Now when it comes to walking neither of us are wimps but reading about the two routes up to The Pinnacle we went for the easier option. I was so pleased we did! It’s not the distance that’s the tricky part (only 2.1km up to the top), it’s the smooth, slippery rocks that make it ‘interesting’. We didn’t have our hiking boots which would have helped and although my trainers are pretty good once the rocks became damp it was easy to slip on them. I guess it didn’t help that on our previous holiday in Majorca I slipped while walking one of the coastal routes and ended up visiting the local GP. Walking in my area of The Cotswolds is generally a lot easier!
The First lookout
We parked at Sundial car park and started our walk from there. Our first stop was Devil’s Gap and even there after very little climbing the views were impressive. Pretty flowers too although I don’t remember many flowering bushes after that point.
Flowers on the way up are easy to spot!
The picture below on the bottom left shows how smooth those rocks are. At this point I’m starting to get a little apprehensive; I could see we still had some way to go to The Pinnacle and wouldn’t you know it …it’s starting to rain. My man is being very encouraging. He knew there was no way we were turning back, I was just having a bit of a wobble! He’s now in charge of my camera as I needed both hands for clambering up the rock and so there are no pictures (although I could have taken some but I was more concerned with coaxing Maggie along) until we got to the top. There is an excellent Blog I’ve come across which shows the steeper climb from the Wonderland carpark. Fab pictures which really show the wonderful views and that the harder route is definitely not for wimps! Interesting though this family encountered lots of other walkers we were joined by just four. These lovely Dutch people were very encouraging and seemed to be quite impressed when we made it to The Pinnacle.
Going up!
Wow what a view! It was well worth the hike, so glad we did it!
Looking across from The Pinnacle to Lake Bellfield and Hall’s Gap.
Thank you to the Dutch walkers for taking our picture – this was as brave as I was prepared to be!
We’ve made it!
As you can see from the pictures below our fellow walkers had no such qualms about climbing up the nearby rocks.
The braver walkers
This is the hike to do when you’re in The Grampians. If you’re an experienced walker and have good walking boots then starting from the Wonderland car park will give you a much more adventurous walk. Whichever route you choose, you definitely won’t be disappointed!
Goodbye our feathered friends
Later that day we had to say goodbye to our feathered friends and head off back to Mornington Peninsular for the final leg of our Aussie holiday.
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.
The Loch Ard Gorge and The Grotto
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.
The Bay of Islands and a Bride.
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!
Kangaroos in the woods, emus on the Plain and our woodland lodge.
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?!
Waiting for breakfast
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!
The last remnants of our croissant.
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.
View from the car park and on the walk alongside the Falls
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!
Pretty impressive!
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.
It’s quite a heading for a Blog but it describes what we got up to after leaving our friends who live on the Mornington Peninsular.
There’s a very useful ferry going across the bay from Sorrento to Queenscliff, Searoad ferries which saves quite a lot of time if you’re heading for The Great Ocean Road. The trip across takes about forty minutes and if you’re lucky as we were you might even see some dolphins.
View from Great Ocean RoadLarge stone ‘butes’ rising up out of the ocean.
The views along Great Ocean Road are spectacular. The southern ocean can be very wild and it certainly wasn’t calm when we were there. Our first stop for the night was a motel right on the coastal road but before that we had a date with a few koalas …
Kennett River has a large koala population along with King parrots and kookaburras. We didn’t have time to walk up to the Grey River reserve which we were told is a great place to picnic, my sights or that of my camera was focussed on koalas. We weren’t alone at Kennett River of course in fact there were lots of people all eager to see koalas. Suddenly the shout went up as someone spotted one. You couldn’t say this iconic animal posed for the crowd below in fact he seemed rather disdainful of us and very sleepy. I couldn’t see there was much action and anyway there were too many blinking photographers so I wandered off to another lot of eucalyptus trees to see if I could spot a little more excitement.
One koala by Kennet River
Honestly I nearly dropped my camera! There he or she was …a splendid koala and I had this magnificent creature all to myself. Did I keep quiet? You bet I did. Not only was he happy to pose for me (I’m saying he was a ‘he’), but he decided to show off his acrobatic skills by leaping around. You can probably see that I did quite well to capture his antics. I might have got a few more shots but all too soon I was surrounded by keen photographers shrieking and whooping with delight …time to leave them to it. What a shame that my koala decided to give them the ‘bum’s rush’ and scamper off!
A much livlier koala by Kennet RiverKoala putting on a show for me!Koala doing his flying act and finishing by hanging on for grim death!
Seeing koalas and having King parrots land on your head was quite enough excitement for one day. It had been a fairly long drive to Apollo Bay as we’d stopped several times to look at the view and so we were tired when we arrived at our motel.
