Monthly Archives: February 2007

Notes From the Great Ocean Road

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The 12 Apostles Along the Great Ocean Road

The 12 Apostles Along the Great Ocean Road

We’re on the Great Ocean Road at the moment. It runs from the suburbs of Melbourne to the edge of South Australia and was built after WWI as kind of a works project to employ returning veterans in the 1920′s, before that the only way to access the small towns along the road was by ship or ferry.

Someone was thinking when they laid it out. Besides linking quaint – touristy – little towns to the rest of the world it also gives people access to some insane limestone cliffs and unique pillars haystacks etc just offshore.

We took our time and made a few days of the ride stopping over in Apollo Bay and Port Fairy (That’s the name of the place – got a problem with it that? It was probably founded by some very manly, um, sailors).

I have actually been along the Great Ocean Road when I was here before back in 1999, but it was still impressive – and that time I was going the opposite direction west to east so many of the views this time were new. The Great Ocean Road has to be one of our high points in Australia for sure. If you’re planning a trip make time for it.

Marvelous Melbourne

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Queen Victoria Market

Queen Victoria Market

After a few days on the road from Sydney we arrived in Melbourne – the second largest city in Australia and the capital of the state of Victoria.  Aside from a stroll though the Botanical Gardens and along the Yarra River, we spent most of our brief visit to the city at the Queen Victoria Market and at the Melbourne Zoo. 

Since Dave had visited Melbourne in the past, he had an idea of a few highlights of the city that we might enjoy.  The 125+ year old Market is definitely one of them.  Lucky for us we arrived on a Wednesday just in time to stumble upon the weekly summer Night Market where a smaller number of venders fill one of the buildings with an array of delicious food and live music.  It was fun to feel like we were “out on the town” for a change.  We enjoyed a delicious hippy-made burrito and some raucous steel drum samba music topped off, of course, with bretzel (not really sure why the b) dipped in Belgian chocolate.

The following day we returned to the market so I could see the real deal in all its glory.  You can buy just about anything there from $10 soccer jerseys (Dave’s holding out ’til China) to gourmet cheese to fresh meats and produce.  We lamented not being hungry after eating the free breakfast at the hotel and settled only for some dark chocolate covered almonds and coffee beans.  Still yummy!

After the big market tour, we ventured further out of town to the zoo.  A few of the newer areas are quite spectacular.  Rather than grouping animals together (i.e. big cats – which indicentally sleep all day) like at a traditional zoo, they have created habitats such as the Asian and African rainforests where you walk down a path and observe animals in a more natural environment.  The Asian rainforest was particularly clever with little roadside shacks set up as if you were on a little road in Thailand.  Quite enjoyable, though there were no animals eating out of our hands today.

We wrapped up our all too short stay in Melbourne with what we’ll call the “Jeanne Connection – Part 1.” We had a wonderful dinner with Eric, Jeanne’s friend from graduate school, and his partner Elsie.  We traded travel tales, Peace Corps stories (Eric’s are definitely some of the best EVER!!) and heard the inside scoop on life in Oz.  We really do appreciate and enjoy these opportunities to connect with people as we venture around the world!

Phillip Island Wildlife Park

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Captain Kangaroo

Captain Kangaroo

Making our way west from Sydney toward Melbourne, we decided to head a little off route to visit Phillip Island just southeast of Melbourne. Our trusty guidebook highlighted a couple of interesting wildlife oppotunities – one in particular where you could interact with and feed kangaroos, wallabies and emus. The brochures highlight the Penguin Parade, the Koala Conservation Centre and opportunities to see Australian Fur Seals just off the coast. Since we’d seen a similar parafe of penguins in Oamuru and fur seals in NZ, we were interested in seeing koalas and ‘roos.

We visited the Phillip Island Wildlife Park – despite the information centre staff providing us with misinformation and trying to steer us toward the Koala Centre. (We later learned that there is some serious kick back action happening with the other places.) It turned out to be a definite highlight of our Aussie experience so far! 

We were greeted by clever and very cute little wallabies that know you receive a free bag of food with your admission.  We saw koalas munching on eucalyptus leaves, dingoes salvating at any animal that walked past, and a pacing tasmanian devil (who later settled down for a nice nap).  Sorry kids they don’t look like the cartoon character, but they are certainly cute – in funny looking way.  We saw lots of interesting and crazy birds of prey and were followed around by a cult of emus who just knew we had some food in our pockets. 

The most amazing part was walking down into the scrub where the kangaroos roam.  It was approaching mid-day and pretty hot, so there was not a lot of activity.  We spotted one checking us out.  It seemed much more cautious than the wallabies that hop over to you without hesitation.  The kangaroo in question scratched itself, made a couple of small, very slow steps in our direction, then Hop! Hop! Hop!  There it was right in front of us.  Pretty crazy!  It ate gently from our hands as we stared in awe.  After a while others perked up and came over to investigate.  It was at times a litle intimidating as they move pretty quickly and naturally will be territorial about food, but it was also quite awesome!