Melbourne to Sydney: The long way round

The journey around the coasts of Victoria and New South Wales is filled with beaches, beach towns, rain forests and Mountain passes.

We left Somers and headed around the south of Melbourne to Philip Island, primarily to see the penguins come into roost. The strange thing about Philip Island is that it really really wants to be the Isle of Wight! It has a Cowes and a Ventnor they then got a little confused and named a town Rhyll! The naming of towns after places in the UK is something that never ever gets old for either of us, we haven't found Ross Vegas on our journey so far but have found the River Wye!

The penguins at Phillip Island were great but we actually enjoyed a big walkway at a visitors centre on the western tip of the national park more, as there were loads of penguins nestled under the walkways. There are also loads if seals living just off the island and where there are seals there are Great White Sharks, the longest caught off the island being around 5m long. No one was surfing!

We then headed to the small town of Lakes Entrance about 3hrs drive south. The town is shielded from the Southern Ocean by a huge sandbar that creates a huge lake that houses a large fishing fleet. We decided to stay in a motel for a couple of nights so that Gemma could finish off her DTTLS assignments.

Following the successful completion of the course work we headed cross country for a whole to Eden and then up the Sapphire Coast to Batemans Bay staying in free camp areas in the back of the Falcon.

Batemans bay is the heart of the tourist area on the Sapphire coast but feels like an upmarket fishing town rather than Blackpool! We explored the huge coastal walk and came away impressed but inevitably we had to move on!

Kiama was next, we had watched the results of a cyclone passing over the town 2 weeks before on the TV. The town got off lightly but you could see the path of devastation, all buildings in the path had suffered damage but those literally metres either side had suffered no damage at all! The sign outside the front of the Fire Station said it all: "Have you checked your roof? We can't find ours!"

After Kiama we then turned inland heading towards Maquarie Pass national park where we experienced some great Alpine driving as the road wound its way up 1200m in about 4km and then spent the night in Bowral a small town that time had forgotten, originally intended to be the main town in this area but unfortunately the railroad missed the town so it never made it big!

After another night in a beautiful free camp area we headed over to Camp Wombaroo on the edge of the Jellore Forest to catch up with Stuie Whyte who had just moved over to Oz to work there. We had also intended to catch up with Carl and Moyra but out timetables didn't match up so they lent us their beautiful home at the camp whilst they were away!

It was good to see an outdoor centre Oz style, the centre reminds me of an LEA type centre, basic accommodation and a few onsite activities with most stuff taking place off site on wild camps in the bush.

Stuie introduced us to the RSL club in Mitagong. These clubs exist across Australia in every town. They were set up initially to commemorate australian service men and followed the uk tradition of working men's clubs, however these days they are very glamorous affairs like the interior of a Las Vegas casino with hundreds of fruit machines (Pokies) and all manner of ways to make a bet. We watched the Melbourne Grand Prix, had some food and a pint and lost some cash on the Pokies, all in all a great night!

The next day, we bade farewell to Stuie and the centre and set off to the Blue Mountains to the west Sydney. Suffice to say they were stunning with great views. Highlights were the town of Katoomba with great views from Echo point of the Three Sisters and the Katoomba falls and the tourist drive along the cliff tops.

That about wraps up another one

Next time it's the long long long long drive up to Cairns!

Phillip Island and Seal rock

The 3 Sisters in the Blue Mountains (looks like the Ardeche a bit)

Katoomba Falls in the blue mountains, I've seen more water from a spilt pint!

Batemans bay Harbour

Theres a lot of fish in this ocean!

Gemma near Camel rock, she can hear the sea through the shells

Nice beach at Batemans Bay

Just love Australian publis service messages!

The Great Ocean Road!!

Buying a car in Oz is a very similar process to buying one in the UK. You head to the dealer, they feed you a load of entertaining rubbish about "how the price of the car is so cheap that they don't actually want to sell it to you" and how "she'll go all day, get you to Cairns and back without even changing the oil" and even sharing their insights on your chances of reaching Cairns in a 4000 dollar car "you bloody well won't get out of Adelaide for 4000 bucks!".

When asked about the service history, high mileage, strange noise coming from the exhaust and general condition of the car the reply was "listen mate, I reckon you'd be an idiot not to buy this car, you are worrying about nothing, it's a Falcon Wagon! Made for Australia, V6, 4 litres, rear wheel drive, get it in ya!"

Needless to say, we bought the car (mostly because it was called a Falcon and the stereo and air con worked!)

After a trip to Clarkes Rubber (to buy a mattress, honest) and a quick trip to the local target for some camping chairs and bedding we were ready to head off.

The journey from Adelaide to the start of the Mt Gambia pretty much at the edge of South Australia and Victoria is around 300km, we took a couple of days, sleeping in the Falcon in free campsites along the way and stopping in cool coastal fishing towns. The views and sunsets along this stretch of the Limestone Coast were amazing.

Heading from Mt Gambia towards Warnambool for the start of the Great Ocean rd is another days leisurely driving, stopping off at various little towns such as Portland and Point Fairie to follow the town walks and see some spectacular coastal scenery.

Once in Warnambool we stayed for a couple of days and camped near Hopkins Falls ( the widest falls in Australia ).

When car camping in secret car parks or campsites you come to rely on swimming pools and surf beaches for showers. This means that you are always on the lookout for spiders, snakes and other monsters that lurk in sandy un cleaned changing rooms in the back of beyond. It was in one of these changing rooms that Gemma met her first Wolfy Spider about a hands width across, grey and furry and absolutely convinced it would win any battle with a flip flop. Dave bravely ran away.

The Great Ocean rd is.... GREAT! Words can't do justice to the scenery, suffice to say that you could easily spend 2 or 3 days travelling along the 200km or so just to see the sea stacks in different lights. We were impressed by The Bay of Islands more than the 12 Apostles as it was a lot quieter being further away from Melbourne.

On finishing our journey we hooked up with Kym, Donald and Fyonn Munro in a little town called Somers on the Mornington Peninsula, an hour south of Melbourne. We were treated to Fish and Chips on their nearly deserted beach. We were told tails of swimming with dolphins right off the beach ( we didn't see any much to the dismay of Donald, we reckon its cos they could smell the Pomes in the water), went to a rock concert, drove round the Melbourne Grand Prix circuit (as they were setting it up) and were introduced to Ozzy rules footie by attending a Nab Cup game in Melbourne. We saw a Koala in their backyard, battled a giant Huntsman Spider in the Cubby (it resisted being sucked up by a Dyson and ran straight at Dave), built a giant sand sea defence and generally had an amazing time. Big thanks to you guys !!

Heading along the coast from Melbourne round towards Sydney next!

The Mighty Falcon (and a nice view)

The Bay of Islands

The 12 Apostles (there are only 9 left standing)

Awesome Surf Museum in Torquay... dude

Moomba Festival on the banks of the Yarra in Melbourne

Killer Ninja Huntsman spider, size of a dinner plate!

Gemma and the Munro's, Great Hosts!

The rest of the 12 apostles!