Grampians

Yesterday morning we arrived at the Brambuk Visitor Centre early at 9am and had a stroll throught their garden area where plants are shown that the local tribes used for food gathering, making baskets or other items of daily use. After watching two films about how earth was shaped in their belief and the geological particularities of the Grampians we set out for a tour to the rock paintings that were found all over the area, some very elaborate with hunting scenes and the local gods and legends, some just hand imprints, similar to the graffities nowadays, simply saying 'I was here'. I learned a bit about aboriginal iconographie and the different languages, which are completely different from each other throughout the country, with only some relations between neighbour tribes so they could at least comunicate with each other. But once they'd get a bit further..zilch. Completely different language. I would have thought that the different tribes would speak several dialects but still use some kind of the same language, but obviously it's not at all working this way. I wonder if there have been thorough studies of the subject; should be a vast and interesting field for linguists.

After returning we had lunch at the adjoining cafe, a platter of bush food. I don't have to eat crocodile again, it's boring and all the other stuff we knew already. That was a bit unsatisfying, but we didn't let it spoil our mood as we were for some more hiking in the afternoon.

Naturally it turned out to be the hottest day of our entire holiday so far, 35 degrees and almost no wind in the valley. We took four litres of water (and needed it all....)and a map and started right at the door of our hostel. Most people going for the Pinnacles start at the Wonderland Car Park 4km from Hall's Gap but this way they miss out one of the most beautiful tracks, running along a little creek with some massive gradients and tiny paths crossing almost broken down bridges and through prickly bushes. We followed the track to Wonderland Carpark and after a little break made our way through a canyon up to the cliffs overlooking Hall's Gap. A very nosy crow followed us most of the way up, flying back and forth as we went, but never going out of sight completely. That was not the only strange bird we met so far. Some behave really strange.
It was strenuous to reach the top, sometimes you have to do a bit of climbing over ragged rocks, but the sight from the top was rewarding enough that I almost didn't feel my aching legs. Getting down again was then a completely different thing........
When we finally returned home at around 7pm there was another surprise waiting for us, but more of that tomorrow.

Port Fairy

Port Fairy was founded as 'Belfast' and wandering around town you can still trace a lot of Irish names (even the Festival hosts mainly 'Irish' Folk) , but as nice as the town might be the best thing about it is the river side and Griffith Island, which parts the mouth of Moyne River, town and the sea from each other. There are shearwaters breeding there, a huge colony, but most of the birds were already out when we arrived and all we could see were the little pits and holes they lay their eggs in. The seagulls and albatrosses seem to be after the fledgelings, we found fresh blood on the way and saw some of them feeding on dead shearwaters that were not completely feathered yet. Flocks of tiny birds feeding on red berries, circling over the bushes and settling down again as soon as we had passed by. We spotted a few wallabies peacefully sitting right beside the path, almost completely ignoring us apart from a curious glance now and then. It felt like they were as much interested in us as we were in them; 'oh, look, more of those strange, two-legged creatures passing by!' I wouldn't let anybody interrupt me breakfasting either, and they were busy grazing and reaching for the higher branches of some bushes that had purple berries on them. A beautiful place to spend the early hours of morning at.

Then we headed north towards the Grampians. Now that was some change in landscape. We had seen a bit of dry grasslands when we left Melbourne, but apart from that so far all had been fairly green and lush. But now we were passing over golden dried country, absolutely flat as far as you could see. Reaped wheat fields, pastures with sheep and cattle grazing, some lonely emus wandering round. From far we could at last see some blotches of woods, but when we approached sure enough those were no forests but tree farms, large plantations of quick growing trees for wood chips. Then the outlines of the Grampian appeared in the distances, an impressive sight as they stand out from the flat country and have a very distinct shape, rising slowly in the west and falling down steeply on the east side. Ragged cliffs and interestingly shaped rocks everywhere. The Grampians are somehow divided into three different ranges with broad, flat valleys between them, which makes for a fairly easy access. We were staying in Hall's Gap, the main town of the Grampians, in a hostel called Tim's Place, run by Tim Walsh and his dog Pudding, both extremely cuddly guys and at least Tim is as friendly and helpful as you could wish for. One of the best hostels we ever stayed at! He pointed us towards the Geriwerd Visitor Centre, run by the local aboriginal tribe where they show movies about their creational myths, the sacred places they have in the area and have an exhibition about the native plants, animals, history of their people. A very nice building as well, the gathering place is shaped in the form of a cockatoo and got the same price for outstanding and innovative architecture as the Opera in Sydney, something they are really proud of.
We have booked a tour with them tomorrow morning to the rock arts in the area and I'm much looking forward to it.

