10th Feb 2012

Hello back home!

Hope you are all fine and dandy!

We've come to the end of our Victoria/South Australia part of the trip and are moving on to Perth and Western Australia tomorrow.

We thoroughly enjoyed Phillip Island, The Great Ocean Road and The Grampains - here's a mini insight to what we got up to......

When we arrived in Melbourne it was raining so we drove to Philip Island in search of sun! We didn't find a huge amount but we did find some cute cuddly Koalas instead! We visited the Koala conservation centre and watched them (mostly sleeping) in their natural habitat - did you know that they sleep up to 20 hours a day? That's more than Dave - lazy things! We only stayed on Philip Island one night and after a walk on the beach and some cliff tops we moved on via Melbourne & Ramsay Street, sad we know but it had to be done! They were filming so the street was blocked off but we got to see Karl Kennedy from a distance on set! Yes we know - we're losers! Tee hee!

We stayed in Torquay (the surf capital of Australia where Rip Curl and Quicksilver were founded) to start The Great Ocean Road and stayed on a farm in a cabin with a good old fashioned aussie farmer - he could have almost stepped straight out of Crocodile Dundee! Torquay was cool but very windy! When we moved on we stopped to sun ourselves for a bit on Anglesea beach before visiting the local kangaroos on Anglesea golf course! We didn't think it would be so easy to see them - little did we know we'd later be sharing a campsite with them!

Our next stop was Lorne - probably the prettiest beach town on The Great Ocean Road. At this point we decided to purchase a tent and the accompanying equipment with an aim to save a lot of money as the accommodation was very expensive. We managed to get a tent, 2 roll mats, 2 mini blow-up pillows, a saucepan set, 2 plates and 2 bowls - a very successful shop - minus the sleeping bags as the shop only had massive ones left and there was no way they were getting in or on our rucksacks! So we spent the first night in our lil tent under a sheet that we hired from the campsite - oops! Slightly cold! Sleeping bags were swiftly bought the following morning when the hardware store in the next town opened! We were all excited at the thought of saving loads of money and having 3 nights camping for the price of one night in a hostel when the weather turned and it started to rain! Not what we expected or wanted! After staying at Apollo Bay in the rain we went to Cape Otway lighthouse and we were pleasantly greeted by some lazy koalas munching in the trees on the side of the road - didn't expect to see them so close and active in the wild - again...very cute!

We stayed at Princetown after that so that we could see the famous Twelve Apostles and the last part of the Great Ocean Road coast. The stacks of various shapes and sizes were impressive, with lots of other nooks and crannies to observe and read about along the way. We ventured out at sunset to see it at its best and fought with the very strong winds to get some great views.

With a coffee and scone treat at Port Fairy we headed inland to The Grampians National Park where we camped at Halls Gap - a quiet town with a great deal of wildlife! We were surprised to share our camping spot with lots of kangaroos and native birds! The laughing kookaburras and hopping kangaroos were extremely active after dark - we've never heard such unusual noises in the night! Apart from Helen's snoring when she lived with us! Tee hee - only joking Hel!

We loved the back to nature Grampians and enjoyed some lovely walks with some amazing lookouts over the valleys and lakes. We even visited an aboriginal rock art sight and made our own tower of rocks! We finished the relaxing time in the Grampians with a game of tennis and a dip in the pool and made the long trip to Adelaide where we were greeted by some more rain! It cleared up for us to pitch the tent though - phew!

Parents - we'll be in touch when we land in Perth tomorrow!

Lots of love to everyone else!

Enjoy half term teachers!

X x x x x x x x x x x