Great Ocean Road & Grampians Tour – February 2024 – Blog #5

Day 11

With all the nature birds & wildlife, our set alarms coincided at 6.30am to be able to get away by 8am. The wildlife must of known of our tight itinerary for our last day on this Great Ocean Road & Grampians tour & what a pleasant way to wake up. EGR has a bit to do each morning, rolling up her swag, sorting out her suitcase, clothes, laundry, shower, brekky & looking after me too I guess like every other tour day, so it takes around 90mins for us to get underway on the road taking in our stress-free easy pace. As usual I slept like an absolute log but unfortunately EGR had a very bad sleep with nearby backpacker van (arriving late at night & being inconsiderate to the other campers) so it will be a long, tough day for her.

We also have so much food to sort out for our last day (dry & fridge) & it will be a challenge to consume it all or throw it out into a waste bin later. Anyway, we escaped out of Lakeside Caravan Park after the boom gate & turned right to head out onto the service road & then onto the main road however within the first 200m I had to brake very hard to avoid 2 large adult emus stressing out with my vehicle approaching alongside the road. The male, of course, I accept was the most stupid in overreacting. Lol!! The female was slightly smaller in statue & knew her partner would ‘control’ things … eventually. They were healthy & magnificent & were two of many about this park area at this time of the day. These two were the biggest I have ever seen. We were not able to get a photo of them either which was very unfortunate. EGR, myself & the van (loose items shifted to the front) all received a huge shock at first but then soon overjoyed with the wonderful close up nature.

Anyway, with that unneeded adrenalin rush we hit the road to Stawell, some 32klms on, a rural town that has an annual professional running race meeting held over 3 days at Easter & with a history of 146yrs of this event since 1878. Most races are handicapped where the faster runners are stepped back to so many metres at the starting lines to the slower runners. This event is one of the richest footrace meetings in the world. A huge event with runners from all over the world. Not bad for a small town of some 7,000 citizens. Stawell is the gateway to the Grampians National Park if coming from the East.

EGR has her headphones on to limit the rattle noises & motor of the van but still gives me navigational directions, such is her willingness to push the envelope to assist in between shutting her eyelids, moments at a time. Before long, we stop for about 40mins to peruse the main streets of Ballarat some 90mins into our journey. The wide streets are filled with magnificent old buildings dating back to the 1850s & remain in very good condition & obviously heritage listed. Ballarat was formed in 1838 & as of 2024 has a population of 119,096 making it the third-largest urban inland city in Australia and the third-largest city in Victoria.

Ballarat was a massive gold rush region back in the 1850s & on 3^rd December 1854 was the most famous call to arms by miners in combatting the large police force & soldiers known as the Eureka Stockade. The miners protested by firearms for the excessive miner licences inflicted upon them. Sadly, 22 miners were killed in this brief exchange. This was the first organised protest that brought changes to the present laws & politicians. In 1858 the town swelled to 60,000, mostly men but this soon depleted when the gold dried up. The town effectively was proclaimed a city in 1871 & the railway soon followed. Ballarat started as a sheep farming area pre-settlement to a gold rush region to a large manufacturing centre and now combines that with tourism due to the strict heritage salvaging of buildings, streets and war memorial trees planted along the Avenue of Honour where the magnificent sandstone memorial Arch of Victory spans across the avenue.

Heading back to the van we noticed The Gold Shop in Lydiard St Nth, where they showed replicas of some of the gold & silver nuggets unearthed in the region. Wouldn’t I like to stumble across this size of gold on our walks! We celebrated such a wealth of history with a great coffee from Cobb’s Coffee & then hit the road again before our parking meter was done & the drop off van time deadline was creeping up.

In just leaving Ballarat on came the low fuel reading .. argh!!! How did I miss that? EGR said another petrol station was 18klms away (Google Maps) so we will make it. Whew!! .. we made it .. after missing a turn & eventually doing a U turn!! EGR then programmed a rest point near the van drop off at Somerton (Northern Melbourne suburb) to have lunch & do our final pack & see what food & drink is left over. I don’t know where the guidance was taking us along those back roads, my brain compass went astray long ago but I trusted EGR & yes it all worked out. We had the leftover Thai Stir-fry & some extra food still in the fridge. Tummy extra full!!

With super lunch done, we travelled another 9klms to drop off the van & and thankfully, it only took 6mins (I had paid the return free fee of petrol, gas & toilet dump, etc when hiring). While I was talking to another travelling couple a Uber turned up. EGR organised for the Uber the minute we drove in to keep to our time schedule. She instructed the driver to drop off her luggage at her friend’s place (jeweller shop) nearby & then proceeded to Wyndham Melbourne with me to pick up her small bag she booked into storage there some 8days ago. This was a good move to avoid carrying her excess luggage around. EGR was catching her plane back to the Sunshine Coast, Qld a day or two after me, so I’m on my own again to see the last of Melbourne.

At Wyndham she gained her small bag & with a few hugs & thank you’s she was gone to catch the tram back to her friend’s jewellery shop before closing. She caught me trying to shuffle some dollars into her bag to help with her budget back home & she skilfully sorted me out & so not to offend me. Still can’t get anything past her. I reaffirmed to her on how she excelled from her disability in handling the past 10days & how thrilled I was she managed to get through all those days & nights so there’s nothing she can’t do now to excel even further.

After a sad good-bye I settled back into Wyndham & undertook my washing & drying & then headed out in search of a great place to relax & maybe have a beer, etc. I wasn’t ready to push more food into my still full stomach at this point.

After walking over 2.5klms & seeing about 8 pubs/ taverns & the like I finally found one called The Boilermaker House. The craft beer was amazing & had 3 schooners before heading back to Wyndham for a dinner of leftovers. Melbourne seems to be low in having great pubs & the like with atmosphere on the ones I found. Surely, I’m wrong … but it is well known, Melbourne is extremely slow in recovering from the world’s longest COVID city lockdown & businesses lost. Walking around it is quite obvious to the viewer. Back at Wyndham, I had completed 7.5klms of overall walking for the day, so I exceeded my target yet again. Yay!!!

Tomorrow, I head back to the Gold Coast to pick up my trusty ute at my son’s place (Matt & Ashlee) at Banora Point, NSW then see Kate (my daughter) & her family at Canungra, Qld before heading back home to paradise in Yamba, NSW & having a beer at my cousin’s micro-brewery, The Wobbly Chook (he’s for real & his name is Chook!). I’m not a beeraholic, but a scotch one.

I’ll end this Blog #5 here, so stay safe, happy & hopefully enjoy the photos as much as I have had reviewing them.

“Communication … Communication … Talk to each other”. From a song “Kite” on the concert DVD “Go Home” by U2 @ Slane Castle. YouTube have it also.

Thank you again for reading my blogs and I trust you will stay safe, happy & healthy for 2024 and for it to be a far better year for all. I do not receive any commissions &/or ‘perks’ from the above nominated businesses & locations as I am purely happy to provide the acknowledgement and connection.

I always look forward to seeing the feedback so don’t be afraid to comment. Live life to the most and a quote that I truly love is from Eckhart Tolle ..

“If I am not the hero of my life … who in the hell could be?”