great ocean road trip, day two

When we woke up, we did a walk along the coast before breakfast and check out of the hotel. We walked along the beach and along the trails and boardwalks to see the Robe Obelisk/Lighthouse, rocks, and vegetation. The ocean has shaped the shoreline into a rocky, rugged, and breath-taking landscape. Especially in the early morning sun! 


From Robe we made our way down the Limestone Coast to Great Ocean Road and to a few of the sightseeing stops we came across, first of which was Woakwine Cutting. The aboriginal name Woakwine Cutting means elbow or bent arm, which refers to the shape of the watercourse which is near the cutting. In 1956 this man-made gorge was dug out by two people and a tractor in order to drain the swampland for its future use as farmland. This little known treasure had an observation box-thing that was propped over the gorge and was kind of scary to stand in, but once you saw the views down the cutting and out to the ocean in the background, it was worth it.


The Pool of Siloam just outside of Beachport was our next stop. This very small inland lake which has a reputation for being a very good swimming spot. This lake is apparently seven times saltier than the ocean is and also has therapeutic qualities, which makes swimming and relaxing here so nice. We did not swim in this mystery water because it was very cold and because it was foggy and orange. Something about it just seemed weird. So, we stuck our feet in and just looked. I am proud to announce that my sore ankle was a little less sore the next day.  As we were driving out of Beachport and away from our Pool of Siloam, we found a sign that said Post Office Rock, this way. So we followed it out of curiosity. The name still does not make any sense to me, but maybe based on the pictures it will to you! 

Once we got the car filled with a little more sand, we headed down the road to the Tantanoola Caves Conservation Park. On our way we noticed that there was a lot of forestry and rows of trees in the area and that the roads were rather narrow and winding. The logging trucks are intimidating on a normal road, let alone on these unpopulated and small ones. Anyway, we only passed by a few trucks and were okay with that. At the caves we decided that walking around the outside of them was a better idea. We were tired and hungry and wanted to do a short hike instead, so we did. We walked up to the top of the caves and enjoyed the views of the surrounding forests and valleys. From here, we went to Port Fairy for dinner at a small pizza shop and bought some snacks for the road.  Our plan from now is to make it to Port Campbell National Park for a sleep and a big day tomorrow. 

Mama in Robe looking at the Great Australian Bight

the rugged shoreline in Robe

Turtle Rock

Woakwine Cutting

the overhanging observation platform

the cold Pool of Siloam

Sara and Mom at the Pool of Siloam

Sara by the Post Office Rock

Mama in Robe from the Post Office Rock

some trees

Tantanoola Caves Conservation Park with tree lines

great ocean road trip, day one

As our main trip on this mom-em-sara vacation, we decided to go on a road trip from Adelaide down Great Ocean Road to the Melbourne Avalon Airport. We rented our Nissan Tiide from Adelaide City and started driving at 10:00am on Tuesday, May 26, 2011 with only a few main destinations in mind. This was a fairly spontaneous and wing-it trip for us and we loved it! Driving through the Adelaide Hills was beautiful; there was an endless landscape of vineyards and farmland, and of forest and scrubland. 

First, we decided to go to Victor Harbour and Granite Island because of a short documentary I saw about it on a television. I knew that there was a horse tram that takes you across onto Granite Island form Victor Harbour. What I didn’t know in advance was that we were going to ride camels there, that we were going to see penguins there, and just how nice the sun, water, and rocks would look together for us. We walked along the beach on the mainland and then saw the camels. We had previously decided that instead of doing our camel ride in the Flinders Ranges we would drive Great Ocean Road, so when we saw the camels, we knew we were lucky and just had to ride them along the sand and took full advantage of this! A little fun fact.. camels have similar legs and knees to cows, so when they stand, their back legs are up first and you feel as if you are going to slide right down the front of them. It takes a minute for them, but when they stand with their front legs it is one at a time and quite jerky. This is when I started to feel a little sorry for having to have our extra weight on them while standing, but they will apparently not move to let their trainer know when they are too tired for us humans. Granite Island was beautiful and gave us some stunning views of the harbour. We walked a trail that goes around the island for about an hour. On our walk we saw penguins and plenty of birds, and could here things in the bushes but didn’t really feel like exploring them. We saw cool rock formations like the Umbrella Rock and Chair Rock. 

