3 Weeks Exploring Victoria

After 7 years at my first professional job, I was ready for a big change. It was a scary step leaving a comfortable job which was the only one I had known in my career up to that point, but leaving felt so refreshing.

I had a new job lined up in Newcastle, which meant a change from a chaotic global engineering firm to a much smaller, local office. I knew this type of change wouldn’t come around often, so I took the opportunity to take 2 months off before the new job started. Which means… ROAD TRIP!!

I had planned to spend the first 3 weeks exploring deeper into Victoria with a friend, before heading to Tassie for another 2 weeks solo.

Where I went:

Lorne
Sheoak Falls
Erskine Falls
Splitter Falls
The Canyon/ Phantom Falls
Henderson Falls
Apollo Bay
South Chapple Falls
Hopetoun Falls
Californian Redwoods
Beauchamp Falls
Maits Rest Rainforest Walk
The Twelve Apostles
Island Arch Lookout
Loch Ard Gorge
Thunder Cave
The Bakers Oven
London Bridge
The Grotto
Tarragal Caves
Mount Gambier
Umpherston Sinkhole
Cave Garden
Wannon Falls
Nigretta Falls
Mount Sturgeon
Mount Abrupt
Hollow Mountain
MacKenzie Falls Lookout
Grand Canyon
Pinnacle Lookout
Carisbrook Canyon

National Parks Visited:

Great Otway National Park
Grampians National Park

Sheoak Falls

I left Newcastle and drove for as long as I could to reach South Victoria. The goal was to cross over the Victorian border at the very least. I think I made it about an hour south of the border and pulled up camp at a rest area on the side of the Hume Highway.

The next day I made it down to Inverleigh where I caught up with a friend for a camp, the next day to Geelong where I met up with another friend who was going to join me for the next 3 weeks. First on our itinerary was the Great Ocean Road!

Our first proper stop after getting organised and doing a food haul was the quaint coastal town of Lorne. I fell IN LOVE with this town!

Even though I was between jobs, I was still part of a research working group and had committed to delivering an online presentation as part of an industry educational event. Lorne was the perfect destination to set up on the beach and finish preparing for my presentation and completing research work.

BUT… the real priority of this trip were the adventures!! Our first real adventuring stop was at Sheaouk Falls.

It was an alright falls… nothing to write home about.

The best part about the falls was actually the walk back to the cars… with ocean views!

Erskine Falls and Splitter Falls

On the same day we also visited Erskine and Splitter falls, which were much more scenic and giving that real Otway National Park aesthetic!

This trip is also where I truly and deeply fell in love with MUSHIES!!

I have never been much of a Flora gal, never particularly interested in flowers or that type of thing… but I became so fascinated by wild mushrooms. The interesting shapes, colours and sizes all fascinated me, I couldn’t stop taking photos. So this blog post, and future blog posts, will be FULL of mushies, now and forever.

Unfortunately Splitters Falls didn’t have much of a flow when we visited, but was still nice to visit. Looking at photos online she’s a real beaut will full flow.

Phantom Falls and Henderson Falls

Next on our visit list was Phantom Falls and Henderson Falls with the added bonus of the Canyon track (which unfortunately I didn’t get any photos of, I must ave been too awe-inspired).

Again, the falls were a bit on the dry side, but after some recent rains the mushies were THRIVING.

So many epically bright colours and textures! I loved seeing ones that were particularly vibrant red and orange colours. Also, the super GLOOPY ones that had a texture you wouldn’t naturally correlate with wild mushrooms and made you want to site there and squish them between your fingers.

A super dry and sad looking Henderson Falls, this is also a real beaut with full flow.

Apollo Bay

Unfortunately, it was time to leave beautiful Lorne, and head towards Apollo Bay and deeper into the Great Otway National Park.

All of these towns along the southern coast of Victoria are stunning. They all had a peaceful and simple nature to them.

South Chapple Falls

We ducked up to Laver’s Hill to visit a lesser known falls, which now unfortunately has its own google maps pins…

Before online directions and google maps pins, we had a mis-adventure trying to find the falls. We got very close, but without a well trodden track it was hard to know the best way down.

Feeling a little defeated, we headed back into the tiny town and stopped by the local pub for a much enjoyed (and quite a large glass) of port. We tried chatting to a few locals and asked if they had better directions to find the falls, and most didn’t seem to know what we were talking about… unless they too wanted to keep their well kept local secret a secret for longer.

The next day we had another try, and funnily enough found the faint track without any real hassle, and made our way straight down to the falls!

For a short track, it had the most condensed, vibrant and epic mushies I have ever seen, which just cemented my love for these tiny wild erotic little things even more.

One of the other coolest things we found on this track was a black slug! Never did I ever think I would be excited about a slug… but here we are!

More epic mushies! Including this incredible vibrant blue, glass like mushroom, which still to this day is one of the coolest mushies I have ever found.

