Oz on the road 2

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We knew Victoria desperately needed the rain. Seeing the brown, burnt surroundings on the way into Melbourne was very sad and, having been out of touch with the news in Myanmar, we were only just starting to realise how devastating and tragic the fires had been. So it was hard to be grumpy when the rain moved in. Which it did...heavily. Cheery souls on the radio were saying things like “I dunno about you Bruce but it sure makes me happy to see the ground wet.” But half our party had just enjoyed a Tasmanian 'summer' and the other half were escaping an English winter ..and we were in tents. Craving some beach and just a lil bit of sun we headed out to Geelong, Torquay and Anglesey where we stayed for a few days enjoying a bit of sun, surf, surf outlet shops (oh dear - melting credit cards) and the bouncy trampoline at the campground (we were maybe a bit big for this and several small children were launched into orbit when Zoe, Est and Sam came out to play).
We chose what looked to be a good day to head along Great Ocean Road only to hear on the radio as we drove out that there were severe weather warnings and the national park was closed. Still we decided to head on. En route we were lucky enough to spot a load of people standing by the road and staring into the trees. We screeched to a halt and sure enough there were a bunch of koalas just hanging out in the trees. We had read in the guide that they use very little brain power to try to conserve energy - the leaves they eat are so toxic that it takes most of their energy to process the food - also making their piss very acidic - bad news if they pee over your car, apparently. It was very cool to see them in the wild - even if they do bugger all. The weather really hit us when we reached the 12 Apostles and it was wild and wet - a few photos and we were back in the car outta there! Driving back was a little hairy with a few branches down in the roads. Then it was back to Melbs for a few nights. We chose a particularly wet day to visit Melbourne Zoo - but much fun was had by all- especially around the monkey cages. Then we all dashed back to get ready for the evening's entertainment- Esther's birthday celebrations. For this we headed to Dracula's - a comedy/cabaret show. Brandishing our free cocktail vouchers which we had found in a magazine that afternoon (we love a bargain we do) we piled onto the ghost train and then settled in for a really funny evening - and lots of weird lumunous drinks - including one as big as a fishbowl. The food was really good and after we were done there we managed to find a late night bar and saw in the first hours of Est's 30th year with champagne and cocktails until about 3am. Recovery was over brunch the next morning at the ultra friendly Fireman's Cafe where they played birthday music and gave a free brownie to the birthday girl. Then for the sad bit - it was time for Sam to fly home and look after the cat- so we drove him to the airport spotting some big kangaroos on the way - all waving byeee Sam.

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