

Ethnic lunch

Melbourne trams are everywhere

Oz report 3 GOR day 2

Great Ocean Walk

Day 2 of our fantastic Great Ocean Road break starts from Wild Dog Valley in Apollo Bay, Victoria. From here the GOR meanders inland, making a brief comeback at Castle Cove and then inland again until Princetown.

Rolling hills just west of Apollo Bay

At Castle Cove I discovered the Great Ocean Walk which does the coast bit whilst the GOR is inland, and I ventured a few hundred metres along its total length of 104 km before acknowledging the constraints of the remainder of my party.

Castle Cove

A very small part of the Great Ocean Walk

From there my camera deemed nothing worthy of note until we reached the 12 apostles. These are actually neither apostles (but lumps of rock) nor are there 12 of them, the missing ones having long since eroded and collapsed into the sea. The whole outfit is a huge tourist trap although I think we got away with not spending a cent. For $570 per person we could have been flown by helicopter way above the apostles and related landmarks.

$570 per person

Some still standing, some fallen apostles

Having "done" the apostles K and I agreed to walk the cited 30 minutes to the Gibson Steps originally carved in the limestone (apparently not sandstone) but now concrete. On the way we almost tripped over a fox. Honest. Foxes around here, like everything else, are apparently used to tourists. The two limestone stacks between the 12 and these steps are not apostles, being called Gog and Magog, names that seem somewhat arbitrary.

The fox we almost saw (private joke)

Proof of how close we were

Gibson steps

The beach at the bottom with Gog and Magog

A little further along the GOR we come to the Tom and Eva Gorge - follow the link to find out who these two were, now immortalised in these two stacks, and where you will also see that we somehow missed the beach below my next photo. Sad - the water there might have been warmer!

Tom and Eva

A cave nearby

Looking East from the Razorback

A yet a little further along the great road we come to London Bridge, another "must see" but frankly more of the same. Not that it wasn't worth looking at. The signage tells us that London bridge has fallen down as indeed the left hand arch did 25 years ago. It seems that the whole of this coast is at serious risk so that Australia is slowly shrinking, dissolving into the sea.

London bridge

And finally to our second Airbnb, an upstairs apartment overlooking the beach at Port Fairy. The view from our bedroom was just amazing. Thank you K! Pictures from the beach will have to wait until my Day 3 blog post.

View from our bedroom

Oz report 3 GOR day 1

So much excitement has sort of eclipsed my last Oz report. We flew to Melbourne on staff travel and "did" the Great Ocean Road. Because our intended flight was full we had to reschedule at the outset and take a zeroth night in the Ibis very-budget at Melbourne airport. You can of course click on the photos to enlarge them.

Three men in a boat at Ibis

Thereafter K had organised Airbnb for each of three nights and I have to say this is the way to go as I think you will agree...

Simple map of GOR

The GOR starts at Torquay, 113 km south of the airport, where of course we had to sample the beach. Indeed the whole coastline of the GOR appears to me made of this soft orange rock which looked to me like sandstone. Note the virga trailing from the clouds. An inscription on the boardwalk helpfully informed us that Antartica lurked 6000km across the horizon which we figured might explain the sea temperature.

Torquay

From Torquay to Appolo Bay the GOR generally hugs the coast apart from convoluted and tortuous bends and gradients to negotiate water courses. One such exception is at Cinema Point where we are told that returned First World War servicemen built the Great Ocean Road as a tribute to their fallen comrades.

The next port of call was Lorne which boasts a pier (which we did not frequent as it looked rather tacky) and (fleetingly) a topical inscription on the sand.

The pier, Lorne

We dutifully added our own rock stacks at this location. Mine was of course the best, but then it fell over... Strange but that name was also left here.

So many beaches that I lost count. Wide seas, large skies, gorgeous weather.

And so to Apollo Bay the destination of our first Airbnb. First we checked out the local Fish'n'Chip place where we sampled Flake, apparently the Oz equivalent of the British Rock Salmon and a euphemism for Shark. Had we known... We wandered down to the quay, passing an interesting sign and still more interesting graffiti thereon, and found a fishing vessel garlanded with powerful lights which we learned attracted squid. Now why, I ask, would anyone want to attract squid?

And so to our first Airbnb a ways up the awesome Wild Dog Valley, complete with parrots, deer and goats on the property and the Karmic goat farm nearby. The good thing about Airbnb is that you have the place to yourself. I have never liked regular B&B which remind me of my first digs in Banstead on getting a job with the BBC: the landlady was a lonely older person who kept calling me to see if I wanted a sandwich or a drink when all I wanted was solitude.

Wild Dog Valley, Apollo Bay

Our first Airbnb

Wild dog valley

Look what K found!

Karmic - They make soap from the milk

More valley

The landlord keeps a flock of deer

Oz report 2

A trip to Eumundi Markets, a widely acclaimed and up-market-market but, not surprisingly, the sort that tries to empty one's pockets. I noted several of the male species obediently tagging their wives or resting on benches conveniently placed for the purpose.

Apparently the method is to "do" the whole market whilst noting potential items to buy, and then to return to actually make the purchases if nothing better (cheaper) is found. The sales persons were generally good at their job - but this guy failed even though we returned to his stall. Apparently the desirable, water resistant, large purse with many pockets was not needed after all.

The colonisers of Australia have apparently adopted the didgeridoo - two rather loud bands here were employing them. Probably the true native would be appalled at their manner of use. 

This enterprising young guy struck up on Ode of Joy just as we passed and I could not resist donating a dollar (my daughter's) to his cause, for which he thanked me politely.  That well spent dollar was the sum total of my own purchases.

After exhausting the market (or ourselves) we moved onto Noosa main beach and fought the breakers for a while - even in Oz autumn the water was gloriously warm when compared with Ireland.

Oz report

We're staying with K for 3 weeks in Brisbane. So far I have run every morning, though not yet all that far. I'm gradually exploring the neighbourhood whilst generally keeping on paved surfaces as a precaution against spiders, crocs, sharks, box jellies and the like. This mural, on the Morton Bay Rail Link cycle-way, is typical of the local, high-class and tasteful street art.

Last night it rained and it rained and I therefore anticipated a glorious tropical-rain-run this morning but was disappointed. I started off soon after 0630 but by then the rain had eased off. As usual they forecast pessimistically. But at least the residual rain was warm (by Irish standards) and the run was enjoyable.

Freckle

There is a small freckle on my right leg just above the knee. Not very significant, you say, doubtless most of us have odd freckles here and there. But this one is memorable - I can remember as a child studying this freckle. Look back at your childhood and you will probably not remember being aware of your own body, indeed even as adults we largely take our bodies for granted. And so, along with my favourite picture of myself kindly colour corrected by JA, this freckle is yet another link with my childhood.

I considered posting a photo of my freckle but, on reflection, figured that whilst I would see the freckle, others would only see pimples on my hairy leg...

Courtown run

Five mile run interlude during home school conference in Gorey, Co.Wexford.

Wild garlic

Furthest point North

The sea, the sea... 

Just heard on the radio for the first time the song La mer and rather liked it, with lyrics in the original French as any poetry is totally lost in an English translation.

Bluebells

Thou shalt not six

To update those of my readers who may not be otherwise aware of T's progress, I have just heard that the effects of the chemo are now hitting him hard. I need not go into details except to say that it makes me cry to read his parents' latest post. I continue to ask God for his complete healing, but now also for T's strength, hope, protection and perseverance to see this thing through.

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