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Home > Travelogues > 2006 Travelogues Index > WA to Melbourne - Victoria
Short version only - full version with pictures yet to come
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Victoria

 

First town we came too was Nelson on the Glenelg River Estuary.  There were plenty of water birds, including Black Swans in the shallow estuary and at a surfing beach nearby.  Much of the land was pine forested all the way to Portland; a large port, with ships waiting out to sea.

 

Finding a roadside spot for the night was not easy, so guided by Camps Australia Wide we went inland to the Saw Pit free camp, in the Mount Clay forest.  This proved to be an ideal camping ground in which we shared the large area with only a few other campers and a number of friendly wallabies. 

            

Next morning we took the walk trail through the forest to the Whaler’s Lookout, where we looked down on the coastal flats and farm lands to Portland. 

 

At Codrington, we passed a large wind farm.  We were surprised to see notices protesting against the wind farms.  They seem a sensible use of an abundant natural resource to produce power, and in Western Australia they are tourist attractions. 

 

Port Fairy is a very appealing town with docks along the river for commercial cray fishing and pleasure boats.  Some buildings date back to the 1840s.  We watched the tide come into the estuary, like a wave.  Nearby at the beach surfers were coming in onto a black basalt stone beach. 

                 

Tower Hill is an old volcanic crater, with hills within the crater surrounded by a lake and green plains.  Quarrying has left a limestone cliff near the entrance, which shows strata of larval soils.  The interpretive centre was closed due to total fire bans, and it was too hot to take any of the long walks.  We were travelling at a time when fires raged in all states; in particularVictoria was hard hit. 

 

Driving into a major dairy farming area, with cheese factories at Allansford and Timboon, we turned at Curdie Vale.

 

Near here we visited dairy farming friends.  They took us for a drive to Peterborough and the Bay of Isles, and through the hilly dairy country around Timboon.  The sky looked stormy, and it rained during the night.  We were happy to top up our caravan tanks with fresh rain water, courtesy of our hosts. 

 

Next day, we visited the stunning features of the Victorian south coast in the Port Campbell National Park portion of the Great Ocean Road.  This included the London Bridge (of which a span collapsed in 1990), the Loch Ard Gorge, and the Twelve Apostles (with only seven remaining) and the Arch.               

 

The drive to Melbourne from the south west of Western Australia - the Victorian southern coastline 
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The Great Ocean Drive then goes inland through the Otways.  This lovely route goes through patches of rain forest, pine and blue gum plantations as well as some farms.  There are views inland and to the ocean, but nowhere to stop to take photos.  It kept to its name of rain forest, with showers falling as we drove. 

                 

From Apollo Bay, the drive follows the coastline, winding along the water’s edge, and cut into the hills on the inland side, reminiscent of parts of the west coast of Italy.  Once again, there was little chance of stopping for photography.  Anywhere the terrain was flat enough to build, towns joined each other.  Rain sprinkles splattered the windscreen.

 

Near Anglesea, we stopped at Urquhart Bluff beach, where a group of school students were attending a surfing school.  A lone wind surfer came late in the day, and stayed until sunset, when a ship on the horizon was silhouetted against the rays of the setting sun.  After a shower during the night, people came along the beach walking their dogs against a silvery sunrise.

                 

Soon we reached Geelong, and continued on a freeway all the way to Melbourne.  Although it was not easy to find somewhere to stop for the night, we were pleased to have stayed at the beach, as from Geelong onwards where no options for stopping, and we needed to reach Melbourne on the right day for our caravan park booking.  We crossed the West Gate Bridge which arches high above theYarra River mouth, and continued on the toll road, which included a tunnel of around a kilometre, as we needed to go to Hallam, one of the south east suburbs, to pick up a battery before close of business on the Friday.  For this reason we were to spend two nights, not one as originally planned, in the caravan park.

 

We left home on the 25th January, and arrived in Melbourne on 10th February 2006.  We stayed at the well appointed # Ashley Gardens Caravan Park in Braybrook, getting ready for our day crossing of the Bass Strait to Tasmania. 

                 

Leaving Melbourne on the Spirit of Tasmania in the early morning 12 February 2006.  Travelogues of our Tasmanian tour follow the subsquent travelogues of our return home through Victoria and South Australia. 

 

# The caravan park has now changed hands and franchise, now being Discovery Parks - Melbourne
Where to camp along the Great Ocean Road and hinterland?  See the updated caravan parks and recreation ground campsites on Explore the Great Ocean Road.
Want to know more? Ask us
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