Week 10: Ballarat VIC - Princetown VIC

March 23, 2023

Week 10: Ballarat VIC - Princetown VIC

Stats Overview

Km's Travelled: 989

Km's Hiked: 15

No. of Camps: 5

The Adventures

After a month in Victoria, our time in the state is finally drawing to a close. In the next couple of days we will cross the border and head into South Australia! We have by no means had a slow week, ticking off our last two, big ticket items for Victoria - The Grampians and The Great Ocean Road.

We started the week by heading across to Stawell (pronounced stall) where we found a lovely campsite on a lake with views across to the Grampians. We used this site as a base for a few days so we could explore the area and complete some hikes in the mountains. While out driving we stumbled across sheep dog trials happening in the town of Moyston. It was a lot of fun watching the dogs in action and learning what the judges are actually looking for while the dogs are working. However, we felt a bit sorry for some of the dogs, as it appears that it doesn't always matter how smart or well-trained the dog is, but where the sheep sit on the stupidity scale that really determines how the dog performs. Some of the sheep used where definitely not the sharpest in the herd, however, they were certainly entertaining for us to watch them in the ring!

While at the Grampians we complete a few hikes with our two favourite being Mount William and The Pinnacles. Mount William is the tallest mountain in the Grampians and Will certainly felt pretty important when he made the summit! We had really good weather on the day we went to Mount William so we were able to enjoy the views across the mountains and out onto the farmland below. The weather when we completed the Pinnacles was not as nice, however, we were still able to complete our hike with only a light sprinkling of rain. The rock formations throughout this part of the mountains were really beautiful with lots of sheer cliff faces and interesting rock formations.

While we were planning our route back to Torquay to start the Great Ocean Road, we stumbled upon a little town called Willaura on the map. We decided we absolutely had to visit the town while in the area, so we made a small detour to get our photo with the sign - so worth it!

After our detour, and stopping for Will to work, we finally hit the Great Ocean Road. We learnt at the memorial while we were driving that it was actually built by returned servicemen after WWI. The purpose of building the road was to create work for the soldiers when they returned to Australia. I wonder if they knew their work would be the tourist icon it is now, over 100 years later! There is certainly plenty to see along the Great Ocean Road. We made our start at Torquay, where we visited the Australian Surf Museum, which was really interesting, and then made our pilgrimage to Bells Beach to watch some surfers in action on the iconic waves. We also stopped at Aireys Inlet to visit the Split Point lighthouse which was made famous as the filming location for the classic Aussie kids show "Round the Twist". The weather was quite miserable on the first part of our drive, however, we braved the rain and stretched our legs out at the Great Otway NP. After all the eucalyptus forests, it was nice to be back in the rainforest and some of the trees and ferns were very impressive in size! Fortunately, after crossing the range, we left the miserable weather behind and got some lovely sunshine to check out the icon of the Great Ocean Road - The Twelve Apostles. There are only about 5 left to see, however, they were definitely very impressive and worth the hype they are given. Poor Will spent his afternoon being lectured about the processes of stack formation, as the Geography teacher in me decided she needed some air time. We are very excited to continue our journey along the Great Ocean Road, there is certainly plenty to see!

Kodak Moments