Debbie's big adventure

I hope that you are not getting too bored of this blog yet - if so, you'll be pleased to know that this is the penultimate blog entry as my journey is coming to an end. As I am writing this its actually my last day in Australia (and its back to raining again!!).

I managed to get the car safely to Adelaide after over 1,200k of driving, did get very lost trying to find the car hire office - GPS is rubbish in Australia as they don't have postcodes! I was staying at the YHA right in the centre of Adelaide for just two nights before flying back to Sydney. I had booked a day trip to Kangaroo Island for the next day that departed at 5:45am and so got an early night on my first night in Adelaide!

Kangaroo Island
Lots of people I had spoken to about the Adelaide area said that Kangaroo Island should be top of the list of things to do. I had spent 3 months trying to avoid large bus tours but unfortunately for Kangaroo Island I had no choice. There are lots of small group tours that go for 2/3 days but I only had 1 day to explore. This would be a very long day as it takes several hours just to get to Kangaroo Island and then we would then have a full day of driving around seeing the main sights.

Kangaroo Island is Australia's third largest island with a coast line of 340 miles. The island only has a small full time population concentrated in a handful of small villages. The island is effectively a giant wildlife reserve and managed to avoid most of the imported animals and diseases that have impacted on the mainland (i.e. foxes & rabbits). The day started with a 2 hour coach journey to the port at Cape Jervis followed by a 45 min ferry ride. We then arrived at Kangoroo Island and were ready to pick up our bus that would take us around. My fears about large bus tours were realised with a full bus where the majority of the people were old! The issue with large bus tours like this is that 50 people arrive at a beautiful spot at the same time and it can take ages to get on and off the bus at each stop. Fortunately I managed to get a seat near the front of the bus allowing for a quick exit & next to a young guy from Russia. Our driver, Geoff, gave some good commentary the whole way round about the island and its history.

Our first stop for the day was at Seal Bay conservation park where we had a guided tour on the beach from one of the park rangers. The Bay was absolutely gorgeous with white sand and crystal clear blue water. Not to mention the Sea Lions dotted along the beach. It was an incredibly hot day today with no clouds in the sky at all - thankfully the coach was air conditioned!!

Me at Sealion beach

The Sea Lions at this beach are wild Australia Sea Lions and are rare. There were babies on the beach that were feeding from their mothers. The Sea Lions are usually more active but it was a bit too hot! The big Sea Lions had just come in from a few days fishing at sea and were shattered so basically collapsed on the beach as soon as they arrived. As we were with a guide we were allowed right onto the beach to watch the Sea Lions. It was as close as I was comfortable with as these are pretty big animals!

Baby sealion feeding

The Seal Bay stop was amazing and this stop by itself made it worth the trip across from Adelaide. The heat was starting to get a bit unbearable - hard to imagine now that I am back in grey Sydney!! We were driving to Vivonne Bay for a great two course lunch. The main course was a BBQ with some fantastic sausages that I was a bit worried were Kangaroo!! The tour is so rushed and we only had 20 mins for lunch before we had to be on our way again. Next we were given a private display and talk about Australian birds of prey at a nearby centre. It was a bit too hot to be sitting out in the sun so the display was kept fairly short at only 3 different birds but was still really good. The highlight was this giant eagle ripping apart a whole rabbit!! Not sure why the Australians are so worried about snakes and spiders when you have these flying around!!

Big scary bird!!

We were back on the bus (again!) for a drive across to Flinders Chase National Park to the coast, we had now driven the entire length of Kangaroo Island. The main stop in the National Park was at Remarkable Rocks. These are a cluster of huge crazy shapped rocks ontop of one giant rock that rose from the sea below. The scenery around these rocks is stunning and some of the best I have seen on my travels. This shows the rocks from the car park.

