Australia Southeast, Part II (photos)

March 1-6

Philip Island

Near Melbourne we stopped for a few days (1-2 Mar) on Phillip Island, which is famous for their "penguin parade." The penguin parade, which happens nightly, consists of herds of "fairy penguins" waddling up the beach after feeding out at sea for up to two weeks. They come in around 8pm every night. After the first one arrives, you can watch them storm the beach and rush to climb up into the bush to their burrows. It's pretty fun to see, but, due to the "touristic" appeal of the traffic, you end up paying a good bit of money to sit on concrete stadium-style stands and listen to a boring commentary until the floodlights come on. Even after PAYING, you have to be stealth if you want to video or take any photos. BUT, not to be negative, we were there, so I can't complain about it being touristic.... as the woman said to her husband when he arrived home complaining of rush-hour traffic: "you are the traffic."

Anyway, we also went to the location of the penguin parade during the day and they have an "interpretive" boardwalk which we walked on and we saw that the penguins were hanging out under the boardwalk. I got a photo of this penguin by hanging over the edge and filming underneath. Here's a profile of a penguin giving me the evil eye. When you leave, you need to check under you car for penguins before driving away.

Bending over the edge of boardwalk and stooping down to check under the car was more work than I'm used to, so when we got back to our "trailer park", I had a nap. That's our tent and table there and those big trees are Eucalyptus, which are the kind that koalas live in. AND, you may be surprised to learn that koalas attack. Everything is very dangerous in Australia. Even the cute little platypus has a venom-filled talon on its back foot. You also need to watch out for seagulls.


Melbourne

After Philip Island, we continued our clockwise journey and came into Melbourne. It's a nice city with some good old buildings, and we had a good time doing the self-guided walking tour. The Grand Prix was also there the same weekend, and on Thursday, you could get in for free, so we went and had a look. The cars go fast and you only see them for a split second. I don't get it. Here's a photo. We did a long walk and checked out the "alternative" part of town and had a great dinner at a place called "Deelish." We don't eat out much so it was nice.


Great Ocean Road

Melbourne is the beginning of the Great Ocean Road, which runs along the coast to Port Campbell or so. It was fantastic with great views of roaring abandoned beaches. We were going clockwise. The first place we stopped was Torquay which is a famous surfing location. We don't surf so we didn't really care but we stopped in the visitor's center and got a brochure listing the interesting sites along the way. We read it, digested it, created a mental map of the journey and checked off the locations as we went along. We like doing things like that sometimes.
--- The first place we stopped was Torquay, another famous surfing spot. The ocean views were nice, and we watched some surfers. CHECK.
--- The next stop was in Anglesea. It was raining. We went to a golf course known for its population of kangaroos. We saw herds of them. And, as I said, everywhere in Australia is dangerous. Ok, kangaroos. CHECK.
--- My notes tell me we next saw a lighthouse, a big arch and some waterfalls. Probably took photos, but they aren't uploaded. CHECK.CHECK.CHECK.
--- Next stop, KOALAS! There was a little turn off near the town of Kennett River. We were instructed to turn left at the caravan park and head a couple kilometers up the road. Then, we were to look up into the gum trees. We weren't sure what size they were but once we saw one (I spotted it first, hah!) we knew what we were looking for. We saw probably twenty or thirty different koalas, some of them were even awake. I got some great video of one climbing... a rarity during the day (they sleep twenty hours a day). We later learned that the koala population is in danger because a lot of the females are infected with clamydia. As I said, Australia is a dangerous place. Here is a picture of Betty on the road in Kennett river and here is a picture of a koala. Allright, koalas, CHECK.
--- Next we stopped for the night in Marengo, which is right next to Apollo Bay. It was cold and stormy, and we hung out in the camp kitchen. When we arrived, there was a pretty cool rainbow. Apollo Bay, CHECK.


The next day, 6 March 2005, according to my notes, I showered. We left around 11:30am and headed to the Melba Gully and did a short hike. There was a sign at the beginning of the hike warning of snakes. Then, we continued along and made it to the vicinity of the Twelve Apostles. We stopped off at Gibson Beach, which is just before the apostles. Since they didn't have color photography in the time of the apostles, I shot some photos in black and white. Here is Dara walking on the beach and here is one of the apostles, as viewed from Gibson Beach in black and white. Here is a picture the two of us on Gibson Beach. Ok, Gibson Beach, CHECK.
--- Next stop was the Twelve Apostle viewing boardwalk. Here is a picture looking back at Gibson Beach. Here is the standard Twelve Apostle photo and here is a photo of us, in sepia. The sky was very overcast, so we decided that we would check out some of the other sites and head back for sunset. When we went back to the carpark, I noticed a lot of helicopters. We prefer wheels. Twelve Apostles, CHECK.
--- Next we went and checked out some big blowholes. The ocean had carved out a channel and roars into these narrow passages and spurts up when it hits the edge. This photo, in my opinion, fails to convey these features. Thunder Cave Blowhole, CHECK
--- Next, we went and climbed down to Loch Ard Gorge. It was pretty cool. Here is a photo of us at the gorge. Notice that the weather is clearing up. Gorge, CHECK
--- Next, the Seabrooke River. We saw a lot of rivers hitting the sea in Australia and they are always interesting battles between water forces. Here is Dara, backlit. Seabrooke River, CHECK.
That was it, we checked off just about everything on the list, time to go to the campground. We stayed in Port Campbell that night and saw this coastal view on the way. We set up our tent, and according to my notes, had cocktails. Then we went back to the Twelve Apostles for sunset. It was pretty cloudy. Back to Port Campbell. It rained, and we played cards in the camp kitchen.