Victoria's Great Southern Touring Route

We're on a five-day trip of Victoria's Great Southern Touring Route, the 850km circuit west of Melbourne that takes in the chiselled shards of The Grampians, a couple of vast national parks and one of Australia's most scenic drives, the Great Ocean Road. 

The first stop, almost two hours from Melbourne Airport, is the blink-and-you'll-miss it town of Beaufort. As Sara Kittelty serves thick wedges of Sicilian apple cake at her eponymous old-school cafe, we wander out the back to a pop-up Vegemite museum. It turns out that Cyril Callister, who invented the yeast spread in 1923, was born near here. 

Volunteers have filled the former petrol station with all kinds of Vegemite memorabilia, including tins given to soldiers in World War II. Even if you're not a fan of the spread, it's a fascinating stop.

But we're here to see nature and as we get closer to The Grampians, geology announces its presence. More than 400 million years ago, the earth rose up to form this mountain range named Gariwerd by the local Korri people. Over millennia, wind and rain have added the finishing touches to the dramatic sandstone peaks. 

Halls Gap is the gateway to Grampians National Park, a 1600km chunk of mountains, lakes and more eucalyptus trees than I've ever seen in one spot. if we'd had time, we could have walked the 160km, 12-night Grampians Peaks Trail (or one of the three shorter paths someone has helpfully carved it into). 

Instead, we get a taster with an hour's steady climb upwards. Our labours are rewarded by views across the park, followed by coffee and scones slathered in delicious wattleseed-flavoured cream. 

You'd expect all this outdoorsy goodness to come with a side of sustainability. And it does, especially in Dunkeld, where British chef Robin Wickens has turned what used to be a fair dinkum Aussie pub into the acclaimed Wickens at Royal Mail Hotel.

Not only does the chic restaurant boast a whopping 25,000 bottles of wine, including the southern hemisphere's largest private collection of Burgundy and Bordeaux, it's also the home of award-winning tucker, much of it pulled from the surrounding gardens. 

If you ask nicely, Wickens will give you a tour of those organic gardens, fat with orchards, olive groves, 65 varieties of tomatoes and other weird and wonderful vegetables I'm unable to put a name to. Drive to the Tower Hill Wildlife Reserve, a volcanic crater that last erupted about 25,000 years ago. Turn right at the top and you'll find Worn Gundidj. 

Founded in 1992, it is a not-for-profit organisation that knits together tradition, nature and culture in indigenous tours. Guide Paul Wright leads us around the reserve, showing us how his ancestors survived on bush tucker. "You see gum trees, I see a smorgasbord," he says. We nibble on salt bush, warrigal greens (like spinach) and menthol-like native mint leaves before Wright offers a lesson in advises). throwing ("flick your wrist," he se ). Delicious indigenous snacks with a modern twist - peppermint-gum brownies and saltbush mac 'n' cheese croquettes -come courtesy of the cooperative's catering company, which employs young First Nations Australians.

The healing properties of hot water bubbling from the earth, are long reputed to be beneficial. But at Deep Blue Hot Springs in Warrnambool, the Aussies have also discovered that mineral-rich water can increase physical and mental wellbeing.

Part of Victoria's first hot-springs hotel, the open-air complex features 15 geothermal rock pools and caves, rich with sulphur, silica and magnesium that drifts up from an aquifer 850m beneath the earth. It's the kind of relaxing pit stop you'll congratulate yourself for finding. 

As the Great Ocean Road coils along the coastline, the main attraction comes into view - the 12 Apostles. Thanks to the wind and waves, only seven apostles remain, but the views of these crag- stacks thrusting from the ocean are still striking enough to write home about (or post online). The wind is throwing a tantrum when we visit but it's worth a walk down to the beach via the Gibson Steps for a closer look at these geographical marvels. 

Bruce Jackson is a man of few words. Which is an asset when it comes to spotting elusive platypus in the wild. The ecologist runs Otway Eco Tours; he's been guiding visitors to Lake Elizabeth's wild platypus colony for 18 years. It's an hour's walk through Jurassic-like forest to reach the lake, which was formed by a landslide in 1953. No-one knows exactly when platypus took up residence, we're just happy they did.

As the sun dips behind the 150-year-old tree ferns, Jackson guides our two kayaks across the mirror-like lake, expertly manoeuvring around the dead tree trunks that rise like sentinels. We sit in the gloaming as he makes several circuits of the lake, in search of what surely are the world's oddest creatures, ending the silence only when he spots a platypus break the surface. These creatures have survived by being hard to find, so we aren't able to get close. Drifting along the lake is the most zen thing I've done for a long time, more relaxing than 10 downward dogs, and with much better scenery.
 

Last stop on the Great Ocean Road is the Wildlife Wonders nature park, which shows what can be done with 20ha of farmland and a desire to create a fenced conservation experience that keeps predators out and allows native species such as koalas, possums, kangaroos and bandicoots in. 

Opened in February 2021, the park is the brainchild of Lizzie Corke, who painstakingly planted native flora and repopulated the land with original species. There's also a Kiwi connection: Corke called in Brian Massey, the landscape architect of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit films and landscape designer of Matamata's Hobbiton tourist attraction, to design the experience that winds its way through hills and dales, past koalas and kangaroos going about their daily business. 
 

We finish our journey in Melbourne, where we take our rumbling tummies to the hottest eatery in town — Big Esso. One of the city's first indigenous-owned and operated restaurants, not only does it tap into owner, chef Nornie Bero's Torres Strait culinary heritage, it also goes heavy on seasonal native ingredients.

"We have a few staples, but once an ingredient is out of season, it's gone," says Bero of the bustling restaurant in Federation Square. "That makes us more sustainable." The night we visit, that includes saltbush and pepperberry-fried crocodile with smoked-oyster aioli, whole quail stuffed with native currants and garlicky giant prawns. Like so much of the Great Southern Touring Route, it's a salute to the best of Victoria. visitvictoria.com

Ready to hit the road?

it’s easy to start planning your touring route in Victoria   on First Light Travel’s website. They have a number of pre-organised itineraries for you to choose from. Or, you can contact FLT directly, for free, to get help in creating your own customised itinerary.