Great Ocean Road day! I’ve been looking forward to this drive for some time.

I’ll keep this blog fairly short, as I think the pictures will speak for themselves.

We visited the following spots:
> Bay of Islands
> Peterborough
> London Bridge
> The Arch
> Port Campbell
> Loch Ard Gorge and Thunder Cave (where the sea creates into a side cave and really does make a thunderous sound – the video doesn’t quite catch it)
> Twelve Apostles (lovely, but way too busy)

Photos: https://goo.gl/photos/kqYfF2zckqf54SJH9

The latter part of the day involved long, long periods of extremely twisty roads, sometimes right by the coast and sometimes way up in the hills, surrounded by temperate rainforest.
We did drive to Cape Otway with the hope of seeing the lighthouse at the point the Bass Strait and Southern Ocean meet (very treacherous!), but were too late to get into the grounds and could only get a very distant look.

A few photos: https://goo.gl/photos/kqYfF2zckqf54SJH9

We’re staying in Lorne tonight, an odd little town which doesn’t seem geared up to the many tourists who must pass through on the Great Ocean Road (e.g. the chippy close at 7pm…)

We took advantage of not needing to do long-distance driving today to have a quieter day today.

I was up before Rob this morning, so wandered of to explore the Russell Clark Reserve and then on to the South Beach. It’s a lovely beach, with the slight drawback that there are a lot of sandflies. These are persistent little blighters, who think humans are delicious, especially faces. I tried hard to resist doing the ‘Aussie salute’ (arms waving madly and futilely around trying to get rid of flies…), although it was challenging at times. The only thing that helped a bit on the beach was the strong wind…

Photos: https://goo.gl/photos/WJZC4u9AeAf7KmUj8

Rob and I had brunch at the café in the surf club building (how very Aussie!) next to East Beach, which is a lovely spot.

This afternoon, we went to Tower Hill, about 10km from the town, and set in another dormant volcano. People are allowed into certain areas of the site which had been dedicated as a wildlife reserve. We parked up and were immediately meet by emus, peacefully munching on grass and unbothered by humans being there.
On the first trail we followed, we saw quite a few skinks (small lizards) and were fortunate enough to see a couple of koalas asleep in the trees.
We stopped for a rest near the car park before tackling a second trail, only to have an emu march up to us as if expecting food!
The second trail was uneventful until nearer the end. We were just discussing whether we were looking at signs of echidna activity, when we heard a rustle behind us and turned to see said creature, which dived under cover, but not so much that we couldn’t still see him.
We were fortunate enough to then see another echidna out in the open.
Pictures: https://goo.gl/photos/aBNBFawpTWDUsWKQA

We returned to East Beach for the tail end of the afternoon, discovering loungers on the beach carved from stone, making a perfect place to relax and enjoy the view.
Photos: https://goo.gl/photos/yJfd8sp9NWzWh7fA9

Another interesting day today.

After trying to work our whether the hire car did actually run on petrol (harder to work out than we thought!) and filling it up, we set off towards Port Fairy.

Our first stop was fairly close (around half an hour’s drive and where Mount Gambier locals apparently go for the beach), Port Macdonnell. We didn’t spend long, as we werent that impressed (sorry, locals!) and also because we wanted to press on.

There was a fantastic, long beach at Brown Bay where we stopped for a while. Next stop (after crossing the border from South Australia to Victoria) was lunch at Portland, a fairly standard Australian town, with (as far as we could tell) three main features: a working port for the local logging industry, a historic tram still running and being the first European settlement in the state of Victoria.

Our final stop en route was at a massive wind farm at Codrington.

Photos from the journey: https://goo.gl/photos/ZjGZvci7kE3YyL3WA

Our digs for the next two nights are very pleasant.
After checking in, I went for an explore of the town. One of the things I noticed was that there are a lot of lovely buildings here (mostly older, a few modern). Think quite a few of them might be holiday accommodation.
Photos: https://goo.gl/photos/AiLw5qaG2Hyae4zGA

I walked along the river and then round Griffiths Island (only accessible by foot on a modern causeway). This was lovely (apart from the numerous sandflies), including seeing various birds and the lighthouse.

