Port Campbell to Warrnambool, Ellerslie, and Ballarat

The day starts at Port Campbell after a great snooze and lie in. Again the weather is with us - rain that is.

Doll Heads displayed at the Port Campbell Tourist Information Centre found from ship wrecks.

The view of Port Campbell.

Well, who'd have thought such a little distance could take such a long time to travel.
So much to see:)))))))) Grotto, London Bridge, Bay of Islands, Bay of Martyrs, Crofts Bay, Boat Bay, Massacre Bay probably more.

London Bridge has fallen down

Kept watching the waves crashing on the coastline.

We had the tourist information staff laughing at Warrnambool when we said we'd had a busy day so far. We had left Port Campbell the largest suburb next door to Warrnambool and travelled 6 hours. The distance travelled way less than 100 kilometres lol. Too busy having fun, stopping every five minutes -  well it seemed like that anyway - to traverse the tops of the GOR coastline, take photos, gaze in absolute
adoration at the sights before us, and wonder at Mother Natures magnificence. So much in fact, anyone who asks, will get a descriptive monologue of everything you can see while driving on The Great Ocean Road.

Stopped in to the supermarket and picked up supplies for a picnic. Then there was the - do we stay here or do we gone on monologue. We decided to go on a bit further. On the top of the mountain range I was perusing the maps when His Lordship mutters - whoa- and slows the car. He thought there was a dog sitting in the middle of the very busy road. In fact, it was a weary looking adult male Koala!! Soft, grey fur fluttering in the breeze. All I could think was, please let the car coming the other way see it - we put our flashers on and pulled to the side of the road so other cars could see why we were stopped as we tried to usher him off the road. The other car coming towards us came to a halt - in the middle of the highway - and opened his car door onto the Koala's back pushing him on. He didn't move, so together with the other driver we scooted him off the road and into the line of gumtrees we could see some 200 metres from the road.  I hurried back and drove the still running car of the other person onto the side of the road as there were some big prime mover trucks coming up. The driver nodded in appreciation and both cars headed their seperate directions. Thats even closer than the last Koala encounter. Lucky for this one - he did not get run over.

At the side of the road at Ellerslie is an old bridge with the cleanest BBQ/Toilet and picnic area we have seen throughout our travels. So we stopped and partook our feast before travelling on to Ballarat.
Got onto a website to help us find accomodation for the night, booked it and stopped. Busy road though - a little noisy, but Lord S did not notice as as soon as his head hit the pillow he was out like a light :) Nite S No cuppa tonight - the proprietor forgot to give us milk.

Nite all :)) Till the moro comes

Saturdays Adventures and what amazing ones they were!!!

What to do today? We planned to visit the markets in Apollo Bay and what else, well we hadn't planned though we had an idea but weren't sure if we could do it.

So we drove down to the 'markets' only to see four stalls in the carpark with little to look at. I know it was drizzling and wet the previous days but there were only dark clouds and spittles of rain today. I really thought there would be some great artesians work here to see :( 

Oh well - next plan? We thought hard about a helicopter trip as we had seen a sign at Marengo which is the next suburb along the GOR. SO we drove in and asked the young fellow there - Jay - what was on offer. We saw a small plane and thought aha. Is this what we would be going it. It was confirmed by the pilot. He shows us the map and explained which flights we could do with him, He told us the price which we were happy with and so we then chose the flightpath to The Twelve Apostles and back!

In the single engine Piper plane :) About to go! I was apprehensive, scared, excited and all other sorts of feelings were going through me.

Amazingly beautiful coastline GOR

Our first view of the coast was of the oceans shoreline. Places we would never have seen by car as the GOR doesn't get that close in some parts. The plane was jumping all over the place. The wind and the sea were taunting us. Ooops I hit my head and Lord Steve laughs. Jay our pilot explains the currents in the air, and I still keep my foot braced and my hand on the chair next to me for safety feelings. The adrenilin running through my body must have been at its peak, because I was scared but I was smiling with excitement.  Worked that one out. Just truly amazing and other words I can't even think about . WOW.

And then the Twelve Apostles :))))

We never imagined how beautiful the Twelve Apostles were. Words can not describe the feelings we had. I was now calm, happy, excited and feeling so small and insignificant when viewing the majesty of this coastline.

WOW WOW WOW OMGoodness !!!

Heads in the clouds

I had to take the photo of the clouds. It felt like we were walking among them. Soft, fluffy and very white. If this is what you can see from heaven, everyone will be happy to know.

Caves and sheer cliffs.

OOPs - hit my head on the roof.

Sometimes the gusts made the plane jump, in turn so did we. Laughing when my head hit the roof. Even with the seat belts on! I was safe and Jay checked on us that we were okay.

Approaching the Twelve Apostles.

