Melbourne to Adelaide via GOR - Day 4

We woke up early, had a hearty breakfast, enjoyed the autumn colours in the holiday park, had a brief stop at Blue Lake, drove along the John Watson Drive around the lake, and off we departed to Adelaide Hill.

The only breakfast that was not served on our picnic table

The Blue Lake

Due to time constraint, I canceled the original plan (using the coastal road to go to Adelaide), and sacrificed my Coorong National Park. However, I think it was a good decision as the girls were tired of ocean view after days of exploring Great Ocean Road. We drove through Naracoorte Wine Region instead, and we love the endless vineyards.

However, after hours of vineyards, we grew tired of the same old beautiful scenery. So, when we finally reached Murray River, we gladly took a brief stop at a park. We needed some stretching. And, for bonus, here's where we enjoyed taking photos of wild flowers (and plucked some too).













By the time we finally reached Hahndorf, it was almost 2pm. We decided to skip lunch and go straight to Hanhdorf Hill Winery for our ChoccoVino Experience.

We were greeted by 2 over-friendly, super-excited dogs. The moment I opened my door, they came in wagging tails, licking my legs. (I always love over-friendly, super-excited dogs. They always make me immediately feel at home.) I had to keep them busy, make sure they stay with me so the girls could "escape" to "safer place".

Hahndorf Hill Winery @ Adelaide Hills

The ChocoVino Experience is mainly to match their boutique wines to chocolate. 2 of us drink, and 2 of us not. So what does non-drinker do in a winery? Not to worry about me. This Choco Vino experience has been included in CNN's Top 10 Global Adventures for Chocoholics. I grinned when I was reading this online before our trip. I knew this is the place that we MUST visit.

One can always order the wine + chocolate matching experience, or focusing only on sampling the chocolates. All these order came with brief introduction on the wines / chocolates. One can take their own sweet time to pair the wines and chocolates and look for their favorite match. 




I got myself an "Exotic Selection" (you can label anything with "exotic" and I assure you I'll take a second look without fail). From this selection, I love the Amedei '9' Dark the most as it taste sophisticated. At least this is not something that I'd pampered myself with as casual tidbits :)

XT ordered Heart of Darkness. Both of us love the "Cracked Coffee"!! Coffee beans and cacao beans make great combination of taste! (I have to visit Bahen & Co. when I visit Margaret River next year!)

The "pure chocolate" experience costs AUD15 per person while the wine + chocolate experience costs AUD20 per person.

 

Cape Grim sparking water as palate cleanser

The Exotic Selection

After the fun session at Hahndorf Hill Winery, we visited the lovely market and got ourselves lots of fresh fruits and nuts.

After the shopping spree, we finally could make our trip back to the Hahndorf. This Australia's oldest surviving German settlement is a lovely town. The main street is very beautiful and all the souvenir shops, craft shops etc are very interesting. Too bad most of them close at 5pm sharp!

We decided not to cook on the final night of our mobile home trip.After 4 days 3 nights of self-cook meals, we needed a great place to pampered ourselves. After discussed, we all agreed that we could have some German pork knuckles at the famous Hahndorf Inn.

This hotel was built in 1863, and hence the heritage makes it frequently features in Hahndorf postcards and tourism brochure. The restaurant has been serving the local community for over 100 years so we decided to try the classic German cuisine.

We ordered a "Taste of Germany Platter" which supposed to serve 2 as per the menu. We also ordered a "Giant Juicy Pickled Pork Hock". The waitress didn't warn us about having 2 pork knuckles (one from the "Taste of Germany Platter" and one from the "Giant Juicy Pickled Pork Hock"). Most probably these portions normally only enough for 2 or 3 person.

When the "Taste of Germany Platter" was served, 4 of us went crazy. I quickly asked the waitress to cancel our order but it was too late!! What a tragedy. 4 of us can't even finish this plate of food!! (This AUD64.50 dish came with bockwurst, weistwuss, cheese kransky, Vienna sausages, smoked pork kassler chop, pork knuckle, Rhine potatoes, sauerkraut and 2 pretzels!)

Taste of Germany Platter (serves 2) - as stated on the menu

So this plate of giant pork hock just sit there whole night, watching us trying our very best to finish the Germany platter (and failed). This pork hock became our breakfast instead.

Giant Juicy Pickled Pork Hock - AUD29.90

To be fair, the food served were delicious. The sausages were lovely and the pork knuckle was juicy. I actually love the sauerkrat too. Oh, and I have to mention the potatoes! They were creamy and full with butter flavour!

Unfortunately, we had too much meat in one meal! At the end of the dinner, 4 of us swore not to have Germany cuisine for the next few months.

 

After the heavy dinner, we drove for another 10 minutes to Mount Barker as there were no caravan park in Hahndorf. We parked our mobilehome at Mount Barker Caravan & Tourist Park. Again, it was after hours. The office was closed. We called the number given at the main office, and an old lady came to serve us, still smiling and friendly. This holiday park costs us AUD45. Even though without any discount, but still the cheapest of these 4 nights.



