Great Ocean Road & Phillip Island Round 2

Great Ocean Road & Phillip Island

      Our visit to Victoria’s Southern coastline, Maru Koala & Animal Park, and the Phillip Island Penguin Parade

From the arguably “most beautiful” drives in the Southern Hemisphere to one of the largest penguin colonies in the world, the Americans and the Polish have done it again, this time scaling the whole southern coastline of Victoria, another trip inside a trip. 

The Great Ocean Road

Our first journey took myself, Ben, Witold, and Agata through the windy and awe-inspiring Great Ocean Road along Australia’s surf coast. With about a three or so hour drive from the city of Melbourne, we decided to loop around through the center of Victoria and start at the “beginning” of the Great Ocean Road, a little east of the town of Warrnambool. Because this was our second time traveling along this route we knew the major highlights both Witold and Agata would enjoy. Our first stop was the Bay of Isles & the Bay of Martyrs. With a quick little walk along the dirt path we were blown away by the massive waves from the always dangerous Southern Ocean. Because a storm was brewing off the coast, the “ocean that never sleeps” was at full-force, pounding into seaside cliffs and crashing down into the empty and barren beach. 

We kept driving along with an unbelievably scenic view of the ocean, cliffs, and rock formations stopping every once and a while to take pictures like prototypical tourists. We pointed out signed for The Grotto which was one of our favorite stops when we went back in April. The Grotto was very unique in that it represented an arch leading out to the ocean, with a quiet and scenic pool inside. We walked along the path down the cliff-side stairs and BOOM!!! The waves churning the water so intense we were getting wet from 50 or so yards away. As we got all the way down to the entrance of The Grotto we saw waves crashed all the way through inside filling the end with water. 

Although the weather started to rain, we made a very important stop to my personal favorite, the London Arch. The London Arch was one of the most magnificent sights I have ever seen. The pure force of the waves crash through and around the arch was incredibly picture worthy. It was one of those sights most people don’t get to see in real-life and only in calendars. 

Our last stop consisted of arguably the most popular and high anticipated stop- the Twelve Apostles. The massive rock formations right off the beach is always a sight to see. The waves carving the rocks over thousands and thousands of years have shaped these to look like mini islands. Over time- the (Twelve Apostles) have shrunk now to seven. With helicopter tours, private beach tours, and hundreds and hundreds of tourists from around the world visit this popular Victorian landmark. It is one thing that will never get old to see.

Maru Koala & Animal Park

The following week myself, Ben, Witold and Agata headed south to Phillip Island. One of the other popular areas in Victoria to visit, Phillip island hosts a wide arrange of conservation parks, beaches, and beautiful scenery. Our first stop was the Maru Koala and Animal Park. Located just before Phillip Island, we all got to witness firsthand many of Australia’s native wildlife up close and personal. From koala’s to kangaroo’s to wallabies, dingo’s, Tasmanian devils, wombats, and emu’s, they had it all. One of the highlights of course was the close encounter with the Koala. We got private access inside the special Koala habitat and were able to feed and pet it. Although it wasn’t very interested with us and more concerned about its food, we were able to take some neat pictures.

After viewing the other animals we entered into the gate where all the kangaroo’s were running free. We were able to feed, touch and pet the kangaroos and play with them like they were our own pets. Now for many of the Australian’s, these animals are in your everyday life, but in America and Poland they’re not. 

For about an hour were got to take pictures and enjoy the company of the marsupials. Although most of them were looking for food, it was an enjoyment being around all of them.

After seeing all the animals, we went over and played some Pirate’s-themed mini golf. Arguably one of my favorite things to do, we enjoyed a full 18 holes of intense America vs. Poland competition. After tallying up the scorecard, Witold came out champion  Ben was forced to do this…

Penguin Parade

We traveled onto Phillip Island and stopped at a wonderful Italian restaurant eating some of the best tasting pizza we haven had on our trip. We drove to the end of the island to our final destination of the day, the Penguin Parade. Since it was myself and Bens second time there in the past month we knew we had to get there early so we could grab some front row seats alongside the beach. Once the doors opened from inside the visitors center, we weaved in between the tourists and ran to get a beach-side viewing area.

As sun set, we waited patiently for the penguins to emerge from their 2+ days of feeding out in the Southern Ocean. As the minutes passed there was no sign of the penguins. You could tell the people were nervous thinking that maybe the penguins could have missed the beach for some reason. Then out of nowhere, a group of about 10 or so penguins came out of the water like a beach-goer in the movie Jaws. They huddled closely together and inched closer and closer to us along the beach. Making sure the coast was clear of ferocious predators, the penguins waddled full-speed on the beach up to their nests to finally take a nice and relaxing break.

For about and hour more groups of penguins emerged from the water enroute to their nests. After most of them  came ashore, we walked alongside the boardwalks and saw them even closer. It was very interested listening to the sounds they made. High-pitched and sometimes low-pitched chirping sounds. Something I noticed the second time around was that the penguins sometimes stopped for a period of a few minutes, seeming to wait for something. Later did I find out from the penguin expert was that they stop to take a quick little nap and rest up. They do that on occasion and never sleep for a long duration of time, like humans do.

From the awe-inspiriting Great Ocean Road to interacting with koalas and kangaroos to witnessing penguins march, our journeys with Witold and Agata in their final weeks in Australia were memorable. Australia, virtually a wild animal playground, no matter where you go, it is always an experience.

