2012 Around Australia: Day 3 - 5 16th February

Day 3 16/2/2012

Have decided to go out to Colac today and the Red Rock Lookout, which is a dormant volcano. We arrived in Colac and decided I needed to get some of the Blog work done as well. It is of no use having a Blog if you don’t update it. Oscar rang his Mum and Marl called. We started off by going to the Botanic Gardens Café for a light lunch and I sat and wrote up the farewell and days 1 and 2.

After lunch we drove out to Red Rock which was pretty fascinating so far as you could see all the lakes in the surrounds. Lake Corangamite is apparently 3 times as salty as the sea and is the largest salt lake in Australia at least. Well you google it and let me know via comments.

It was here that Oscar glimpsed a Black Cockie with yellow feathers and he made me stop and discovered that there was a whole flock of them. Trying to get a decent pic of them was not about to happen. They are extremely elusive and flew off each time he got close enough to take a picture.

We then drove around the Beeac Lake and stopped to get some pics of this dry lake. What an absolutely fascinating place. We continued around to Beeac and Oscar impulsively suggested we stop at a pub for refreshments. We headed in to a pub where two of the locals where perched on stools outside enjoying a beer and watching the passing traffic. We went inside and Grant the owner was behind the bar and was very friendly and talkative. He was over the moon that he had found a part locally with one of the old geysers in the town to repair his boiler which was 40 years old. “All it took was one phone call” he kept saying as if it were a miracle.

One of the locals that and been outside on our arrival “Simon” came on in for a chat. They told us if we stuck around long enough we would meet Fossil. There was a swear jar in the Pub specifically for Fossil. Didn’t let them know they may need another one for me.

After one drink we left and went to check out another free camping spot called Meredith Park. It was alongside the banks of Lake Colac. But I must be honest, whilst it had the lake it did not have the tranquillity of the forest camp we were currently enjoying.

Did a small grocery shop on the way out of town and decided to park off and to publish what I had written thus far. It took forever to upload the farewell blog and after a lot of frustration decided to leave well alone and try over the next few days to update the rest.

Went home to Dando’s made dinner had a drink, there were quite a few new campers and it seemed the majority were all youngsters. Later on in the evening as we were tucking in for a sleep the boys let off their first Molotov cocktail and I nearly had a heart attack. Strange how that took me back to a time back in Durban when I was lying in the bath and my head was under the water as I was washing my hair and I heard this enormous explosion and it was a bomb that went off at the city hall in Durban. I was approximately 21 years of age.

RIP Rob.

Signing out

O & V

Hey Jakes this one is for you they are real. They do exist but I guess you will have to do a trip like this to find them. We managed to see 7 on day 2 and many more over the next few nights sitting in the camp site around dusk.

Industriously trying to keep you up to date.

Looking over Lake Colac from the Botanic Gardens in Colac.

The view from Red Rock overlooking Lake Corangamite.

Blade of grass fossilised by the salt.

Oscar on Lake Beeac.

Day 4 17 February 2012

Packed up at Dando’s today we were moving out to the next location wherever that may be. “Go West Young Man Go West”. Decision made we are going to head towards Portland and stopping off at a Free Campsite Called Sawpit Camping Grounds in Mount Clay which is about 10km east of Portland just outside of the town Narrawong.

Our trip to this destination takes us past the 12 Apostles. We obviously must stop here and go for a walk to get some pics and just to enjoy this absolutely beautiful place. It amazes me that each time I have been here I enjoy it as though it is the first time I have been here.

We head off to Warrnambool where there is a Public Dumping Site. We are about to experience our first toilet cleaning exercise. Must admit thought it would be a lot worse, it was not that bad. We fill our water tanks at the same venue. We ran out of water in the one tank early that morning, so we know we are using way too much water (90 litres in 3 days) and have to start using water more efficiently. But these are the things we will learn along the way, at least we are learning whilst we are still in an area where we can find place to top up.

Arrived at camp approx 4:30pm. Set up the van, and I must admit this is working out pretty damn good. We have a system which takes us approx. half hour and no stress. We are heading into Portland for a shop and dinner. We had a Chinese dinner and after dinner Oscar wanted to go and see if he could find Avril’s house. We drove along the foreshore and taa….daa…. there it was. We spent a lovely evening chatting to Avril and Paul. Had a few to drinks and stayed the night.

Rocco there are more than 3 Apostles Somebody Lied to you.

Our Second Home on the Trip of a Lifetime.

Houdini Having a Ball.

Day 5 18^th February 2012

I woke early this morning. Oscar shared the same room as I did and for the first time I realised he snores, and oh my word does he snore. Surprised he didn’t saw down the entire house. I took a walk along the shore of Portland trying to find a way down to the water but without much luck. Got back to the house and woke Oscar. We showered and left a note for our hosts and left to head back to the camp. Arrived home and decided today would be chill day and blog day.

I got down to the task of writing up all the blogs that I was behind whilst Oscar tried to read “Practicing the Power of Now” by Eckhart Tolle. He kept falling asleep and I kept interrupting him with questions with which to update the blog. At some point I thought he looked rather irritated.

I managed to upload Days 1 and 2 but must say it takes forever to upload the photos, so I am restricting the number of photos that I upload going forward. At three we decided we needed to take a walk. We are determined to keep healthy by doing a fair amount of exercise daily and eating healthy (yes Marl I am eating healthy).

We walked towards Whale Lookout which overlooks the Southern Ocean and the history surrounding this, is that the aboriginal tribe that was in this region used to look out for whales that had beached from this location and send up smoke signals alerting all other members of the tribe to this fact. They would then journey down to the beach and farm the whale meat and any other part of the whale that they could use. They would then use this to barter with other tribes in the region.

We journey on further down the beaten track and as we round a corner I whistled and said OMG you do not seriously expect me to climb up that. THAT, was a 65 degree incline of the road for approximate 70 meters as far as we could see up before it turned a corner, for all I knew this could have continued up for another few kilometres considering we were on Mount Clay.

I looked over at Oscars face just in time to see the dogged determination he had to make this wide backside get to the summit of whatever THAT was. Off he went and the next moment his feet slipped out from under him, in this mound of fine powder (bull) dust and he was planted firmly on his backside. The look of horror on his face!!! I rushed on over screaming with laughter and there my feet went and I joined him with my backside in the dust. Well needless to say I sat there and cried I was laughing so hard. Eventually Oscar couldn’t help himself he had to join me in laughter. There we sat these 50+ and 60+ year olds laughing, tears rolling down our cheeks, filthy as can be. Forgotten was the fact that his camera was covered in this very fine powdery dust. I wish there had been a third party there this was definitely a youtube video. Needless to say we did not climb "THAT". We eventually got up tears of laughter streaking our cheeks and headed back to camp. We cleaned ourselves and the camera up.

We had our first BBQ tonight and went over to spend the evening with Ken and Matt who are "Family" and Bunnie a lady of 57 who has a bus and has been doing the Australian circuit for the last 2 years.

We are finding that it is the nice people that we are meeting along the way plus what ever Australia has to offer, that is making this trip all it is meant to be. It is restoring my faith that there are really nice decent people on this earth and that the saying "a stranger is only a friend you have not met" is very true.

Well till we sign on again Keep well, happy, safe and healthy.

Oh and thanks Robbie, you are a lifesaver uploading now has become less of a burden. I have saved at least 12 hours today alone.

O&V

Houdini in Portland