Day 93 Thursday 10th December 2009

Johno says

Today the hostel offered guests a few extra bits like sausage, bacon and beans so we tucked into that before check out then went to pick up our hire car which we were going to use over the next 4 days to drive the 250km Great Ocean Road. It was a family saloon, Vauxhall Cruze, with more than enough space for us so we happily made our way on to the Australian road. First of all, we needed to find the Canon service centre for Stacey's broken Camera (you may have seen a lesser quality in pictures for Vietnam - this is down to my little Sony not being quite up to scratch…!) The Canon service centre was around 30 minutes into the Melbourne suburbia so we were going to see what life was like outside of the city centre. Yes, we got lost and ended up around about 30 minutes in the totally opposite direction haha, about an hour and a half later we arrived at the Canon Service centre in East Burwood. It was closed and had been for some time, the Singapore Canon and website done really well for us. Haha. The office area was cleared and there was a black outline of where once stood a Canon sign so we swiftly had a copuple of snaps outside the service centre on my sony and made it back to the Melbourne city centre (in about 30 minutes this time) for an onward journey to Geelong which leads into the infamous Great Ocean Road. The road starts at Spring Creek Bridge in a familiar sounding place called Torquay, we also had a check list from our care hire company to follow. We stopped here for coffee to shake off our emotional suburbian drive and refresh for the road ahead. The first tick on the list and along the road brought us to Bells Beach, the water was that post card clear turquoise blue and just purely beautiful. It was really windy which is probably what makes 'the surf' so decent and unique. Stacey then started to share the wheel and I layed back and enjoyed the view. After a few nice little ticks on the list we came to the Aireys Inlet Lighthouse which my personal highlight as this was where that TV programme from our childhood 'Round the twist' was filmed. We done our best impersonations of chickens for the camera and made a walk back to the car. Along the road there was a number of good spots to enjoy a road side bbq so we thought we would go and buy some meat and salad and do it the typical Ozzy way, no shrimps on the Barbie this time though. It was brilliant, public bbq's on the road side, we bought and cooked 3 skewers and a burger each - we were joined by a group of (flying) birds that looked as if they belonged in a cage they were that nice!! No pigeons!! We made it along the coastline to a place called Apollo Bay after popping into a petrol garage (and seeing a couple of local Kangaroo's hop past the pumps) and decided to rest up for the evening, there wasn't many backpacker hostels around and we didn't pack any camping equipment apart from our sleeping bags so we decided to sleep in the car along the dark street overlooking the ocean which was also being used by a mobile home!!! Haha. It was funny, once we had folded back the seats and our sleeping bags were in a more inviting position our family saloon transformed into a double bedroom!! Now that is what I call making the most of our 50 Australian Dollars..! The toilet which also overlooked the ocean was situated in the bushes (beside the car) and mid flow there was a rattle-like noise, so without hesitation forced the issue and ran back to the car!! Goodnight Australia.

Day 94 Friday 11th December 2009

Johno says

Only problem with the mobile double bedroom was the showering in the morning which we soon sorted with a visit to nearby caravan park showers (for free)!! We then left to continue our journey along the Great Ocean Road and passed an interesting looking wildlife park, soon after entry we spotted some koala's and as we were the only customers the owner that was clearing up some debris at the time decided to show us the little bear up close!! Strewth!! Wild Koala's are not that friendly animals with human contact so we had to keep our distance which was a real shame as he didn't seem that dangerous!! Then the park keeper lead us to the wallaby and Kangaroo enclosures, haha the Kangaroo's wasn't too sure at first but with my best dry feed to the ready the Kangaroo's soon came in for a closer look. In the end, there were 6 of them surrounding us with one particular 'roo wanting to hold my hand every time!! The baby 'roo inside the mom's pouch was quite entertaining!! Crikey!! Stace wasn't too convinced with the larger roo in the enclosure so she kept her contact to a minimum haha. The Wallabies (smaller Kangaroo's) were a lot more shy with only one wallaby building up the courage to eat out of my hand!! There seems to be just so much land here that you could drive for hours without seeing a car in front so off we set for the site of the 12 apostles, 12 rocks in the process of being eroded by the sea. After some further great photo moments with the Sony we drove on to Warrnambool for a lunch of fish and chips. Mmmm food. This is where the Great Ocean Road finished and the road up to Grampians began, this Country has an unlimited amount of land, we have traveled only a tiny fraction of the map over two whole days. We made to Halls Gap by early evening in the northern Grampians and decided to check in to a friendly backpacker place for this evening!! The Aussie at the reception continued to tell us some tales into the night which was brilliant, she loved the fact that all the back packer hotels join forces, Ned at Ned's Place, Tim at Tim's Place.. It goes on!

Day 95 Saturday 12th December 2009

Stacey says

So today we went to explore the Grampian National Park area, driving up to see the lookout area and walking 2km, looking out for wildlife in the forest area on the way to 'The Balconies' which were 2 cliff edges, making quite a scenic view. So we hopped over the rails and went and stood on the cliff edge for a photo shot! .. Long way down… Next stop was to see the 'Venus Baths' which was a 2.7km walk. We spotted a snake trail in the soil and 2 kangaroos hopped past us too. These are still a novelty to us, only having been here for a few days! The Venus baths were water steaming down a pathway filling up deep groves in the rocks. It was a very peaceful place to sit in the sun for a bit. Next, we got back in the car and made our way to Ballarat which is still in the Australian Bush. It was one of the biggest towns we had seen in a few days, but it was very quiet! We checked into our accommodation in Sovereign Hill Lodge, it was a very cosy country cottage place. Made some dinner, and had a relaxed evening.

Day 96 Sunday 13th December 2009

Johno says

First stop today was to Safeway to buy some lunch and 'grog' for the Ballarat Christmas Party Horse Racing. We arrived in time for the second race, it was Stacey's pick and yes, we won!! We then decided to crack on with our own bets and the second race was (again) victorious for Stacey, I have no luck and lost only to regain victory on the next race but this was possibly down to the fact that there was only 4 horses running!! The weather was overcast but was so hot when the sun came out - we found out that you don't actually realise when the sun is getting you here as we made it back to our backpacker hostel with red faces!! The Ballarat Horse Racing course was really good to see with some Christmas-y songs playing throughout the day and Santa doing the rounds for the kids! There was a total of 8 races finishing late afternoon. We were so stuffed from lunch that we skipped dinner which is a result as food is so expensive to buy here!!!