Day 165-Melbourne

We arrived in Melbourne in a very sorry state..luckily our friends Alan & Alys were only to happy to see us and were not concerned with the fact that we were a few days early. We have set ourselves up in their back room and Turtle is in their storage spot. We intend to stay around here for the next few weeks. 

Kristian (Stephen's youngest) has just moved down from Sydney and we are catching up with him over the Christmas and New Year period. 

There are a lot of friends to catch up with so this blog will go into slow mode for a while.

On the note of the blog... we have had many comments that people can not get onto the comments section of the blog.

Here are some tips..

Click on the comment section.

Type in your comment in the box

Type in the code word shown in the box provided. (Make sure that you copy this exactly)

Type in a gmail account. This is a free email..no in box or out box just an email address for you to add to this blog.  

Then type in a password.  

(Just remember that the email address must be an individual address, so if when you add your address and password and it comes up with incorrect password , it could mean that the email address is already in use.. eg. alison@gmail.com does not work but a1i5on@gmail.com does.)

Then don't forget your email address and you can comment away on our blog....and please do because we really love to hear from you all!!!

Day 164 Leaving Apollo Bay

After an horrific night we decided to move on... we had intended to sty another few days but the weather forecast was miserable. We were soaked to the skin and started off on the Great Ocean Road in much different conditions to the last trip.
I must admit that I was not impressed with the conditions. Falling rocks and branches on the road... these are some of the smaller ones...I missed the others as I was holding the camera to tight!!!!!
The small creeks from the other day were now rushing through and ripping out the sand banks to get to the sea.
Very dramatic....very scary....we had a car towing a surf board trailer, jack knife in front of us... all in all not impressed. Stephen even admitted that it was the most interesting drive he had had in 30 years.
This was the heads..... there was a cloud bank in the back ground that just stayed there and appeared not to move...eerie!!!!

Day 162 Day drive of Great Ocean Road

In amongst the wet weather we managed to find one fine day... Stephen jumped at the chance to leave Turtle behind and drive to the official beginning of the Great Ocean Road, turn round and drive back..stopping at many of the outlook spots and places of interest. I can't put them on here there are to many, this is just a sample to give you an idea of the beauty of this rugged coastline. This is the memorial to the diggers who after returning from the First World War, painstakingly, built this winding road. You can see the Arch in the background, which I believe is about the fourth that has been erected, the last one was burnt down in the terrible Ash Wednesday fires. The jacket on the rock behind me is so well sculptured that you want to pick it up. thinking someone had just put it there!
The next two are from Teddy's Lookout, just outside Lorne, it gives a really good idea of the cliff roads and estuary bends.

They don't call this the shipwreck coast for nothing...and as you can see you can get up close to see some of the ship that remains on this rough coastline.
Had to add this... I took it!!!!!!!!!  Every turn and rise and fall of the road brought more scenery like we have not seen since we were in New Zealand.

Day 160-164 Apollo Bay and Surrounds

We got to Apollo Bay and stayed in the Pieces Caravan Park. The wind was still to strong to even put out the awning. Met up with Kerry and Peter our neighbours on a wet and windy night. Turtle obliged with us all gathered round the table... we had also sprung a few leaks..most amusing!!
Apollo Bay is a lovely little village/town. It had many memories for Stephen, so we did a little memory lane driving and then some new adventures.
This is the tree walk just north of Apollo Bay. It is one of four in Australia...considering my vertigo I am pleased to say that I have now done 3 of the 4. The last is in Queensland, I believe, so we will put that one the list of things to do.
This one is for JJ...remember this from Tasmania....not quite so scary, no one bouncing the suspended arm and this one did not have a see through floor.
Now you may wonder why I have added a well light lighthouse. This is the Cape Otway Lighthouse. It is stuck out on a limb...check it out on the map...it is also the lighthouse that was used for the TV series Round the Twist as well as in one of the Mad Max movies. It is amazing what you find out when you look around!

Day 159 12 Apostles-Apollo Bay

We started on the long road, the Great Ocean Road. Now most people will say that the road begins here but you will see in the next couple of blogs that the main part of the road is from Anglesea to Apollo Bay. We, obviously are coming the other way, we left Port Fairy, drove down through Warrnambool, stopped at the Bay of Islands,(Peterborough), then on to what is left of London Bridge, above, near Port Campbell. As you can see the bridge has fallen! The arch used to be connected to the main land and a few years ago it collapsed...luckily no one was on it at the time...but two people were stranded on the arch until they got lifted off!!!!
This one is called the Arch...mmmmm...wander why!
In a previous blog I mentioned the Loch Ard that sank and the gorge that was named after the ship. The picture above is of the story of the two survivors, and the one below is of the actual gorge. How they climbed out of there is a miracle...how they landed up in the gorge, looking at the rest of the coast in that area is also a miracle.

Then on to the Twelve Apostles...well there are only 8 left and I believe that there was only ever 9, and previously known as the Sow and Piglets. They changes the name for the tourist industry....fun that!!!! As you can see , stilll not the best of weather.

Day 156-158 Warnambool Part Three

While at Port Fairy we continued along the coast to a place called Warnambool...here we visited the Maritime Village called Flagstaff Hill. This village comes complete with bank, cooper, ship chandlery, pub/inn and much more. 
The cottage were this was taken was in one of the lighthouse keeper cottages. Volunteers are situated throughout the village and as you can see this lady , in period costume, was quilting.

