Whale watching in Warrnambool, VIC
Plus emus, echidnas, kangaroos and koalas at Tower Hill Reserve
Holidaymakers and visitors can travel to Logan's Beach at the end of the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, Australia, to see lots of native animals and wildlife in the wild.
One of the prime attractions of Australia is its incredible array of bizarre, rare and downright amusing wildlife, and Warrnambool at the end of the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, is a perfect spot to tick a few more of them off the list.
For a start, it is a notorious whale-watching centre, although the big fat beasties only tend to come to play between June and September. However, when they are out in force, you don’t eve need to get on a boat tour to spot them – there’s a fantastic viewing platform at Logan’s Beach from where you can see them breaching the water.
However, if you’re not satiated by a common-or-garden, ten-a-penny behemoth of the deep, then take a short drive out of town to the Tower Hill Reserve. This place is absolutely heaving with the sort of creatures that will make your photo album look like one of David Attenbrough’s prized possessions.
The picnic area is a prime example, and you’re besieged by marauding emus as soon as you so much think of taking the cling film off a sandwich. They ain’t scared of anything, and make Rod Hull’s legendary companion look like a shrinking violet.
Once you’ve had all your food stolen, it’s probably best to go for a walk, and there some excellent walking tracks around this old volcanic crater.
Just skirting around the edges of these tracks are some of the weirdest looking animals known to man. Along with the more boring koalas and birds, there are plenty of kangaroos, which you can get quite close to until they decide better of it.
Best of all though are the echidnas, which are frankly mad. They have huge quills on their backs like a porcupine, but are egg-laying mammals. On first sight, they’re just a big, scared ball of spines, but once they think you’ve gone and dare to poke their heads out, they’re a cute, velvety furball.
Warrnambool is a great spot to stay for a couple of days too – it has all the charm of a small seaside town, but it’s big enough to actually have things to do and stop you from going stir crazy.
