Day 74 (Friday 29th December 2006)

It was up with the sunshine after a night in 'Fran' and feeling a little less than fantastic, we left Mt Gambier and headed for the Great Ocean Road.

we passed through the seaside towns of Portland and Port Fairy on our way to Warnnambool...the beginning of this famous road. Our first stop was the 'Bay of Islands', a spectacular sight of rugged coastline, wild seas and incredibly shaped limestone stacks.

Next up was 'The Grotto'. A winding walk down wooden steps set into the cliff face leads to a cool little sink hole, through which the Southern Ocean swell could be seen.

The sights just kept coming and next we stopped off to see 'London Bridge'. Until 1990 this little baby formed a complete double-span natural bridge. The arch closest to the shoreline collapsed unexpectedly leaving two tourists stranded on the outer part, where they were later rescued by helicptor.

Before continuing on to the information centre at Port Campbell, we passed through shipwreck capital of the world Peterborough and visited 'The Arch', another incredible geological formation, just like Durdle Door!

Thankfully, after every holiday-maker in Oz headed down here for the week, the guys at the info centre sorted us out with 2-nights at Kangaroobie Host Farm and mapped out a plan for us over the next 2.5 days.

After dropping our stuff off at this interesting old school camp, we headed back to see the rest of the attractions, including the biggie, the 'Twelve Apostles'.

First we saw Gibson Steps, where a staircase leads down to a beautiful stretch of beach. By now it was extremely windy, so we settled for a view at the top instead.

Then it was on to the 'Twelve Apostles'. This famous collection of natural limestone stacks is a must see for everyone at some stage of their lives and despite only eight remaining today, and hoards upon hoards of Asian tourists trying their upmost to piss us off, it will always remain right up there with the greatest things we'll ever see.

Last, but not least, we visited 'Loch Ard Gorge' and 'The Blowhole'. Working our way down the steps towards the gorge, we saw a tiger snake slither beneath our feet. The gorge is named after the clipper ship Loch Ard which ran aground on nearby Mutonbird Island on 1 June 1878 approaching the end of a 3-month journey from England to Melbourne. 52-people were killed, but two 18-year-old survivors were washed into the gorge and found shelter in a cave...we both stood under that very cave.

A 5-minute walk the otherside of the carpark lead us to 'The Blowhole'. This is where several of the bodies from the Loch Ard were found and despite looking pretty scary, it never actually blew once!

It had been a long day and by now the Asians were getting pretty annoying! The Aussies weren't much better and if they weren't taking the piss about the cricket, they certainly were over Marc's hat!

We came back, cooked up some tea and watched the sunset (and skippy) out the back. There's so much nature around the farm here at Kangaroobie. Driving in and out of the farm we often caught a glimpse of peregrine falcons...pretty cool place!

The Great Ocean Road wasn't at all what we expected however. We pictured meandering roads which hugged the cliff edge, along with sheer drops down to the ocean. It was nothing at all like that. In fact it wasn't even one continuous road, but many joint together, cut through a load of farm land. Maybe we'll encounter that later along the track???

PS Hey Marc's mum congratulations on your new job!! Hope this one lasts! Glad you two liked your pressies! Miss you x ...

Day 75 (Saturday 30th December 2006)

We stuck the i-pod on shuffle and began the 'Treetops to the Shore' touring loop. Along this scenic drive we made our first stop at the Otway Fly Treetop Walk (www.otwayfly.com.au), where we completed the 600m-long canopy walk. We saw some amazing stuff including yellow robins and our first kookaburras, laughing away on the branches.

Next along the route we hit Beauchamp Falls. The magnificent falls plunge into a fern-fringed pool and Marc, who had never before seen anything like it, was truly mesmerized.

Having dragged Marc away from the waterfall, we drove the long and winding road down to Apollo Bay. The bay was quite pleasant, very popular and we grabbed a couple of choc-chip mint ice-creams and ate them on the beach. The flies around here are out of control, sounds silly but they can really spoil your day! We're not exaggerating, the little f*****s are relentless and about 5-million a-time! Don't worry parents, we're not emigrating to this!

Now back on the 'Great Farm Road' we turned off into Cape Otway National Park along the lighthouse road. We stopped for another geeky signpost picture, this time a sign for birds, koalas, kangaroos and of course, cows...when as if by magic, Sarah spotted our first Victorian koala above us in the tree. It hadn't been sitting there since the 19th century mind, it lives in...yeah, you get it! 

We didn't bother with the boring lighthouse, despite driving all the way there, but on our return, we did see something that we won't forget in a hurry. We saw two koalas crossing the road! The first one casually trotted along in front of us, before leaping up a tree. After turning back towards the car, by now accompanied by several others, including yep you guessed it Mr Kamagachi, his whole family and his 3-foot camera lens, we saw another, bumbling and grunting across the b****amin.

After all the excitement we returned to 'Fran' and completed the loop back to Kangaroobie. Once again we ate a delicious bowl of soup and pasta and watched the sunset over the farm.