Kristy and Colin drove us to Wangaratta Saturday afternoon; the temp in Melbourne when we left was 21c and less than 3 hours later we were dealing with 40c plus. Mat's dad has the heat problem sorted out by installing a large air fan by the swimming pool with a hose pipe attached that successfully blows a mist of water over the area thereby cooling the area. Mat cooked a large amount of lamb on the barbie together with some sausages. Alan, (Mat's dad) brews hi...

Back with Tom and Sarah and invited on Saturday to a birthday barbie in a local park with a few of their friends. On the way we popped into the apartment of Jen, who lives on the 26th floor of a central apartment block. The views from her balcony are fantastic, you can see way beyond Melbourne to distant hills. David and I are invited to watch the Melbourne New Years Eve fireworks from this apartment so looking forward to that. Picture attached is the view So...

Drove back to the GOR yesterday, stopping off at Stevenson's Falls, an impressive waterfall deep in the forest south of a place called Forrest. Then on to Apollo Bay to admire and walk on its long, soft sandy beach. Temperatures for past few days have been around 15 - 18c and cloudy so no-one swimming. Apollo Bay is well known for its seafood so we bought a cooked crayfish to eat later. We had already booked an apartment in Lorne for tonight so headed off on t...

Drove down to Port Campbell through lush pine forests and undulating landscape. not how I imagined Australia, more like Scottish Highlands. This part of the GOR is where the limestone cliffs are being eroded by the force of the waves into spectacular stacks that stand out from the coastline. The 'twelve apostles' are near here and as they are a famous tourist attraction many coaches of Japanese camera clickers abound. I preferred Loch Ard Gorge, the site of the...

Yesterday T and J drove us on a tour of The Barossa Valley with its many vineyards and 'Cellar Doors' (wine tastings). Many of the largest well known wine producers are here, like Jacob's Creek and McGuigan's and we managed a few tastings of course! The countryside is beautiful with hundreds of acres of vines giving a lush appearance to an otherwise dry landscape. we left Adelaide this morning to head towards The Great Ocean Road (GOR) via Hahndorf, a Germanic t...