Life in a year full of Saturdays: Lorne

Saturday, January 19, 2019

Great Ocean Road / Port Fairy / Grampians (Australia) - Close to home

Great Ocean Road / Port Fairy / Grampians (Australia)
19 January - 20 January 2019

It's a problem for Australians, everything is so far away that the idea of travelling for us is always so grand and so large that we quiet often forget the absolute gems in our own backyard.

The Great Ocean Road is one of those gems.

For many a year I've been coming down to Melbourne for either work or pleasure and on most occasions, in that time, would find the time do a drive on the Great Ocean Road. In my humble opinion, one of the most special, unrivalled and pre-eminent drives in the world. There is nothing quite like the stretch of road out of Lorne to Port Campbell. The reveals and dramatic landscape of land and sea will inevitably have you stopping for many more times that you would ever anticipate. Additionally, the towns of Lorne & Apollo Bay are highlights, but so too are the many other smaller locales on the way. In addition to that, I would also like to give a special mention to Cape Otway National Park, not only for its beauty but also for it never having let me down in my quest to either find, or show someone a koala in their natural habitat. That in itself is a rarity these days but surely you'll achieve your objective here.

Great Ocean Road - Victoria

The Twelve Apostles - Great Ocean Road - Victoria

We stopped for a night in Port Fairy, an absolutely charming fishing village at the end of the Great Ocean Road whose only failing is that by 8pm on a Saturday all its main restaurants are closing down. Like....what!!!? Beautiful and picturesque, no matter what the state of their late night economy, their streets are lined with nineteenth century cottages, great Nolfolk Pines and some great old sandstone buildings. Quaint and endearing, this town had a lot going for it on the attractiveness scale, and I wonder now, after having covered the Great Ocean Road many times, why the hell I'd never forced myself to get here.

The Twelve Apostles - Great Ocean Road - Victoria

The Grampians National Park - Victoria

On the Sunday we headed north out of Port Fairy and did the 120km drive to the Grampians National Park. Once again, this was another part of Victoria that had always been on my hit list but somehow it had been more than wily and eluded me on all previous occasions. A beautiful area known for its wildlife, sandstone mountains and wildflowers, it has plenty of walking trails for all levels and all adventure requirements. Inga and I took one of the medium walks up to Pinnacle lookout and were rewarded with some spectacular views of the regions. A walk well worth the effort, even if Inga was 6 months+ pregnant (oops, should not have said that out aloud)

Sunday, December 13, 2015

Canberra-Eden-Melbourne (AUSTRALIA) - Road trip through the wires

Canberra-Eden-Melbourne (Australia)
13 December - 20 December 2015

There's only two words I really want to say about Canberra...and the second word if Canberra.

I don't care about lake Burley Griffin, Parliament House, the High Court or the tree lined streets that lead to countless roundabouts. When that ever present haze of boredom descends on you once passing the Welcome to the A.C.T. signs then your only thought should be escaping out the other side.

Twenty years ago Canberra was my city of transience, a waypoint or a temporary blip on my way to the Snowy Mountains. It could never maintain my interest for more than 20 mins, other than the period of time where I had a fascination with the High Court. With that said, can this administrative and bureaucratic wonderland, that apparently has a population with the highest IQ, on average, of any Australian capital, not do any more to endear itself to the population which it leads?

The best thing about Canberra - Australia

Kangaroo sightings

Kangaroos in the Australian Capital Territory

What else have you got? Nothing

The best thing about our stop in Canberra was that Inga finally got to see a few kangaroos! Finally, proof that they exist...and even they looked bored out of their minds, like there was some pervasive force field of boredom that managed to penetrate all sentient beings.

Realising now that I've give Canberra far too many of my precious words, I'll move on.

