Nov 9th 2011

Pete went to pick up our hire car at 8am & returned @ 10am with car plus a sat nav he'd picked up from Aldi $60 - last one in the shop!!! Good deal - they cost $10 a day to hire(and road atlases cost 26$ - so I done good). Then we left to drive The Great Ocean Road. Stopped at Torquay. Quite windy but no big waves. Few surfers around & only a few on beach. Stopped at Bell's Beach - -international surfing championships held here but not much in way of waves today! Next beach ---------Anglesea!!! Another beautiful beach but virtually no one around. Weather cleared up beautifully now - it was raining when we left Melbourne. Storm forecast for later with flood warnings!! Stopped to see Aireys Inlet & Split Rock Lighthouse. Built in 1856 to safeguard shipping between Tasmania & Victiria's coast ie. the Bass Strait. One of the lighthouse men - Richard Baker - scraped some black paint off the back of the lantern so that he could be reassured that the flame was still burning as he sat in the pub in the evenings!! The next beach was Fairhaven - -some mediocre waves for some surfers to catch. Again vast expanse of beautiful sand with virtually no one enjoying it! We can see some v v black clouds moving in now. Don't know if we'll reach our destination before the storm hits. Great Ocean Rd built as a tribute to those who fought in WW1. It opened up the area to tourism.

Into Lorne, coastline more rocky now with patches of sand. Town has a sandy beach and a pier. V well to do area. Wooden church like the ones we saw in Norway. onwards - -rocky coastline. The rain is on now with lightning - -eeeeek! Well the rain fairly bucketed down - -could hardly see at times - -other motorists pulling over. We weren't sure if we should do the same at the risk of getting stuck or press on & risk an accident. Anyway we made it - -the storm was all over the news - flooding, trees down etc. we were lucky.

Apollo Bay

We've been allocated a little cottage this time - well it's a studio appartment really but it has a little garden!!!! Weather not up to sitting out tho! There's a HUGE modern white bath in the living area!!! Super bathroom/wet room as well with sep loo, lovely! Went to a cafe for dinner & I had Fish & chips for $10 v cheap for round here & v nice too. Dad has sausage & chips - - -we hold no surprises do we???? Well! that's where you're wrong because as Dad was up paying the bill some weirdo behind me pinched my bum. I wasn't even aware that there were people behind us but there he was with a woman pretending nothing was up!!!!!!!!!! Didn't tell Dad until we'd got out 'cos I didn't want him to start a punch up !!!!

November 10th 2011.

Wow! Full breakfast included this morning! We were first in for it too!!! Lovely day today. Quick look at the bay before we moved on. Beautiful sands again and a few surfers but not much in the way of waves. Another little wooden church. On our way again with V green undulating farmland to the right and beautiful sandy beaches to the left. Mait's foresrt_ v dense - some of the tallest trees in Victoria here. Yes, yes, yes!!!! loads of Koalas in trees. one of them hanging by one hand, swinging & eating eucalyptus. !!!! They are soooooooooo cute! Made my day.

Cape Otway Lightstations. Visited outlook only. German's laid lots of mines in the Bass strait sank an American ship even before the Americans joined the war.

Aire's valley

Marshy land now. Cattle, calves, sheep & cute tiny lambs. Forest to RHS.

Drove on to see 12 Apostles. Stunning views over the weathered sandstone pillars in sea. V windy so impressive white horses & waves breaking. V reminiscent of Algarve coastline.

Loch Aird Gorge

Sandy cove/gorge named after ship, Loch Ard, that was sunk here with only 2 survivors. One a young girl from a family of 8 Irish migrants & the ship's apprentice.

Drove on for a few minutes to Mutton Bird Island which is little more than a huge rock in the shape of an arch off the mainland. However, 50,000 Mutton birds (or Short tailed Shearwaters) live here safely away fom cats and foxes which are causing havoc on the mainland. These amazing birds leave the island every April to fly to the Aleytian Islands near Alaske and return again to the same burrow in October flying 30,000km. When they leave in April they leave their offspring behind as they're not strong enough to fly that distance yet. They follow later to exactly the same place by instinct. How do they do that????

Drove a little way to see a dramatic arch weathered into rock by sea and then on a bit further to see 'London Bridge' which was another arch attached to the maiinland until in Jan 1990 the part joining it to the mainland collapsed into the sea leaving 2 people marrooned on the 'new island'. They had to be airlifted to safety by helicopter!!!

