Warrnambool & Mount Gambier

Warrnambool

This is one of the largest towns in Victoria, and a major agricultural hub. I travelled to Warrnambool to stay with a friend for a few days. I brought the dog along, and we spent every day of the long weekend at the beach on the coast. 

Warrnambool has a respectable town centre for rural Australia, with over two entire blocks dedicated to  to a shopping and restaurant district. There's patio dining available, and some restaurants were open later in Warrnambool on the weekend than they are in downtown Toronto! Of course, we didn't expect world class dining, nor did we receive it, but you'll find Aussie diner style food very easily here.

There's a few beaches available in Warrnambool, and if you go further than the most popular ones, you can find a beach that's practically deserted. That's where we spent most of our time. 

We travelled to Port Fairy one day for a beach without waves, and this is the first time my dog has gone for a swim, so I just went nuts with the photos.

Wallabies at Tower Hill Wildlife Reserve

We also checked out Tower Hill Wildlife Reserve (free entry), where we saw kangaroos and even an echidna! We stopped at the Botanical Gardens for Australia Day celebrations, where they'd arranged a BBQ, some kids activities and live music. It was the perfect place to enjoy the sun for a few hours, and a beautiful park to visit if you are in town.

Echidna at Tower Hill Wildlife Reserve

Overall, Warrnambool is a relaxing place to chill out, enjoy the beach, and experience the rural feel of an Aussie town without leaving the comforts of the city.

Tower Hill Wildlife Reserve

Mount Gambier

A friend of mine from overseas was staying in Sydney for a year. He kept telling me about the trip he was taking with his buddies - a drive from Adelaide to central Australia. I was astonished... he came all the way across the world to Australia and had no intention of visiting Melbourne. This was unacceptable. I told him, you fly to Melbourne, and I will DRIVE you to Adelaide. And so began the epic road trip of 2008.

Blue Lake

This drive took place over 5 days - with overnight stays at Apollo Bay, Nelson, Mount Gambier and Adelaide. The four of us stayed in caravan park accommodations the whole time (at the time that ranged from 40-60/night to house 3-4 people, but that's inflated a fair bit since). This trip was entire spontaneity. We didn't plan where to stop, we didn't pre-book accommodations (something you can't risk in the peak summer holidays on the Great Ocean Road), and we had no idea what the attractions were to see along the way.

Owls spotted at Mount Gambier

The place that made the biggest impression on me was Mount Gambier, and it's for sure where I took the most photos. The town is like any other Australian town, until you see their water source. In summer (December to March), the town's crater lake, named "Blue Lake" after it's striking color, is a magnificent sight. We took a guided tour through the dam to learn more about the lake. The most that I remember is that the water is blue from the way the sun reflects off the minerals in the water - the water is very hard with calcium (and tastes awful if you're not used to that), because of the way the lake's contents are filtered through the limestone crater.

Blue Lake

What's more special, is the drive we took to "Little Blue Lake". We were recommended to go here by a local, saying it's just like the blue lake but you can swim in it. At that time, the water in the little crater lake was just as beautiful, and we swam for a while (the water was a bit cold), and several people were diving from the edges of the crater as well. I don't know what minerals were in that lake, but when I got out my skin and hair felt like a million bucks. Tragically, Amber returned to the little lake a few years later, and there are now signs up informing people not to swim as blue-green algae has taken over the lake, and it is no longer blue in color. The larger Blue Lake is still a sight worth seeing though.

Little Blue Lake

Little Blue Lake

We also visited a garden that was situated within a crater (can't remember the name) and it's worth asking the information desk about that one when you're in the area. You walk down into the crater, and there's a beautifully maintained garden at the base. In the evening, the possums will come out and we spotted a possum that had stolen someone's sandwich.

Crater Park

The cheeky Possum

On our way out we visited the Princess Margaret Rose Cave, where we took a guided tour of the cave. It's always fun to see stalegtites an stalegmites, and hear about how these delicate cave structures develop over decades of underground condensation. It was my first time seeing an underground cave, and the structures in this cave were magnificent.

Mount Gambier Wildlife Reserve

Nelson

A funny thing about Nelson. We were driving along, and Amber was remniscing about when she was younger and her parents used to visit the town of Nelson. So we went looking for Nelson. What we found was a petrol station, that doubled as a bait/tackle store and a motel. After driving further out in each direction, we found no other signs of the rest of the town.

