Princetown

After setting out from Warrnambool, first stop was Cheese World. When we got there we found it was somewhat more commercial than places we had visited before. The kids however thought the tastings were fantastic and each ended up purchasing a cheddar – Max and Chilli Cheddar and Harry a Tomato and Chive. Where Cheese World had it over other places was a partnership they had in place with the Warrnambool Historical Society to house their displays. This meant that an old engine exhibition and a small museum of early settlers artefacts and early cheese and butter making paraphernalia were also available to visitors to browse through.

After Cheese World we set off down the Great Ocean Road properly, with the aim being to have a look at places of interest for the first half and then motor straight into Princetown and come back to places like the 12 Apostles the next day. The scenery was fantastic and the countryside was beautiful.

At Princetown we pulled into the camping reserve, which turned out to double as the local cricket ground, with camp sites around the perimeter. This was a very popular stopping point with a full-time caretaker on site and at least 7 other sites taken when we got there. The bravest was the people set up in a large tent, which looked cold enough before I found out that they had been a stopping station for a walking group who had set off to do a 100km walk in a day. Apparently they came through Princetown at some stupid time in the morning for drinks and food and then kept on going. Given that the weather was terrible it can’t have been much fun. Anyway the people manning the tent ended up staying an additional night to make the packing up easier rather than having to rush through it, but I reckon it would have been pretty cold in a thin tent on an unpowered site.

That evening Harry and Liz were pretty tuckered out so Max and I took off for a couple of hours before tea. In the end we drove back to Port Campbell and dropped into a pub hoping to catch part of the Eagles/Dockers derby. When we got there however they had a delayed telecast of Richmond/Bulldogs on instead (bloody Victorians!!!), but we still enjoyed seeing the first quarter of football since we had set off.

Later that morning Harry was very excited. When he got up to got to the loo he found the oval covered in kangaroos. These stayed around until mid-morning without too much concern for the people camping. One of them was huge and they all looked a little strange as they are obviously slightly different to those we are used to with a shorter muzzle and rounder torso.

After breakfast we set off back down the Great Ocean Road, stopping at Gibson's Steps first. The kids had a ball on the beach here with water seeping down the cliff face, waves rolling in, driftwood and feathers all over the beach and plants clinging to impossible looking surfaces.

Next on the list was the 12 Apostles itself. While it took some of the spontaneity out of the exercise I was very impressed with the way this site was set up. Given the number of visitors it would get the potential for both environmental degradation and injuries and accidents would be very high. Having a very structured set of path and lookouts obviously mitigates both of these issues.

Loch Ard Gorge was next on the list. The Loch Ard was one of the coastlines most tragic early shipwrecks, with only two people surviving. Given the piece of coast that they were wrecked on even two people is somewhat of a miracle. For me this was also one of the most spectacular spot we stopped through this part of the journey.

At this point the kids were pretty much over the coast line so we headed for Timboon which was supposed to have a funky little cheese factory. When we got there we found that we had arrived on a day in which it wasn’t opening, which was a shame as it looked to be beautifully laid out and even the name ‘Mousetrap’ was attractive. we therefore decided to work our way back to camp for lunch, pleased with the scenery we had wandered over, through and around, but disappointed we had been unable to locate both the cheese factory and GORGE Chocolates, which Liz had seen a sign for the previous evening, but which so far had alluded our attentions.

After lunch we set out with the primary intention of finding the chocolate factory. As we made our way back down the GOR we found that our first error had been in missing a turn of the road. Where we had thought that a sign was telling us that the chocolate factory was 7 km’s further down the road it was actually telling us it was 7 km’s down a cross street. Feeling much better about our wayfinding ability we set of invigorated, only to find that we had been straight past the front door of it on our way back to the campsite for lunch earlier. We consoled ourselves with the fact that the signage on the property itself was awful and found on talking with  the owner that they were in the process of moving premises, having only bought the business itself a couple of months earlier.

While there, we were discussing our dismal late morning, with a closed cheese factory and then completely missing GORGE chocolates. The owner then told us that until buying the chocolate business she had been the cheesemaker for Apostle Whey Cheeses which was only a few k’s further up the road. After everybody ahd finished purchases (everybody other than me that is – I believe the chocolate was beautiful too but am purely going on conjecture since none of my family was polite enough to offer me even a small piece!!).

Apostle Whey Cheese turned out to be a small cottage industry set up on a 250 cow dairy with the majority of the mild sold on and only a small percentage maintained for their own cheese making enterprise. The cheeses here were based on soft brie’s and camembert’s, havarti’s, blue’s and fetta’s. Harry was very taken with the pepper Havarti while Max couldn’t leave without a slab of the smellier of the blue’s. The outcome appears to be a shift from Liz’s original intention of doing as taste test of Australia’s Vanilla Slice’s to a cheese and chocolate tour. Interestingly, my father provided the kids with a weekly allowance on top of their normal pocket money to make sure that they were covered for ice creams and lollies on the trip. As it has turned out it has become predominantly a cheese allowance, however we will see if this changes once we work our way into warmer climes.

The trip to the cheese makers finished by watching the dairy in operation, which was probably the first time the kids had ever seen a large scale milking occur.