Big4
Yesterday was great, today was wet. That sums it up, but here are a few more details. We left our campground yesterday morning and drove to the
The lighthouse was fun, we got to climb up the spiral staircase and enjoy the amazing views. The former lighthouse keeper is now the museum guide and he shared a few anecdotes with us before we left. Today automated lighthouses and GPS have turned the older lighthouses into museums at best.
From the lighthouse we proceeded along the ocean road for a bit and then turned into the Great Otway park again for another go at waterfalls. The drive was beautiful, passing through rolling hills dotted with cows and sheep. As we would discover today, this whole area of southern
We reached a beautiful rainforest and completed a 2km circuit called triplet falls. When you see the picture you’ll understand the name. The walk included many stairs, but we took the stroller with us, just in case the girls would need it. I am sad to report that they needed faster than we had wished. It’s hard to train two girls at the same time to hike. The minute one of them wants to stop walking, the second will also stop, even if she was doing fine. If anybody has a suggestion, let us know. The falls as well as the ferns along the walk were gorgeous.
It was late afternoon when we reached the famous Twelve Apostles area on the ocean road. We checked out Gibson Steps, basically a stairwell leading from the cliffs down to the shore. It was beautiful. We then parked and prepared supper while waiting for the sun to elongate the shade before heading out to the Twelve Apostles viewing area. These “apostles†are a series of rocks that were once part of the cliffs but due to erosion are now erect statues in the ocean. You can only see six from the viewpoint, but nonetheless it was beautiful.
We stayed long after the sunset, and as an added bonus, when it started to get dark, penguins started to march up out of the ocean. We were 50 meters above them on the cliffs so we couldn’t see very well, but it seemed to us that they were spending too much time frolicking in the surf before walking up to the sand. Almost as if these were beach bum surfer dude penguins.
After the fun, we prepared the kids for bed in the parking lot, showers, milk, teethbrushing and all. We drove in the dark for half an hour before reaching our campground in
We woke up to a cloudy cold morning. The kids managed to play 5 minutes in the playground before the rain began. And it hasn’t stopped till now. We drove to Warrnambool, 50km, and have spent most of the day trying to keep the kids busy and happy within the confines of the RV.
Before reaching the campsite, we did stop at a “cheese museum†which is actually a cheese store with a free museum of all the old crap the dairy farmers threw out of their homes in the last spring cleaning. We also stopped by a whale viewing platform, but all the whales were gone because of the rain (just kidding, they hang out here til October, and today is Nov 1 so they split…)
Tomorrow’s forecast calls for more rain. Let’s hope NOT!
Good night,
-Hemi