Breakfasted on baked beans on toast, I'd forgotten how good they were. Packed picnic of ham and tuna sandwiches with the famous 'Tim Tams' (chocolate biscuits like 'Penguins'). Off for 8.15am to a beautiful day. Before hitting Warrnambool (the start of the Great Ocean Road) we stopped at an outdoor shop to buy a sleeping bag for Henry, as he needed one for his 3 night stay at Sky Dive Nagambie. Just as we were about to purchase the $29 summer sleeping bag, we were offered a warmer $60 model for $10! This discount went some way toward the purchase of an Acubra hat. This is your original Ozzie head gear, like in the film Crocodile Dundee. To be fair I've seen Henry is less flattering head gear.
Shopping complete we set off on the 253 km Great Ocean Road. Beyond Port Campbell unfolds the dramatic stacks of Sandy Cove, we stopped at several viewpoints to admire some amazing sights including the Bay of Islands, London Bridge, Loch Ard Gorge and the iconic Twelve Apostles.
To be honest I couldn't find twelve, only nine, but nevertheless these huge limestone stacks are an impressive sight carved out of the coastline by the raw power of the Southern Ocean.
We decided to do a detour down to Cape Otway in the hope of seeing koalas, and so we did. We were lucky to see a couple waking up from what is usually a 14 hour sleep at least! Koala's main food source comes from the leaves of the eucalyptus trees, which in fact provide very little energy (bit like eating celery) so they sleep a lot while they digest the vegetation and conserve as much energy as possible. They sleep in the fork of a branch, some really high up, and they have the appear just like a child's teddy bear. All too soon we had to leave them and carry on to the Eastern side of the Great Ocean Road.
This unlike the western end is very much a manmade construction with the road being hewn into the harder rock. It was a grand construction project to create employment for the returning "diggers" from World War I and also helped maintain the strong ties between men long after he experience of the trenches. It is all documented at the Memorial Arch and 'diggers' statue at Eastern View
Finally we get on the M1 from Gelong to Melbourne, hitting teatime traffic, only to somehow take a wrong turn to find we are coming south out of Melbourne on St Kilda Highway not in (should have got the SatNav). Reached our destination at 18:30 Drummond Street to stay with Debby.
After a welcome cup of tea, Debby introduced us to the sights and sounds of Melbourne's cafe culture in the famous Lygon Street, great Italian cuisine and onto 'Brunettis' for a choice of every type of coffee you can think of plus delicious hand made chocolates. So to bed, getting the distinct feeling weight loss was out of the question.