About to land back at Marengo.

Amazing. Has 45 minutes passed already! We were having so much fun.

Dancing amongst the clouds

The adrenilin running through us has made us calmer than we could have possibly ever known.

Our plane

After the plane ride what more could excitre us?  Koalas!!!! A colony of Koalas were living in the trees above the road to Cape Otway. Eating there way through many many trees. You could see where they had been, A great concern though as the trees that they had eaten the leaves from looked like they all have died,

Koals colony on the road to Cape Otway

Give me that leafNOW!!! 

The walk to Port

The thirty minute walk seemed tro take ages. The trail was sigposted at the Great Ocean Road walk but we couldnt fint he one for Cape

The above pic shows the view to ....

Our journey took us throughOtway National Park to where we saw amazing rock formations on the shoreline. The beach was clean and oure with much seaweed. WQe spoke to a local man who was about to go fishing and he told stories of how he thought he had a great catch pnly to find he had caught a massive piece of kelp!

Blanket Bay Camping area

Rock formations at

The rock formations weree colcanic and sedementary, hard basalt pebbles that had been carried through an ancient river and thn ecame the rock you can see here

Again I say WOW

Lord Steve looks a little worried huh? LOL

Got his Lordship to stand near a great mound of rock, saw some waves coming in and let him know. He said hurry up and take the pic before I get wet and freeze woman!!

Our little dinosaur - Otto

ALong the trip so far, I have see 'Fairy Houses' at Triplet Falls, Hidden Caves near cliff faces of the shoreline and now the remnants of 'Otto" - only kidding. It certainly looked great enough to write about so I hae made him up to be my little dinosaur friend......maybe a friend of the fairies that live in Cpe Otway National Park :))

The adrenilin has abated nbow and this traveller is very weary. So again Goodnight and sweet dream to all

Dee

Day Three - The Bucket List continues ......

Well would you believe I had written half of my blog when I wanted to add a photo for you to drool on while I write more, and bang its gone. So to start again ........

Our comfy bed at The Grand Pacific

We woke this morning to another happy rainy day :)) LOL I took a few pics whilst the wind blustered around the pier and looked westward toward the ocean to see black forboding clouds. More rain and high winds forecast for the day. Just as well our travel is in a vehicle which has a roof - abliet a sun roof to peek out - and windows that close - lucky us. Lets continue on with this, our GOR trip - its on our bucket list.

Sunrise, the pier and pines at Lorne.

We headed into town to look for some brekky as our hotel didn't serve such through weekdays. Though they do supply a kettle, tea etc so you can have a much needed caffiene start to the days travels. Thanks for that. The town of Lorne dosen't wake up much before 9am though there are some great shops to window shop in. We happened upon a bakery whose window announced that they had the Apprentice Baker of the Year ensconded within. I think I met him as he ladened the shelves with chocolate filled pastries. I ordered two coffees - which were the best we have had for some time and an Apricot Danish for moi. ... yummo.

We headed back from whence we came as we wanted to take a pic of the entry point to The Great Ocean Road - now throughout our holiday to be known as GOR. We turned into the layby and was met not with just the sign across the road, but written and shown in a statue the whole reason the GOR was there in the first place.

From 1918 when our returned servicemen came back from World War 1, two gangs at a time, built the GOR. They worked tirelessly hewing and digging the road to make the road us Australians take for granted. I did not know till this point that the reason that the GOR was built was to re-assimilate these ex-servicemen back into society.  His Lordship and I said the same thing at the same time and that was , this is how they rewarded these men? By re-assimilating them this way? Hand picking and digging, slogging away - not many young men would do this now - as money came in to build.

A truly lovely tribute

There at the beginning of the road is a monument to these men and their tireless work. So our thoughts were very much with these men as we traversed this difficult start to the GOR. We stopped at the plaques dedicated to their work and read them with gusto.  Even though the sky was black in parts and the rain splattering against our window, we kept thinking about these WW1 men and what they had achieved so that we may enjoy the fruits of their labour. To them we say a heartfelt THANK YOU !!!
We will remember you every time we see our photos.

Along the GOR there are many plaques for the traveller to read. If you are visiting - please stop to read, you will be amazed at the information there.

Great Ocean Road in inclement weather

The rain had caused some land slips along the way and there were verious groups of workmen cleaning up, and it looked as they had been there for some time previous. We reached the township of Apollo Bay and stopped to take a peek at the Tourist Information Centre. Helpful staff there gave us maps and brochures of things to see and do for the coming days.  Lunch was freshly cooked fish and chips (the fish rolled in rice flour for everyone and much appreciated by me since being diagnosed as a Coeliac) - Butterfish :)) Yummo.  After sitting at the beach which had been beaten by furious Mother Nature in the days preceding, we ate lunch and then we headed off to our accomodation for the next few days - Beacon Point Ocean View Villas. And they did not disappoint - Have a look below at the view from our deck. We can see the same from the bed in the main bedroom and the lounge dining area. Gorgeous!!

