Adelaide to Melbourne via Great Ocean Road

Day 1: Adelaide – Seppeltsfield – Robe

Day 2: Robe – Mt.Gambier – Coonawarra – Naracoorte – Halls Gap

Day 3: Halls Gap – Port Fairy

Day 4: Port Fairy

Day 5: Port Fairy – Great Ocean Road – Cape Otway – Apollo Bay

Day 6: Apollo Bay – Great Ocean Road via Lorne, Torquay – Melbourne

Total: about 1500km

Day 1

To start off the trip from Adelaide to Melbourne I picked up Johann and Stefania and headed 100km the opposite direction. It was not the GPS error, although it did freeze a couple of times, but I wanted to spend some money and try out the 100-year-old tawny portwine at Seppeltsfield. Long story short – it was well worth the 30aud I spent on it! And despite the offer consists of 2 tastings – one as a benchmark, a 10yo tawny and then 100yo, we were fortunate enough to get 4 tastings – additionally 21yo and 25yo. If you get a chance – go and try it!!

Next stop – some unexpected pink coloured saltlakes enroute in the middle of nowhere.

Robe was a nice small coastal town with a nice manorhouse serving as YHA hostel. Robe also offered a beautiful sunset on it’s rocky waterfront and a great chat with an aussie who just packed up his bus on day in Brisbane and took 6 months off to visit all the wine regions in Australia, meanwhile just surfing. Good man! J The beautiful coastline, sometimes rocky, is formed on limestone ground. Hence the name Limestone Coast, streching from Murray River mouth at Coorong to South Australia – Victoria boarder.

Day 2

Mt.Gambier was a town just as any other, except it had 3 lakes within, of volcanic nature. One of them acts as a water reservoir for the neighbourhood, yet is picturesque because of its turquoise blue colour. As it turns out, it only turns blue some time in November and stays this bright up to March, the rest of the year you’ll see it just greyish. So far they have not yet discovered why...

In addition to beautiful coastline, Limestone Coast plains have a good soil for agriculture (well, due to water draining as otherwise it would just be a huge swamp). Coonawarra, Limestome Coast wine region is a rare and dryer area within swamplands, a wellknown region for its terra rossa soil and Cabernet Savignon wines. It covers  a small area of 15x2km, perfect for growing vines. On our way throught Coonawarra we popped into Katnook Estate – aboriginal for „fat land“, refering to the rich red soil. Among others, tasted their Limited Release Shiraz and Cab-Sav – got to love a good red wine my friends! J

Naracoorte caves were the next planned stop which honestly was a big dissapointment to me. I was hoping to see something as natural as the caves in Czech Republic (well that was a loooong time ago since I was there), but instead it was a very touristy place, had to pay usless amount of money for an interactive show of extinct animals and one cave. Other caves were not accessable as they were tourguided only but each one of them only had 1-2 tours a day.

Halls Gap, located on the edge of the Grampians National Park on the other hand is a place worth visiting and if possible, staying for a couple of days. The Grampians (also Gariwerd) is a national park featuring a striking series of sandstone mountain ranges. It covers about 1672km2 and is a mountainrange just in the middle of plains. Our way there was a bit enduring as we encountered a few detours due the landslides earlier this year. According to locals they encountered severe rain which had not been seen for years already. And as everything takes time down under, well it sure will take some time to rebuild some roads. J Upon arrival we were hit by the first great sight – about 20-25 kangaroos just eating grass or boxing at the back of the hostel, not really caring much about crazy tourists flashing their cameras 1-2m away.

Day 3-4

Off to the Pinnacle, about a 5h walk, at least  according to the hostel reception, in total about 6km. The hike offered great views, a good workout, impressive emotions about how this place was formed thousands of years ago. As we decided to take a longer trail we did not exactly finish where we intended to, so at the end of the day covered almost 14km in 4h 20min with 1230m ascent! It sure was an effort but well worth it! The Pinnacle itself was about 730m above sealevel.

Next stop Port Fairy (named Belfast from 1854-1887) with a very pleasant homely and cosy hostel, again YHA. A good place to stick around and take a day off for a quick look around and just enjoying the sun and the beach. Port Fairy hosts a small national park on nearby Griffiths Island and it holds a breeding colony of the Short-tailed Shearwater or Australian Muttonbird with plenty of other wildlife. I happened to spot a wallaby - small kangaroo. They are a lot smaller than I anticipated!

