Victorian Road Trip - 2

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Victoria Road Trip

The last week My mates and myself went on a road trip in Victoria. It was a four day trip covering the Great Alpine Road and the Great Ocean Drive and a visit to the Phillip Island.

Great Alpine Road

We started early around 4:30 in the morning from Melbourne. We reached Wangaratta around 10 in the morning after couple of important stops.  We had our breakfast there. It was a wet morning, and we all were worried about the weather, because we had planned some walks in Mt. Buffalo. The Great Alpine Road is divided into 3 parts.

1. Wangaratta to Bright. 

This leg of the drive had beautiful trees on either side of the road. It was not raining much in this part of the trip. We got down and took some real nice pics here. We had found out that Mt. Buffalo had lot of snow and it was likely to rain. So many walks were expected to be closed. We were also advised to get the snow chains for the car tyres. We reached the town Porepunkah. This was the last place to get the chains before the snow of Mt. Buffalo. Here we had our first disappointment. The shop informed us that the chains have to be returned at the same shop and not at Omeo (which is a town further down in the drive!). But the tourism information centre told us that such an arrangement was possible. If we take the chains at Porepunkah it meant that we had to come back from Mt. Buffalo to return the chains. This meant an unnecessary delay of more than 90 mins. We decided to go skip Mt. Buffalo and hit for Mt. Hotham. So we drove straight to Bright.

At Bright we got the chains. The shop at Bright had arrangement that we could drop the chains off at Omeo. By now the drizzle had picked up and it was a bit heavy and real chilly. We had a quick demo of how to strap on the chains. It is real easy. We started from Bright and headed to Mt. Hotham.

 

2. Bright to Omeo.

This is the second leg of the Great Alpine Road. Reaching Mt. Hotham we paid crazy fees for parking. By now we were real hungry. Let me say this, being vegetarian is such a punishment. I had some steamed veges and rice. Then we came out in the chilly, wet, snowing weather. It was amazing. So beautiful, so white. It was a treat to the eyes and a punishment to the skin. I was shivering. We got some snow boots and started walking up a peak. I had never actually expected to see something like that. So beautiful. So much snow. We had a good time in the snow, took some real nice pics and walked down.  Around 4 pm we started to Omeo. Omeo is a small town in the Great Alpine road.

We had booked accommodation at Omeo for the night. We reached the place around 5:30 and we were all tired. After 20 mins rest, we headed out looking for dinner. We ordered pizzas at a restaurant attached to the local bar. We were requested to wait in the bar. A town of 400 people max, around 50 people were there at the bar. We were the Strangers from outside. But dont expect stories of Racism, they all had a smile on for us. Such friendly people. But we did feel a bit uncomfortable, but that is because of us and not of their making. Our pizzas came and we headed back to our room. We had an early dinner at 7 pm and slept early.

3. Omeo to Bairnsdale.

We started on the third leg of the journey next morning. It was bright, clear sky. No sign of rain. It was a beautiful day for the drive. And we stopped at couple of spots for some photos. We also trekked to a nearby creak, leaving the car on the road. There was little water flowing. In summer, the snow at Mt. Hotham is supposed to melt feeding this river. Then after trying some car stunts, we left the place to reach the Buchan Caves.

This is where we left the Great Alpine road. We reached the town of Buchan. A friendly aussie town. We had our brunch here. Then we went over to the caves. These are caves with limestone formations inside. They were really beautiful. The guide requested us not to click photos everywhere and asked us to take photos only at designated places. A Desi family was also in the group, and as Desi’s always do, they clicked everywhere. We never listen to instructions, do we? We walked through the caves. At the last stop inside the cave, the guide asked us to switch off all our electronic equipment. Then he switched off the lights. It was pitch dark. He waited for a couple of mins and said, no matter how long you spend in a cave without light, your eyes never get adjusted to the darkness. It happens only in the movies.

We came out of the caves and did some bush-walking. We climbed a hill to a falls and had some philosophical discussions at the top of the falls and we trekked back. We then started to Lakes Entrance. This is a very nice place, looking out to the ocean. We had some food here, and strolled on the beach.

Here we decided to get back to Melbourne soon and visit the Crown Casino. Thus ended our great Alpine road trip.

 

Crown Casino.

We reached the casino and had our dinner first. Then Saideep and Nithin signed up for Casino membership. They were given 5$ free credit to play with. Saideep won a dollar and Nithin won 7$. Unfortunately, they both bet their winnings and lost everything expect 2$. We used the winnings to pay for our parking and left for home. We reached late around 12:30.

City visit.

We decided to see the Eureka towers the next morning and see some sight-seeing in the city before heading out to the Phillip Island. We had a lavish brunch at an Italian place. So much to eat. Then we headed out to the city. We found out the Penguins at Phillip Island come earlier than we had planned for. So we had to leave at once. It was a 150kms drive. We left at once. We reached exactly in time and we entered the place. Photos were not allowed, so i left my camera in the car. We waited in the cold weather for the Penguins. This is the only place where we can see the tiniest Penguins. (I am not really sure about this, but this is what i heard!). We saw so many tiny penguins. They were so beautiful. The announcer asked everyone to look under the cars for stray Penguins, very surprising ;). We left the island after seeing some beautiful creatures. We then left to reach the city in time to see the city from atop Eureka towers under the lights.

Eureka Towers

Eureka towers is similar to London Eye. They take us to the 88th floor in the building. We get amazing view of the whole Melbourne City from there. And under the lights, it looked spectacular. We again took some photos and enjoyed up there. The thing that amazed me most was, the lift took just 4 seconds to reach the 88th floor from the ground. We then strolled the streets in the city till we were tired. We left for home.

Great Ocean Drive

This is the most famous road in Australia. It runs along the ocean coast line for more than 100 kms, ending  near 12 Apostles. We planned to do the drive the reverse. Start from 12 Apostles and drive along the coast to reach the city. We took the inland freeway to reach 12 Apostles. On the way, there was a small town Camperdown. Sibi noticed that there was a volcanic crater nearby. We headed for it now. We found one of the most amazing sites. And even after seeing some breathtaking sites in the last two days, this clearly was way ahead of all the things we had seen that week. Such beauty. The crater was now a lake, and the wind was just so forceful. I had to make sure that I was not blown away. And the whole place was filled with lush greenery. This is one place everyone should see before they die. What a beauty.

Just as we left this place, heading for 12 Apostles, it started drizzling. When we reached 12 Apostles, the rain eased a little and we ventured out to see the place. It was amazing. But then the weather had turned rotten and the rain started coming down hard. This meant the rest of the Great Ocean Road was going to be a waste. We drove on still. It darkened quick. Around 5:30 it was very dark outside. And the Ocean was no longer visible. We decided to go inland and reached Melbourne. We were so hungry by now. We went to a South Indian Restaurant and had some authentic southern food. It was nice.

 

We then reached home. We all had our flights next day and Sibi had to work. But it was Nithin’s birthday that night.

Birthday!

We had ordered a surprise cake for Nithin and got some gifts. We made him cut the cake at midnight. We surprised him with the cake and the gifts. It was a nice way to end the trip. Happy birthday, Nithin.

 

Next day, we all boarded our flights and headed home. A lot happened in our flight too. But that is a different story and for later.

Overall, it was a wonderful trip. And we drove around 2000kms in 4 days out of which Sibi drove 1900 kms and I drove 100 ;) It was nice to meet Sibi and Nithin after a long time and we had a lot of fun.

I would advise everyone in and around in Australia to make the Great Alpine Road trip, if possible in Autumn. The trees look spectacular at that time of the year, although there may not be enough snow.

Bye for now.