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We decided to hire a car so that we could explore the surrounding areas of Melbourne and then travel along the Great Ocean Road en-route to Adelaide. It was amazing and we had so much freedom as to where we could go, plus we didn't have to walk everywhere!!! We first visited Phillip Island where we watched the "fairy" penguins come back home from a hard days fishing in the ocean - they were so cute as they all waddled up the beach in little groups one behind the other. We also visited Australia's largest fur seal colony, 18,000 seals living on one rock!!! and watched the daily pelican feed. After that we drove to the Mornington Peninsula where we went round some of the national park areas and up into the hills before catching the ferry across Phillip Bay to reach Ocean Grove. We met up with the Australian Wynn family who looked after us for the night and gave us lots of tips for our road trip including where to go, how to avoid snakes and what to do if we get caught in a bush fire!! Not the typical advice you'd get in England. We laughed at first but how wrong we were!!!! On our journey down the Great Ocean Road we spent a lot of time at the "Otway National Park" , there where so many amazing walks and trails through the rainforest that we spent time doing. One particular walk to see Beauchamp falls looked like nobody had been there for weeks/months - the path was so narrow, David having to move overgrown bushes and spiders webs out of the way before i would carry on. At one point he froze, pretending to me that he was fine and nothing had happened. After I made him tell me what he had seen he said it was a snake so I was terrified for the rest of the walk, stamping my feet all the way like the Wynns had told me. The waterfall was the most amazing waterfall we have ever seen and was definately worth the walk until we found out later in our travels that the snake David had seen was a taipan - Australia's deadliest snake!!! Scares us thinking about it now. Along the coast we drove past so many beautiful rock formations including the '12 Apostles', 'Loch Ard Gorge' and 'London Bridge' as we wound our way through the rainforest on the way to Adelaide. After we passed the rainforest area we started to get into areas of dry bush land - due to Australia's worst drought. As we are happily driving along we start to be surrounded by smoke and can hardly see the road in front of us. Next thing, a fireman on a motorbike speeds passed us waving us to go back. As we turn back we see the fire engines whizzing passed us - great! we had just driven into the start of a bush fire!! We're not going to get these sort of experiences in England!! We finally reached Adelaide the day after England had just lost the 2nd test of the Ashes so we missed that but had all the Aussies making fun at us over it to deal with instead!! Spent a few days walking around the city and exploring what it had to offer, including Port Adelaide and the beach.
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