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| Koala's in the wild. I think we disturbed them from their nap!! |
| Erin's South Australia Journal 12-11-02 Today we woke up early enough to run out and get some groceries to help with breakfast, then joined Marcel and Eveline in their room for the meal. We have so many things in common with them - they're even going over to New Zealand on the same day as we are! We had a great time chatting with them over the meal, then talked a little bit about the things we'd stop and do and places along the Great Ocean Road we might stay. We left them around 10am, as they were going to stay in Mt. Gambier for the day and do laundry and other chores, while we wanted to get out and hit the road. First we stopped in town at the Blue Lake, a crater with water of a deep aqua blue. The day was cloudy again, so we didn't get the full effect, but it was still pretty. Even better though was the Umpherston Sinkhole, a huge sinkhole that an Englishman used to keep as his private garden, and which is now a public garden and attraction for tourists. There are many possums living in the caves inside the hole, and we watched a bunch of schoolkids feed and pet them. They were FAT little possums! Finally we hit the road for real, and crossed into Victoria right away. We passed a few more towns before the split to the Great Ocean Road, an internationally famous route along the dramatic southern coast. As it was a cloudy day, the coast wasn't as vibrant as in some of the postcards we'd seen... But there were still plenty of sights to see, and we pulled off to look at London Bridge, the 12 Apostles (subject of many postcards), and a few other noted landmarks. This rugged coastline is also known as the Shipwreck trail, as there were some 80 sinkings in a 40 year period on the reefs and rocks here. We were very glad not to have had to take a boat in as most of the early settlers -and convicts - did! We made one more stop along our route to Apollo Bay, in the Cape Otway National Park. Our guide book said you can see koalas in the trees along the lighthouse road, and by driving at almost no speed and craning our necks, we were finally able to spot a momma & baby way up. Once we'd watched them a bit, we drove further on and found a few more. One woke up while we were watching him and made this low grunting roar which startled us! Then to our surprise, we heard 2 others answer from different directions not far away. It was so cool! We drove further, spotting more and more in the trees - I think you have to know what to look for to get the knack of spotting them. They are very well camouflaged by their beige or gray fur against the light colored bark of the eucalypts. We talked to a couple of other tourists who were koala-watching on their way out, and they told us about a family of koalas right down near the road further on. We managed to find them almost all the way to the lighthouse, and got some great closeup shots of them before heading at greater speeds back to the main road. When it gets dark out there, you can't see ANYTHING and the wildlife pops into your car's path with nowhere for you to go to avoid them. We have made it a rule not to be driving after dark outside of major towns. We continued on to Apollo Bay and started checking out the backpackers, but they looked really dodgy and messy. There were only dorms left at that hour, and it looked as though the other tenants of the room had spread their stuff around with casual disregard for the two remaining beds to be filled there. So we passed, and went looking for a motel. Most of them were way overpriced, but we went a half block up from the beach and found the Bay Pines, with an oceanview room for only $50AUD! We took it, then quickly headed down to the waterfront for dinner. These little towns close up early, and it was already 8pm! We found a little cafeteria style restaurant and had slim pickings, as they were trying to close up. We had some soggy spaghetti and got milk for the morning, then went down to the dunes to check out the pretty beach before going back to the room to veg out and watch tv. Nice! |