Monday 11th December – Into Victoria, Tower Hill and sunset at the Twelve apostles

A Fairy Wren

Next morning, as planned, we returned to the Blue lake.  It looked like we would have to wait too long for a cloudless sky if we really wanted to see it in its full glory.  But I did manage to get some images of a new favourite little bird of mine – the fairy wren.  These bright little characters were nipping around all over the place, barely ever stopping which makes them hard to capture, but it was worth the effort.

Still looking relatively blue...

Onwards, for once we had others to pose with as we crossed the border into Victoria (left), and lost an extra 30 minutes of the day!

One of the places our passengers gave as a must-do for our road trip was Tower Hill.  Completely unlike the one in London – this was a park where we had been guaranteed to see emus and our first truly wild koalas.  

A very tame emu

With the help of the staff we took a walk…. To the picnic area where other tourists looking up gave us all the help we required in seeing the koala (right).  We did go for a further leg stretch to see some of the pretty wetland, but we couldn’t get any closer to any other koalas as we had to the one in the picnic area, so we returned there to have lunch with ‘our koala’.

Front row lunchtime seats for koala viewing

Finally, we reached the start of the Great Ocean Road. There were numerous different viewpoints and rock formations to see.  We agreed to see as much as possible whilst aiming to reach the Twelve Apostles for sunset, the most famous view on the Ocean Road.

The Bay of Islands

A natural arch at the Bay of Martyrs

What's left of London Bridge (it really did fall down)

As it reached late afternoon we drove into the town of Port Campbell, a short drive from the Apostles and found a hostel with nice double rooms for only a little more than last night.  Only one was left with an en-suite.  After suffering the bunk beds last night, it was only right that this room went to Seb and Natalia!

Sebastian and Natalia prepared for sunset

We had enough time to go for a fish and chip supper in town before driving on to join the rest of the throng at the 12 apostles. We’d gone prepared with a beer each.  The scenery was amazing, but some clouds ruined our sunset to an extent, covering the sun up before it reached the horizon.

The Twelve Apostles... minus a few

The best colours during sunset was the light reflecting on the cliffs for fleeting moments like this

As darkness fell we had somewhere else to be.  A tip-off from our landlady made us head to Mutton-Bird Island after sunset where we witnessed thousands of birds wheeling over our heads, flying home to roost for the night. It was an amazing experience.  We went back to the hostel for more beers and cards but it was getting quite late by then, so we didn’t burn the midnight oil too long.

A fraction of the mutton birds that were swirling around our heads