The lighthouses were interesting to and we did manage to get the original photo above from the lighthouse which was open for inspection. There are two lights and to get into the harbour you have to actually line these lights up.....no wonder they call this the shipwreck coast.
This is the famous Minton peacock which was washed up on the beach from the wreck the Loch Ard. (Please see future blog where we actually go to Loch Ard Gorge.) This priceless artifact was being shipped out on the Loch Ard for the opening of the Melbourne Great Exhibition, it did eventually arrive but it was a year to late. (This was in the 1850 area but I can't remember the exact year.
We had a pleasant time wondering the grounds and viewing all the incredible artifacts that they are setting up...no kids around and very few tourists again so we had the place pretty much to ourselves.
The building in the middle is the village gaol, the church to the right and lovely cobble stones to join it all together. They run a small film when you go in and it was very well done. It depicts the journey from England to Warnambool on board a ship, with all the food, storage, storms, boredom and excitement that is involved in travel at that time. They also run an evening laser show on a similar vain, in the main harbour area, you can have dinner there as well and we were very tempted but again just ran out of time.

Day 156-158 Port Fairy Part Two

Port Fairy was originally called Belfast, with many Irish and Scottish names in the area, but reminder me of an English Coastal town. To many photo's to choose from so put the rest into a small movie...below.                                                              

Day 156-158 Port Fairy Part One

Port Fairy is a lovely spot, (see next issue), we did all the tourist things, which included Griffith Island.
This small island used to be two island's that over the years have joined. There is this glorious lighthouse at the point, which now connected to the mainland by the causeway below, these fence panels are all that is left of the keepers attempts to make the place home.

We also went back in the evening to see the Mutton Birds coming home to their burrows...nothing till just after dusk then the sky was alive with the birds coming in low over the sea, looking like bats in  the evening sky.

Day 156 Nature Close-up.

                                You looking at me, cause I"m looking at you.
We had travelled down the coast to Port Fairy, while there we went out to a place called Tower Hill, which is a volcanic crater with supposedly wet lands...and birds. Well there were no birds of any note but on our walk around the wetlands, Stephen spied this beauty. Three feet from us and about the same of the ground, we had enough time to talk and photograph this lovely creature.
We had seen Koala's in the wild while at Ingrid and Eberhards in Adelaide hills...but they were along way off.
She/he was a inquisitive of us as we were of her/him. Having spoken to a few people it is apparently a rare sight to see them so close to the ground. Again, we were so lucky!!

Day 155 Portland

Portland is a lovely spot, with quite a few curious things to see and do in the area.. the one above is at the Maritime Museum where they have taken the skeleton of a beached whale and after all the necessary treatments (which included burying it for over a year) they have mounted it and as you can see you can sit in the middle!!
The local tram can take you to five of the local points of interest...we did not do this as the weather was awful. We did however, go to the local Vintage Car Museum and guess what we found.
Yep, the original tram..... apparantely the local clubs had had this beauty renovated and then the local wanted to have it, and run the tram along the foreshore...arguements ensued and they managed to keep the tram and the local group then went and had a replica made... obviously a very sore point in the local community.
We also drove out to the petrified forrest...this natural amazing thing has unfortunately began to erode.. the locals say that they think in will only survive for about another twenty years, and by the way it is not the result of a forrest!
These cave are right by the road side, all limestone, eroded by wind and rain..fascinating.

Day 154 -155 Over the Boarder/Portland

On the Road again and over the boarder into Victoria, had to take a picture of that...Stephen's State...
We went on to the township of Portland. This is the town of the only mainland breeding area for the Gannet.
These are beautiful birds, and Stephen took some fabulous photo's. These are protected by two dogs and a supposed fence, but as you can see the fence was down and he could get very close for these pictures.
Undercarriage down, sorry tail flap down.....great to watch.

Day 152 - 153 Limestone Coast Part Three

We had heard about a few caves in the area..some not very hip friendly, so we were advised to go to this small but beautiful gem outside Tantanoola.
They had done a great job on the lighting and the whole feel of the place was fantastic. We were the only people in at the time which really gave us an opportunity to take photo's without tourist in it!!!
Stephen did a number of these reflection type photo's, which reminded me of the Lake Cave on Caves Road, Margaret River

The earth had obviously moved as you can see from the break in the stalagmites and stalagtites.

Day 149 -151 Limestone Coast Part Two

We had a little adventure and drove around Lake Robe...some 4wd was necessary then we discovered the Lake and that the only vantage point was about 2 mins of the main road..oh well it was fun. 
As you can see it is a Inland Lake that is now very salty but by the size of the oyster shells, was once a place for a good feed.
This was an unusual lighthouse in that it is wood.. This is now situated in Kingston but was originally at Cape Jaffa.
On we went and landed at Mount Gambier...the park here was situated just above the incredible Blue Lake. This Lake has this colour from Mid November until mid-March, there are a variety of reasons given but I really don't think anyone can give a definitive reason. The caravan park appeared to be in the old Botanical Garden, lovely, just a shame that we were getting into the bad weather.
Because this whole area is made of Limestone you get these Sink Holes. The pioneers made them into gardens, some of which have been renovated and presented on the heritage list.