cliffs and forests....

Woke yesterday (Friday) to clearer but cooler weather , then drove through a mainly sunny warm day through landscapes that were so incredibeautiful that any words I use just don't do them justice... First rolling open country along cliffs of flatlying Miocene limestone that stoop vertically into the sea, with a series of stacks, staurs, islands, natural arches and bridges, all set in the rolling surf and brilliant aquamarine sea, ending with the major tourist attraction "The 12 apostles" (above), only spoiled by the many busloads of daytrippers from Melbourne...

Then a dramatic change of landscape as we moved into the Lower Cretaceous sandstones and volcanics of the Otway Group, getting their name from the dramatic forested hills and valleys of the Otway Range - the group being formed in a series of rift basins as Australia started to "unzip" itself from Antarctica over 150 million years ago...... Drove through gorgeous rainforest with giant ferns and even gianter eucalyptus (some over 100 m high, matching the coast redwoods of California) to Cape Otway itself at almost 39 degrees South, our furthest south yet, and then on to beautiful Apollo Bay, to a full-packed campsite getting ready for today's mountain bike 100 km marathon with 800 competitors (not the 3,000 we were told yesterday!).

This campsite, like all the others, still dominated by "grey geese" though, an element of the Ozz fauna I've still not mentioned in this trip's blog - Grey geese are people who live in their campervans or caravans, migrating around the country with the changing seasons, April to October in the north's tropical dry season, away from the southern "winter", November to March in the southern summer, escaping the tropical storms of the north's wet season. Many are pensioners, some still have permanent homes somewhere, some have sold up and moved out - what will happen when they just can't manage any more? Some younger people work their way around the country taking temporary jobs wherever - we've met nurses, mechanics, secretaries, shop assistents, campsite attendants, all grey geese. Some have cars with caravans on tow, some campervans with cars in tow, like above, some have a boat in tow, but they all share the love of moving wherever, whenever..... All good fun in a country like this!

An easy day today, staying in Apollo Bay, laundry then coffee in a beachside cafe before taking a boardwalk through the rainforest, the next tree more gigantic than the last, thick underbrush of incredible tree ferns, and all in the rich aromatic scents of eucalyptus and tree ferns.... And then on to an impressive exhibit of "Walking with dinosaurs - the wildlife of Gondwana", all about the dinosaurs that lived in the Otway rift basin all those 150 million years ago, when this area was at 80 degrees South and pretty cool to say the least (although there was no ice cap like today)......

Tomorrow we head northwards towards Canberra - not like grey geese, although I'd dearly love to be one - but on the beginning of the end of this trip....... boohoo!!!!!!!