After this stop we decided to drive for a little while, stopping at places on the side of the road with no names or signs to take some pictures and stretch our legs. We made it to Meningie for dinner and the sun set and drove a little longer until we reached the next city along our path which ended up being Robe.

cool rock flowers

Sara on a camel

star shaped, cross shaped trees

Car Prevention Program ..

Granite Island

Mama on Granite Island

Ferry over the Murray River

Sisters 

'Carcass Lake' as named by Sara Wikston for the abundance of cricket carcasses

time well spent

As a little surprise for my Easter Break, my mo and sister decided to join me in aus for two weeks! I found this out about four days before they actually got here and so had little time to make plans for our visit together, however, it couldn't have gone any better! I am saying this for myself, but am sure they will agree that we couldn't have done it better! Here is a recap of our time together up until our road trip!

Wednesday and Thursday

Went to Semaphore for a stroll along the jetty and the beach and had some new flavours of ice cream together - fruchoc (apricot and chocolate) and boysenberry. This was the first time that the girls caught some sun and aslo the first time they took the train that I take almost every day here in Adelaide. Mom and Sara were suffering from jet lag and had no choice but to fall asleep at about 5:00 pm. I was so happy to have company, and then they fell asleep and I watched tv for a few hours alone. The next couple of days weren’t so bad though; I think I adjusted to their sleeping schedule more than they did to mine because I found myself waking up before 6:00 am and getting tired right after ‘tea’ (dinner). Anyway, I had big plans for the girls so I didn’t mind the early mornings. 

First on our list was Cleland Wildlife Park. As you may have read/seen, Alison and I had a really good experience here, despite the dismal weather. So did Sara, mom, and I. We fed the emus, koalas, and kangaroos, and got to experience a variety of Australian wildlife. We even saw a kangaroo with her joey sticking feet first out of her pouch. She was a little moody or something and scared Sara up onto her feet in a split second. What I really like about Cleland, is that the animals have relatively large spaces to roam around in and they seem generally content there. There are also a lot of birds and trees and specialized habitat areas.

A is for Adelaide and Australia

Semaphore

Sara and I feeding the Kangaroos

Mama was friendly with the emus .. until they started following her

Friday

Friday was our day of rest, planning, sun, smoothies, and wine coolers. We sat by the pool and caught up while we planned what we should do next with our time together in Aus. 

girl time!

Saturday

Being the girls that we are, we thought Saturday would be a good day to go down town. We saw the museum, my school, and the Rundle Street Mall. We had a nice picnic together by the Torrens River and walked around enjoying the sunny weather. On Rundle Street we watched a few street performers do their thing. One Jamaican guy did a show that involved dancing, synthesizers, and the limbo. A couple of children did magic tricks. A lady was doing some sort of interpretive walking on stilts .. and there was the famous didgeridoo player there. 

Some fountain art in the city, with the museum in back

a bench on Adelaide Uni's campus

Sunday

On Sunday, we visited the Port Adelaide market and did a dolphin cruise along the Port River. The market was held in a large, two floor warehouse-type building and was more or less a massive garage sale. There were trinkets and clothes, old bicycles and baseball cards, as well as a few cafes and food vendors. Not exactly the type of market that we had anticipated, but still very interesting to explore while waiting for our lunch time dolphin cruise. The Port River was wide and open, with little vegetation and few high rise buildings along the shoreline. It was a very industrial part of Adelaide, with massive cargo ships and docking stations as the primary landscape for the length of our cruise. It was very exciting though to see the dolphins come swim alongside the boat for about ten minutes at a time. Even when we were docking at the end of our ride I saw a group of dolphins swimming under the nearby bridge. To save a little money and enjoy the nice, sunny weather, we walked back to our home here in Cheltenham and had dinner at home.

Sara and mama by our boat

three dolphins that swam with us 

an industrial part of the waterfront

Monday

Monday was zoo day. We got up fairly early and enjoyed the leisurely walk along the Torrens River, which cuts through Adelaide and directs us perpendicular into the Adelaide Zoo. The walk to the zoo is beautiful. The river is beside us to the left the whole walk, and there are nicely put together cafes, rowing clubs, and gardens on the other side. Even though I was starting to feel a little under the weather, we enjoyed some more sun and toured our way through the zoo. The animals were very active and, because it was Easter, so were the people. We had a nice bbq lunch and were home in time for our afternoon tea and to pack for our upcoming road trip!

The ball art on the River Promenade said things like .. "I wasn't kissing her, I was whispering in her mouth" .. ? 

River Torrens

Monkeys at the Adelaide Zoo