Category: Australia

Day 20.

Finally another hiking day, but only 10.5 km Pinnacle – Sundial Peak double-loop (recommended). Very nice weather, very relaxing and on quiet trails most of the time (a lot of people at Pinnacles). Lazy meandering between interesting rock formations to lookouts with panoramic views.

Pinnacle-Sundial Peak (10.5 km, 350 m total ascent)

Pinnacle-Sundial Peak double-loop from Sundial Carpark to Lakeview Lookout, Pinnacle and Sundial Peak, 10.5 km, 350 m total ascent
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We had enough time in the afternoon to visit MacKenzie Falls, we walked down the stairs to the bottom and a bit along the creek. On the way back, we stopped at Reed’s Lookout for view in opposite direction to what we could see most of the day. We came back to Halls Gap, parked the car and walked again to watch hundreds of kangaroos on the green behind Brambuk Centre. We also saw five emus and a large herd of dear (not native in Australia). Joanna grilled Australian lamb chops and veggies for dinner and Angus beef burgers for lunch next day.

Day 21.

Our last day. We are returning to Melbourne, but on the way we stopped in Ballarat for five-hour visit to Sovereign Hill and Gold Museum (recommended). We liked the open-air museum, despite some doubts and fact that it was built almost entirely from scratch in late ninety-sixties: interesting collection of antiques in reconstructed buildings that once stood in Ballarat. Many of the old machines are still working, although most are powered by electric not steam engines for practical reasons. Demonstrations are interesting and live, not just talking about still objects. Our favorite was wheel making. Costumed guides/instructors were very engaged.

We arrived at MEL around 7 pm, with plenty of time to return rental car and get ready for long flight home via SFO. We drove 1280 km on Victoria leg of our trip.

Ballalrat machines video clips

We started the day by watching horses training on Warrnanbool Beach. We like horses and it was pleasant experience to watch them run, swim and walk on the beach (we are no fans of gambling-driven horse racing). We walked around the Breakwater Rock Pier for a while.

At 10 am we were already in Tower Hill Wildlife Reserve (recommended). For us, it was more like  botanic garden/arborretum-type experience with many easy walks and loops on small volcanic hills, marshland and around crater lakes. With quite a few opportunities to observe animals in natural setting. True, emus are well adapted and some like to check what humans put on their picnic tables. We saw five adults plus nine chicks feeding on the grass (plants).

Visitor Centre is the starting point and picnic site for visitors, but with many crisscrossing trails the place feels relaxing and not crowded. We did not want to join guided tour, but we overheard interesting stories, and followed one group to Fairy Island: the guides know where to find koalas. The Acrobat (as we called it) was the only koala we saw that was literally jumping between branches and climbing up large eucalyptus tree. Tower Hill was one of the nicest places near GOR. We saw 8 koalas!

We started driving towards Grampians around 2:30 pm, via Hwy C178-C216, with short coffee stop in Dunkeld (no famous meat pie, Dunkeld Old Bakery and Cafe was already closed). We managed to run-up Piccaninny trail (2.5 km return) for first hike in Grampians and interesting vegetation (grasstrees), different from what we saw next further North. We checked-in Grampians Nest on High Rd (recommended) in Halls Gap and  ran to Brambuk Centre to watch kangaroos before dark on grassy spots along the main street. Our accommodation was great, large one-bedroom apt, large living room and well equipped kitchen, sundeck with gas grill, nice location away from town centre.

Day 17.

We dropped-off our friend at William Cooper Justice Centre, but before we left we had coffee and quick conference on what to do next. Getting from Fitzroy to city center at 8:30 on Wednesday was good driving practice and I learned a couple of Melburnian moves I would not attempt on my own. We exited the city via West Gate Bridge on M1 to Geelong. Our first stop on Great Ocean Road (GOR) was Split Point Lighthouse. We walked around for a while, the place was very crowded, but not overwhelmingly so. Next short stop: Devil’s Elbow Lookout. We spent a bit more time in and around Lorne, first to have a look at Lorne Beach and Erskine River, and then visiting Erskine Falls (short walk) – 10 km drive on paved park road further inland. Teddy’s Lookout with short walk to Lower Landing and Otway Ranges Lookouts came next.

We made another short stop at Cape Patton Lookout, before checking-in The Falls airbnb at Stony Creek on GOR (recommended), our favorite accommodation, 5 km before Apollo Bay. Great place to stay, high quality, comfortable and beautiful surroundings. We drove quickly to ☞ Fisherman’s CO-OP restaurant to buy take-out dinner: really good fish and chips basket plus grilled Blue Grenadier, and to watch sunset at Apollo Bay, while we were waiting for our order.

Day 18.

Next few stops were at very popular sites: Gibson Beach (steps were closed which was a bit disappointing, because we wanted to go down to the beach), Twelve Apostoles, Loch Ard Gorge with walk down to the beach (recommended), Sherbrook River, Bay of Martyrs(walked on beach a bit), Bay of Islands (walked down to boat launch). At each site we tried to walk all local trails or as many as possible. We spent some more time near Sherbrook River beach (recommended), just walking around on the rocks watching waves crushing in. Very relaxing place and almost no other visitors. We liked Bay of Island (recommended), it was already very quiet by the time we got there late afternoon. It was pleasantly slow going all day long. We checked-in 22 Banyan St airbnb (recommended) in Warrnambool before sunset, with enough time to make drive/run to see the beach before dark. With all the food from Victoria Market in Melbourne, we prepared dinner at home. It was another good place to stay, high quality and comfortable. We had nice conversations with the owners – fellow travelers.

Crowded or not, all the views from GOR were great – everywhere, as we moved from point to point for couple of days. The crowds got thinner as we drove further and further west, and very often there were few people on trails beyond couple hundred meters from parking lots. Our favorite places where Kennett River (koalas), Melba Gully and Loch Ard Gorge (with Sherbrook beach).