Wednesday, March 21

We woke up to a very windy day.  Luckily, our travels were mostly inland and our walks would be rainforest walks in sheltered areas.  We couldn’t have timed it better.

First up was Mait’s Rest.  This was a little 30-minute walk with big trees, ferns and a nice boardwalk.

Next was Triplet Falls.  Many would include this in the waterfall loop we had done the previous day.  We did the 1-hour loop in the direction suggested.  Oddly, while it seemed we went down hundreds of steps, the ascent was not that bad. The falls were unimpressive.  As the name implies, the falls drop in three stages and each lookout only looks at one section, and from a distance or through trees.  We ran into a New Zealand couple at one of the lookouts to the falls.  They said they went to the “Treetop Adventure” location nearby, and because of the high winds, they were closed.  I had seriously considered this for our next stop because the treetop walk sounded interesting.  But had my reservations about doing it in high winds.  Fortunately, I didn’t have to make that call.

Next up was Melba Gully.  This was a 35-minute rainforest loop walk.  It had a lot of interesting features.  But I had to laugh at Annie’s Cascades, only a 5-foot drop at best and then the feature they touted as the “Big Tree”.  The Big Tree had fallen in 2009 and all you see is the back end of the root system.  The tree itself fell into the gully behind it and out of view.  You are cordoned off quite a distance to the root ball and it didn’t seem all the big.  Then you walk up 100 feet and there’s another fallen tree with a root ball system that seems huge!  So although a nice walk, some things fell short.

Next we visited Gorge Chocolates.  This was a far cry from GORCI!  It was a small place with few visitors.  Oddly, the cashier at GORCI seemed to know nothing about Gorge Chocolates when asked.  Gorge was very much a boutique chocolate shop. They still had tastings of popular products, but very low-key.  It was a win for us.

A short way down the road was Apostle Whey Cheese, another boutique shop.   Their tasting is hosted, explaining how the cheese is made and why it tastes the way it does.  We noticed they had platters they put together with crackers, 3 cheeses of your choice, and either sweet or savory accompaniments.  We ordered a platter and asked about the winery down the road and they said the winery was converted to a brewery.  When I asked about wine-tasting in the town of Port Campbell (something I had recently read about), they didn’t know anything about it.

We made our way to Daysy Hill Country Cottages, just outside of Port Campbell.

Thursday, March 22 

So if you know anything about Great Ocean Road, it’s because you’ve seen pictures of the 12 Apostles.  There are several sights around the 12A and it took an entire day to see them.

Since the 12 Apostles is so popular, we decided to head directly there.  Helicopter flights commence at 9am and we were first in line – and got seats next to the pilot!  It was an unforgettable experience.   We did the mid-priced flight that went up as far as the Bay of Islands.

We then scouted around the 12 Apostles NP and went down to the beach at Gibson Steps and wandered around.  There were photo opportunities everywhere.

Then we headed to Lock Ard Gorge.  Lock Ard was a ship in the 1800s that grounded and only 2 survived.  It’s one of many shipwrecks in the area.  The National Park goes for miles and has many asphalted tracks, lookouts, beaches, coves, and even a cemetery.  You can spend 4 hours here alone.

Further up the coast are 3 other sites: The Arch, London Bridge, and The Grotto.

The Arch was interesting and had a couple of different viewpoints.  London Bridge was “eh”, although it has the interesting story of how the land link fell a few years ago, stranding visitors until a helicopter airlifted them out.

But the Grotto was beautiful!  Don’t wimp out and decide to only view it from one of the upper lookouts. Go down the steps and see what it is really all about. There was a couple swimming in the Grotto and they made for nice photos when we were there. Even if no swimmers, you need to go down those steps!

When heading back to Port Campbell, we decided to see if the wine bar I read about was open.  And it was!  This is Newton Ridge Estate’s newly relocated “cellar door”. If you have old information and think wine tasting is inland, that property has been turned into a beer distillery. This is the place to go – the wines and tasting experience were fantastic. We got a lot of great info for our Grampian days to come as well as wineries to visit east of the Grampians. I’m sorry we didn’t get the name of the woman who served us. She obviously was a founder of Newton’s and had great info about making wine and farming grapes.

We had an interesting evening at our cottage at Daysy Hill.  We saw a group transported in 3 huge vans arrive and we know part of the group housed in the two larger cottages on either side of us.  Fred thought to lock the front door and sure enough, twice our door handle was rattled.  They grouped in the front veranda of one of the cottages and partied until late, not really concerning themselves with the fact that our bedroom was only a few feet away. We found out later that it was a class reunion of sorts.

Friday, March 23

We headed out of the Great Ocean Road this day to the Grampians.  Before we left the coast, there were still some sights to see and experience.  We stopped at Bay of Martyrs and walked to Halladale Point.  It was early morning and the light on the cliffs was amazing.  It was such a beautiful view and a highlight.

Bay of Islands, just beyond that was also beautiful.  When we arrived, the sun was higher and the area was a bit misty.  We walked out to the point, but didn’t walk the track along the coast to the beaches.  I think after all the walks, bays, and beaches from the day before, we were over it.

I didn’t expect much of anything to see or stop for as we left the coast.  But lo and behold, Cheeseworld appeared!  We stopped and looked around.  They had a shop with all sorts of local foods.  If this had been early on in the trip, we would have really stocked up here. It was fun seeing Apostle Whey Cheeses in the mix.  We did get some of the softest blue cheese for our lunch sandwiches.  There appeared to be some sort of museum on the property, but a bus of tourists was just pulling up.  I later found out there are two small museums, one on local history and the other a small engine display. Across the street, there were hundreds of white parrots on top of the stainless steel silos.

Our last stop was at Tower Hill in Warnambool. It’s a wildlife reserve in the middle of an extinct (or dormant?) volcano.  The location itself is interesting enough and the reserve is almost an island surrounded by a lake within the volcano rim.  I had read there’s all sorts of wildlife to see there, but we only saw a couple of emus, one koala, and a few birds.  There was a nice boardwalked wetland walk, but I was disappointed in wildlife sightings.  I’m sure it’s much better at dawn and dusk.

The Adventure Continues>>>