The Great Ocean Road (part 1)

Hey everyone! Sorry it’s been so long since we’ve written an update but we’ve just been so busy having so much fun down here on the south coast!

Wow, where to begin? Well, once we got to Melbourne our plans were redirected pretty dramatically! Turns out Tasmania was on fire! I had overheard snippets of people talking about bushfires in Tasmania but had never really paid much attention. It’s Australia, little bushfires happen all the time, the bush near us burns every now and again for a few days, no big deal. Of course, occasionally a bushfire does become a big deal (er, black Saturday?) and this fire in Tasmania was becoming a bigger deal every day. Infact, there was not just one fire burning but several, with new ones springing up everyday. The fires were deep in World Heritage forest, with severely limited access for firefighters and it was clearly becoming a losing battle. At the time of writing, 187,000 hectares of World Heritage and ancient old growth forest has been devastated. Our friends that we were driving down to visit had been evacuated from their home because of the air pollution. At the peak of the fires the pollution in southern Tasmania had reached 750 ppm, usually it is 5. Ironic considering Tasmania is renowned for having the cleanest air in the world! 

Needless to say we rebooked our ferry and after much hum-ing and ha-ing over what to do next, we decided to explore the legendary Great Ocean Road, and boy am I glad we did. It is probably the most beaten track in Australia and I have never witnessed anything like the sheer volume of tourists that move through this place, but it’s completely understandable once you hit the jaw-dropping coastline. There really is nothing else like it. The road hugs the cliffline for 250 kilometres from Torquay to Warrnambool, and every single metre of that road is utterly spectacular.  Venture north and you have The Otways National Park, home to waterfalls and waterfalls and waterfalls… oh and carnivorous snails!! Funnily enough not many people seem to venture off of the coast and the inland areas are virtually empty of people. The region is also home to the Otways Harvest Trail, a route through the countryside that takes you to a plethora of local farms, orchards, wineries, cheeseries, bakeries etc. Could a food-loving bush explorer ask for more?? (Well yes actually, a few degrees warmer wouldn’t go amiss. It’s freezing down here.)

We started our harvest trail adventure in the town of Forrest, home of the tiger rail trail, a beautiful bike trail through the countryside and into the woodland. We made it about 500 metres before the path became hindered by… what’s that on the ground? Could it be? Yes, it’s hundreds of apples! Oh glorious day! We collected as many as could fit in our bike basket and although they’re a little green they’re perfect for stewing. We were soon to learn that this region is absolutely dripping with wild apple trees, it’s now something we have a constant supply of. 

Another 200 metres down the bike trail and we come across a thicket of blackberries! We weren’t the only ones who were thrilled, the cows were having a feast too, and turns out they’re also partial to apples! I decided to sacrifice my hat as a berry picking vessel (it’s now permanently blue) and we added a hatful of blackberries to our rapidly growing collection of free food before continuing on through absolutely beautiful forest.

Once we were done exploring the forest we headed back to town to check out the Platypi Chocolatarie. These artisan producers have a little cafe with a balcony that overlooks undisturbed forest and a delicious array of chocolates to sample, yum! Being at a chocolate shop one is obliged to order a hot chocolate and Platypi does theirs a little differently. The drink is served to you deconstructed. You’re given a tray with a pitcher of hot milk, a cup containing liquid chocolate, a homemade marshmallow and a “chocolate bomb” dark chocolate ganache surrounded by a milk chocolate shell. You pour the milk into the liquid chocolate, add the bomb, and stir. Result = Delicious!

On our ride back to the van we also came across a beautiful little garden produce swap stall run by the community centre. You take what you need and give in return. Luckily we just so happened to be riding a bike full of freshly found fruit so we traded a portion for some watermelon and a cabbage. Perfect. 

From Forrest it’s a short drive to Stevenson’s Falls where we set up a beautiful little camp in lush forest and spent the afternoon hiking to more beautiful waterfalls. In the morning we headed to Birregurra to check out Otway Artisan Gluten-Free, a specialty gluten-free bakery. It was here that I had the best sandwich of my whole life. Chicken, pesto, feta and salad all toasted together in a freshly baked bun. Wow. It makes me drool just to remember it! We grabbed a few more rolls to take with us (egg, tomato and salad rolls was lunch for the next few days) and drove on to Gentle Annie Berry farm, an organic farm where you can pick your own fruit! It was like the garden of Eden here and we spent hours amongst the orchards and berries, harvesting crisp Nashi pears, raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, and herbs and salad greens too! 

From there we slowly headed back to the coast towards Apollo Bay, home of the Apollo Bay Fisherman’s Co-op where you can pick up the local days catch straight from the boats, and if you’re like me and you’re terrible at cooking fish, you can even get them to cook it for you. I have never tasted fish like I had here! This is so much more than fish and chips. They grill the fish to perfection with lemon, fresh herbs and spices and the whole thing just melts in your mouth. Yummmmmm. The co-op also serves fresh local crayfish which looked delicious and will definitely be on the menu for our return journey!

