The Great Ocean Road

Port Campbell, Victoria, Australia
Thursday, December 19, 2013

Noel Coward coined an excellent phrase in one of his iconic songs, which you will all know:
"Mad Dogs and Englishmen Go Out in the Midday Sun", and never were truer words spoken today.....
It was a short journey to Port Campbell our overnight stop tonight, which enabled us to tarry a while along the way. The temperature was already up to 30 degrees when we took breakfast out on the verandah this morning. The view over the river and Port Fairy was a lovely start to the day and breakfast sumptuous. Poached pears in cinnamon syrup, homemade toasted muesli and Greek yogurt, followed by a freshly cooked main course of real imagination. Peter had roasted tomatoes on rye toast spread with rocket pesto and rocket topped and I had the hot cakes with caramelised bananas. Yum yum! We took our leave with regret and will definitely be back if we are ever this way again. Remember Oscar's in Port Fairy and similarly Ann's Place in Robe. Both first class. After a wander round Port Fairy we set off towards Port Campbell and the beginning of the The Great Ocean Road proper.
We stopped at Tower Hill, (Victoria's first National Park just before Warrnambool ) and it is a fascinating place, the sort I have been waiting to see. It is an enormous volcanic crater some 4 kms across. The swampy floor is punctuated by conical hills called scoria (ash eruptions) and after a good rain they become Islands surrounded by a shallow lake. The inside of the crater is now a wildlife reserve and the native vegetation has been allowed to re grow, having being decimated by slash and burn techniques in the years of early human settlement. We saw Emu a plenty and lots of bird life which was a thrill and apparently there are kangaroos, echidna, koalas, wallabies etc under normal circumstances. When we arrived the temperature in the crater had soared to 41 degrees and any sensible 'animal' with the exception of the mad dog English types had long since gone to ground in cool vegetation! However, we only had the one chance and decided we would have to give one of the shorter walks a go. Hot wasn't the word for it and yes, we were mad, coming back in my case like a large overripe strawberry. It is a stunning Park and I'm sure in cooler conditions there would have been more to see in terms of wildlife.
Eventually we moved on, having sat in the air conditioned car for 10 mins to recover a degree of cool and once we hit The Great Ocean Road Proper there were lots of scenic coastal lookouts to take advantage of. Mind you, you do have to run the gauntlet of the million and one killer flies ready to dive bomb you the minute you emerge from the safety of the car. They even manage to get under my wide brimmed hat and large sunglasses. It is still limestone bedrock, so the coastline is absolutely spectacular and I expect we have even more to come tomorrow.
Port Campbell is something of a one horse town, without the historic attractions of its Fairy cousin, but it is packed full to capacity with people determined to enjoy the weather and the coast. We are told there will be a slight relief tomorrow, the temperature should only be 30 degrees!Read more