Penguin Island & The Long and Winding Great Ocean Road

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We arrived at Phillip Island at around 5pm and after getting a little lost we found the tourist information building and got up to speed with all the attractions and where things were. We were surprised how big the island was and how much there was to do. The main attraction though was the Penguin Parade which happens every night at sunset, where over 1,600 fairy penguins timidly appear from a days fishing in the ocean, waddle up the beach and head to their little burrow style homes in the hilly grass. The weather was pretty crappy so we decided to hold off for this main event until the next night. We just headed to our hostel, checked in and made a chicken tikka masala for tea. Later that evening we went on a rescue mission to save about 20 tiny frogs, who were loitering around the hostel car park, not a good place for them to be playing. We caught as many as we could and found a gap in the fence which led to safer ground where we dropped off the tiny amphibians. Once we'd helped the ones we could see we headed for bed.

The next morning we got ready and headed back over the bridge to watch the daily pelican feeding. After watching these big birds patiently wait for their lunch it was easy to see why they are portrayed as such a cool animal in Finding Nemo. Four of them scared away the scavenging seagulls to ensure they didn't steal their fish which were bought out by an old lady who had been volunteering and feeding them for over 20 years. Once the pelicans were full, the lady encouraged us over to the sea to feed the rays. Several Sting Rays, of varying sizes, including a couple a massive ones around 2 metres wide, floated around and came towards her to collect their free feed and as they did we were all invited to stroke them, being sure to avoid their barbed tails. Once we'd both had a fondle we headed to the other side of the island and went on a challenging walk to reach the furthest point of the island where we could see The Pinnicles. Blustery winds, heavy rain and gangs of flies setting up home on our backs didn't prevent us reaching our destination though. We made it and managed to take some photos of the unusual rock formations which came out of the coastal waters, before heading back down, getting soaked and covered in sand. We got back to the car, dried ourselves off and headed to Cowes, the town centre of Phillip Island. We had a hot chocolate to warm ourselves up, whilst using the powerpoint in the cafe to charge the camera for the big parade. We had a look in a few shops, then grabbed a takeaway pizza, before heading to watch the penguins come home.

The penguin centre was a fairly big and new complex, but unfortunately the seating area for the parade was still very basic and because there was no cover and it was still raining we got rather wet bums when we chose our seats, at least we managed to get in the front row. We waited around an hour and a half under the umbrella amusing ourselves by watching two Chinese ladies battle against the wind to try and delicately place down a little piece of cling film on the sand to sit on. Then like clock work the fairy penguins began to appear. In one place at first and then they were appearing from all angles. It was hilarious to watch as a few brave ones would come out first then wait for their mates, then they'd hold still to check it was all safe, then in a group they'd waddle as quick as they could to hide behind the nearest rock. On most occasions a few would get left behind and panic and others would get scared and retreat back into the sea! Eventually though under the cover of darkness they all built up the confidence to head home. The rangers made it very clear that photography wasn't allowed but that didn't stop us from trying. It was a tough task to take any during the parade but once most of the penguins had walked past us off the beach we went up on to the boardwalk and we able to watch hundreds of the little creatures socialise and wander around their habitat. Because the area was so big we managed to get lots of photos before Jo was spotted by a ranger and told off!

Before we left we took a long look around the gift shop and then found an exhibit area which allowed us to look inside some of the penguins nests. We were finally ask to leave by security as we were the last ones there and so headed for the car. No sooner had Jay turned the lights on than we spotted one of the fluffy birds hiding in under trees of the car park. It remained unphased as Jo exitedly got out of the car and took some close ups of it. Chuffed to bits that we'd got so close we called it a night.

The next day we went to the Koala Conservation Centre on the Island and found lots of the cuddly looking bears in the trees, including a mum and baby or joey and a big dominant male. We also saw some wallabies, kookaburras, parrots and other beautiful birds. After that we said goodbye to Phillip Island and headed for the GOR. It was a fair few kilometres and a ferry ride away before we could make it to the world's longest war memorial (aka the Great Ocean Road). We drove across to the Mornington Peninsula and made it as far as Martha Point to watch a stunning sunset. As darkness began to fall we pushed on to Rosebud for a stopover, but not before luckily spotting a koala crossing the road in the darkness, we managed to avoid him, but why he was crossing the road at that time of night was beyond us. He obviously hasn't read his green cross code! All the B&Bs had no vacancy signs so we found a quiet spot and settled for a night in the car.

The next day we rose early and quickly came across a very appealing hot spring spa. With no public showers around we thought we'd give it a go, plus we never made it to one in Asia so we needed to tick it off the list. Our jaws dropped a little when we were told it was $30 each for us to go in and we had a bit of a debate as to whether we could afford it, but as we hadn't paid for accommodation we treated ourselves. Once inside you could soon see why it cost so much with a huge range of pools with a wide range of shapes, sizes and temperatures from freezing plunge pools, to more than 40 degrees centigrade. We made the most of it and spent around 3½ hours bathing and relaxing before heading off after lunch to Sorrento home of the country's best vanilla slice – at $8 a slice it should be the best in the world! We went a few doors down and had one from a smaller bakery for a 3rd of the price and it was still beautiful!

