Heading West - Grampians National Park

The initial plan was to visit Ballarat for a day. It was only 2 hour drive away. Here we intended to visit the gardens, the town centre, Sovereign hill and the light show later in the evening. After some discussion we decided to visit Grampians National Park since it is approximately 2 hours drive from Ballarat.

My brother was more interested in natures and sceneries than the commercial shows.

This park is the third largest in Victoria with spectacular scenery, colourful displays of wildflowers and home to almost a third of Victoria’s plant species, and a large percentage of its animals.
The park offer some of the best site seeing opportunities in the State, with a substantial network of roads and a convenient central base in the fully serviced township of Halls Gap. There are excellent short walks, some easy, others more demanding.

We stopped at Ararat for lunch in a Chinese restaurant. The chow mien was horrible and doubles the price for what we can get better food in Melbourne. It was a rip off and I will never step into that restaurant again.

Time was an essence and we picked out the best locations to visit.

Boroka Lookout

Reeds Lookout

The Balconies Lookout from Reed Lookout car park

Mackenzie Falls - One of the most spectacular waterfalls in Victoria. Walking tracks lead down to the falls, to various view points, and connect to Zumstein.

Zumstein
Picnic area and popular kangaroo viewing site. Here we have to drive slowly and watch out for kangaroos often crossing the road here.

Spur in the Foot

This is the follow up of my previous post "crippled".
Below are the x-rays that show the spur in the foot.

Crossing Port Phillips Bay

After Bendigo, the next day we decided to do the Great Ocean Road Drive. It through the breathtaking coastline of south west Victoria and one of the world’s most scenic road to the famous 12 Apostles, the Otways rainforest passing through resort towns like Torquay, Lorne, Apollo Bay etc. Visit here to read my previous blog.

Since 2 days ago we went to Geelong and instead of taking the same route to Geelong and on to the Great Ocean Road, we decided to drive south down the Mornington Peninsula to Sorrento and catch a ferry to Queenscliff.

Half way along the journey, we stopped at Arthurs Scenic Chairlift hoping to catch a 20 minute journey to the famous summit through the treetops and experience the aroma of Australian Bush and the magnificent seascape. Sadly on that day the lifts were not running.

Arthurs Seat Lift

On a clear day it is possible to see Cape Otway, You Yang Ranges, Dandenong Ranges, Mt. Donna Buang and even the ski slopes at Mt. Baw Baw in winter. A much clearer and spectacular view of Port Phillip, Port Phillip heads and Westernport can be seen because they are much nearer.

We arrive at Sorrento in time to catch the 11am ferry. The Sorrento -Queenscliff car ferries criss-cross the southern end of Port Phillip Bay 24 times a day, every day of the year.

Sorrento - Queenscliff Ferry

The ferry leave every hour on the hour and is able to carry up to 700 passengers and 80 vehicles each, the twin hull vessels are built to operate in all weather conditions.

Inside the Hull of the ferry

The crossing takes about 30 minute to Queenscliff.

Queenscliff is a lovely seaside village is bursting with reminders of its past - Victorian-era hotels dripping with intricate iron lacework, the huge military fortress, charming old churches and quaint fishermen's cottages. To read more about Queenscliff visit here.

http://walkabout.com.au/locations/VICQueenscliff.shtml

We made a quick drop and walkabout. Some years ago when my friend and his wife came for a visit, I made the mistake of heading back to Geelong and turning back to the Great Ocean Road. Learning from the mistake I quickly made a beeline to the information centre for an alternative route. The kindly lady gave us some map and mark out the shortest route to the Great Ocean road.

We took the coastal road passing Point Lonsdale,

Point Lonsdale

Ocean grove, Barwon Head

Barwon Head

and to the Surf Coast Hwy leading to the Great Ocean Road. The initial plan was to have fish and chip lunch at Lorne but it was late in the afternoon and all of us were hungry. We stopped at Anglesea for lunch. We came across this little café and we had fish and chip lunch with a nice cup of cappuccino or hot chocolate. I cannot remember the name of the cafe. The service was good and the fish and chips was really good.

The tummies were filled and everyone was happy, we headed for the Great Ocean Drive

Great Ocean Road with its new display

and to Lorne.

Lorne

After spending some time in Lorne we took the inland road back home passing through Geelong and reach home late in the night.

Way up North

After our wet and cold Dandenong Ranges trip, we woke up to a bright beautiful morning. We decided to visit Bendigo, the 2^nd largest city in Victoria. It is about 90 minutes drive up north of Melbourne Central. Impressive Victorian buildings line the wide streets of Bendigo, a reminder of the rich history built from one of the world's most exciting gold rushes.

Along the way we decided to drop into Mount Macedon. It is a small township which lies part way up the mountain of the same name. We were here to see the Memorial Cross and hanging Rock.

The Memorial Cross is 21-metre high and is set amidst trees and gardens. It is distinguished by its tiled exterior and a large bronze sword. William Cameron, built the cross as a memorial to the lost his son in World War I and as a tribute to those Australians who died in the war. The Ash Wednesday fires of 1983 damaged the cross and ruined the gardens. The latter have been re-established and the former replaced.

Just as we reached the parking lot, the weather turned for worse. It was raining hard with howling cold wind and a thick cloud of mist starting to come in. It was freezing cold with drop of tiny white flakes and we thought it was snowing. Since we were here, we braved the cold and walk in to see the cross. A quick look and see we left for Hanging Rock.

Hanging Rock is part of a small extinct volcano which rises to 105 metres above the surrounding plain. It was formed by lava emerging from a vent in the earth about six million years ago. The lava had an unusually high soda content and solidified into soda trachyte which also formed the Camel's Hump on Mount Macedon.

It is said in 1900 on Saturday 14^th February, a party of schoolgirls from Appleyard College went picnicking at Hanging Rock and during the afternoon several members of the party disappeared without a trace.

Joan Lindsay's novel Picnic at Hanging Rock is based upon the St Valentine's Day picnic. The story was later made into a lyrical film by Peter Weir. The Rock was also reputed to have been a hideout for bushrangers in the gold rush era.

When we arrived at the foot of Hanging Rock, we decided to give it a miss since it was raining and misty. So we headed for Bendigo. The first place we stopped in Bendigo was the Bendigo’s Central Deborah Gold Mine.

It is a well known tourist attraction that offers the experience of exploring a real gold mine sixty metre underground. Here you don a hard hat with a miner lamp and walk in the foot steps of miners of the old days.

After this we visited the Sacred Heart Church. Unlike many country churches which are often blue stone, the creamy sandstone of this cathedral provide a beautiful contrast with the blue skies and late afternoon light. It architecture reflects the wealth during this era.

To know more about the history of this church visit here.

The next place we visited was the Bendigo’s Chinese Museum. It is no surprise Chinese heritage is an integral part of Bendigo. If you have been following my blog, Chinese have been in Australia long, long ago in the gold rush days.

There is so much history of Chinese migration over here. This museum provides and insight of the Chinese people of Bendigo from the gold rush of the 1850’s to the present day. This museum also displays Sun Loong, the longest imperial dragon in the world (over 100 metre).

There are other places to visit like the pottery factory etc. but time was too short to see it all.