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Published: November 29th 2008
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Its time to move on from Melbourne and we picked up our 'Wicked' campervan in the cold and pouring rain. The van is called The Mystery Machine. And it sure lives up to its name - one year old, 130,000 kms on the clock, battered and dented its a mystery it still goes - still its our home for the next week 😊
So first stop Philip Island and a Koala Sanctuary; really nice and a great boardwalk so that we could get up close to the Koalas. Most were asleep in the branches, but one made a great effort to eat his dinner (leaves) while we took photos. We booked into our caravan site (its still raining) and then on to the Penguin Parade location. This is a part of the island where Penguins were in decline until they built a specific attraction to attract tourist money which is then plowed back into conservation. There were a number of viewing options on offer, but we had booked early back in the UK and were on the 'Ultimate Tour' which is limited to 10 people and a ranger gives you an insight into the 'Little Penguins' (they are about 12
inches tall) before you are kitted out with night vision goggles and red torches (no cameras are allowed as the flash hurts the penguins eyes) and its off to a secluded beach to sit in the wind and rain and wait for the penguins. Normally you have to wait until it is dark and use the night vision goggles, but today because the weather was so bad the penguins came in early and we could see them clearly in the dim light. They gather offshore in 'rafts' of between 50 and 100 pengiuns, slowly making thier way to the beach, where they split into smaller groups and tumble in the breaking waves to land on the beach in small groups. They are very nervous traversing the beach and wait until one decides to make a break for his burrow behind the beach and then the pack quickly follows, waddling up the beach right in front of us. An absolutely awesome sight - about 240 came up in front of us (the ranger counted them !) and we could see hundreds more further up the beach. Once they are all ashore its time to walk back to the centre, using the
red torch to pick out penguins going to thier burrows among the grass. A great night despite being very cold and damp 😊
The next day it is onto the Great Ocean Road. The first couple of days it was miserable and wet and then the next thing we know we are into baking sunshine. Some of our highlights on the Great Ocean Road were:
* Finding the formal start of the Great Ocean Road - you could not miss the sign !
* Looking at a mob of kangaroos gathered at the edge of a golf course
* Driving along Turtons Track; a recently sealed very narrow twisty road that runs through a rain forest of very large Beech trees (over 100m tall) and low lying tree ferns. Very spectacular but we could not get any perspective from a photo
* Walking round Otway Treetop Walk, a walkway erected through the forest very high up so that you can view all levels of the forest, including the canopy - spectacular
* Trying to find 'Wreck Beach' where you get to walk along the beach to view some old wreck anchors; its graded as difficult, but we had
to give up before we started as it is along an unsealed road which got so bad after 4km our van just could not make it - such a shame
* Viewing all the rock and cliff formations - spectacular; 12 Apostles, Loch Arg Gorge, Blow Hole, London Bridge, The Arch, The Grotto, Bay of Martyrs, Bay of Islands - too many to list and really great views 😊
After leaving the Great Ocean Road its time to make our way to Adelade, over 700kms driving so we took a couple of days and stopped to see various things:
* Tower Hill Wildlife Reserve where we did two short walks and saw a flock of Emus grazing and two Emus up close
* Bying Giant Smarties and Flying Saucers out of big Jars in an old fashioned confectioner in Port Fairy
* Sitting on Mosaic bench and shell at Portland before eating at the Clock By The Bay restaurant; another of Bill's favorites, Oysters 5 Ways
* Walking through an Enchanted Forest at Portland - just like out of Grimm's Fairy Tales
* A 8km hard cliff top walk in Portland, supposedly to view a 600 seal
Some of the 12 Apostles
One collapsed a few years ago so only 11 left ! colony, but there were only 6 there. But we did find a deadly snake, or rather Sue did, by nearly stepping on it on the path. Sue's scream was quite loud. We think it was a Tiger Snake - no antidote
* Stopping at a small town called Mannum, by the Murrey River. We had to get a very old ferry to get to the town, which is a really nice in a 30 years ago type way. We took a trip on the river, looking at the birdlife, including a very nice Austrailian Pelican
Finally arriving at Adelaide we check into our hostel - very old and basic, still its only one night
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