Our weeks Holiday started after work on a Friday with a 5hours drive to our first Caravan site on the NSW Coast at Lakes Entrance. A long drive in heavy rain, but it got us ahead of schedule for our 2200Km round trip. To pass the time we played guess the gap between oncoming cars – 26Km was the record I think – but hey, it is a Bank Holiday Weekend so the roads were busy!!
Saturday
Back on the road at 10am, heading South East past Sale and on to Phillip Island where we had a 2 night stop with 1 day in Melbourne and 1 special must see evening at the Penguin Parade (sorry no photography permitted)
Penguin Parade.....or maybe not.
We pre-booked the renowned “penguin parade”, an evening event that sees a huge colony of the World’s smallest Penguin come ashore on a small beach not far from Melbourne. We arrived early as instructed and made our way through the souvenir filled visitors centre to the beach viewing area were we joined hundreds of other eager visitors. The wind was strong and cold but we huddled together for warmth and awaited the first returning penguin of the night. After an hour, a penguin ranger announced, to the now extremely cold masses, that the penguins should be with us in 15minutes. We were all extremely cold and the children in the row behind were “over tired” . However, with the ranger talking of 1200+ penguins, we knew that the spectacular sight was going to be worth every ounce of discomfort. Another 15minutes of being blasted by the sand laden wind and there are still no penguins.... Then, at last, a little black figure appears at the water’s edge....is it? Yes, it must be the leader of the masses, bringing his huge crew back home for the night. Then 3, 4, 8 ...here they come, we thought, and oh how we looked........but 20 more minutes of teeth chatering and the I think we may have seen 45 penguins and probably included a few mistaken gulls. What a disappointment, but as we stood queuing at the tills in the warm souvenir shop, with handfuls of penguin related “tat” we felt what a brilliant piece of marketing......I saw more penguins at Welsh Mountain Zoo!
Visit to Melbourne. Nice atmosphere and a lovely blend of old and new buildings.
On a Melbourne Bridge .....
Immi put her head through the bridge to see the rowers below, only to lose her hat when she pulled her head back through...oh how she cried – didn’t give a hoot about the hat before, but as we all watched it sink in the river below, it become the World’s best hat, simple irreplaceable.
Happy now and enjoying the Cafe culture
One for Dad - The MCG.
Monday
Time to move again - onwards to the Sorrento Ferry which saves driving for an extra 2.5hrs around Melbourne to get to the start of the Great Ocean Road. Girls enjoyed the 30min trip which was shared with all of 20 other tourists. We were soon back on the road and heading south down the coast.
There were others on the ferry but they were mainly crew.
Our first campsite on the GOR was Lorne, a very nice town with classy restaurants and boutiques.
Mon PM / Tuesday
Lorne and a chance to take in the views, enjoy the beach and get wet.
Wednesday
Time to finally drive the Great Ocean Road – 2.5hrs of sharp bends, narrow lanes and often serious drops to the sea or rocks below.....very relaxing with a caravan! Frequent shouts from Sal – “wow, look at that”....”no don’t, keep your eye on the road”
Stayed overnight in Port Campbell, had planned 2 nights but as we all walked the entire village in about 20mins, we decided to limit our stay to 1 night only.
Can you tell who's been in the water after being told not to?
Thursday
We drove the remaining few miles of the GOR and got to see "London Bridge".
Then turned inland and drove to Ballarat. One of the old Gold minning towns. Went to see Soverign Hill - an entire village / mine that has been preserved and is now run with open shops and all staff in authentic costums - the girls loved it.
Holly with a fresh 3kg Gold bar worth $118,000
(I was going to shout run, but the chap has hold of her her hood)
Friday
The hard slog back home starts - 4.5Hrs drive followed by 5.5 Hrs on Saturday and then finally some rest.
Saw this on the way back and thought I'd throw a photo in - 4hrs from the coast and there is a sub on the main street of a town that we drove through (Holbrook)....good chance for a break.
