Mt Eccles and the Great Ocean Road

A nice settled patch of warm weather, and the house up the road gearing up for a major party, decided us that it was time to hitch up the Teardrop and hit the road for a few days.  I have long wanted to get to Mt Eccles National Park, over in the west of Victoria. I have nearly made it there a few times, but fate has intervened.  We managed to overcome our reluctance to leave home, hearth and garden, and managed to get packed and on the road by 10.30. 

One of the unexpected benefits of having a gps in the car is that, not only do you get lost less often, but you also discover all sorts of little back roads that you never knew existed.  We seemed to zig zag across the countryside, each road getting a little smaller than the one before, until we were scooting along a little single lane road, very much like the one lane roads on the Isle of Skye. 

We got to the camp ground at Mt Eccles, to discover that we were the only people staying there.  The camping ground has a neglected, overgrown sort of feel about it, with long grass and lots of spikey weeds growing everywhere.  Anne was worried about snakes, which I dismissed as a product of an overheated imagination.  We parked, then set off for a walk.  Almost immediately, we came upon this fellow, about 5 feet long in the old money, sunning himself on the path.  Hmmmm.  That will teach me.

He was very cooperative though, we stood to one side, he slithered off to the other, and we went on our way. The park itself is spectacular - an impressive bit of geology - and actually has a nice, wild, peaceful atmosphere once you get over the lack of maintenance.  We had a great fire, a lovely dinner and a very restful night all by ourselves out there.

Next morning, we got the GPS to guide us to Port Campbell, for lunch, then onto Wye River.  The Great Ocean Road has had a bashing with fire and flood, and lots of road works along the way make for slow going, but a very nice place to be going slow.  We got a camp site right beside the eponymous river, and enjoyed the abundant bird life - wonderful bright king parrots, currawongs with beady yellow eyes, bower birds with startlingly blue eyes, brown and teal ducks herding clutches of ducklings along through the grass.  We even had a resident koala watching over us from the tree above.

It is amazing that there are some many wonderful places only a couple of hours from where we live, and that it is so easy to get out there and experience them, and that it is so restoring and reviving.  

Sail to near Point Cook and mouth of Truganina Creek

Another lightish airs day forecast.  I am definitely and unashamedly a fair weather sailor.

I headed out in less than 10 knots, ghosting through the weed beds and past the last boat moored in the little bay, last survivor of the Altona Boat Owners moorings.  The light southerly was pointing us more or less towards Point Cook, so that was the way we went, heading along at 1.5 to 2 knots in a very relaxing fashion.  That is about what I can push the boat along rowing, so I was happy to sit back and have a leisurely lunch and watch the world slip slowly by.

Out towards Point Cook there were gannets fishing, a spectacular display as they dive straight down into the water from a fair height.  Too far away for the GoPro to pick up anything unfortunately.  Similarly, the little penguin who popped up beside the boat is invisible in the footage.  I probably need another camera with some zoom capacity to pick up anything more than a couple of metres from the boat.

The wind picked up a bit, so I thought I'd follow the coast line back towards Altona, and headed into the mouth of Truganina Creek for a leg stretch.  There is a large expanse of shallow water along the coast there - really good fun scooting along in a few inches of water with the weed beds below. 

As usually happens, the wind kicked up a bit as the day wore on, so we had a fine broad reach most of the way back to the end of the Altona Reef, then ran down back to the beach.

I think my kamakaze beach landings are taking their toll on poor old Peregrina - the rear keel piece is getting quite worn, and the paint work, which is not that good to start off with, is suffering.  I will try cutting some aluminium strips to attach on the critical contact points.

A really nice day out.