Day 5

The Great Ocean Road (GOR) is a 243km stretch of road along the southern coast of Victoria between Torquay and Warrnambool. The road was built by returned soldiers between 1919 and 1932 and is the world's largest war memorial dedicated to casualties of World War I. What makes the GOR so great is the natural beauty throughout the coastline. It’s really impressive what water has done to the cliffs and where the road itself has been built along the coast. As it later turned out, the best time to go visit al lthe sights along GOR is before 1-2pm, before the buses packed with tourists arrive from Melbourne. We were fairly lucky, just at the 12 Apostels we encountered hundreds of people desperate to get a nice shot of the singlestanding rocks. But let the photos speak for themselves.

Cape Otway is the southern point on the GOR, much of which is enclosed in the Otway National Park. On 1846 a lighthouse was built on Cape Otway, being the second lighthouse completed on mainland Australia and still remains the oldest surviving lighthouse in mainland Australia. The road to the lighthouse went through a thick gumtree forest, but with no koalas at sight. Then all of a sudden some people were standing on the road all looking at branches of a gumtree – 3 koalas just waking up from their beautysleep and about to carry on doing the second most favourite thing – eating eucalyptus leaves. Despite the lightshouse being already closed for visitors, the detour towards Cape Otway was well worth it, seeing those drowsy animals in wild is just how you should see them. Later that evening I found out that from about 2000 different gumtree varieties, koalas only eat the leaves from 12, being very picky about what they put into their mouth. The reason is that eucalyptus leaves are very toxic and and those 12 are just less toxic than others. No wonder parts of the forest enroute were full of green gumtrees while elsewhere only blank trunks were left behind by koalas. After a mighty meal they seemingly fall asleep, partly because the leaves are toxic and intoxicating, partly because they are very hard to digest. This is also why only koalas eat those leaves.

Day 6

Apollo Bay during a rainy day is pretty bloody boring! Just as most of the other coastal towns where the majority of businesses deal with either accomodation, catering or surfing and other watersports along with respective retails. Despite the eagerness of going to surf the rainy and cold weather worked against it. So the best thing to do in Apollo Bay was to visit a cellar door of Bay of Apostles – actually a Coonawarra region winery, but part of their business originating from Apollo Bay region. J

A  bottle of 2008 Shiraz is what made my visit worth while and off we drove towards... somewhere. Initial ideas was to spend another night either in Lorne, Torquay, both popular surftowns or Queenscliff, but unfortunately we could not foresee all the hostel would be fully booked. Too bad for those who were looking for a nice sunny weekend on the beach, you just got rain! Melbourne, here we come!

Additional photos available on Picasa.

WWW vol.2

Monday was just a stiff day off really. Stiff just because of the tense physical day that just had passed. However met up with a German girl Iris who had a plan of going to Barossa Valley for a wine tour. As I had not yet been there myself, we decided to book the day trip for next day, it’s always better to have some company than no company. And as also nobody from my hostel, at least who I had been talking to was very keen about this idea then I just grabbed a chance of someone to go together with. The good thing about these organized trips is that you do not have to worry about getting there, not tasting too many good wines because you’re driving nor choosing out the wineries – everything has been done for you. So Tuesday morning at 8am I was picked up by the tourbus and after picking up the rest of the happy wineenthusiasts we were good to go. Almost. As it turned out the busdriver had some kind of a health issue which resulted in waiting for another driver to arrive. 

At Jacob's Creek

First up was well-known Jacob’s Creek winery, owned by Pernod Ricard Group. From there I bought myself a 2008 Limited Release Sangiovese which is not being sold in retail, just at cellar door. Good stuff!! Next up – Kies, a small family estate. From there I got a 2010 Sparkling Moscato. After that we paid a visit to Richmond Grove, another winery owned by Pernod Ricard. They ofcourse had some lovely wines there, but nothing of too much interest at that point because tummies (read: stomach) were already empty and a nice meal in a pub in Tanunda town was waiting.

Seppeltsfield 100yo

After lunch the highlight of the day – Seppeltsfield! This place is amazing! As you make your way towards the cellar door you drive along a few kilometers of road bordered by long palmtrees, over 2000 of them alltogether. The story behind those palmtrees is that when Australia was suffering from the Great Depression back in 1930’s the owner of the winery did not sack the employees but kept them occupied by planting the trees. As the economy got stronger, Seppeltsfield did not need to worry about finding and training necessary employees, instead they were quickly back on tracks. According to themselves, Seppeltsfield is the only winery in the world to have a barrel of fortified wine of every vintage since 1900. They actually sell them even dating back to as far as 1880! For tasting they offer exactly 100 year old wine, costing 30aud.

