Terang - from the Grampians to the Great Ocean Road
Terang City Hall and church, Timboon Schulz organic dairy's best place to hide
We left the Grampians around lunch time and did a little detour via Ararat to fill up water and empty the toilet since non of this services was supplied in Halls Gap. Here we discovered the first Aldi in Victoria - after shopping at IGA :-) We also had lunch in a bakery where they screened a video of how the bread and sweets are made. Very interesting! In the afternoon we set up camp on the community campground in Terang, which has a lot of beautiful old buildings, churches and street facades. A great fruit and veg shop spiced up our dinner and got us some local chocolate as desert (that for once didn't cost $10 per bar and was still pretty good). We all enjoyed a longer than usual hot shower and did some washing - just the usual stuff. Next day we went past a cheese factory where we had a tasting and Sarah played hide and seek in the garden. The cheese was so-so but the Quark was just great! Felt like home to me (except for the price).
The Great Ocean Shocker
The Grotto and London Bridge
The Grotto (pic 1 & 2), walkway pattern, London Bridge (pic 4 & 5), Port Campbell, Loch Ard Gorge (pic 7-10)
We started the Great Ocean Road at Peterborough and you could instantly tell that you were in a major tourist destination... lots of traffic and bad weather ;-) The first viewpoint is 'The Grotto' and only a couple of km down the road is London Bridge, with one of the arches collapsed in 1990 (I guess). The formations are impressive and the waves are licking at the stones in a constant motion. So you can imagine that the whole area will change over time with rocks being destroyed while others are newly formed.
The twelve Apostles with and without tourists, and the other side of the lookout, the car park and constant stream of tourists
Coming towards the famous twelve Apostles nearly got us turning around. The car park was crowded with hundreds of cars and tour busses, thousands of tourists, equipped with camera and selfie-stick, making their way through the tunnel under the street towards the costal lookout points. Sarah was tired so we took the pram along and pushed it through the crowds. We took our pictures and had a good look but I have to say, the amount of tourist is probably as impressive as the views. It definitely killed it for me.
So we were more than happy to leave the place and find a camp site in a less crowed area just out of Princetown to watch kangaroos and play on the playground for the rest of the evening...