Our next and final trip in Australia before we head back to America will be the biggest and baddest of them all: The Great Barrier Reef

-Matt

Tasmania- Wineglass Bay & Mt. Wellington

Tasmania- Wineglass Bay & Mt. Wellington

Our journey continued down along the mountainous eastern coast region of Tasmania to Freycinet National Park, where the well-know Tassie picture viewing area of Wineglass Bay is located. We strapped on our backpacks, tied up our hiking boots to climb yet another mountain. With the amount of hiking Ben and I have done in the past couple months we felt like we could be ready to ascend Everest…almost. We took a relatively easy hiking path up to the Wineglass Bay lookout and boy was it worthwhile. We could see the picturesque bay settled in between the mountains. You could see other mountains in the distance as well as the outlet into the South Pacific Ocean

After some quick photo taking we took another path back down the mountain to the Wineglass Bay beach. The climb down the mountain was very steep, although we could walk down the steps and decline was much more than what we expected. But determined to make it down to the beach we pushed through and finally got to our destination. Climbs down all-terrained paths are a whole lot easier when your destination is a beach.

We finally got the beach and it was a sight to behold. The beach extended for miles and miles with the pure white sandy beach below our feet. But it wasn’t the beach that caught our eye, it wasn’t the massive mountains either, it was the friendly baby wallaby greeting visitors.

Although myself and Ben have seen wallaby’s and kangaroos in past trips here Down Under, this was the first “wild” wallaby to actually let humans pet it. It was so nice it ran up to us, like the beach was its house. We pet it for quite some time, took a few picture and as we left to continue to walk down the beach, it followed us, just like a dog.

We of course couldn’t ignore it so we continued to hang out with the little guy for quite some time. It was one of those animals that was so friendly it could easily be domesticated…as long as you had a 2 mile long stretch of beach outside your house.

We let it go finally to  greet some more tourists coming down the mountain. “Wally” the Wallaby as we called it made our day.

We continued along the beach and it was incredibly peaceful, looking at the mountains, hearing the waves crash along the remote beach was something we don’t get a chance to experience very often.

After our long stay along the beach we hiked back up the steep mountain back to the car, saw a “Joey,” and headed south through the rainforest along to Hobart, the capital city of Tasmania.

We ended up in Hobart about a couple hours later and booked a nice hostel right in the middle of the city. Although not a very big city, Hobart was quite busy with mainly tourists and sightseers ,like ourselves. After contemplating what to do decided to go up to Mt. Wellington, a large mountain overlooking the city of Hobart.

Tired from all the hikes earlier in the day, we drove up the whole mountain with our little rental car. We were surprised that what seemed like lawnmower engine in the car actually got us up the mountain.  As we walked out of the car to the lookout the wind literally knocked us over. The wind had to be around hurricane force winds with gusts close to 90 miles an hour. The view was spectacular!

Because it was night, we could see almost every single light of the city of Hobart as well as surrounding communities. With the windchill well below 10 degrees we only stayed for a few minutes. Luckily for us we were not blown off the lookout by the wind.\

We got back into the car and drove back down to our backpackers in Hobart. After long exhausting and busy day we needed to rest up before our next day trip down to the old prison remains of Port Arthur.

-Matt

Bay of Fires – Tasmania

Bay of Fires

Our second day on the island of “Tassie,” we decided to head to the Northeastern coast of the island to an area called the Bay of Fires. As we read up on the area in some of the research we did before our trip, we noticed that coastline had free camping, which was a big plus for us. We called up this local outdoor shop in the city of Launceston to inquire in some camping gear. As we approached what we thought was going to be camping store, it ended up being some guys house. It reminded me of the show Horders. This old Tassie local, had camping gear piled up taller than himself, he had tents, sleeping bags, bicycles, carpentry, books with sawdust on it dating back to the first settlement on the island, so much gear and equipment it was a complete maze. After the elder man told many stories of his life, eight stories in fact, we shipped off to the Bay of Fires with a tent, sleeping bags, mattresses, and a Tasmanian camping mindset.

After a couple hour drive through the mountains, we ended up meeting some friends, Ashley and Eric, who were with us in Melbourne, along with two other people, along the beautiful red-rocked, pure white sandy beaches. With over a handful of camping grounds to set up our headquarters, we decided to settle right along the beach where we could hear the waves crashing less than a hundred feet away.

The beach consisted of the whitest and softest sand you could ever imagine. The sunset glowing the red, orange, and yellow in the sky, the water a gorgeous turquoise blue/green was a sight to see. We all walked along the red rocks, which turned even more red as the sun set. The view was simply breathtaking looking out into the South Pacific.

As darkness set in, we gathered all the wood and kindling and made a campfire. This was the perfect night to do so with the crisp ocean breeze, along with the glowing full moon. We grabbed some beer and cooked our sausages over the fire pit, until we were full. Not many people have the chance to camp along the beach, let alone in Tasmania.

As I got up to looked at the moon glowing out over the water, I saw these two evil glowing eyes near the ground…the Possum brigade had sensed our food. Being from New England, we were use to the possums, but these were different. They were a lot bigger and seemed more territorial. That was not stopping us from interacting with them. Australia is famous for all their wildlife, and what better way to interact with them first hand. We ended up feeding our leftover bread and got to pet it a few times, although very soft, they had sharp claws and teeth that could do some damage if they got a hold of you. More concerned about the food, we gave them the loaf to fest on for the rest of the night.

The night was young, but tiredness set in, only the second day down, we already experienced some of the top attractions in Tasmania. With the possums lurking over our tent, we hit the hay to rest up for next day- the famous calendar-photoed Wineglass Bay.

Bay of Fires was ranked as one of the top beaches in the world. Unimaginable views of the vast remote South Pacific Ocean was just another check off our list.

-Matt