On the way back we did not make it without any problems either – the bus broke down and it resulted is all of us waiting for about 1 hour for a replacement. Made it back in one piece though, so all in all it was a good day out in the Barossa Valley!

On Wednesday I decided to head out from the city and booked another YHA hostel for 2 nights in Port Elliot, about an hours drive south. En-route I went through another popular wine region McLaren Vale and obviously could not resist stopping there. Went to Wirra Wirra and Leaconfield / Richard Hamilton Wines. Both again exceptionally good producers, at the first one I was very close to getting my hands on one of their awarded and noted The Absconder Grenache from 2010, but the pricetag of 65aud just set me back a little. Next stop Leconfield and I left the cellardoor with 2 Rieslings – 2011 Noble Riesling and 2011 Leconfield Old Wines Riesling. They were good and fairly different to those Rieslings you might usually get in Australia. Sweeter, yet still crisp and full of citrus characters. Got to love a good wine! J Next stop was Victor Harbor, which is here known for quite a few attractions – 

Fairy Penguins

Granite Island

Granite Island with the worlds’ smallest penguins; Horse Drawn Tram connecting Victor Harbor and Granite Island, it’s one of the few still left in the world for public service and a Cockle Train – a steam locomotive connecting Victor Harbor and Goolwa, including the oldest rail route in Australia, between Port Elliot and Goolwa. Also between June and September it is a popular place for whale spotting as they come to these waters to calve and mate. The town itself was nothing too special, just another nice costal town, the Granite Island without the Fairy Penguins (that’s what they are called) would have been just the same. However the penguins can usually be spotted during late hours as they return from sea, but the island also has a small research facility where penguins that have been hurt and cannot be release back into the wild are being taken care of. About 14 of them were out and about when it was due time to get a nice meal of fresh fish. The penguin is about 30cm tall and weighs 1,5kg, but some with less that 500g have also been spotted (and saved).

Just on the cliff there is a good hostel

Port Elliot YHA hostel is located on a B-E-A-utiful spot looking just over the Horseshoe Bay. It was a good escape from busy city life. Booked myself surf lesson for next day and enjoyed the evening with some tasty beers I bought along from Seppeltsfield (yeah, they also brew their own beer). Surfing however is good fun! Luckily our group that day consisted just of 3 people + the trainer, the weather was nice and sunny but not too warm and waves big enough for beginners. Another activity in the ist of „got to find time and equipment to improve my skills“. J And honestly, it is a good effort to spend 2 hours in the water trying to get the wave, stand up on the board and stay on there. That evening was quite a short one, just tired, but great emotions! As I drove back to Adelaide on Friday I caught myself thinking that this country has just too much to offer, too many great and extraordinary places, people, things to see and do.

On Friday I also got confirmation about me not going to travel to Melbourne on my own as I got a call from Stefania and Johann, a couple from Iceland who were interested in coming along and did not have a tight schedule. We met up in Port Dock Brewery in Port Adelaide to go through some details and agreed to head out Monday morning. Good stuff! J

WWW (Wine-Wine-Wine)

Friday 4th November was the last day at Oakville Potatoes and it was almost looking like the history would repeat itself as I was almost going to be pulling down some sand on the pivots again. Well, wasn’t quite that bad, I was just ploughing untill 2pm and then decided it was a good time to call it a day, pack my belongings into the car and head off to Adelaide. This time I decided to take a different route and avoid driving the highway. Instead I went a shorter yet slower route through the scenic Adelaide Hills, a bit futher north to where I had already been. Too bad I just don’t have a hot-hatchback car which would take me through the tight, winding road with a lot more fun. Still, it was a good fun and indeed a scenic drive!

Richie (manager) & me

Me & Andy

Before all that happened, there was the last week. I thought I’d try to get as many workhours as possible but all in all, it didn’t matter that much anyhow. Tuesday, the first Tuesday in November is the famous day of Melbourne Cup – the race that stops the nation they say. And it’s true! Melbourne Cup is a horserace and has a long history background here, therefore also very important. We finished work at 11am, had a shower and headed off to Nildottie Hall to see it all unfold. Didn’t think much, put on a t-shirt and shorts and drove up. Bad idea! As soon as I saw people arriving all dressed up – suits, shining shoes, women with long evening dresses and hats looking as they are heading to a royal wedding, I turned around to get changed again! And it was over 30 degrees that day. So back I was, wearing my best I have along, went in and was handed a complimentary greeting drink with sparkling wine and orange juice, glad it wasn’t vodka! After that it was ofcourse time to have beer, many of them. That’s the tradition and how could I not participate.