As I was returning on the causeway, I had an enchanting experience. I was watching some striped fish when I heard a splash, looked up and realised a wallaby was in the water some yards away. As I watched (and frantically zoomed in the camera), he hopped forward, took a drink, hopped forward again and so on. When he reached the edge of the causeway, he swam towards me and climbed out. He passed me, stopping only a foot away to look at me and shake himself off like a dog, before clambering into the water on the other side.

I watched him swim across to the park beyond and then carried on the path round. At the other side, I spotted some splashing, looked down and realised I was looking at a huge ray (think the teacher in Finding Nemo). My photo isn’t great. As I walked across the park, I spotted ‘my’ wallaby again and discretely followed him along the street.

Photos from Port Fairy this afternoon: https://goo.gl/photos/fXonKxB6TyTDPTZ99

Port Fairy seems to be a laid back, almost hippy sort of place. We ate at a pizza place with a very chilled vibe this evening: Coffin Sally (pics https://goo.gl/photos/v9Lecvr1GuisWPdv5)

On the way back, the sunset sky was absolutely stunning – have a look here: https://goo.gl/photos/AVHjCpGpx5X3it7z5

We have, by the way, had our first significant rain today, mostly while I was on my exploratory walk, but (as I write this, it’s absolutely hammering down on the roof…)

Sorry, just discovered that a couple of the photo links on Saturday’s blog were wrong.

They’ve been updated now, so if you look at those marked “Updated”, you’ll see the photos we meant you to see!

The web address for Saturday’s page is https://robandneil.home.blog/2016/12/17/saturday-17th-december-adelaide-to-naracorte/

Busy day today!

This morning we went into Naracoorte Caves Country Park, a world heritage site (due to the animal fossil bones found within the limestone caves there).
We took part in a tour of part of Victoria Cave, full of stalactites and stalagmites, as well as being able to see one of the sites where the fossil bones of animals who, thousands of years ago, fell into (or were washed into) small sinkholes which dropped them into the caves.
We then took a short hike to the limestone cliffs. We had a close up view of a wallaby, which we disturbed in the bush as we walked past.

Photos (lots!): https://goo.gl/photos/e4FFnGGkBqSKsLLG6

This afternoon we drove a mere 100km to Mount Gambier, where we are staying tonight.
Shoutout to the towns of Coonawara and Penola en route, where many homes and businesses had created unique Santas by the roadside (we only caught a couple https://goo.gl/photos/KMmzUiHHVGDsfmJn9)

This afternoon we drove up onto the dormant volcano that towers over the south of the town. At the top, there are several craters which have become lakes over time. The Blue Lake is the really stunning one – it really is an astonishing bright blue. Scientists still aren’t 100% sure why it happens, but the main thing is that it’s a stunning thing to look at. We also got close to the edge of Valley Lake in the next crater.

Pictures: https://goo.gl/photos/DNPdD5AA3eUoHZGC6

We returned into town to look at the cave gardens in the centre (in a sinkhole caused by a collapsed limestone cavern) photos: https://goo.gl/photos/cfauMffb66by4xwn8 , before heading out to the larger Umpherston Sinkhole on the edge of town. Not only had this been transformed into another garden, which you can climb down into, but it’s also a place to sit and watch possums come out at twilight.

Photos: https://goo.gl/photos/6Wk7kc2G4EKphLmP7

We treated ourselves to a swanky breakfast at our swanky hotel this morning, to set us up for a day’s travel (photos Updated).

After picking our hire car up, we headed out into the Adelaide Hills to Mt Lofty, a mountain with great views over Adelaide and towards the coast (pics: Updated)

We then made our way down to Naracorte, stopping for a picnic lunch at a park in a small town called Macclesfield, cruising the Murray River on a small car ferry and stopping at a typical Australian roadhouse. On the way, we watched the landscape change between trees, rolling hills, fields of cows and sheep, vineyards and plains, sometimes stretching to a distant horizon. We also had a lovely sunset we could see from our hotel.

Highlights: https://goo.gl/photos/kEo8b7kg9badNCHR7

Today was actually our only full day in Adelaide. Tomorrow we pick up a car and start our drive down to and then along the Great Ocean Road, arriving in Melbourne on the 23rd. We don’t know how good the internet and availability of wifi may be during that period, so updates may be a bit slower.