Apollo Bay;Tuesday

Apollo Bay isn't all that interesting apart from its lovely beach, so leaving it behind and looking for new pastures wasn't at all difficult.
Today's destination was Port Fairy, famous for a huge Folk Festival which I'd have to leave out like so many other things because we were simply running out of time.
We left Apollo Bay rather late, as we stumbled over a guy who stayed at the same hostel and whom I had engaged in a conversation; we started on the weather (predictably, as it had started raining again and we wanted to do a bit of hiking under way) , but soon we turned to discuss price gouging between oil companies, Australian policy over the last 120 years, the treatment of Aboriginal people to the day, right to how many organisations were infiltrated by Nazis after WWII and how Fascism shows up in so many unexpected places.
I just had to introduce him to Dick's music and point him to the web site and forum. Perhaps I'm going to 'see' him again. He was spot on in his opinions and it was a pleasure to have met him.
Though I just realised that I don't even know his name......how embarrassing.....

Being finally on the road again we headed for Mait's Rest first, a small remnant of the pristine rainforests that had once covered the whole area. They still prosper in small gullies with enough water and protection from the warm winds soaring over the grasslands.

Highly impressing trees, giant Myrtle beeches, fern trees, epiphytes hanging from the branches of moss-covered, gnarled trees. you could hear water trickling and small birds singing as you walked past these huge trunks and was only when we had almost gone past a long 'wall' that we realised that it was actually a tree trunk, at least 50m long and 2m thick, which had fallen over!

The next highlight were sure enough the "Twelve Apostles". We almost feared that we had passed them already as there were no signs anymore and the road was turning inlands again, but sure enough we hadn't. Here they were; and the fact that we had to share them with hundreds of other viewers didn't diminish the spectacular view a bit. It was very windy, though sunny again and you had to make sure that you or your hat weren't flying over the brim of the cliff.

When we finally reached Port Fairy it was already too late to do much exploring, but we had a walk around town (cute) and along the Moyne River (very picturesque with all the boats) and headed for the 'Royal Oak' for dinner. This time it was some seriously good sea food. Our hostel was as nice as you could wish for; we sleeped in the "Haystack", right under the roof in a cosy room with white-painted rough walls and white beams over our heads. There were several small buildings connected, each named and together forming a kind of rural farmstead. Again many magpies living there which greated us with this strange hollering sound similar to a turkey, only much more melodic.
Here I could spend weeks.....

Great Ocean Road;Monday

They say that parting is sweet sorrow.
That's bullshit.
Parting rips your heart out and leaves it defenseless and trembling in the cold. Considered matter-of-fact, it's ridiculous. I only just got to know Rob and Jenny and we spent the best part of two days together. But why do I feel like I parted with a beloved part of my family then?
I have to admit I'm built very close to water and today found me constantly trying to fight back the tears. It surely didn't help that we heard Christy Moore singing ballads of sorrow and parting in the car.

In spite of Rob's advice for the direction (or, to get it right, by completely ignoring it...) finding our way through the mace that is Melbourne was a piece of cake and we soon were on the Great Ocean Road.
One breathtakingly beautiful beach after the other; we made several stops before we halted at Apollo Bay, our place for the night.
Although we planned to grasp the opportunity and have some really decent seafood, a visit to the local supermarket completely changed our mind. For I found there at last something that I have been looking for all week - Kangaroo Fillet! Hmmmmmh...
So we had green salad, Kangaroo Fillet and sweet potatoes with a bottle of S.A. Cabernet Sauvignon, followed by some Tim Tams.
As I write, I have my second Australian beer, a Coopers Sparkling Ale. So far I wasn't able to track down a single beer of the list Tidgh gave me. But the substitutes weren't bad either.
And this one might help me get to sleep. Whereas, at the moment it makes me wonder how on earth you are supposed to turn 375ml into 1.7 standard drinks.

Strangers are friends you haven't met yet; Saturday+Sunday

These were the days I highly anticipated, as we were to meet Rob and Jenny at last. I wasn't that nervous when I had my first rendezvous with Harald.

Now I'm able to recall that special weekend without starting to get sniffy again I write down what I still have in mind. The feelings I had during those days are still very vivid and colourful, but details already escape me.
So we were arriving somewhat early in Sassafras, but everything went so smooth with finding it, and getting some flowers for Jenny, that we were there an hour too soon. Took me some shouting to get their attention as they were deeply in conversation with a friend who came around.
My god, have I been nervous. Grumpy old man, he said. The guy coming towards me smiling from one ear to the other couldn't be it. No way. But then, must be. Did we get the right house number?
Rob and Jenny took us in so affectionately that is was almost like coming home, or visiting close relatives that you really like but haven't seen for ages. After showing us to our room ( a dream of a room... ) and introducing us to Percy and Charlie, the abessinians that run their household, they took us for a walk around the neighbourhood. Very soon I realised that both walking at their speed and talking at the same time was something I was not capable of. Panting and sweating, I arrived in the "town centre" of Sassafras. Blink and it's gone. Sweet, but swarming with weekend tourists enjoying the fresh mountain air. We had a tasty ice cream and walked back to the house, were we spend the rest of the day talking, listening to music, admiring the immense music collection Rob has piled up in his study, more music , more talking, a wonderful dinner and according wines going with it, more talking, fondling Percy ( I think Charlie didn't like us that much ), until we couldn't keep our eyes open any longer and had to go to bed.