We also managed to unwittingly stumble upon the Apollo Bay community garden, on the grounds of the local high school. It was perhaps the most productive and impressive community garden I have ever laid eyes upon. And I’ve seen a fair few in my time. Individual plots were held by locals and there was not one neglected plot in the whole place, the gardens were just bursting with food! Of course you can’t pick anything from someone else’s plot but there was so much fruit on the ground and wild veggies springing up in the path we had a bag full of orphan produce in no-time! There’s a whole second section to this community garden which is owned by the school and the kids grow food and cook it themselves and their gardens are pumping! They’ve even managed to grow a mango tree inside a greenhouse! 

We couldn’t resist the call of the forest for long though and from Apollo bay we headed back into the Otways for more bushwalks and waterfall adventure. On the first night we found this lovely secluded spot to camp, hidden amongst trees that were absolutely CRAWLING with koalas. In some parts here they are actually damaging the forest because their population is so large! Anyway, we woke up in the morning to a crowd of koala spotters outside our door. They quickly redirected their attention to watch the entertainment as a bedraggled and sleep addled girl attempted to wrestle a wriggling toddler out of her pyjamas. One family even came and had their photo taken with us, and then invited us to China. Haha! Thanks guys, you never know, Food Oasis China edition? One elderly woman who spoke no english came and joined me in my camp kitchen and was absolutely fascinated by my cooking of apple porridge. I had a lot of fun and many laughs with her and it reminded me again of how communication is so far beyond spoken word. That being said, I did pick up some mandarin basics, my favorite is koala: “qwah-la!”. 

A local we had met the day before told us about a country store, Otway Nourish, in Ferguson, and here we were stoked to pick up yummy local sourdough, farm fresh eggs, a few different veggies and some locally made chutney. The owners were so incredibly friendly, they chucked in some free locally made chocolate and even filled our water drums from their rainwater tank! Thanks guys I’m so grateful! 

From Ferguson we journeyed just abit further down the road to Shoebridge Pick-your-own Blueberries, an organic blueberry farm where you can fill as many buckets as your heart desires. When we arrived, one of the farmers showed us through the different varieties of blueberries, feeding us samples along the way. I could never have imagined such a wide variety of flavours and textures exists amongst the blueberry species! We picked 1.5kg of our favorite variety (Pearl) and Yilla probably are another half a kilo straight off of the bush. I was abit concerned we may have gone overboard, especially without refrigeration, how were we going to get through 1.5 kg of blueberries before they went bad? I needn’t have worried. Infact, we could have picked double! New favorite breakfast: Blueberry French toast with Banana and Maple syrup.

We camped at Beauchamp falls, where we cooked up a good feed and spent the night reading books by the fireside. 

The next morning we woke up to an absolute downpour. Damn. I’d really wanted to do the 2 hour hike down to the falls. We procrastinated and procrastinated. We read all the books in the car and then we read them again. We ate half a kilo of blueberries. We drew on the windows. Finally there was nothing else for it except to don our raincoats and hike the walk anyway. And I’m so glad we did! The forest here was like fairyland in the rain, with crystal droplets hanging to tiny leaflets of moss, and mushrooms springing up beside the cool burbling waters of the stream. This is where we saw the snail. Not just any snail, The Otway Black Snail Victaphanta compacta. It’s a snail that eats meat! Endangered and only found in the 900 square metres of the Otway Ranges its is one of only 5 species of carnivorous snails. It’s also partially nocturnal so it was a real honour to see one. They have no jaw, but instead have rows of sharp teeth along the underside of their body! Yikes! They feed mostly on things like worms and other soft bodies insects but rumour has it that if you lay down in the forest long enough it wouldn’t have a problem with eating you too! It was at this point, where I am bent over double in the forest excitedly inspecting a snail when a group of French hikers walk past. They look at me quizzically so I try to explain to them the significance of this snail. They didn’t really get it. They kind of backed away slowly saying “yeah…that’s great lady…cool snail…” Ah well, you can’t convince everyone. 

It did not stop raining at all in Beauchamp and after reaching our quota of soggy we eventually made our way back towards the coast, only to be blasted by icy wind coming straight from Antartica over the Southern Ocean. The weather here is so extreme, and the constant wind has been making cooking a real challenge. An elaborate wind-proof fortress must be constructed before attempting to cook any meal. To treat ourselves to a proper camp kitchen and a hot shower we stayed a night at the Recreation and Camping Reserve in Port Campbell, a not-for-profit campground where you can use all the facilities for $10 a night. It’s also a great base for sightseeing as the 12 apostles are only 10 minutes away. The shared kitchen also brings a really social aspect to the place and at mealtimes everyone swaps laughs, recipes and travel stories. We had heaps of fun here. The next morning we woke up at sunrise to go visit the 12 apostles. I wanted to play my medicine drum to them, and I didn’t want anybody else to be around to gawk at me and make me feel like an absolute weirdo so it was important to go early before the crowds of tourists arrived. And just like a dream we had the whole entire place to ourselves. The apostles are just…. wow there are no words. I’m very interested to know what they represent to the local mob because they are obviously a very very powerful force in the landscape. Surrounding the apostles are also countless other equally stunning and surprisingly lesser known rock formations, and we spent the whole day visiting each and every one. Not one of them failed to take my breath away. This coastline is just incredible. 

We have just met up with my Dad who’s flown in from Scotland and we haven’t seen each other for over 10 years so there’s lots to catch up on, posts might be as rare as hens teeth over the next week or two but I can’t wait to tell you guys all about beautiful Port Fairy and part 2 of the Great Ocean Road: Family edition! Stay tuned.