Anyway, we started off today with complimentary coffee in the hotel’s swanky bar lounge (photos https://goo.gl/photos/kb2ZTvCHobtHyDCTA) before heading out to explore the city’s cultural and university quarter, which has some fantastic buildings (photos https://goo.gl/photos/fpKje5gDpGbCsZzx9).

We then headed down to the river for a bit before exploring the city’s Botanic Garden, which has some lovely parts showing plants etc from around the world, including rainforests, giant Amazon waterlilies and a lovely rill in the “Mediterranean’ section (photos https://goo.gl/photos/pa6yc2s8pG8UDBDC8).

After a late lunch, the lure of the deadly hotel lounge was too much for Rob, so he returned there. I carried on exploring, firstly using the free ‘city connect’ bus which took me on a trip round parts of the CBD and across the river into North Adelaide. This is a lovely area with great houses (probably really expensive!), as well as its own shopping/eating streets.

Once back in the city, I tracked down the Rainbow Walk, marking South Australia’s journey to greater LGBT equality. I then made my way to Victoria Square, a large space in the centre of the city (which oddly enough reminded me a bit of Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester – bigger and somewhat better, though). I then picked up the tram and rode it through the city zone (free to all, take that Metrolink!). To be fair, there is only one line (it ultimately heads to the seaside suburb of Glenelg) and I had to smile when I heard one young chap complaining about it being so busy (probably half the crush of peak trams in Manchester).

This evening, we headed down to Rundle Mall (more a pedestrianised street than mall, but never mind). It was buzzing with energy, shops were open till 9 or later and there are plenty of eateries in the area. We ate in a spot upstairs in the Adelaide Arcade (https://goo.gl/photos/xtMFbe9hwDUaq3WUA) which specialises in home made sodas and veggie food.

Evening photos: https://goo.gl/photos/Gx6kfBtdgkukj9vb9

But of a funny day today. A nearly 3 hour flight coupled with a change of time zone (a further 2.5 hours on) meant it was late-afternoon before we made it to our hotel in Adelaide.

It’s a very nice hotel! Photos: https://goo.gl/photos/S82B32K1snj5HgaWA

Rob was feeling a bit under the weather, so I went for a bit of a wander on my own. I explored along the riverside – it’s a lot smaller river than in Perth, but very pleasant. I also visited the Botanic Park that surrounds the Botanic Garden (I was too late to get into the garden itself).

After a while, it dawned on me why the riverside and park seemed odd and yet familiar – they are basically very British in their appearance.

Photos: https://goo.gl/photos/kb2ZTvCHobtHyDCTA

I circled back through part of the CBD (central business district), where there were signs of interesting buildings and so on. A few photos here: https://goo.gl/photos/5FpD1jRgkj5G2hGAA

I started this morning with some clothes washing (I know, exciting) followed by a walk around John Oldham Park across the road from our hotel, while Rob had a lie in.

Photos: https://goo.gl/photos/nmL15BxfDE8cJw1E7

We spent a large part of today exploring Kings Park, which is technically behind the hotel, although as it is up Mount Eliza, which has few access points from near the hotel, it was a bit more of a trek round to it (in fact, we cheated and bussed round).

Kings Park is a huge area of land, which early in the settlement of Perth was set aside for the common good (with a brief period of being used for logging). It’s one of the biggest parks in the world, bigger even then Central Park in New York.

That said, it’s not directly comparable to somewhere like Central Park, because large areas of it are actually native bushland (with paths and roads through) and only a few (reasonably big) areas are cultivated as ‘regular’ park, plus the Botanical Gardens (featuring plants from around the world, plus lovely water gardens). Sometimes the change between bushland and park was very sudden!

Highlight photos: https://goo.gl/photos/QCR8TRGktfsPibvFA

One notable feature is that all the main road through the park are lined with trees dedicated to soldiers who have died in different wars. The First World War ones were, in some ways, the most heartbreaking, as there were frequent groups of two or three plaques, where brothers had all died, sometimes on the same day.

Photos: https://goo.gl/photos/kortEhzb7qBvAXCY9

We had a great (and tiring) time exploring the park, including taking the fantastic views across Pretty and the Swan River.

Photos of the view: https://goo.gl/photos/9JuADgtabCU3enAd8