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Friday was a long day, after we crossed the border we drove for hours through a forested mountain area with very few stops and not much change in the scenery, in fact we hardly saw another car all day. We crossed the NSW-Victoria border just after lunch so we had a fair few miles to cover before reaching tourist area's. As soon as we crossed the border the air temperature dropped too, it was pretty strange but we went from shorts to trousers and jumpers within an few miles! We kept on driving, passing through more seaside towns, Stratford upon Avon (there's one here too - no Shakespere though) until we found somewhere to stay, finally resting in Sale at a campsite at the showgrounds. Pete had driven 700km in total today!
On Saturday we finished driving through the Gipsland Peninsular about midday and after stopping at some viewpoints overlooking the very south of mainland Australia, we headed for Phillip Island. We didn't arrive until quite late in the afternoon so we had a stroll along the beachfront in Cowes (yes one of them here as well) before grabbing dinner, then we made our way to the penguin parade to get our tickets. We got our tickets then we popped down to Seal Rocks to see if we could see any. Unfortunately all the seals were basking in the sun quite far from where we were so we didn't get to see them much! We did see the largest flock of sea-gulls ever, and Hol got poo-ed on by one too... typical! We headed back to the penguin parade as the sun was starting to drop, we found some seats and waited patiently for the fairy penguins to come trotting up the beach past us. We didn't have to wait too long, a few confident penguins went waddling across the beach just feet away from us, then a whole load more followed suit! We stayed put for quite a while, when all the crying children disappeared a whole load more came up and ran into there burrows. We finally gave in to the cold wind and made our way back to the car, on the way up there were loads of little penguins waddling alongside the board walk without a care in the world and unphased by all the people! It was a pretty remarkable sight. Unfortunately Pete said we couldn't take one as a souvenir so it looks like we're penguin-less for a little while longer. It was quite late by the time we left and we couldn't find a campsite that was open / had vacancies so we stayed at a roadside campsite (which is pretty much just a pitch of land free for campers) which once we managed to find it, turned out to be alright.
On Sunday we made tracks for Melbourne. The distance between towns in Australia is pretty big so due to that and a trip food shopping we didn't arrive until the afternoon. We found parking and had a wander to the 'Old Melbourne Gaol'. It was a really interesting experience, having never stepped foot in a jail until then! We learnt a lot about the history of Australian jails which links in with British history quite a lot. We were both surprised to learn that some people were locked up for pretty ridiculous things - like being homeless or out of work. Children were also locked up for 'vagrancy', wouldn't be such a bad idea these days eh?! We finished up at the jail seeing where prisoners were executed and the story of Ned Kelly, a famous bushranger who was caught and executed at the Gaol. After that we walked down into the city centre. We popped down to Federation Square which is a big modern building - that was pretty impressive. We walked along South Bank which was lovely, with the Yarra River on on side and lots of trendy cafe's on the other side. We walked back to the car through the pretty streets of modern offices intermingled with old churches and colonial style hotels. We were both really impressed with Melbourne, it's a lovely city with history but all the modern facilities alongside open parklands and the river Yarra. We headed out of the city early evening in search of a campsite, we ended up staying by the sea at a lovely friendly site, we had dinner, did some laundry and watched a film (in the comfort of our big orange home) then hit the hay. We both had a lovely day :)
We had a slow start on Monday morning but we got moving into Melbourne. We went for a walk along the river in the sunshine before venturing into Kings Domain Parkland. The park was massive, it took a while to walk through half of it to get to the war memorial shrine. It was a massive shrine with a war museum inside; we went in and had another history lesson. It's interesting seeing how the war affected different nations. We carried on walking through the park and jumped on the shuttle bus back to town. We walked along south bank and headed for the car. We drove down the coast to St Kilda, a pretty seaside town just south of Melbourne along the peninsula. We had a stroll down the pier before heading back to the lovely campsite that we stayed at the previous night. It was another lovely day out!
On Tuesday we started the Great Ocean Road (GOR). The drive was outstanding - there were loads of beautiful viewpoints and we stopped at all of them for a picture or ten! We stopped at the lighthouse where 'around the twist' and 'mad max' was filmed too which was pretty cool. After more stop start lookout driving we passed through some beautiful seaside towns such as Lorne and Apollo Bay before driving into Otway National Park where we found somewhere to sleep for the evening.
On Wednesday we visited the Cape Otway lighthouse and surround buildings. We climbed to the top of the lighthouse - the views were amazing. We spent a couple of hours wandering through the various buildings learning about early settlement in Victoria, wartime communication and maritime history! We carried on driving along the GOR, we didn't make it too far as we stopped loads - there's so much to see in such a short stretch of road it's amazing! We stopped at the 12 Apostles which was beautiful (although Hol could only count 7), Loch Ard Gorge, Gibsons Steps, The Arch, London Bridge and finally The Grotto which were all amazing sights. We finally rested in Peterborough for the evening.
On Thursday we finished the Victoria side of the GOR, stopping at Port Fairy, Cape Reemer, Cape Bridgewater and Sandy Cove in the morning. In the afternoon we crossed into South Australia...
See you on the other side!
Love
Hol and Pete
xXx
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