Bay of Martyrs - part of Bay of Islands

Massacre Point

Called this because a group of Aboriginal people were forced to walk off the cliff to their deaths by European settlers. V dramatic scenery of several huge rocks in the sea just off the coast.

Evidence in this area of early indigenous people - cooking utensils, weapons for huting etc. They were driven from their traditional hunting grounds by European settlers. Many others died of diseases brought over by Europeans such as measles, smallpox and influenza. The 'survivors' were gathered up & placed in missions 'for their own protection' and Australian history was changed forever.

Arrived at Warrnambool, Sebel Deep Blue Hotel, at 7.30pm. Dinner in the bar. Room Ok but a bit small. Nice bathroom.

Nov 11th 2011

Rememberance Day. In fact we will observe a minute's silence on the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the eleventh month of the 11th YEAR too! We were actually in the supermarket when everything came to a standstill, they announced a 1 minute silence over the tannoy system and a supervisor ensured it was honoured, good on her. We discovered that the cubby below the armrest between the seats acts as a cold box!!!! So we bought some marg, cheese & rolls to make some butties.

Lady Bay - marine reserve. Sandy Bay and a small harbour. Island offshore that can be walked to at low tide.

Port Fairy

Lovely harbour on riverside as river runs into the sea. Houses with gangways across narrow 'canal' to river/quay. Took a leisurely walk. Lovely& quiet in warm sunshine. Saw 2 Willy wagtails chasing and pecking at 2 huge crows!!! Willy wagtails are about the size of a big sparrow & VERY feisty!! Huge pines lining approach road into the village.

Portland (Victoria's birth place 1834 - the State not the Queen!!)

Cape Bridgewater - Picnic Lunch at beautiful sandy beach called Bridgewater Bay. Drove round to the point to see 'blowholes' made by weathering. Apparently these holes allow water to come shooting up through them with some force up into the air like whales & dolphins. Although waves were crashing into the rocks we couldn't see this effect. In some areas, however, what was impressive was the formation of 'TUBES' due to weathering of limestone. Some of these were 3m tall. They had been wrongly identified as 'petrified forest' 'cos they did look like hollow tree trunks!!

Can see the Grampian Mountains now and stopped to photograph Mt Sturgeon & Mt Abrupt at Dunkeld. Stopped at a reservoir where lots of beautiful Crimson Rozellas were flying around. Across the road was a group of kangaroos grazing while being squawked at by a huge flock of Corellas in trees. We found our accommodation in the national park and we can actually see kangaroos grazing from our appartment. Lovely bedsitting room, huge bed but no setee/easy chairs & no cooking facilities. Spa bath which Pete is looking forward to trying out!!! Just spotted a pretty 'Superb Fairy Wren' outside our window - so pretty- bright blue.

Nov 12th 2011

Went for a walk in the National Park around the visitors centre just a short distance from our accommodation. Saw a Pied Currawong which kept going Oooh! Ahhh! at us!! Walked on further and saw several kangaroos grazing and hopping around. Several crimson Rozellas around again. A Superb Fairy Wren again. We then drove through bush - -some on an unsealed road up into the Grampians. Saw a huge lizard (approx 1m) eating a squashed snake on the road. Walked down to see the Mackenzie falls - -v impressive. 2Km walk but with an elevation change of 110m! Puff!! pant!! Had our picnic at the tables in the shade in the forest. 2 Kookabuuras chased a Currawong one on it's back!!! Then one Kookaburra came & sat in the tree above us watching us have our picnic.

Drove on to several view points way way above the valley for amazing views over the Grampian National Park. As we drove back we saw a wallaby/ small kangaroo at the roadside and a stumpy tailed lizard. Got back & had takeaway for tea then Dad had a shot in the spa bath!!! Think he was exhausted afterwards & was in bed for 9.30pm!!!

We move back to Melbourne tomorrow.

Nov 13th 2011

Left at 9.30am. Driving into Ballerat. Avenue of Honour - 22km of tree lined road to honour those who fell in the wars. Name plaque at each tree - -what a lovely idea. Stopped at Ballerat. Lots of old colonial style buildings here from the days of the gold rush. Statue of Rabbie Burns in main square with some of his poems underneath! Must have been lots of Scots involved with the gold mining.

Arrived at Travel Lodge, Melbourne about 3pm, next door to the Eureka Tower - the tallest skyscaper in M'bourne at 1000 feet, can't see the top from our window and we are on the 8th floor. Awarded free breakfast for tomorrow morning!! Yum! Did the washing. Curries to microwave for tonight's dinner. Penguin Island tomorrow - Woo Hoo!