It was almost time to leave The Great Ocean Road and head inland for The Grampians National Park but there were a couple of iconic sites along the coast we still wanted to see.
Australia’s Shipwreck Coast is part of the Great Ocean Road, not surprisingly there’s lots of history associated with this area. Probably the most famous is the loss of a clipper ship named Loch Ard. She is one of 700 ships that are believed wrecked along this treacherous coastline. The iron-hulled ship Loch Ard went down in 1878, dashed against the rocks at Mutton Bird Island, east of Port Campbell. Of the 54 people on board only two survived, a cabin boy named Tom Pearce and Eva Carmichael, an 18 year old woman.
Tom came ashore first and heard the cries of Eva and clearly being a brave soul he went back into the ocean to rescue her. They sheltered in what is now known as Loch Ard Gorge. Tom was subsequently given £1000 and a gold medal for bravery, he married but not to Eva and reached the rank of Captain. Eva married, also to a ship’s captain and with her husband returned to Ireland where they lived on another coastline prone to shipwrecks. The irony is that apparently they often went down to help seafarers who had been shipwrecked.
Out of the 700 or so ships lost along this coast only 240 have been discovered. It’s a fascinating area but we only had time to stop at Loch Ard Gorge, The Bay of Islands and The Grotto. If you’re in the area, ‘London Arch’ is worth a visit too. We would have gone but by then The Grampians was calling.
I’m not going to get away without mentioning the picture of the bride. The joke with my man is that whenever we go on holiday we usually come across a bridal shoot. Having shot hundreds of weddings I always have to stop and see what the photographer is doing. I didn’t expect to see a shoot going on as we walked along the coastal path though. Credit to the model, no she wasn’t a ‘real’ bride, she kept on smiling despite a sheer drop in front of her and being buffeted by a strong wind coming off the sea. I had to take a picture of course!
So …on to The Grampians!
Not surprisingly The Grampians is a very popular tourist destination with it’s high mountain ranges, walking trails, scenic drives, good camp sites and a fantastic range of wildlife including kangaroos, emus and a huge variety of parrots. More on those shortly …
It was late afternoon when we arrived in Hall’s Gap where we were staying for two nights. Our woodland lodge was enormous complete with a jacuzzi in the bathroom, a massive lounge, two double bedrooms (should we have needed one each!) and a veranda complete with barbecue at the front of the house. Honestly we could have had some party in there!
Having dumped our things we went in search of a beer. The first place only had cans so that was out. We were told to drive out of town and we’d find a place selling draught beer. We eventually did! It had been quite a drive to Hall’s Gap so we thought we deserved a decent pint of beer and that’s exactly what we got. Our next thought was where to eat that night. We solved that pretty quickly as we spotted an Indian restaurant going back along the main road into town. We may be in Australia but an Indian meal is not to be turned down. If you’re in Hall’s Gap and looking for somewhere to eat go no further than ‘The Spirit of Punjab‘, it was excellent. We had such a good meal that we went back the next night!
Still on the subject of food. We’d bought everything we needed for breakfast from one of the stores in town and were all ready to eat on our veranda. Looking out of the picture window we weren’t too sure about eating outside ….how did these birds know?!
Now one sulphur-crested cockatoo we might have coped with but five – just too much of a challenge. Within a couple of minutes word had got round. We had enough different kinds of birds to rival any aviary – magpies, the aforementioned cockatoos, then kookaburras arrived (very cute) and last but not least the beautiful crimson rosella who clearly ruled the roost. There was a definite pecking order!
Having eaten our breakfast inside and planned our day we headed off first to see the spectacular Mackenzie Falls. It’s a short walk down to the base of the Falls from the car park; yes it’s steep with lots of steps but it’s fairly easy. At times you are right by the side of the falls but it’s only when you get down to the bottom you realise just how immense they are.
As the water cascades over the huge cliffs into a deep pool it sends fine sprays of rainbow mist high into the air, it was really something down there. Steep climbing back up though so we were pleased we had lots of water with us, although there was plenty all around!
After the waterfall trip we spent the afternoon wandering around the area. There are lots of walks to choose from including short strolls and that’s what we decided to do. We were saving ourselves for a more challenging one the next day.
The highlight of the afternoon was walking across to the playing field in Hall’s Gap and meeting lots of kangaroos. They were everywhere! I know it says on the Hall’s Gap website that every visitor will encounter a kangaroo but we didn’t expect to get this close to them. It was a wonderful experience.
Now tomorrow we were doing The Pinnacle Walk. According to the Tourist Info. this walk is one of the highlights of the entire region with stunning views of Hall’s Gap and many of the peaks in the Grampians …we were choosing the easiest route! More about our ‘walk’ in the next Blog.
Travels with the Booths.blog 