After a look around the quaint little town we drove down to the ferry port and parked on board. 20 minutes later we were landing at Queenscliff. We kept going and stopped off at a few of the little towns (little being a very accurate description) along the way. The first place of real significance was Bells Beach just passed Torquay, famous the world over with surfers, but the weather was crappy so there weren't too many dudes chasing waves that day. We rushed out the car in the pouring rain to snap the lighthouse at Airey's Inlet before making it to the GOR War Memorial Arch as dusk arrived where info boards gave us an insight into the road's history and how it became a project to integrate Australian soldiers back into everyday work after WW2.

As the rain continued to fall and darkness arrived, the winding road became more treacherous. We knew that GOR had been closed from Lorne to Apollo Bay because of dangerous driving conditions, flooded roads and landslides from the radio news reports, so we pushed on to Lorne and settled there for the night. We arrived around 9:45pm and spotted a chippy and excited headed towards it, but as we opened the door, which had a big sign on it saying 'Open' the guy at the counter bellowed, 'We're closed'. Annoying to say the least, especially as the only place still open was a tapas restaurant which was pretty expensive. We hadn't eaten since lunch so had no choice but to splash out and break the budget a fair bit. The food was pretty good apart from one chicken dish which wasn't properly cooked – we sent it back and got a new one, although we'd rather of had the money back. The one benefit was the waitresses accidentally poured water into our glass of beer. Even though we only had a sip left, she still bought us a fresh free beer to replace it.

Despite the chef apparently claiming the chicken was cooked, our dodgy tummies proved otherwise!The next day we got to the road block to get a bit of info on any diversion and were advised of an alternative route. Once passed the closed part of the road we chose to head through the Great Otway National Park, which turned out to be a good move as it meant we got to see lots of koalas in the wild. As we crept down the road we spotted them every few metres, including a tiny but adventurous Joey, with its mum.

After stopping at a few lovely beaches, including Joanna Beach – which we had to go 20kms out of our way to get a photo of, well it was pretty close to Joanne's Beach so had to be done – we arrived at the famous 12 Apostles rock formations, which looked more like 5 or 6 Apostles from the viewpoint. As the sun started to set, we went on a mission to get photos of as many different photo stops as possible before the sun went down. We managed to get ones of London Arch (formally London Bridge), Loch Ard Gorge, the Grotto and the Bay of Martyrs before the time was up.

The next morning we woke up in Warrnambool at the end of the Great Ocean Road, checked out the historic sites, including the old war cannons and grammer school then headed to Hopkins Falls, which was so powerful it was turning the river into a giant foam party. Next we arrived in Port Fairy for some amazing fish & chips, which included the world's longest chip!

Before the day was out we still had time to visit the seal colony, which took us on a 40 minute trek up to the highest clifftop in Victoria, offering stunning views all the way up. When we reached the top, we found a viewing platform and below us as promised were hundreds of seals coming ashore onto the flat rocks to rest after a day out at sea. Although about 80 metres below us, we could see them playing and socialising and could hear them talking to each other in their native tongue. We watched them for some time and as we were about to head back a kangaroo came out from under the viewing platform and bounced across the side of the cliff. It soon met up with its family or friends and we watched them for while and got as close as we could until they sprung off back into the bush.

We trekked back to the car and then drove to the petrified forest at Cape Bridgewater where we watched the sunset over the sea. It was already 10pm and we had over 600km to drive before 10:30am the next day to catch our flight from Adelaide to Perth. Eeek! We opted to make some headway and Jay drove through the darkness until the tiredness got the better of him at 2am. The road block diversion as a result of a major accident was a good reminder of the dangers of driving with fatigue, so we pulled into a little town and got a few hours rest.

Jay was up again by 7am to finish the rest of the journey. Not long had we been back on the road, than he spotted what very much resembled a big cat, the size of a large dog, with dark brown fur. It wondered across the desolate road, looked towards the car and the continued its stroll into the cover of the bush. With Jo still asleep, we'll never know for certain if Jay's tiredness caused him to imagine it, but we have since looked up 'big cats in Victoria' and coincidently enough there have been hundreds of sitings in the same area. Accounts suggest that those working on the ships many years ago took pumas and other big cat species from Africa or America and kept them as pets. When the Government told them to dispose of them, they released them into the wild instead. Crazy huh? There are plenty of doubters, much like there are in the UK about the beast of Bodmin Moore and so on but if they do exist, its pretty cool that Jay was one of the few to have seen one roaming the bush. Eventually we made it to the airport in good time and dropped off our now filthy Toyata Corolla to Hertz before catching our plane!

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