Great ocean road II
Ok, the title of this is great ocean road, but we ve actually already moved on to the beautiful Mornington Penninsula.. A bay just off melbourne, with shallow clear waters, sandy beaches and a mild, spring like climate. Here we went simming with dolphines and seals and watched penguins...but more of this later.
After we left apollo bay to drive further down the coast to the 12 apostles, we stopped by an animal sanctuary and got a chance to feed kangaroos, emus and wallabies and come into contact with them upclose. It was amazing. We lingered particularly long in the wallaby area as they loved being fed by us... and we loved feeding and watching them. I was particularly taken by their little ones and how they climb in and out of the pouch. I'd never seen this before, or anything like it- the babies stick their head out...look arond and then just hop out of he pouch. Sometimes their mother forces them back in.. Or if they want go get back in but mummy's moving away they end up jumping in with heir head down first, feet sticking out. Truly funny and spectacular to watch. Amazing, this pouch. Bet tristy would love one of them!
The other thing which is just so funny isthe way kangaroos and wallabies bounce around. Unlike anything really. Brilliant.
Stella was a bit sceptical of approaching these foreign animals at first, but in the end she enjoyed even feeding the goofy emus. Oh and we saw james the womat too! And baby dingos who looked so friendly and interested.
Due to our little unplanned sanctuary detour we arrived quite late at the 12 apostles. But...the evening light was superb und there werent many people around any more which made us enjoy the scenery more- you ll see from the pictures that its a quite dramatic coastline. Stella was nevertheless unphased: at gibsons steps which steeply lead down the rock cliffs to the beach she built a little sandcastle in the sand...
Arriving in our final destination along the great ocean road in warrnambool quite late we found it very difficult to get dinner at 9pm on a sunday nite. Truly surprised us but if you re not on the gold coast or in one of he bigger cities australia can feel quite rural. Stella had a first encounter with a yoyo..which is this regions' signature cookie to be found in every coffee shop in a jar on the counter. They a quite yummy actually...
Warrnambool is a quiet place and but boasts some beautiful historical buildings. Historical is obviously relative..historical means 200 years old in australia, which is obvioulsy nothing to us europeans. Nevertheless i loved the porched wooden houses that still convey the spirit of those early settlers to me... I have quite a bit of admiration of their courage and adventure spirit. Obviously a very double edged sword, as in settling here they fought many uneven battles with the aboriginals to claim their land.
We wanted to explore a bit more about this history and the aboriginal culture and went to a nature reserve called tower hill. There we had a 1-1 walking tour with an aboriginal who explained a few very interesting facts about these amazing clans...the women ate steroid berries for contraception, made furs with the owners' life story written on the back, and the men used boomerangs to strike down their pray when hunting..and the bush offers many delicious plants for eating. He also told us though about some of the massacres of aboriginals getting killed by european settlers and about the so called stolen generation- a result of the australian government tearing families apart in an attempt to intergrate aboriginals into the white society and making sure that aboriginals had children with white settlers to eventually wipe out their genes.
It did and still does make me think.
Nevertheless, we had a great afternoon, learning how to tell the difference between a male and a female koala, chasing a baby emu chick, and most importantly johann and stella learning how to throw a boomerang. 
I would say johann, stick to your handball mate!
What else did we see or do in warrnambool..not much. Its very much surounded by farmland especially milk farming, which makes for lush green meadows with many many cows on them. our trip to port fairy the next day was ok...but without highlight..we were ready to move on and get back up direction melbourne..onto the mornington penninsula.