We were given breakfast supplies for the time we are at this accomodation, as well as a welcoming bottle of wine from a local winery. Thank you again. We shall enjoy that one evening. The villa is well appointed with everything you need - comfy bed, premade for the tired traveller. This was not expected as we thought we had to bring our own linen, so bonus :)) Coffee grains for perculating sat in the fridge - will go nicely with brekky. There is even a dishwasher, washing machine and BBQ. As the weather was turning cold and starting to rain again, his lordship loaded up the fire, after fixing the fire door handle (theres more) - funny work always seems to comes with us - we sat and gazed into the flames like mesmerised butterflies. I chanced to look out the window towards the deck and a little wren came to say hi.. So close to the window, dashing and darting about, I had to keep up with it to get a photo. Shortly, the wren was joined by two others and I truly enjoyed watching them.

Planning tomorrows journey at the moment while Lord S snoozes. The fire is still glowing and keeping me toasty warm while blogging.  Hoping you are enjoying my travels with me. Till tomorrow ......

Dee :)

(Please excuse the pics cloudiness - I am an amateur photographer - but keen. You can get the idea though of the beautiful scenery)

Day One of " The Trip"

Leaving Sydney at 8am

Silly really. Fancy leaving from the Sydney end of the expressway at almost peak time. Soooo much traffic boths ways - going up to the expressway to travel toward the City and Coast or southerly to places like Epping  and Parramatta (no way) . Thank goodness we had to turn off onto the M7 to go south after what we saw and sat in below. This, the shortest of trips took over an hour when normally its about 15 minutes travel.

Bumper to bumper, pouring rain. What a way to start a holiday. Figures though for the Lord and I to always pick such glorious weather to travel in. Should we be lucky that the weather would grace us with a peak of sunshine? Maybe.

We luck out most times - Hurricanes in Queensland - Bush Fires in Perth (never got there), chose Hamilton in New Zealand - earthquakes, Kobe in Japan - tsunami and Fiji - flood time but before we could book on our first ever (never gone now) holiday overseas, Mother Nature took her temper tantrums out in mega style. Sigh. Is it our lot in life to stay close to home?

Well not this time! It can rain all it likes. We have umbrellas, warm Ugg boots, jackets, and many layers of clothes to see us through whatever Mother Nature wants to send to NSW and Victoria. We even have a gas stove, kettle and tea bags so we can have a cuppa whenever the time arises that we require one.

So many photos to share but thought you would like to see what happened when we stopped at a little town called Jugiong in NSW. There had obviously been a flood in the township in the prior few weeks. The barrier rails had been lowered. This is to facilitate any debri being able to float across the bridge without etting stuck on it and the railing that normally protects cars from driving off it!

Bridge to Jugiong.

Before we actually got to the bridge we happened on a man riding an unusual mount !!!!!

Jack on A Roo :)

A rather old rusty man and his mount - a very large red kangaroo. The original Jack on a Roo..... a pun here ok??? Jack a roo.. Okay some won't understand but those who do should have a great laugh.

Happy Oxen :))

You can see the grass on the legs of these 'oxen' how far the water rose from the river to the old Truck Service Station.



I am sitting in a motel room at the mo, with the air conditioner on warm - actually very warm. The dial says 30 degrees celcius. Methinx not. We also have the advantage of electric blankets - something I normally don't use. Overheats moi and his Lordship. So I may have to turn it on to warm those blinking cold cotton sheets as the temperature is supposed to be zero tonight. But as the ever so bright and cheerful if somewhat unhelpful (Paris Hilton type) weather girl stated tonight - bright and sunny tomorrow at 17 degrees. Haha. Thanks for that - we are travelling farther south tomorrow.

I had to go out from the motel to purchase a meal. Round and round a growing city - that is Albury.

As I was driving I happened to glance to the left - a sign said PATCHWORK !!!! My 4WD took itself around the road to the left and then up Macauley Street, Albury to the patchwork shop - Avonleigh Country Quilting.

I just happened to 'require' some fabric to do some hexagons with while I am away - uh huh - and purchased three fat eighths of pink and rose print type quilting fabrics for $9.00. Served by a lovely lady who gave me their business card. 

If you would like to see more have a read of their BLOG at http://www.avonleighcountryquilting.com.au/

Had to add the following pic for all to see. This is the Albury Information Centre. Very helpful staff :)

And the very beautiful and well looked after Albury Train Station in its sunny glory. Gorgeous huh.

Now this weary traveller is off to shower and have a well deserved rest. Goodnight and Adious till the moro my friends - Dee