There were 6 races before the main event but no-one seemed to draw much attention to those – all that mattered was the final race. To make a long story short – I don’t get it! But I also do not know much of the history of that event either. Let’s just say there was another reason to get pissed again (read: get drunk).

On my last evening, Thursday, we, all the young generation employees met up at the pub for a nice last pubnight at Swan Reach. Apparently I had been a fairly good employee because Richie, our manager covered my food expences that night. What more to do than to finally try out a kangaroo steak. And being honest I quite liked it – nice and tenderly cooked, has a distinctive taste but all in all I suggest to have as I did – medium raw. Otherwise it’ll just be too dry and stiff.

Ooh, last weekend Andy and Pete got their sponsorships confirmed, so they are allowed to stay in Australia for at least 4 more year, and among other benefits they can also get finanzing, say for new cars. That's what they did, bought a new (used) car. Andy got himself a V8 Ford Falcon ute. Too bad I did not get to drive it myself, but luckily I got to sit on the passengerseat for a quick show-off! What an engine is a V8!! What and engine!

In Adelaide I had booked a place in a room of 6 in YHA hostel, the one I stayed in on my last visit 2 weeks before. It was nice a clean and quiet so why not. Thought to have an early night but remembered the Estonian House had the bar open so I decided to have look and get another Saku Kuld for a good night sleep. It turned out to be a good night as I met some other young fellow Estonians – Maret and Kristo. Had a good chat with them and Toomas, the barman was obviously enjoying a good night aswell because Vana Tallinn with milk was on the house that night. Good times! J Finished off the night early though because Saturday morning was the one I had long been waiting for – wine course at National Wine Centre!

9.20am and it was already very close to 30degrees as I was making my way to towards the venue. A quick chicken wrap with a coffee on the go and then I understood why it’s a good thing they also sell iced coffee here – my forehead was running with moisture at the first sip! Nontheless, 10min before the course start I had successfully survived the city jungle and the heat without too much sweating.

- Do you know why many of the premium wineries plant roses to either end of the winetree lines?

- Or why do vines not like wet feet?

- Or how long should you let a red wine „breathe“ before pouring it into a glass?

During the first day we went through whites and reds, how they are made, which methods in the make bring out which characteristics etc. Obviously too much information for anyone who starts the day off knowing there are 20 different wines to be tasted. And what wines – from large, wellknown producers to very small familiy owned ones, from 5aud to 60aud a bottle ones. But it is soo interesting and sooo good the get some knowledge about it! The group is 25 people of different age and background, a good and funny bunch. J

The day finished back in the hostel with hacing a great talk with two guys called Matt – one a Kiwi (read: New Zealand) backpacker aged 29 and a Queensland 24 year-old ex-soldier who had done 2 missions to Afgan and 2 other to East Timor. It was just overwhelming to hear what he had gone through and experienced and seen during that time!

Sunday morning began with a 7am wake up to get myself ready for a sporty, outdoorsy day. Liis and Jackson had invited me to come along to one of their friends’ cottage Tailem Bend by Murray River. As I had noticed before the river is among other things also a well-used recreational place for fishing and watersports – waterskiing, wakeboarding etc. When leaving the city the weather did not seem too promising but as it usually is here – city can be completely different to what happens behind the hills and by the river. Same story again. Arriving to Tailem Bend and the sun was shining, temperature had picked up, just the wind was a bit too strong yet that didn’t really bother anyone anyhow. A short while later and the boat was in the water, all necessary gear loaded into it and with everyone onboard the show began. Jackson’s friends were obviously experienced while as my last and first waterskiing experience dates back some 8 years I guess, also with two skies instead on single ski. So obviously that didn’t work for me. Nor did the wakeboard. Then again, I tried to get up from the water for about 5 times while as another guy who tried the same the day before could still not get up on the board after 20-25 times. But no worries, the water was suprisingly warm and I had my fun trying. Eventually I still managed to get afloat, but with an airfilled tube „biscuit“ towed behind the boat. And that was loads of fun!! They said that even the most grumpy man will be grinning after having a go with that. All in all – it was a really good day with new people, fun activities and Australian national drink – beer. J

Other stories in vol.2.