Please refer to my post about "Melbourne to Adelaide via GOR on a Mobilehome for 5 Days 4 Nights" for the driving route

Melbourne to Adelaide via GOR - Day 3

Even though Great Ocean Road Tourist Park is just a short walk away from the beach, I decided to explore the river bank instead. Not aiming for sunrise, but hoping for wildlife spotting.

The pelicans were dominating the river

The bridge that we passed by the night before

After a short stroll at the river bank, I went back to our mobilehome, had a simple, and continued our journey.

Our first itinerary was to drive along Old Peterborough Road slowly. Extremely slowly. According to the tourist park owner, he always see wild kangaroos along this road. Unfortunately, he last spotted them 2 weeks ago. It meant we have a very dim chance. However, we had to do it anyway. We were already 6th day in Australia and we yet to see a single kangaroo, not even a dead body! We MUST spot a wild kangaroo before we leave this beautiful country so driving along Old Peterborough Road was our top priority to start the day.

Well, we were not lucky enough to spot a kangaroo, but we did meet a handsome horse :)

After Old Peterborough Road, we visited the Bay of Islands Coastal Park before we headed to Allansford Cheese World to sample some local produces.

Farm decorated with hays

When we planned for Allansford Cheese World, I was hoping for a short guided tour at the cheese factory. Apparently there was no such tours. They only offered free cheese tasting session. It was an interesting experience though. We had chance to taste the cheese at different ages, including one-week-old, half-year-old, one-year-old and the vintage cheese. The one-week-old was soft and creamy, while the vintage cheese had sharp flavour. They also served cheese with various flavours, including chilli cheese! We had great time shopping at Allansford Cheese World, as they sell many types of local produces including olive oil, honey, chocolates, cookies etc, and cheese, of course.

After Cheese World, while on our way to Warrnambool, we detoured to Logan Beach to try our luck on whale watching. We drove through a lot of farms before getting to Logan Beach and to our delight, we met a few super cute llamas on our way! (I LOOOVEEE llamas ever since The Emperor's New Groove!)

Though Logans Beach is famous with whale watching (there's a whale viewing platform, making it one of the region's best observation points for these mammals), but I think the beach itself worth the visit too! It was quiet, only a few visitors waiting patiently for the whales, and a surfer polishing his skill. We had good time there enjoying the sun and the breeze at the platform.

Logans Beach

After Logans Beach, we had a brief stop at Warrnambool Woolworths for groceries shopping (our original plan was to stop here for lunch but none of us was hungry then) and went straight to Tower Hill. Before the trip, I read from Tripadvisor that a lot of tourists had close encounters with wallabies, koalas and emus in the Tower Hill Wildlife Reserve picnic area. We were so desperate for kangaroos, we didn't mind taking photos of wallabies instead (not many Malaysians know the differences anyway, right? :p ) Anyway, initially we couldn't find the wildlife reserve as we planned, and ended up drove along the Tower Hill Scenic Drive (no complain of course, superb view!)

Tower Hill volcanic lake and the Great Ocean afar

View from the Tower Hill Scenic Drive

We didn't give up, looking hard, and finally found the entrance of Tower Hill State Game Reserve (I'm still confused on the actual name of this reserve. Most of the websites call it Tower Hill Wildlife Reserve, but the sign at the entrance says Tower Hill State Game Reserve)
Tips: Coming from Warrnambool, don't follow the Tower Hill sign just yet. Drive along Princess Highway and you will see a sign of Tower Hill State Game Reserve on your right

Emus somehow reminded me of dinosaurs from Jurassic Park

We parked our mobilehome, prepared simple sandwiches, and had fun watching the emus wandering in the park while having our lunch. No luck for wallabies or kangaroos or any other wildlife though.

After visiting this place, I do think it is under-rated. It is a place that worth spending at least half a day enjoying the nature. There were a lot of trekking paths but we got no time for that.


After lunch, we continued our journey to Mount Gambier. We also stopped at a small town to get our diesel for the first time.

Codrington Wind Farm

Just about an hour before Mount Gambier, when we drove through the long stretch of forest reserve (Sorry. Too many of them, can't recall the names), we saw a few kangaroos in the wild by the roadside. We got excited, stopped our car, and off they hopped into the forest.....

These 2 still hoped that the kangaroos will come out from the forest to greet them

The lonely mobilehome along Princess Highway

After wild kangaroos spotting, we drove to Mount Gambier happily. By the time we reached Mount Gambier, it was getting dark. We decided to make a brief stop at the Umperston Sinkhole before we call it a day. 

They turned this sinkhole to a very nice garden

To our surprise, we met a family of possums here. A cute little girl was trying her very best to feed them her bread. They were shy and timid, but they love bread! That's how we managed to take so many photos of them. 

We reached Blue Lake Holiday Park after 6pm. The office was closed. There's a phone placed at the entrance which visitors could use after hours. We called, the staff gave us a password to access to the park, and we helped ourselves with everything else. We just had to pay at the office before we leave.
This holiday park costs AUD47.70 (after 10% discount for Apollo Rental).



Please refer to my post about "Melbourne to Adelaide via GOR on a Mobilehome for 5 Days 4 Nights" for the driving route