The Forest is Petrified!Oct 24, 2009
|
|
Knitting a new minivan
Cape Bridgewater
100 Metres? Or 100 Miles? It makes a difference, you know!
Saturday October 24, 2009 – The Coastal Explorers Way
The Forest is Petrified!
After Warrnambool (one of my favourite Aussie place names) The Great Ocean Road becomes The Coastal Explorers Way (“TCEW”). There is no sign that actually announces this but that’s what all the tourist brochures say so I’ll accept their word for it.
Cape Bridgewater is at the southernmost tip of TCEW and that’s where we began our explorations this morning.
First stop at the Cape: The Petrified Forest. I guess they knew we were coming cause they were indeed petrified. Apparently, sand covered the forest awhile ago (say, more than 10 years) and the forest couldn’t get out the way and just sort of, petrified, over the next, say, 1,000 years or maybe more.
I don’t remember the exact details. There were a lot of signs to read with long explanations. I was, to be honest, more interested in taking in the view (over the inevitable precipice and sheer drop) of The Blowholes just a bit down the path from The Petrified Forest.
At The Blowholes, the ocean meets the indented cliffsides. When the waves are just so, the meeting of the moving forces with the immovable objects creates major backsplashes, called The Blowholes. This event was worthy of using the camera as a camcorder. It really is major backsplash.
Today’s picnic lunch was at the City Hall park & limestone sinkhole caves & gardens on the extinct volcano now known as the city of Mt. Gambier. It’s the first major population centre in the State of South Australia which welcomes you with 2 or 3 dozen signs reminding you not to bring grapes into the State (or else!).
They are quite protective of their winemaking industry here. We plan on taking a tour of the Barossa Valley in a day or two, where the Wolf Blass vineyards are located, amongst others. I will plant a seed or two from the grapes we bought in Apollo Bay. Whoa there – they are seedless grapes! I guess the entire South Australian winemaking industry will be safe after all.
We allowed Kenneth (the GPS on my iPhone who speaks with an Aussie accent) to guide us to our destination for the evening, the Lakeview Motel & Apartments overlooking lovely Lake Fellmongery in Robe.
Kenneth has been quite on top of things although he took us through some very interesting back roads earlier this morning that, I must say, had us doubting him for a bit there. But, it turns out he knows what he’s doing and so here we are in Robe.
We did enjoy his fruitless efforts to get us to make a dozen u-turns when we chose an alternate route to his. Ultimately, he knows who is boss and simply recalculated until he figured out what nonsense route I was taking and then just went with the flow.
Mary & David are the parents of the proprietors here at the Robe Lakeview Motel & Apartments. They have been to Canada and really enjoyed their tour of the Rockies and a Hutterite Colony. An interesting combination.
They have invited us to their farm home tomorrow morning for a cup of coffee. The directions Mary wrote out for us are ‘intriguing’. I’m betting that Kenneth won’t have a clue.
Final Notes: Cricket? No, seriously – what the heck is going on there? We watched a game on TV last night. The pitcher threw a googly at a wicket that bounced before home plate but the batter smacked it into the stands for a home run (which is apparently worth 6 points). Then they started another over all over. What does any of that mean?!
The best part: The right fielder (or was it left – the field is a circle!) had to climb into the stands to retrieve the ball before they could start play again.
