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We woke up to pouring rain again, but by 9 it had eased off and by 10 it was brilliant sunshine. Again we had some breakfast in a beachside cafe and we're ready to hit the road around 10.
This part of the great ocean road is the original road and pretty much follows alongside the coast. It was built as an employment programme after WW1 to employ the men returning from the war
To our right the coastline is a mixture of beaches with soft golden sand and bright blue sea with rocky cliffs. To the left was green hills, trees and rivers, a beautiful view on both sides.
After about half an hour or so we were at Kennett River, an area I remember from my first trip here. Just to the left is a tree lined roads, and in those trees were koalas! There was only a couple there and they were sleeping. There were also parrots, galahs & cockatiels who were much more alert! We decided to drive on & see if we could find some more koalas. The road soon turned to a dirt track so we were pleased to have a 4x4 after all! Esp with all the rain. The road went up through forests of tall trees, many of which were eucalyptus from the smell. However the koalas must have been in hiding as we only managed to see one more. He was quite active though, busily climbing to the top of a tall tree. It was quite windy - he did well to hold onto it!! We watched him for a while before driving back along the coast road to Lorne.
As we entered Lorne, another pretty seaside surf town, we had stopped to admire the view of a beach & had saw some kangaroos on the hillside but they were quite far away. We drove onto airleys inlet where there is a lighthouse, and apparently platypus, though we didn't see any so we decided to turn inland and head off road again in search of wildlife. This track was quite different to the previous one. The ground was more sandlike and the trees much shorter & bush like. We also saw evidence of previous bush fires and controlled burning zones to prevent further fires.
We'd driven for miles up into the hills and down again and saw no kangaroos. We were almost dropping back down to the coast at Anglesea when I spotted a whole field of kangaroos, hundreds of them!! This is where they'd been hiding!! However they were still quite shy and kept bouncing away from us as we tried to take pictures - they were great to watch though!
After dropping into Anglesea the road turns more inland and becomes more of a highway. We stopped briefly at Torquay so Andy could have a paddle (and am told it was just as cold as a paddle in the sea in the British Torquay!). We then drove onto Geelong to have dinner. We had expected it to be like the other towns but it was much bigger, no small town beachside bars here! After some googling & looking up reviews on tripadvisor we opted for Black Bull Tapas Bar and the food was amazing!!
We then drove the remaining 80km or so back to Melbourne. There was just enough time to drive round the city centre & see the sights & lights (& to clock up some toll charges in the process) before dropping the hire car off & checking into our motel.
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