Beaches, Kangaroos and more Beaches

A lazy morning.  Had brekki at a little café down the Esplanade and then headed toward Cape Le Grande National Park.  We stopped by Castletown Quays Beach and had a leisurely stroll along the water's edge.  This is a dog beach although we only saw a few.

Back on track to Cape Le Grande National Park and about ½ way there we realized we hadn't seen a gas station in quite a while.  Since we assumed there wouldn't be one in the National Park, we decided to turn around and head back to town.  By this time it was after noon so after we filled up at the 1^st gas station we saw (which was closing as we finished filling the tank !), we decided we'll do the National Park another day.

We hit the local grocery store for some nibbles and decided to do the 40 km Great Ocean Drive.  Our first stop was Pink Lake.  Tony accidentally turned on a wrong street and low and behold...... there was a large male kangaroo grazing.  We'd driven by him so fast I couldn't get the camera out quick enough so Tony turned around.  By that time Mr. Roo had gotten spooked and was hopping back into the bush so I only got a picture of his back side as he entered the bush !  (it has taken us 39 days to finally see a live kangaroo !). 

We got back onto the right road and finally got to Pink Lake.   This is similar to the salt recovery ponds in SFO.  It was not pink today but we understand when the green alga and bacteria combination is just right it accumulates beta carotene and causes the lake to appear pink.  The alga is actually farmed and used to produce beta carotene for food coloring and converted to Vitamin A.

We continued on along our Great Ocean Drive and came to the Wind Farm.  I know, some of you are saying.... You two don't need any Wind Farm !....  Ha Ha Ha !...  These look just like the ones we see when we go out to Palm Springs but we've never stood at the base of those.

Farther along our drive we came to Ten Mile Beach.  This beach has a posting indicating there is nude bathing allowed 100m to the right.  Not many people on the beach today and definitely no nudies !  The water was crystal clear and in many areas you could walk out a long way and never have the water reach above your knees.  The water was cool but you got used to it very quickly.

From there we hit Observation Point which included climbing down 175 stairs to the rocks which was well worth the climb back up !  We also stopped at Twilight Beach and climbed a few huge rocks to get closer to the waves.

We picked up some fried chicken and something to drink and headed back to where we saw Mr. Kangaroo to see if he'd come back out at dusk.  We only had to wait about 20 minutes and sure enough he came out at the same spot we'd seen him earlier today.  About 10 minutes later another HUGE male came out even closer to where we were parked along the road.  He stopped and stared at us for a minute or so and then hopped across the street and down the road.   We even got a video of this sighting ! 

We can come home now that we've seen a LIVE Kangaroo !