Thursday, November 5, 2015

Portland to Healesville

The next morning after breakfast, we said goodbye to our hosts and headed off.


Marianne was intrigued by the trees beside the road. It can be very windy in this area.


And now for a lighthouse, in this case, the Cape Nelson Lighthouse which is only a few miles from the bnb.



You can stay in the old lighthouse keepers cottage.




The long wall protects you from the wind. It was somewhat windy but not a howling gale and I was still glad to have the protection of the wall.





Looking down from the cliff at the cape.







We were intrigued by these small formations close to the cliff edge.



Two windmills. It was intriguing to watch the pattern of the revolving blades. Our host at the bnb told us that the land owner gets $10k per year for each windmill on his property. And of course, there is considerable debate about the effect of the low frequency noise on people.


A live kangaroo. In the course of our trip, we saw thousands of dead kangaroos.



We passed through Warnambool and headed south to the coast where the western end of the Great Ocean Road begins.



Wind break protecting fields on the lee side.


We reached the coast and the start of the famous sandstone formations that are now a major tourist attraction. Back in 1973 when I first came here, few people knew of them and you simply parked your car and walked a few yards to the view. Now you park well away from the actual coast line and walk along a path.



Even on a dismal day, the views are fabulous.





Muttonbird Island.



Presumably these are Muttonbirds.



The Airedale Quilt makes another appearance.




I renamed this the Bay of Tomatoes (using the Aussie / English pronunciation).



A raised walkway to protect the vegetation.



You stop every few miles to look at another set of formations.




A feature known as the Grotto.





Your windswept hero at the Grotto. Yes, it was a bit cool with the wind.




The famous London Bridge that fell down in 1990. Marianne and I had walked out there numerous times.



The waves were not high this time. I have been there when the splash of the waves is as high as the cliffs.







Further east along the coast at the Twelve Apostles. In the foreground are the remains of an Apostle that fell down in 2005.  There are only eight left.

The cliffs are quite high. If you click on the picture, you might be able to see a van at the top middle.






Back in 1973, you could walk out and stand on the formation at the end. You can't do that anymore.



Wire fence to keep the tourists corralled.


Where I walked out to the end.


Insurance issues have forced the closure and fencing off of many places. And of course, tourists will do stupid things such as taking selfies and fall off.




We did not do the eastern part of the Great Ocean Road which has a lot of bends since we needed to get to Healesville which is the other side of Melbourne. So we headed inland towards Colac.





The hinterland of southern Victoria is quite pretty. It makes a nice change from the coastal area.

For a more complete blog of this area, take a look at this version from our trip of three years ago.



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