Wilsons Promontory National Park

Got into the national park at about 9am. The park is supposed to be really good for bushwalking and mountain climbing and I was looking forward to doing some proper hiking. The first walk was up a small mountain/big hill (about 250m high) that looks out over Mount Vereker.

This time I was a bit more prepared....I wore trainers and took water and stuff but it was so hot I couldn’t bear to wear trousers! The 'track' was really thin, I was virtually cutting my way through the bush at the beginning. It was a fairly easy walk but there were millions of big flies everywhere. They were so annoying that I'd jog a bit to lose them every so often. At one point I legged it round a corner and disturbed something in the bushes, by the sound it was making, was very big. I stood completely still wondering if I was going to get eaten, at which point a kangaroo popped up, saw me and bounced off!

Further up it was more like climbing than walking but that was fun. When I got to the top there were some amazing views. I was in the middle of the rainforest but you could still see beaches surrounding it miles away. After that I drove a long way into the park to the information office (which for some stupid reason was about 60km into the park!), had some lunch and chilled on the beach for a bit.

After lunch I decided to climb Mt. Oberon, which is 550m high and quite rocky. The track for this climb was actually really wide and easy at the beginning but it involved a lot of proper climbing at the top. It was such a hot day I thought I was gonna die by the time I was near the top...but the view at the top definitely made it all worth it!

I’ve added pictures to the last four posts over the last couple of days. Check out the great ocean road pix, they’re great!



The Vereker track started out quite easy....



And got a bit more difficult near the top!



Almost there!



The highest rock! You can't see the massive flies everywhere, was hard to keep still but the fact that there was a 200m drop behind me helped a bit....




Panaramic pic from the top or Vereker lookout


Another one...this took ages to make so I hope you like it!



I can't find out anything about this rock, which was about 3\4 the way up Vereker lookout...but its amazing!



Mt. Oberon



View of Oberon beach, Squeaky beach and Norman beach



An island far away....



Another island!



Where I started the climb!



Another mountain



More view.....



Catchin some sun at the top!

San Remo to Shallow Inlet.....

Woke up early and was quite near to the pier so I decided to do a bit of fishing. When I was younger I used to fish a bit but it was always in ponds and never in the sea so I didn't really have a clue what I was doing. After about 20 mins of not catching anything, a kid came along and started fishing next to me. As soon as he saw my rig he shook his head and said no, no, no, and proceeded to show me how to properly set myself up!

I was fishing with a lure and he showed me how to reel it in so that it moved the way a fish does. After about 15 mins of doing this I started to notice the fish following the lure and chasing after it. I casted out and was reeling it in when a big black shape shot after it, took the lure and swam off! It fought hard for about 10 minutes before I finally got it in. The boy told me it was a decent sized barracuda and to watch out coz they have the sharpest teeth so could easily take my finger off. We had to wrap it up in my t-shirt to get the hook out! I'll put the pictures up 2moro!

Later that day I managed to break a tooth by accidentally biting into a chicken bone....I'm supposed to get subsidised medical care over here cos I'm British but they wanted me to fill in a load of forms and wait a week while they processed them! So I had to pay over $400 to get it done privately which made a serious dent in my finances damnit!

So after that was sorted I started the trip along the coast. I had the tooth done at Wonthaggi, which was a pretty boring place....then drove to Cape Patterson and right along the coast to Inverloch. That part of the drive was beautiful and I stopped off at lots of beaches with white sand and crystal clear water! Ended the day at a place called Shallow Inlet when the tide was out, leaving a massive area of flat sand for me to rag the car around on!

The next day I was going to Wilson’s Promontory national park.....



The fish! Notice the way I want to be in the picture but am also worried that it will jump up and bite my ear off!



An attempt at showing you the size of its teeth, it kept jumping up and down and I was shitting myself so the pic is a bit blurry but you get the idea!



Beautiful scenery between Cape Patterson and Inverloch



More beautiful views



Eagles nest rock formation



Shallow Inlet



And again at low tide




Its not just nice beaches they have in this area, the countryside was beautiful too

The Little Penguins!

After leaving Melbourne I drove to Phillip Island, just south of the city and close enough to the mainland for a bridge that I could drive over.

The island has two main attractions; the surf beaches and the 'penguin parade'. It was about 5pm by the time I arrived so I went for a surf but the waves were very small so I gave up and headed over to the penguins.

Every night at sunset (without fail) all the penguins swim in to the shore after a days hunting and waddle up the beach to their nests in the dunes. This amazing spectacle has been dubbed the penguin parade. The beach and nesting area are fenced off by the conservation centre so after paying I walked through the centre onto some decking that ran through the dunes to the beach. Walking down I saw hundreds of small wooden man-made box nests and hundreds more natural ones dug into the dunes. I assumed these weren't all occupied.....