Eden - New South Wales - Australia

The coastal route that we decided to adopt after Canberra took us down around Berry and then stopping in at the gorgeous Sapphire Coast town of Eden. For some reason I've always been drawn to this little town, there's something about its location and demeanour and its rich deep blue waters that somehow draw me in each time. On this occasion though Inga and I were treated to somewhat of a cosmic anomaly. Taking a walk along one of the many deserted beaches in the area we noticed a few 'shooting stars' cut across the night sky, separated by only a few mins. This event continued however, very unexpectedly and we were witness to, perhaps over the period of an hour, shooting stars appearing at a rate of one every couple of minutes. Personally I've never seen an event quite like that and wasn't aware of any known meteor shower that was scheduled for that evening. Not that it mattered to us. Each and every one of those falling stars had one of our wishes attached to it - it was almost as good as finding a genie in a bottle.

Melbourne - Victoria - Australia

And that led us back to Melbourne.

My second attempt at showcasing a prospective 'settlement city' was far more successful o this occasion than the month prior. Melbourne as we know is temperamental, at times verging on bipolar, and this can lead to disillusionment and disengagement. How can you fall for a city when it takes so much work? Like most relationships however it's only really the initial spark that's missing, the rest develops within its own framework, with both parties taking a little and giving. This time Melbourne gave us a reason as to why we may want to stay here. The weather was fantastic which facilitated happy movement around the city, which is all you really need here.

St.Kilda, Brunswick St, Carlton, Chapel St, bars, restaurants and style. What it doesn't have from Sydney it really doesn't need. It's charms are sometimes understated and sometimes hidden but its vibe is always hip and cool, it will beat any other Australian city in that department hands down.

Brunswick Street - Melbourne

San Telmo - Myers Place - Melbourne

For the few days that we stayed it was in a lovely apartment overlooking the Yarra, just across from Crown Casino. I recall Inga saying one night, 'You know, I wouldn't mind living here' - fast forward 4 years and hey presto, we now own an apartment across the street from where we were staying with virtually the same view, only on a much higher floor. In fact I've added the two views below just for a comparison.

One of the benefits of Melbourne's location is its proximity to 'cool stuff', as in, the Yarra Valley, the Grampians, Mornington Peninsula, and of course the Surf Coast & Shipwreck Coast, which is serviced by one of the most scenic drives on the planet, the Great Ocean Road. Running 243kms from Torquay to just outside of Warrnambool, this road passes alongside beaches, through forests and hugs the cliff lined coastline for great portions of the journey. An iconic drive of Australia, personally I've completed the ride more 10 times and consider it one of the great highlights from this part of Australia. As a passenger in a vehicle you are provided with smogasbord of majestic views as you weave in and out of the small bays and inlets that are scattered along the route.

The Great Ocean Road - Victoria - Australia

The day we chose to do the drive was marvellous. Scenic views for the whole journey, until we got about 20kms out from the 12 Apostles, which effectively is the pinnacle of all highlights along the road. Somehow a wicked wind picked up on the Southern Ocean bringing in a seaspray so large and dense that it blanketed the coastline like a deep fog. It was incredible. For anyone that had the 12 Apostles listed as their 'must see' Mother Nature just wiped it off the board with a brutally cruel sleight of hand. There's not much you can do in a scenario like that, except wait it out, if you have the time (which we did). So we bunkered down in the car park adjacent to the Apostles and bet on some better visibility in the morning.

The Twelve Apostles - Great Ocean Road - Victoria - Australia

...and our plan worked

In a 20 minute early morning window of opportunism we took the rays of sunshine as meaning that visibility was improving. As fortune would have it we were right on the mark. We time our arrival to perfection. We didn't have more than 10 mins total of viewing time before the weather closed us out once again, masking the rock stacks which had stood so obviously and proudly just a moment before.

Sometimes instinct is all the luck you need.

Life in a year full of Saturdays

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Saturday, January 19, 2019

Great Ocean Road / Port Fairy / Grampians (Australia) - Close to home

Sunday, December 13, 2015

Canberra-Eden-Melbourne (AUSTRALIA) - Road trip through the wires

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A year full of Saturdays