Pelicans at Nelson

We thought, well, this must be Nelson. So we settled into the motel, got a fishing license and went to fish in the lake - also an area that we had trouble finding (I suspect we didn't drive far enough, but we thought we had driven too far and must have missed it). We ended finding a place to fish, and actually caught enough for dinner on the BBQ that night. We left thinking that must be the smallest "town" we've ever seen!

Fishing at Nelson

Turns out, Amber returned to Nelson with her parents years later, and had we just driven a little further, we'd have found the actual town.

Passing Emu farms on the way to Adelaide

Related topics: The Great Ocean Road

Great Ocean Road

This is my favourite day-trip from Melbourne. The Great Ocean Road is just a 2-4 hour drive from Melbourne, depending on how often you want to stop to enjoy the scenery. It can easily be made shorter or longer depending on where you plan to visit, but it runs from Torquay to Warrnambool. There is plenty to see and do along the way, and I certainly haven't exhausted all of the options in the trips I've taken down this road. You could easily spend a few days or even a week exploring this area, or relaxing at a beach house or cabin by the coast.

12 Apostles, Great Ocean Road

When it comes to planning a trip, weather can be very unpredictable on the south coast. There's a number of times that I have departed Melbourne on a sunny, warm morning, to find the south coast to be overcast or raining and with a biting antarctic wind (yes, in summer too!). My most recent trip was the first time I have seen beautiful clear skies and warm weather for this road, around Australia day weekend.

Great Ocean Road

Let's begin!

Torquay is the gateway to the Great Ocean Road, all you need to do leaving Melbourne is follow road signs to Geelong and then Torquay, and you'll be starting the beautiful drive in about 1.5 - 2 hours. I've never really bothered to stop in this town so I can't comment too much about it.

One of the 12 Apostles

Koala at the Great Otway National Park

The next major town you'll pass is Lorne, where you can stop for a snack or even for the night if you want to relax by the beach the rest of the day. My favourite town to stop is Apollo Bay. The town has some touristy restaurants and beach stores, and not only a spectacular beach but an extensive rock pool coast. It's also a gateway to the Great Otway National Park, which beyond being a beautiful park to drive through, has a lighthouse to view the coast from, and there are heaps of koalas in the forest if you drive the smaller roads and keep an eye out. I mean, who comes to Australia and doesn't hope to see a koala?

View from within the Otway lighthouse

My first experience at Apollo Bay, was camping, and I'll use this to illustrate how strong the cold winds can get on the coast. We went on a family camping trip, and there was a storm that night. The tent walls were billowing in around us, and we had to reinforce the tent with additional pegs. While doing this, we saw someone else leave their tent to take refuge at the camping facilities. Their tent blew away. This was ages ago of course, probably before 1998. The moral is, bring a windbreaker, even if the weather looks like it'll be fine.

An Aussie Shepherd selling the Apollo Bay scenery

London Arch, Great Ocean Road

The stretch between Princetown and Peterborough is where you will find most of the popular rock formations of the area. A caution, is that most require that you leave any pets in the car. On a hot day, I wouldn't be comfortable to leave my dog in the car to check out these sites, as I experienced on one of these trips. To see the formations, most require a 5-10 minute walk just to get there and back from the car park.

Port Fairy beach

By the time you get to that region, of course it is worth stopping to check out each of the rock formations along the coast. Keep an eye out for signs, because while the Twelve Apostles are the most popular tourist site, it's really easy to drive right past them!

12 Apostles

From Peterborough, you can choose to take the coast or the inland route back home (probably inland if you're doing this as a day trip, it's a long drive both ways!). If taking an alternative route one direction, I'd recommend driving the Great Ocean Road towards west, so that being on the left side of the road, you will be driving as close to the coast as possible.

Port Fairy beach

Pop into one of the many tourist information centres for more ideas of what to see in this region. Following the Great Ocean Road, you can also continue your journey west to Warrnambool, Mount Gambier (I love this town but I'll get into that later), and Adelaide.

Great Ocean Road

Continuing to Adelaide? Check out the next stops, like Warrnambool and Mount Gambier.