I had paid a bit extra to go to a special viewing area which meant that I was close enough to touch the penguins (although this wasn't advisable because they like to bite!). On the way down to the beach I saw a kangaroo. After a couple of seconds it was startled by something and bounced off. As it scarpered, I noticed that it had been scared by a tiny penguin coming out of its nest! It was fluffy and moulting, which apparently means it had just had babies and couldn't go out to hunt until its feathers grow back and it was waterproof again. Unfortunately you're not allowed to take pictures because it scares them and the rangers were really strict on it but I tried to take one through a gap in my jacket James Bond stylee....the light was bad and it didn’t come out well at all so I don't think MI6 will be contacting me anytime soon!

Anyway, we sat down and the ranger told us a bit about the penguins. All the signs kept calling them 'little' penguins, which I thought was a stupid attempt to make them sound really cute...but it is actually the common name for the species. They are the smallest species of penguin (about as big as my foot!) and are only found in this area of Australia. The ranger went on to say that they arrive in 'rafts', which are groups of about 20-30 all grouped together, floating into shore. At about 8:45 the ranger said they'd be arriving very shortly....

Everyone strained to look but saw nothing. Then suddenly a big black square appeared on the waves. It drifted closer and closer and as a wave broke suddenly all these little penguins popped up on the shore! I was surprised by how small they really were and how funny they looked waddling up the beach. One was so fat that it kept falling over and had to push itself along with its feet! The ranger said that they would often over-eat before having babies because they can't go out to hunt for about 10 days while they moult. Then another raft came and another. I had expected to see about 50 or so but the ranger later told me that over 1000 had returned that evening!

After a while watching them come to shore I walked back up the decking a bit and watched them go into their nests.... sometimes they would sit outside and their young would come out, feeding them outside the nest. It was really amazing to see the feeding!

Once they stopped coming I left and drove off the island to a fishing village called San Remo and looked for somewhere to sleep....

That was about 4 days ago, I'll keep writing what I did in order whenever I get to net cafes (I'm actually nearly back in Sydney now!).



My poor attempt at taking a picture of the moulting penguin!



A better picture of the penguins (I didn't take this one!)

The Great Ocean Road - Part 2

Reached Lorne that night and drove just outside the town to a 'scenic lookout point' to find a place to sleep. In the morning I woke up to the most amazing 180 degree views around the bay. Went back to Lorne but there wasn't much to do there so I grabbed some breakfast and went looking for a good beach to surf. All the beaches along the road seemed to be deserted for most of the time in the week so its never hard to find a good empty beach to surf!

Drove straight through Apollo Bay (because I was sick of high priced towns) towards Lavers Hill. Half way along there was a detour to another lighthouse so I thought I may as well check it out. As I was leaving Apollo Bay I thought I'd check the petrol levels. Now, the petrol gauge in the car has a history of just staying on 0. Halfway to Melbourne we realised that if you hit the dash then it starts working again, without fail! I try to avoid hitting it too much in case it just stops working for good, so I usually just remember where abouts it should be and check it when I think its getting low.

Anyway, I gave it a bash and it went up to 1/4 full...'should be fine' I thought....well I must have been on a fucking hill or something cos as I went on it got lower and lower very quickly! Unfortunately I turned off towards the lighthouse before I noticed this. About 6km down the 12km road I looked at the petrol gauge and it was down to under 1/8! I thought maybe there would be some petrol at the lighthouse and it was only 6km so I carried on at about 30km/h trying to keep the revs as low as possible. Got to the lighthouse and not only could no one sort me out with any petrol, but you had to pay a stupid amount of money to see the lighthouse!

So I drove back to the ocean road ridiculously slowly and got to the intersection. 22km back to Apollo Bay or 29km to Lavers Hill....So I headed to Lavers Hill. Now the name should have given it away but I was surprised by how hilly the road there was! I was driving up the hills and putting it in neutral to roll down the hill. Imagine the most winding road you've ever driven and multiply it by 10 and this was what the road was like....but then I didn't want to waste any speed so I had to roll down at top speed all the way! Luckily there wasn't any traffic on the road so I didn't cause any tailbacks.....but this is why I didn't wanna get stuck....It was 35 degrees, my fone had no signal and there were random animals everywhere!

Finally got to the last hill and the car was having trouble so I put my foot down to give it an extra boost to the top....nothing happened....by the time I made it to the top I was doing about 5km/h and seriously thought I was gonna have to get out and push! Rolled into the petrol station and bought some ridiculously priced petrol but I was on my way again....thank god!