It is quite rare to find someone that you feel so comfortable with so soon. But sometimes magic happens and it just goes 'click' and everything slides into place.





Rob was so generous as to let me use his computer and, as my sleeping pattern was still a bit odd, I woke up at 5.30am and used the time to update this blog and have a look at how the forum was doing. Fighting with my camera, loading up the pics, had the effect that I didn't get very far with it. So when Rob finally woke up, I was far from being finished, but happily made way for him to check his e-mails as I was a bit fed up with all the technical difficulties. There would be more opportunities. Or so I thought.


After breakfast Rob and Jenny took us to Healesville to a sanctuary. What a nice place that was. Albeit we were in a bit of an unseemly hurry because we wanted to have lunch before going to Melbourne to see a bit of the city prior to the Eric Bogle gig that was on the agenda for the evening, we saw most of the things that were important to us. Like the dingos, Tasmanian devils, lyrebirds, platypus, the birds of prey show. The rest of the park has to wait till we return to Victoria the next time.


When we had finished lunch Rob printed us a map (for reasons unknown to mankind there was no such thing in the car) how to get to Melbourne from the Dandenongs and especially to Brunswick, where the Bogle gig was to happen.

Magra, the wedgetailed eagle that
almost got me

It was not Rob's impeccable sense of direction that made us loose our way within half an hour but sure enough we got lost. Only after some wild right-left-right turns we finally found the highway we should have stayed on right from the start; sad enough this long way round took so much time that the museum we wanted to visit was closed by the time we got there. So we just had a look around the city centre, the river, Parliament buildings before going back to Brunswick to have a quick dinner and to see Eric Bogle. Review elsewhere.
Going back to the Dandenongs surprisingly was a piece of cake then, only a 45min drive and we were back home again. Just minutes after midnight.

The next morning I was already waking up with a lump in my throat. Jenny is just as bad in saying goodbye as me and I was glad at the time that she had to go to a class quite early so parting from her would not be so tearful. So it was 'just' Rob who saw me melting in tears.
That was an odd day, I felt like disintegrating.
Sure enough it was only when we almost had left melbourne behind us that I remembered all the things I had wanted to say or ask, like if he had a recording of Dave Burland doing "Daleman's Litany" or which Bert Jansch album he liked best or.......
There's no other way, we have to get really rich and return to Sassafras and spent some more time there then. Plus write down all the things that so easily escape my memory.
Damn brain, never works properly.

Wilson Prom; Friday

I still have a kind of strange sleeping pattern. So I was just drifting towards consciousness when I heard one of our neighbours from the next cabin trumpeting "And a good morning to you, Sir, as well!" all over the place, followed by a conversation on the top of their voices. I managed to cast a glance on my watch and it was like, 5.30am! No good morning, it was still in the middle of the bloody night!! So these guys enjoyed a cup of tea and a fag and wanted the whole camping park to participate.
Finally they showed a bit of consideration and went back inside, so I got a bit more sleep.
It was going to be a strenuous day after all. Wilson Promontory.

Weather was great for some serious hiking, about 20 degrees, soft wind, only a few clouds. So we decided to go up Mt. Oberon first, from where you are supposed to have a wonderful all around vision on the National Park.
And so it was. Worth every single step uphill.
After that we went for Mt. Bishop, but after 3-4 km we realised that our legs weren't as fresh as they used to be in the morning, so we more or less dragged ourselves forward up to the peak for the last few hundred metres. Nice view from a large, sunwarmed rock; the perfect place for lunch. Soon we were joined by another hiker, a 65+ lady who came puffing and sweating up the mountainside. We walked down again together and by the time we reached the carpark again there was nothing about her story of life that I wasn't familiar with. Parents, children, partners, when and why she came to Australia, health conditions, everything.
Very talkative, that lady.
After calling the blessings of all saints unto us she turned left towards the caravan park, whereas we proceeded our walk to the Squeaky Beach, thus called because the sand corns are so exceptionally round that every step ..well, squeaks.
As we had special plans for the evening, we left quite early, at about 5pm. After a quick shower we headed for the social center if Toora, the Royal Standard Hotel.
It was already terribly crowded, and most of the few tables still not occupied were booked. So it seemed that every single habitant would be there. We had the most wonderful countermeal there and a lot of fun with the locals. Including my first Australian beer, a dark Toohey's, which was close enough to a Guiness that I liked it very much.
But the absolute highlight was the dessert. A warm chocolate pudding, topped with thick chocolate liqueur, some whipped cream and vanilla ice; a dream for a chocoholic like me!
Needless to say that you could have rolled me home.
In addition to that we were rewarded with a breathtaking sunset.
Just what you'd call a perfect day. But there were even better things to come, so I will save the superlatives for that.