Turqouise mushies?! Stop it.

After a very short track, and many mushies later, we made it to the falls! A super gorgeous falls, which were surprisingly bigger than we were expecting!

Sheer cliff walls, delicious ferns and mossy logs. She was perfect.

I discovered on this adventure that coral fungi was a thing. How epic.

I tried taking as many photos of this blue mushie as I could, and as the camera quality and lens of my Samsung phone would allow. I really wanted to capture the incredible glass like appearance it had.

This is also a zoomed out photo of the blue mushie to show the real life scale!

Hopetoun Falls

Deeper into Otway National Park, it was time to visit more of the well known falls that are the real pull for visitors to this region.

But first… more mushies!!

I can’t remember exactly the same of these side falls… but I couldn’t get over how stunning all the wild ferns were!

Hopetoun Falls is a real beauty, and must have a better sized catchment than the first couple of falls we visited near Lorne.

CLIFF WALLS, DELICIOUS FERNS, MOSSY LOGS…. Can’t stop drooling.

Californian Redwoods

Close by to Hopetoun Falls we visited the Californian Redwoods, the most famous Redwood Forest in Victoria. These Redwoods were planted in 1930, with 1,473 giants soaring up to 55m in height.

They make you feel like a tiny ant in comparison.

There is something so magical about trees.

This Californian Redwood Forest sits alongside a beautiful creek and public picnic area.

Beauchamp Falls

Next on the list in the great Otways was Beauchamp falls. We stayed at the local campground right at the entrance to the falls walk, which had surprisingly nice views and I highly recommended if you’re in the area!

In classic Victorian forest style, plenty of epic mushies along the way to the falls!

I was obsessed with this one upside down mushie. Made me think they were a little mushroom family and the upside down one is the black sheep of the family.

Beauchamp falls reminds me so much of Hopetoun falls!

It’s so interesting to me how different the walk back is even though you are on the same path you walked before. More mushies below that I somehow didn’t see on the walk down!

After our waterfall fix we passed by the famous Koala Kafe, which has its own wild resident Koalas!

We were lucky enough to run into this sweet little guy!

Maits Rest Rainforest Walk

With my new found love for wild mushrooms, I couldn’t help but check out this short rainforest walk as we started making our way West along the Victorian Coast.

Oh my was that a good choice!

We even got lucky enough to see another black slug!

The Twelve Apostles

I can’t believe this was my first time seeing the Twelve Apostles! But here we are.

The Twelve Apostles are a collection of towering limestone rock stacks, which are part of the reason the Great Ocean Road is such a famous Australian road trip.

Interestingly, there were apparently never 12 apostles, but were actually 9, and only 7 still stand.

Island Arch Lookout

We were spoilt with incredible rock formations for kilometres along this stretch of the Great Ocean Road. Arches everywhere!

Loch Ard Gorge

A small walk leads down to a beautiful cove further along the Great Ocean Road. It almost felt like a scene from Thailand! Such epic dramatic cliffs.

We spotted this little cave down in the cove as well.

Thunder Cave

Thunder cave! The views from the top of the sea cliffs were stunning. The limestone rock formations reminded me of the apostles, maybe there were 12 after all?!

I can see where the cave gets its name. Every time the swell builds up and crashes inside the cave it echoes into this loud and powerful sound, just like thunder!

The Bakers Oven

Apparently this rock formation gets its name from its resemblance to a traditional oven… though I am not quite sure I see it?! I suppose the arch shape does look similar to a pizza oven…

It is a bit more unique to all the other rock arches along the Great Ocean Road simply being referred to as ‘Arch’.

One very cool feature of this particular arch is if you manage to time the tide and swell well, the waves crash through the archway. Some photographers manage to capture the phenomenon at sunset which makes it look even more magical! Not me, though, unfortunately.

You can see where the rock is stained from the water falling through!

London Bridge

On this section of the coast you are honestly spoilt for archways and rock formations. London Bridge was one of the more impressive ones!

The Grotto

An interesting little archway you can get close to and walk under! Usually when I have visited ‘grottos’ they are usually in canyon or rainforest settings, so it was interesting to visit a coastal grotto!

Nature is so beautiful.

Tarragal Caves

Once we left the coast and the incredible Great Ocean Road, it was time to head inland!

We made the cheeky decision that we wanted to quickly pop over the border to South Australia for a day trip, so headed further west to the Victorian/South Australian border.

In this part of Victoria you are honestly spoilt for numerous caves you could go explore. As this one was along our route of travel and easily accessed from the road, we decided to visit Tarragal Caves!

The caves and openings were enormous! With beautiful views out to the surrounding landscapes, and my much beloved BT-50.

There were also multiple caves and openings to explore, very worth the visit if you are passing through!

