31 March 2000
Have just got back from dinner at the motel at Port Campbell and rain is sheeting down and the wind howling. The motel where we are staying, the Southern Ocean Motor Inn, is just across the road from the small beach here and you can hear the waves rolling in and crashing on the shore. Lovely being warm and cosy in our room.
Left Mt. Gambier about 10:00 o'clock this morning after seeing the sights there. Notably the Blue Lake and the replica of the sailing ship the Lady Nelson. Mt. Gambier is quite a large city with a substantial suburban area. It has many fine old buildings.
The Blue Lake is quite extraordinary. It is a large body of water lying within the town limits in an obvious volcanic crater. It is in fact Mt. Gambier's water supply. The water is normally a dull slate grey colour, but in November it changes over a couple of days to a brilliant cobalt blue and stays that way until the end of March, when it gradually changes back to the dull slate grey. Apparently no-one really knows why this happens, but when it is blue (and luckily we saw it that way) it is truly spectacular.
From Mt. Gambier we travelled south then east to Nelson (which is just over the Victorian border) then continued south east for 100 kms to Portland. This is a reasonably large old seafaring town with a busy port and nice harbour. After having some lunch there we refuelled and continued in an easterly direction through Port Fairy to Warrnambool. About 5 kms before we reached Port Fairy there was a turn off to the Crags. We took the turn off, curious to see what was there (it was only 3 kms off the main road) and were rewarded with a wonderful vista of tall limestone cliffs that had been eroded over time by the incessant pounding of the Southern Ocean into several isolated, stand-alone "towers". Fortunately the weather (which was cold and dull and overcast with rain and drizzle patches) lifted slightly to a weak sun and allowed us to grab a couple of half-decent photos.
And then we drove into Port Fairy. This place is absolutely delightful. It is only small, but has clearly been here a long while. What was particularly striking were the small old weatherboard cottages which in the main had been very well kept and were quite charming. "Sweet", (or "Cute") I suppose Rebecca would say. The town centre is also quite charming and many of the old period buildings and shopfronts have been kept. This place is a little jewel.
From Port Fairy we continued on through Warrnambool (a large regional centre) and shortly afterwards turned on to the Great Ocean Drive for the run down through Peterborough to Port Campbell, where we decided to stay the night after realizing the extent of the coastal attractions around here (and also in the hope the weather would be better in the morning - it was very heavy overcast and drizzle today and quite cold, as I've already said).
The area here is known for the Twelve Apostles and, to a lesser extent, London Bridge. But there is more. Much more. There is the Bay of Islands, the Arch, Loch Ard Gorge, the Razorback and Gibson's Steps - all as impressive in their own particular ways as the Twelve Apostles and London Bridge. So we are hoping for some sun in the morning to really show these places off and allow us to get some nice piccies.
From here tomorrow we will probably continue south east down around Cape Otway to Apollo Bay, then up to Lorne, Torquay and Geelong and then north west to Ballarat. How far we get will depend on what time we get away from here.