GOR 2

This waking early was, by now, getting to be an irritating habit. There were very few places for breakfast (ie one) so I opted for a takeaway coffee and cake (“lemon slice” which I had correctly identified as containing no lemon) from the bakery and ate sitting in the small garden outside the room. I was on the road by 8:50, intending to break the back of the driving.


Actually there were lots of stops for more features. The Arch, London Bridge (closed for renovation – and irritatingly people were walking all over the regeneration areas on the cliff edges to get photos). Through Peterborough, which as you drive in across an estuary that looks very much like the fens. Then you see the cliff top golf course and the sea, and the fact that there are only about 40 houses and it’s nothing like, really. The other side is the Bay of Martyrs which wasn’t in the book and I did actually pull a U-turn to go back and see (I was less than 50yds past the turn when I saw the view). With a steely blue sky behind the stacks and the sun shining on the gold limestone, it was quite something. A perfect light for it. The Bay of Islands was similar (much better than the Apostles), and the Crags which was once an aboriginal site.

Then I was in Warrnambool and it was the end of the Great Ocean Road. And the end of the map, so my mission was to find one. . I took the “scenic route” in, which wasn’t too much of detour and ran past Bluehole beach and across the river mouth. When I found town (the “City Centre”), I parked up. At first all I found was cafés, but there was a bookshop further up the hill.

Out of Warrnambool is all farmland and the road leads quite a way from the coast. It was intermittently raining. Past Tower Hill Nature Reserve, which I didn’t stop at, but is a pretty amazing volcanic crater. I had been wondering where in Aus the old volcanoes were (don’t ask why) – turns out they’re on the Vic-SA border. Past Port Fairey, looking for fuel – which is difficult as the petrol stations aren’t well marked until you see the pumps as you drive past. In fact they’re often at the village shop or Post Office.


I found fuel in Portland. That is a little like its namesake – at the end of a Limestone area, industrial port. I also found food (an organic sandwich shop – worth finding). Then I had to find somewhere to eat. Just out of Portland is Cape Bridgewater with a host of features. Lots of Geology on this holiday. At the top of the cliff is an extremely barren area with loose rocks and the occasional tuft of wiry grass. There is a lookout over a “blowhole”, although it is long collapsed. There is also a “petrified forest” which is actually a huge (many yards square) collection of “solution tubes” where the carbonic acid from the rain has run down tree roots. The trees are long gone, and there is just a collection of smooth tubes about the diameter of a tree trunk. It’s a bizarre place. I ate by the beach, another perfect horseshoe of pale sand, turquoise – petrol sea with white foam and silvery plants. By this time, the sky was a dome of blue with the pale grey clouds scudding across from the dunes to the sunset coloured cliffs. There was a flock of plovers (rare) on the beach, that would run upwards every time a larger wave came and threatened to wet their feet. Then they suddenly all scattered and there was a black kite overhead.


I had to leave, really. Sadly. The road ran through plantations of Firs and trees with new growth so green that the brightness almost hurt the eyes. The clouds had gone and it was warm. I took a detour up the Dartmouth road to a small picnic area by the Lower Glenelg River and ate my cake by a small weir.

I was just outside Nelson and drove in to have a look. Debating whether to stop there or push on into SA (the aim of the day) to Mount Gambier, I stopped in the tourist information. “Well, Mount Gambier is a city” she said.

Anyway, looking at the sun on the lagoon, I decided to stay there for the night. Asking at the Nelson hotel (the local pub), the Landlord said he could do a suite for $110 or a room for $40 ($60 if I wanted a twin). But the bathroom was across the hall. As I was the only one staying there, it really didn’t matter.


It was only half three, so I decided to try and get to the caves just up the road. Across typical SA dirt roads, running up along the border, and along the gorge. I did make the caves in time, but they don’t do tours of one. The was an Adventure Tours group there (a 30 day trip), so I chatted with the guide while I waited to see if anyone else pitched up. They had spent the evening before at the Bay of Martyrs, which really shows that the Apostles aren’t the best place.
No-one else did turn up so I just took a wonder to the gorge. Big grey kangaroos in the bush, and a myriad tiny birds fluttered around. Absolutely beautiful.


When I got back to Nelson I walked down to the lagoon, then round the beach road a bit. A rookie birdwatchers paradise (as in even I could identify most of the birds). I only got halfway to the beach, instead I turned back and went to sit on the jetty as the sun went down and the swallows again swooped. So peaceful.

I had dinner in the pub. Not wanting chips again, I went for the veg pizza. More accurately a cheese pizza. Too much even for me. Afterwards I went for another drink in the bar and spent the time chatting to the barman (who was wanting to sell up his house and go travelling somewhere). Eventually a very slurred local came up and was trying to persuade me of the barman’s good qualities. The only problem was that he was too drunk to know what the word “quality” meant.

The bar was emptying out so I went to bed.