Cave Garden

I know this is a blog post on spending 3 weeks in Victoria… but we will quickly interrupt regular programming with a day trip to South Australia to visit the sinkholes!!

We visited many of the epic sinkholes in the area, particularly the aquatic ones that lead to deep underwater cave systems, but I took more videos than photos. So the photos I captured are featured below!

Cave Garden is located within the town of Mount Gambier, which was fascinating to me to see a natural phenomenon like this in the middle of suburbia.

Umpherston Sinkhole

Cave Garden isn’t the only sinkhole located within Mount Gambier, there is also the Umpherston Sinkhole!

Being much larger than Cave Garden, visitors can walk trough and around Umpherston Sinkhole.

Including behind these interesting cave like walls and falling folage!

Wanton Falls and Nigretta Falls

Heading back into Victoria after our day trip, we decided to visit a couple of falls on the way to our next destination.

These walls were located in the middle of farm land, so it was interesting to me they would be here!

Wanton falls has a beautiful large drop over an over hanging rocky cliff. We were surprised with the level of flow considering its location. I can only imagine the thunder of these falls at full flow!

Nigretta falls was also a nice fall, not quite as dramatic as Wanton but I imagine in heavier flow it would be quite the site to see. We also didn’t run into another soul when visiting these falls.

Mount Sturgeon (Wurgarri)

We were finally only our way to the Grampians!! Another iconic Victorian adventure playground I had never visited before.

Our first stop was a short hike to the top of Mount Sturgeon, otherwise known by it’s Aboriginal name as Wurgarri, the traditional lands of the Djab Wurrung and Jardwadjali peoples.

This short hike had beautiful views out towards Mt Abrupt to the west, a great introduction to the Grampians!

Mount Abrupt (Mud-Dadjug)

Next on our list was to get to the summit of Mount Abrupt itself! This hike was a little longer but had even more impressive views than Mount Sturgeon.

Looking out towards Signal Peak in the west. This is the start of the mountain range that stretches all the way through the entire Grampians National Park.

Right below the summit there is this beautiful rock overhang that feels like a cave. It was a windy day so it provided some much appreciated shelter, and bloody epic views.

Hollow Mountain

Now deep into the Grampians, our next adventure was the summit of Hollow Mountain, which has a beautiful cave at the summit.

The hike was relatively short and easy (from memory) and climbed up the mountain quickly.

The dramatic mountain cliffs were incredible to see at the summit. At the most northern point of the Grampians area, it was interesting to see where the dramatic cliffs stopped and continued as calm farmlands.

As you can see, it was very windy on the summit!

The caves surrounding the summit were beautiful, and there were more caves than I was expecting.

The main cave! Showing the dramatic contrast between dramatic cliff caves and farmland.

MacKenzie Falls Lookout

Heading back towards the heart of the Grampians which is Halls Gap, we visited MacKenzie Falls. Unfortunately the walking track to the base of the falls was closed, so we opted to visit the lookout!

A stunning waterfall even from this vista.

Reed Lookout and The Balconies

After our visit to MacKenzie Falls, we thought a sunset visit to Reed Lookout and The Balconies was an ideal follow on.

Looking out towards The Balconies from Reed Lookout it’s easy to spot the cheeky cave.

A famous feature of Reeds Lookout is the mushroom rock!! With me new found and growing love for mushrooms I was VERY excited to see a mushroom shaped rock.

We didn’t get much of a sunset with the thick cloud cover, but it was a beautiful view nonetheless!

Grand Canyon and Pinnacle Lookout

One of the best hikes in the Grampians is the Grand Canyon Trail that leads up to the Pinnacle Lookout.

It is a relatively short trail that takes you through the centre of the canyon, with towering dramatic cliffs closing you in, and absolute awe-inspiring, jaw-dropping experience.

The closer you get to the Pinnacle Lookout, the narrower and more closed in the trail gets.

The trail then shoots you out the other side into what suddenly feels like dramatic openness.

You are now sitting high above Halls Gap!

Carisbrook Canyon

Sadly, it was time to leave the Grampians and our 3 week long road trip was coming to a swift end. Our first Victorian Canyon seemed like the best finale for the trip.

There were many canyons we ambitiously wanted to visit, but there is only so much you can fit into 3 weeks! As we needed to head back to Geelong, it made sense for a visit through Carisbrook Canyon.

Unlike gruelling exit hikes on NSW canyons, this canyon started with a long and strenuous climb to the top of the falls, and finished swiftly with a VERY short walk back down to the cars. We opted to carry light loads and changed into our wet suites at the car and hike up wearing them, it was a TERRIBLE idea and many regrets were had.

As a happy distraction to over heating and feeling like my wetsuit was strangling me, I stumbled across this epic colony of bright orange mushies!!

This canyon is less of an enclosed slot canyon, and more a wide open series of waterfall drops. Mix that with coastal views the whole way and you have one epic canyon trip before you.