driving to the far west coast of Kangaroo Island...

The roads are in excellent condition for driving around most of Kangaroo Island ..... well certainly the main roads are.  There are also many gravel roads within the National Park areas and other more remote parts of the Island.  It is wise to drive with caution at all times. Apart from all the wildlife, there are cyclists, bushwalkers and many tourists traveling and especially the tourists from overseas that are unfamiliar with our roads, in particular the gravel roads!

So please drive with care and at a safe speed at all times.

Another 'suggestion' is to make sure your vehicle has enough fuel to travel at least 300klms ... KI is 155 klms long and about 47 klms wide. So if you are driving to Cape Borda, do make sure you have enough fuel for a return journey as there are only about two fuel stations (none anywhere near Cape Borda) and are very expensive at $1.89 per liter (April 2014)

There are fuel stations at Kingscote and Penneshaw.  The booklet that the Tourist Center give you lists where the fuel stations are located.

Driving from the east to the west coast will take approx two hours, if not longer. The road is well maintained until you reach the gravel section which is about 30 klms out from Cape Borda.

There is no easy way to 'ride the corrugation'.  If you have a 4 x 4 vehicle, then put it in 4 wheel drive and drive over the corrugation where possible. If driving a normal vehicle, slow down and watch for the extra rough areas. This section of the road will slow you down, but it is still a reasonable road ..... we have driven over far worse, that's for sure!!

Pull over and slow down when you see an oncoming vehicle ..... hopefully they will do the same.  It means less dust and less stones being thrown up on either vehicle.

When reading this blog and seeing these images, you might decide to not travel to Cape Borda due to the road conditions.  But it is well worth the trip and the road is really not that bad at all.  The images are here so you can decide for yourself as we found it difficult to locate photos such as these when we were in the 'planning stages'.  Hopefully these will help others!

Do make the effort to travel to Cape Borda, it is worth every single bump and every single kilometer.

 

 Watch out for the wildlife ... here we see a snake!

Even though it is only a few klms from here to Cape Borda, take the time to see some of the lookouts etc that are close to the main road .....

or stop by the cemetery just before reaching Cape Borda .....

 

back on to the main road and five minutes later you can see the Cape Borda Lighthouse!

That view alone makes the 30 klms of gravel road worth the drive!




NEXT BLOG POST ..... staying at Cape Borda!

Useful URL's...

Tour Kangaroo Island

Kangaroo Island (South Australian Tourism Website)

SeaLink Website

SeaLink Timetable

Boarding the Ferry

What is available on board

Help for those that suffer from Motion Sickness



my previous blog posts on this particular vacation are:

Crossing via SeaLink

staying at Cape Jervis Station

crossing the Mighty Murray by Punt

Beachport Jetty

stopping over in Mt Gambier

planning the journey to Kangaroo Island

our thoughts on staying at Cape Borda!

stay tuned for the blog posts on staying at Cape Borda, visiting the many bays, the roads of Kangaroo Island and much more!



.

from Daylesford to Glenlyon ....

a pleasant drive to Glenlyon for lunch!

From Daylesford head NE for a short distance along the A300 or Midland Highway, turning right further along at the intersection of C316 & A300 along the Daylesford-Malmsbury Road towards Glenlyon.

From this intersection to Glenlyon it is just a little over 9 klms and will take about 10 minutes drive time and as you can see in the Google image below, the road is bitumen all the way with nice views...

If you have your camera on board, allow time to stop as there are many items of interest that you may like to capture.

The following old homestead is along this road on the right hand side heading east. Well worth stopping for a few photos!

 
You will pass through two very small rural villages - Coomoora & Wheatsheaf - before arriving into Glenlyon.

Just past Wheatsheaf you will see this very old, uninhabitable home on the left.  The tree is also on the property.

The image of the roadway is from "google maps" and you can see the house on the left before reaching Glenlyon.

Five minutes later you will arrive at Glenlyon where - no doubt - you will be stopping by at the Glenlyon General Store for a coffee or maybe lunch!

other blog posts from this day are:

• our lunch at Glenlyon HERE
• The Glenlyon Cemetery HERE
• Porcupine Ridge Road is HERE
• A bunch of Wildflowers is HERE

stay tuned for further updates on our "photo drives" ....




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a little bit of exploring in Regional Victoria

Get off those main freeways and highways and start exploring the small country towns that you only 'see' on the road signs as you whizz by....

If you think of country roads and roadsides as home to nothing more than a few motley old trees, think again! 

Nation-wide, the network of winding bitumen, dirt tracks and roadsides covers in excess of 1.6 mill km’s which offers a significant conservation upside- 1.6 mill km’s of remnant vegetation.

above: map of one of the rural roads from Ballan to Bungaree, via Gordon and Wallace.

