Great Ocean Rd and Aire River

This is written 10 years later -  mainly with the thought that we could print a hard copy as a possibly less nebulous record of our trip than the online one held by google.

 Driving on from the Coorong and into Victoria, the next memorable feature was the Great Ocean Rd. The holiday break was now in full swing and any scenic feature more crowded.

From Great Ocean Road

We stopped and joined the throng viewing the undeniably spectacular coastal scenery, but were put off by the crowds and the increasing traffic on the road.

That night we made it to the Aire River in the Otways. This is a free camp ground in a beautiful location and so was very crowded. Remarkably there was a koala sitting in a tree just near the camp ground.

We set up camp and the boys and next day the boys and I headed upstream for a spot of trout fishing. Who would have thought? It was a lovely spot and Bro did in fact manage to hook a tiny trout.

That afternoon we heard there were salmon running on the beach and sure enough we were soon hauling in mostly smallish Australian Salmon. Coming back from the beach there were 4WDs taking on steep tracks in the sand hills. We had hear d that the flooding along the Murray River had driven many campers to the coast and that night, as the evening progressed, a group from a 4WD club called Mud Sweat and Beers grew increasingly loud in the otherwise silent camp. Sometime around 1am Maggie and I gathered up all our courage, walked over to their camp and asked them to turn the music off. To our surprise they complied. However it was probably one of the least comfortable moments of our trip.

The Coorong

We didn't, as one larrikin suggested, walk home from Kangaroo Island. I guess that's what you get for leaving the posting so late. In fact we got a nice early ferry and were able to drive all the way to Long Point on the Coorong, crossing the Murray by punt at Wellington.

From The Coorong

Long Point was un-signposted, difficult to find, and once found, fairly windswept and uninviting. we stayed the night and pushed on, stopping to view some of the pelican nesting Islands from the bird hide at Policeman's point.

From The Coorong

The photo shows pelicans which have just left a breeding island leaving downwind on the 150 odd km round trip to the feeding grounds near the barrages between Lake Alexandrina and the Coorong. If you get out your magnifying glass, you can also see a line of hundreds of pelicans flying just above the water at the end of the upwind leg back to the islands. That night we camped at 42 mile crossing, the crossing being across the Coorong to the ocean beach. In the afternoon, a steady stream of 4WDs drove past on the track to the beach. Most didn't return till next day after a windy probably unrewarding night spent trying to catch a monster Mulloway. I tried for some salmon, but had no success either.
That night we had to tick off a campload of Venturers (grownup? scouts) for playing loud music in a national park campsite "Aww, but it's the last night of our trip". At least they turned it off at 10.30pm.

Next day we kept driving along beside the Coorong, stopping to walk to an historic site where wells had been built to support Chinese immigrants walking from South Australia to Victorian gold fields because South Australia did not have the large tax on chinese immigrants that Victoria had.