Entering Victoria

No, not what you think with your dirty mind! 

Today is my birthday and I just arrived in Warnambool in the state of Victoria, where I am staying in a rather posh hotel at a cost of less than my basic room cost me in the Nullarbor; a good example of supply and demand...

Yesterday I drove from Victor Harbor to Robe. The satellite navigation system in my car wanted me to backtrack to the A1, which I chose to ignore because that's where I came from. Instead I just followed a minor coast road in an easterly direction, first to Goolwa and then to a place called Milang, which is on Lake Alexandrina. The lake is rather big and forms part of the delta of the mighty river Murray. I had to circumnavigate the lake to get to a town called Wellington, where there was a river crossing. Little did I know that there wasn't a bridge, but a ferry, an extra treat! I waited to drive onto the ferry together with only one other car and was fully prepared not to pay until it gets me to the other side (you see, I learned my life skills from pop songs), but to my great surprise the service was free. 

So ferry across the Murray
'cause this land's the place I love...

After the crossing, with Gerry and the Pacemakers on my mind, I stuck to my plan and kept close to the coast. The road followed the Coorong for over 100 kilometres. The Coorong is a lagoon separated from the sea by a very long bank of sand dunes, and is meant to be a paradise for sea birds. It was OK for a while, but the further south I drove the more it started to stink. I later did an Internet search for "Coorong stinks" and found out that there is a problem with the Murray river not carrying enough water to flush out the Coorong and that it's salt levels are now more than four time that of the ocean beyond, which leads to it dying off. I guess this could be a side effect of the Murray Darling Irrigation Scheme.

The Coorong stretches for over 100 km along the coast

I arrived in Robe around lunch time. It is a small town, still in South Australia, with a nice little harbour from which they run a fleet of crayfish boats. I took a walk along the foreshore around the harbour and around Cape Dombey, on which stands a large obelisk. It was put there in the mid nineteenth century as a marker for ships and to house rockets that they used to fire rescue equipment to ships in distress. Cape Dombey was first named Cape Lanne by our good old friend Nicholas Baudin, but was soon after renamed by our other friend Matthew Flinders. At least Flinders named the rocks out in the sea off Robe "Baudin Rocks" and the bay on which Robe is situated "Guichen Bay" after a French admiral. 

The obelisk at Cape Dombey. It took 32 oxen to pull it there!

The walk around the cape takes you to the modern lighthouse, which to me looked a lot less appealing, but I must congratulate the designers for being brave enough to break with tradition. After the view of the new lighthouse I took a loop track back, which took me to the ruins of the old Robe Gaol, which isn't much to behold. Much more interesting is the old customs house, which is now home to a small museum that explains the history of Robe. I think the the most interesting event happened in the years of 1856 to 1858, when over 14,000 Chinese arrived in Robe and from here walked over 300 kilometres to the Victorian gold fields. They were forced to do so by the Victorian Government introducing a £10 tax on any Chinese arriving in a Victorian port.

The old customs house, now a small museum

Modern lighthouse design

Directly opposite the customs house is a memorial for all the ships that got wrecked along the coast. It also displays busts of Captain Flinders and Sub-Lieutenant Baudin (I mistakenly made him a captain too in earlier posts), so we can finally put a face to their names.

Flinders and Baudin

This morning I left Robe at half past seven and kept going along the coast towards Warnambool in Victoria. After a couple of hours of driving I saw a tourist sign "Seal Colony" and, because I like seals, followed it. A small winding road took me to a very small town called "Cape Bridgewater". I parked my car and found a sign that told me that it was a 2.5 km walk to the seal colony, just over the cliffs. The walk was absolutely delightful. It lead along cliffs that were very reminiscent of the coastal walk in Cornwall in the UK, with grazing land abutting the cliffs and soft grass underfoot. The walk first led down to the sea, where you could take a boat trip to see the seal colony, and from there up the highest cliff in Victoria, 135 metres above sea level. Once the highest point is crossed it then leads straight ahead to the tip of the cape. There are two seal colonies, an Australian fur seal colony and a New Zealand fur seal colony. They ozzies are to the left of the cape, the kiwis to the right, they don't mix! There is a good lookout to watch the Australian colony, and a smaller one for the New Zealand fur seals, where you have to crane your neck a bit to see them. When I walked along the Cape's southern edge to try and find a better vantage point I came across a large mob of kangaroos hiding in the bushes.

The walk goes all along these cliffs to the tip of the cape

Australian fur seals

The track reminded me of Cornwall...

...but there the bushes don't have heads

The lush eastern side of the cape is formed from volcanic rocks, whereas the western side is limestone, which is a total contrast. There is not grass here at all, but some spectacular rock formations, which are called "the petrified forest" because they look like tree trunks, but apparently they are purely a geological phenomenon.

The petrified forrest

From Cape Bridgewater it was still about 100 km to Warnambool. Along the way I stopped off at a place called Port Fairy, intrigued by its name. It is an old town with over 50 listed buildings and a small harbour, which is protected by Griffiths Island. There is a 3 km walk around the Island, which was just right for a little afternoon exercise. The island is a bird sanctuary, so you need to stick to the track. If you walk the track clockwise, the first kilometre or so leads to a lighthouse on a well maintained track suitable for wheelchairs and prams. After that the track leads along the seaward side of the island through the dunes and along the beaches. The island is formed from black lava rock, which provide a great contrast to the green vegetation and the blue sea. The walk only takes just over 1/2 hour and is definitely worthwhile.

Griffiths Island lighthouse at Port Fairy

Black lava rocks

All up I walked just over 16,000 steps today, which means that I can indulge in a birthday dinner. Tomorrow I will drive the Great Ocean Road to Torquay. 

I will follow the lead of this Pied Oyster Catcher on Griffiths Island
 and go looking for some seafood!