Ever heard of WALLACE or GORDON for example?
The tiny village of Gordon is true to its Scottish meaning, “big hill”. Nestled amid rolling hillsides it is home to the slightly eccentric Wild Trout’s Gordon Hat Shoppe which offers a unique range of Scottish and Irish inspired apparel and music.

above: the township of Gordon

Wallace is a town in Victoria, Australia. The town is located 99 kilometres (62 mi) north west of the state capital, Melbourne. The township was established in the 1880s, the Post Office opening on 22 February 1885

Wallace can a quick detour from the Western Freeway on the way to Ballarat, but better still don't use it as a "quick detour" but rather as another town to explore!

Difficult to find out exactly where the name came from, but on searching Google it seems that Wallace was named after a Mr R. Wallace or perhaps even a John Wallace, who was a notable figure on the Central Victorian goldfields.

above: the township of Wallace, showing the Wallace Hotel at the intersection.

the following article was located in an article titled "Did Matthew Flinders go one river too far?" that was on the ANPS website.

So when next you go exploring, you can do some research even after your journey ... it's amazing what you can learn about some of these country towns you have visited!

For some good old fashioned country fun, colour, festivals, markets, atmosphere, bakeries and a warm welcome .... 

you can't beat the smaller towns of Regional Victoria!

useful links:

Australian Place Names Survey

road trip: Gordon to Wallace

road trip: Ballan to Gordon

Visit Moorabool website

Visit Moorabool - Gordon 

Visit Moorabool - Wallace

Visit Moorabool - road less travelled

 

come springtime, we will be out in full force 

exploring Regional Victoria, 

so stay tuned!

 

 

 

 

Road Trip (Gordon to Wallace)

We are lucky to live in such a lovely part of Victoria and have the opportunity to view the surrounding countryside.

Last week we drove from Ballan to Ballarat for some shopping and visiting friends. But instead of driving on the M8 we took the back way.

The previous blog post was on the drive from Ballan to Gordon as seen HERE. This posting is the continuation of that post and is from the township of Gordon to Wallace as seen on the following map.

 

 

After we drove through Gordon along The Old Melbourne Road till we reached the intersection of Careys Road where St Patrick's Church is located. 

On 23rd March 1872 Dr Goold laid the foundation stone of St. Patrick’s Church, Gordon. So there is quite a lot of history here, I think next time we drive through Gordon we will stop and explore the area, in particular St Patrick's Church!

We turned right onto Careys Road and followed it till it turned into Chapmans Road, passing some lovely scenery along the way. I think this will be a beautiful drive come springtime!

Once we reached the intersection of Butter Factory Road, we turned left and continued on until we reached the township of Wallace.

Wallace is a small regional town in Victoria with a population of 343 in the 2006 Census.  The town is located in the Shire of Moorabool  99 kilometres (62 mi) north west of the city of Melbourne.

The township was established in the 1880s, the Post Office opening on 22 February 1885. Wallace was the birthplace of Edmond Hogan, twice Victorian Premier in the 1920s.

We had dinner at the Wallace pub last month and highly recommend it. You can read the blog post HERE on our visit to this lovely little pub that is seen in the image below:

Will upload further blog posts on our "road trips" as we begin to explore the Central Highlands and Goldfield area's of Victoria.

Road trip (Ballan to Daylesford)

Everyone loves a road trip, short or long, there is nothing better than getting in the vehicle and heading off into the far blue yonder ....

Yesterday we drove from Ballan to Bendigo (in Victoria, Australia) to see the Grace Kelly Exhibition. It only took 1.5 hours to get to Bendigo, the weather was perfect and it was a great day to be out.

This post shows the images from Ballan to Daylesford only.
We (here in Australia) are only a week away from the start of the southern hemisphere winter. But even though it is late Autumn, we are still experiencing some lovely sunny days and yesterday was one of them.

We have noticed since being back in Australia that the cost of 'eating out' is exorbitant, so for any road trip, we now pack a 'picnic lunch' to tide us over. Yesterday was no different. A couple of sandwiches and a few drinks for us, a bottle of water and a few treats for Oscar and we were ready for our day to Bendigo.

Many people that have not been to Australia have no idea what the roads are like, the scenery etc, so this post is to show some of my friends what a country road here in Victoria is like!

Most country roads are a 'normal' two lane, bitumen paved roadway. Speed limits through the small towns or villages is usually 50k's and on these open roads, 100k's.

When traveling these roads, one must always be aware of cyclists that also frequent these 'quiet' country roads, the wildlife (usually Kangaroo's!) from dusk to dawn and certainly be aware of the school buses that travel these routes and stop frequently to let the children on or off the bus.


Next part of the journey is from Daylesford to Bendigo .... which will be the next post.