The Great Ocean Road/Grampians National Park

Although I love Melbourne, I was getting a little stir-crazy spending all my time either in St. Kilda or in the city itself. Since I had decided that I would see penguins in NZ and therefore didn't need to attend the "Penguin Parade" on Phillip Island, a trip on the great ocean road was a logical choice. My original choice of tour didn't pan out, so I wound up doing one that also went to nearby Grampians Nat'l Park.

This wound up being a really nice tour. There were only 11 of us, and everyone was really friendly, including the driver, Bill. In fact, Bill was a bit too friendly... it seemed that he never shut up!! But he had a lot of interesting things to tell us, especially since he grew up in a small town on the great ocean road. This road was built by workers after WWI in a program very similar to the CCC (civilian conservation corps) the US. In fact, it was modeled after the pacific coast highway in Oregon and California, although it's much shorter.

The absolute highlight of the trip for me was seeing a group of wild koalas in the trees just off the road as we were driving along!! Unfortunately, most of them were asleep (not surprising since they sleep an average of 20 hours a day), but we did see a couple snacking on Eucalyptus leaves and backing up and down the tree trunks. Later we saw an entire group of grey kangaroos feeding in a grassy field near our hostel, but I was still much more intrigued by the koalas.

At many of the beaches we saw heaps of people in wetsuits surfing on brightly colored surfboards. In fact, many of them were attending surfing school. The "king tide" will soon be approaching the southern coast, in time for the world professional surfing championships, held over Easter weekend. The most famous sights on the great ocean road are called the 12 apostles, and are solitary pieces of land left out in the ocean through wind and water erosion. Because they are mostly composed of sandstone, which is fairly soft, eventually they will return to the sea. The landscape reminded me a lot of the Oregon coast, and parts of northern California. Except for the wind, which was unbelievable. I have a picture of myself standing overlooking the 12 apostles, with my face completely obscured by all my hair blowing around in the wind.

The Grampians are also beautiful, although much less dramatic. A huge forest fire ripped through the area one year ago, and the evidence of the fire is everywhere, even as the land heals. Ferns have returned as ground cover, and even though the gum trees still sport black, charred trunks, they are also growing new leaves. In fact, the fire blasted seeds into the bark of many trees, so that they are growing leaves all along their trunks, which is totally abnormal.

We visited a temperate rainforest with giant 300 foot tall Eucalyptus trees, very reminiscent of Olympic or the California redwoods. The oldest trees there are actually the ferns, which only grow an average of 1 mm a year. The tallest of those in the park are therefore 10,000 years old!! Other wildlife included the kookaburra, a substantial white and brown bird with a distinctive silhouette and light blue patches on its wings, and the Rosella, a beautiful scarlet and blue bird.

We ended the trip with a visit to the largest gold mine in Victoria (really not so interesting) and a local winery (much better), which made the most delicious port I've ever had. Unfortunately, I really can't cart a bottle of it around Oz and NZ. Oh well. Two more days in Melbourne, and then I'm flying to Cairns and the great barrier reef. Hope it's great.