Great Ocean Road to Grampians National Park to Ballarat – May 11, 2014: Mother’s Day 2014

We awoke to another beautiful bright sunny day. Being Mother’s Day we decided to have a special breakfast along the harbor of Warrnambool.  We chose the Pavilion restaurant.  Once again we were mesmerized by the waves crashing on the rocks and islands outside the harbor seawall.

Breakfast at The Pavilion along the Coast

Warrmanbool Coast - Active This Morning

More Coastline

We would be leaving the Great Ocean Road today, heading directly north to the Grampians National Park.  The area between the ocean and Grampians, as well as all around the Grampians is very flat, but all of a sudden there are these mountains, a mountain range, that rises up out of this very flat area.  You can see the mountains miles away. We drove to one of the major lookout posts at the top to see a rock formation called the ‘devils jaw” or 2 balconies – rock formations simply jutting out. 

Sheep in the Pasture

More Sheep

More Sheep

Road Leading to The Grampians

Today we saw sheep and more sheep – sheep by the thousands!  At one point I told Cal, I think we have seen a million sheep today!  And then when we got to the mountains we saw kangaroos, ‘Roos’!  2 Roos jumped across the road, at a safe distance, ahead of us – just like deer! We also saw lots of beef cattle and dairy on the way north from the coast.  In the town of Hall’s Gap we saw a lot of Roos – some were very tame.  When we left the park, we saw herds of Roos – hundreds of them grazing in fields. We don’t know if they were all wild or if some of them were being raised on farms.   The whole area through which we drove today, except the mountains, was primarily grazing lands for sheep, beef and dairy. 

The Grampians National Park

The Grampians National Park

The Balconies "Devil's Jaw" - in The Grampians

In The Grampians National Park

Kangaroos In Park

Rachel Petting a Kangaroo

Kangaroos in the Wild

We are overnighting in the town of Ballarat.  By 3:00 tomorrow afternoon we have to be at the Melbourne airport, return our car, and meet the Iowa Rotarians who are flying in from Auckland, NZ, to begin our Friendship Exchange in Rotary D- 9720.