Our motel room at Seafarer’s Getaway had a superb view of the beach and the ocean but unfortunately the sea was too rough to have a swim. We missed the best of the sunset that evening as we’d gone into the town to have a meal but I managed to get this picture when we got back.
Sunset over Apollo Bay.
Day two on The Great Ocean Road and our first stop, just fifteen miles away from Apollo Bay was at Mait’s Rest Rainforest. Surprisingly there was hardly anyone else around as we walked along the board walk. Mait’s Rest doesn’t feature much as one of the attractions along Great Coast Road which in a way is a pity however we loved the solitude. If you’re anywhere near do go, it’s fabulous. Giant myrtle beeches tower through the ever-constant mist which hangs over the rainforest and the array of ferns is wonderful. Such an atmospheric place which I’ve tried to capture in these pictures.
Start of our walk through this primeval rainforestAmazing ferns in this primeval forest.Had to be done!
This had been a magical morning but now it was time to get back to the car, put the heater on to warm up and head towards the Twelve Apostles. These great stacks rise up from the Southern ocean so what with the promise of a dramatic skyline, stunning effects on the rocks at sunset I knew we were in for a treat. Here’s just one picture for starters, more to follow in my next Blog.
It was hard to drag ourselves away from our little Miner’s Cottage in Walhalla but today we were heading to Hastings on the Mornington Peninsular to visit friends. We’d been promising to visit them for as long as I can remember, they probably thought we’d never make it … just goes to show!
We’d been guests at their wedding forty years ago and so how could we not come over to Oz to celebrate their Ruby wedding anniversary? It was also my friend’s husband’s birthday so there were two things to celebrate.
Considering neither of them drink, well my friend a little but compared to our consumption it’s a drop in the old wine glass, it was kind of them to take us to a vineyard after lunch. It was a good choice, Stumpy Gully wine is very quaffable and of course I ended up buying a bottle …for later. The setting there is delightful, no wonder the restaurant has a great reputation along with their wines and a very romantic place to celebrate a wedding too I would imagine.
My man enjoying his wine tasting at Stumpy Gully vineyardPart of the vineyard at Stumpy Gully
The next day we caught the train into Melbourne arriving at the bustling Flinders Street Station. We walked around a little to get our bearings and then headed to one of the aboriginal art galleries, Koorie Heritage Trust in Federation Square.
Melbourne skyline with Princes Bridge, Flinder’s Street Station & St Paul’s Cathedral.
Aboriginal artwork in The Koorie Heritage Trust Museum, Melbourne.
These designs are amazing and I loved the display of the rolled towers in one of the galleries at the museum. After a refreshing cup of tea for me and coffee for my man we were off to see art of a different kind.
Hosier Lane in Melbourne is a lane full of urban street art, graffiti if you like. Even the wheelie bins are painted! One thing the guide book doesn’t tell you about is the smell, presumably at night this area is a refuge for rough sleepers.
Graffiti everywhere even on the bins! Hosier Street, Melbourne.
After the mind-blowing effect of so much grafitti we headed back to Federation Square to The Ian Potter Centre which has a fabulous collection of art and is part of the National Gallery of Victoria. You could spend a whole day in there and it’s free admission. Here’s my favourite painting, it’s a bit ‘off-kilter’ but that’s the photographer not the hanging!
My favourite painting in The Ian Potter Centre part of the National Gallery Victoria.
We decided to do as much as possible before lunch (as you can probably tell!) so our next stop was St Paul’s Cathedral. As an ordination service was about to start we weren’t able to have a good look round. The architecture apparently is neo-Gothic, partly early English and partly decorated. It’s a fairly austere building designed by an English architect but he certainly didn’t (in my opinion) try to copy any of our classic Cathedrals.
Now it definitely was time for lunch so we walked across Princes Bridge and found an excellent cafe along the riverside just in time to escape a torrential downpour! Fortunately when we were ready to leave the weather had sorted itself out so we headed back to the centre by Flinder’s Station and caught one of the ionic free City Circle trams, route number 35. After our free tour we just had time to pop into the other part of the National Gallery of Victoria before heading for the train back to Hastings for a celebration meal cooked by our hosts. Loved the traditional Aussie pumpkin soup, delicious!
As much as we enjoyed our trip to Melbourne we’re not really city people. We enjoyed being on the coast blowing a few cobwebs away and our friends were great guides and know all the pretty harbours and walkways.
Mornington Harbour, Victoria.
All too soon it was time to leave although it wasn’t a final farewell as we were coming back to Hastings after the next part of our trip. So it was goodbye to Mornington Peninsular as we headed off to The Great Ocean Drive. The most direct route was by ferry first. Just forty minutes across what is known as Victory Bight from Sorrento to Queenscliff avoiding a long drive via Melbourne, and we saw dolphins, a real treat. More about the drive and our stay in The Grampians in the next blog.
Searoad Ferry from Sorrento to Queenscliff Victoria
Travels with the Booths.blog 