Great Ocean Road

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The Grampians. It is a bit like someone took the Lake District's mountains and dropped them into the middle of an endless Australian plain. And the Grampians are beautiful, with wonderful but tough walking to the top of craggy hills, passing waterfalls and kangaroos on the way. Overhead cockatoos fly in great flocks and we are buzzed by crimson rosellas.

Heading south again took us to Great Ocean Road and a two night stay in a train carriage. Built in 1903, it was part of the "overland" train from Adelaide to Sydney and had been converted into two suites - very smart too. The owners were unusual, having not only three train carriages but also two alpacas, both very pregnant, and nine bee hives. While we were out for the day, the owner had to deal with a bee swarm. But that evening, the annoyed bees took their revenge by stinging both of us!

The Great Ocean Road took us along stunning coastal scenery and to some windy walking. High limestone and sandstone cliffs have been eroded into tall pillars and islands by the constant waves of the Southern Ocean. The pillars now stand just off shore, some inter-connected by stone arches. It is a impressive seascape that is constantly changing. We met a couple who had walked over the "London Bridge" arch in 1990. Two days later it fell into the sea, stranding some tourists until a helicopter arrived.

Over the last six weeks we have driven some 3,900 miles. We have driven through two Peterboroughs, shopped in Horsham, by-passed Spalding, walked on Torquay beach and stayed the night in our very own little town, Port Campbell. We have had signs warn us of cassowary, emu, kangaroos, koalas, snakes, platypus, sheep and ducks. Fortunately we have only had to avoid kangaroos and emus and one suicidal wallaby.

We have enjoyed some wonderful walking in 10 National Parks, all suprisingly different. We have been amazingly close to the wildlife ... worryingly including two more venomous snakes, a white-lipped and an eastern tiger snake. We have identified over 100 different birds and probably taken over 100 photos of koalas!

Finally, we are in busy Melbourne where it is 34c ( yesterday it was 13c!). We are coming to the end of a great trip.

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