Lavers Hill to Princetown took me off the coast and into the country. The green hills and lush forests were a world apart from the white sandy beaches and blue seas I had got used to by now..... Other than nice countryside, there wasn't much to see so I motored along to Princetown. Once I was there I decided to try a spot of fishing so bought a rod and tackle and spent the afternoon on the pier. I didn't catch anything for ages then seemed to snag some seaweed. As I was dragging it in I saw a small stingray....I began to admire it and then realised that it was attached to the end of my rod! Thoughts of Steve Irwin entered my mind so I asked one of the locals to help me out. He had some special glove, so unhooked it and chucked it back in. I was trying to catch something I could eat but I didn't have any luck so it was pasta for dinner.

Princetown to Port Campbell was back by the sea again and it was definitely the most spectacular for views. It is also the stretch of road that is home to the most famous attractions of the Ocean Road, the Twelve Apostles. They are amazing rock formations, up to 45 meters high, that have been carved out of the cliffs by thousands of years of sea erosion. Other rock formations include elephant rock, the razorback, the loch ard gorge and various others that were all amazing to see (I'll get pics up in a few days cos the internet is playing up!).

After seeing all that I was at the end of the road and ready to go back to the flat and get a proper shower! The road back was long and straight and pretty boring....but I did go through the town of Colac (you may have heard of it if you watch Neighbours!).

The Great Ocean Road - Part 1

Had an excellent 5 days driving the great ocean road!

The road is supposed to be the biggest war memorial in the world because it was built by the servicemen who returned from WW1 and WW2. The road links up all the beautiful seaside villages which were previously only accessible by boat or rough winding tracks. The road took 16 years to build and it was all done using picks, shovels and dynamite.

My first stop was Torquay (named after the place in England apparently), which is a big surf town and is where Rip Curl and Quicksilver started out. There are some amazing surfing beaches there.....the water was so warm that I just spent the first day surfing! Woke up early the next morning and did some more surfing at Bells beach which is where the surf classic competition is held every easter. Even though the waves were perfect, there were only like 5 people surfing it!

It wasn't a particularly nice afternoon so after I got out I went to the surfworld museum. They have the most amazing collection of surfboards there, from wacky painted boards to crazy shaped boards. There was even a guy shaping boards by hand.

Later that afternoon I finally left Torquay for Anglesea, the next town. The town was like all the towns I would encounter, full of overpriced souvenir shops, restaurants and hotels....so I carried on towards Aireys Inlet. Found a nice beach half way so chilled there til dark and got an early night.

The next day was really sunny so I got woken up at about 7am by the heat from the sun on the car! Went for a morning surf but the waves were a bit small so I carried on driving to Aireys Inlet. There is a lighthouse there so I went and had a look at that, was pretty cool. The beach in front of it was really rocky (hence the need for the lighthouse I guess!) and it was low tide so I went and stood out on the rocks for a bit in the sea and was amazed by the amount of fish and squid I could see cruising around....

Headed towards Lorne after that. That area is really good for bushwalking and I kept seeing all these signs for walks so I thought I'd give it a go. Unfortunately, it was beginning to get dark so I parked up, looked at the map and picked a short walk. It also said that I should tell someone I was going, wear hiking boots, warm clothes, a hat and take some food & drink..... well, I didnt have anyone to tell and it would be getting dark in about an hour so I decided that shorts, t-shirt and flipflops would do.... I had my cap though so 1 out of 5 wasn't bad! The walk was to a place called Sherock Falls. Halfway there there was a sign saying 'watch out for tiger snakes' (!) and I was wearing shorts....but hey, I got there without dying. Sherock 'Falls' was more of a trickle than a waterfall but oh well, it looked nice! As I headed off I noticed a sign saying watch out for kangaroos....it was starting to get dark so I thought 'maybe I'll see one if I keep an eye out'......so I went round the next bend and had to slam on the breaks cos there were 3 kangaroos sitting in the middle of the road! For the next km or so there were kangaroos and koalas everywhere, just about managed to avoid killing any but it was close!

So thats about half way and I'm running out of internet time! I'll post the rest in a couple of days.....



Fishos beach in Torquay



Some cool surfboards



The view from the back of the car as I sat eating fish 'n chips in between surf sessions.....its a hard life!



Jan Juc beach



Winkipop beach in the morning, miles of beautiful beach and no people!



The gateway for the great ocean road. This was where they used to charge a toll to fund the building of the rest of the road. Its not actually at the beginning of the road!



My best attempt at taking a pic of a kangaroo, they kept trying to run away damnit!!



Where a river meets the sea at Aireys Inlet



Me + lighthouse



A better pic of the lighthouse



The road is winding and next to lots of cliffs, quite scary to drive in places!



The road has stunning views though.....



Bushwalking!



Sherock Falls



Sherock Falls again!



The road approaching Lorne