Today we travelled from Apollo Bay to the end of The Great Ocean Road. In contrast to the stunning naturally sculptured land forms of magnificent size and uniqueness at the other end, this part of the road hugged the coastline on one side with sheer cliffs on the other. It was stunningly beautiful in a totally different way to the other end of the road. The road was narrow and winding with few places for drivers travelling east to safely pull off to take advantage of the turnout points, so taking photos was a challenge. Greg had to concentrate on driving so it was difficult for him at times to take in the awesomeness of this drive. It seems the tourist buses don’t drive this end of the road for which we were very grateful but ... read more

As our plans to meet up with a friend from Hamilton in Warnambool did not pan out, we decided to abandon our 2 day stop over there and instead stay in Port Campbell. This proved a good move. This is obviously forest and dairy country as this is largely all we saw for the entire drive, with the exception of some stunning coastline in the areas we drove close to it and some majestic old historical buildings in Portland and Warnambool. We braved a Woolies carpark in Warnambool stopping for a few supplies such as fresh coriander, ground cumin, milk, onions, garlic and fennel. You know … the things you just can’t do without. Negotiating the carpark was a little tricky with a caravan, but fortunately it was mid-morning and the place wasn’t too busy. Parking ... read more

After a couple of days delay due to inclement wind conditions, we finally departed for one of our ‘must do’ caravan trips. This was to travel the Great Ocean Road, continuing on around the east coast of Victoria to just below Sydney. Leaving the Barossa looking fresh after a much-needed rain, we travelled across the flats towards Murray Bridge via Sedan and Cambrai. The countryside, parched and bare. A few hopeful farmers taking a gamble by dry seeding. We enjoyed a mid-morning coffee in a parking bay just east of Tailem Bend where a happy blue wren danced around our vehicle. Later we stopped for a bowl of hearty home-made soup at a scenic spot overlooking the Coorong. So much for our itinerary. We had already passed Meningie, our first planned overnight stop, instead opting to ... read more

Somehow or other whenever we cross the Hay Plains it seems to rain and this time was no different. We had planned to free camp by the Murrumbidgee River but rain and black soil river flood plains are not a good mix so we decided to take the northern route instead and stay in Hay. The northern route near Griffith turned out to be a much more interesting drive than the southerly route via XXXXXX. Instead of flat plains the road wound through low hills and bushland. In the middle of nowhere a little dog crossed the road in front of us. It looked very out of place and the ute following must have felt the same as it slowed down and stopped. We assumed that the driver decided to pick up the dog; maybe he ... read more

Another day of driving through hills and lush grazing country as we descend from the New England highlands sees each day getting easier, a little flatter and a little dryer. The drive did feature an interesting collection of arrester beds on the longer downhill slopes. One had its own lane for almost a kilometre but others left the road at a sharp angle and became almost vertical. You would have to be really desperate to take those. In Tamworth, the country music capital of Australia, it is pretty much obligatory to visit the country music hall of fame. The sign said it was open until 4pm, but when we entered at 2:30 we were told it was closing and we would have to come back tomorrow. We looked puzzled and asked why it was closing so ... read more