The Remarkables

You get a sense of the size of these rocks by comparing them to the tiny specs that are the people standing next to them! These rocks look like some sort of crazy abstract sculpture but have actually been shaped by nature. The wind, rain and sea spray have formed these huge granite rocks. The rocks are all sorts of crazy shapes - including this 'hole in the rock'!!

Me in a rock!!

We had a grand total of 20mins to explore these rocks and get back to the bus! You are free to climb all over these rocks with no barriers anywhere but you had to be careful about where you stood on the dome rock especially when taking photos. It is easy to forget this when you are stepping backwards trying to get a great shot of all of the rocks and its a pretty steep drop down to the crashing waves below! This was one of my favourite rocks - 'The Nook'

Remarkable rocks!

I could have spent longer at these rocks as there were many great photo opportunities. The group was really split at this point with the 'youngans' climbing all over the rocks and the 'oldies' staying on the boardwalk!! (just to clarify - I am a youngan!!). The weather was still amazing if a little bit too hot! I have loads of photos of these rocks and the surrounding scenery - I am now up to about 4,000 photos in total!!! This is me sitting ontop of one of the smaller rocks.

Some amazing views!!

Unfortunately we had to leave this place and head on to the next destination. We only had a couple of hours left on Kangaroo Island and most of that time would be spent on the bus!! It was only a short drive to next stop at Admiral's Arch. There was a short boardwalk down to a beautiful cave and archway. There were loads of seals playing on the rocks and in the surf. The photos do not really do this place justice, the top of the arch is actually covered in stalactites and the archway is huge!

Admirals Arch

We watched the seals playing for a bit before having to return to the coach for a short trip to the Flinders Chase visitors centre - a much needed ice-cream stop!! We now had to make our way back across the length of the island for the evening ferry back to the mainland. There was time for a very quick stop at an avenue of Eucalyptus trees where the few Koala's on the island hangout. There were a number of Koala's in these trees, this one was moving between trees - I don't think it was too impressed with a bus load of people disturbing its sleep!

More Koala's!!

There was a huge fire on Kangaroo Island a few years ago and they had to move all of the Koala's onto the mainland as there was not enough food to go around. The Koala's at this place are essentially the only Koala's on the island. We had now finished our tour of the amazing Kangaroo Island. I wish that I had had more time to spend a couple of nights on the island exploring all of the places we didn't get to on this highlights tour. I'll definitely have to come back at some point!

Adelaide
We arrived back in Adelaide at about 11pm and so it was straight back to the YHA. My flight back to Sydney was not until late afternoon and so I would have most of the next day to explore Adelaide. It turns out that one day is all you need to do the main sights in the small city. It was a ridiculously hot day though with temperature of 43 degrees - bit different to the weather you are getting at home in the UK!! I got up early so that I could go for a walk through the university and along the river before it got too hot. There were lots of crazy joggers on the paths in the river park - I really need to get back to running when I get home!!

Another hot day!!

As with Melbourne, the city centre in Adelaide is concentrated in a small area, which is great when you only have a day to explore! There are some great old buildings (relatively old!) around the University and the Museum. The university buildings reminded me a bit of Oxford with yellow bricks and grand architecture. It was so hot that I could not stand being outside for long and so headed into the South Australia Museum to cool down with the air conditioning!

Adelaide

This museum had an impressive display of Aboriginal artifacts with really good displays with hundreds of boomarangs and masks. I spent an hour or so checking out the various free displays before heading back out into the heat for a final walk around the centre of Adelaide.

More of Adelaide

It was far too hot for me and I was very tempted to jump in this fountain to cool down!! There was some crazy weather in South Australia with a heat wave in the far south and flooding further north. The train between Adelaide and Alice Springs had been cancelled for several days due to a huge flood north of Adelaide. I was hoping that there would be at least one day of good weather on my return to Sydney!!

The next stop on my journey from Melbourne to Adelaide would be in the Grampians, a small mountain range inland from the Great Ocean Road. I was staying at the YHA in Halls Gap for two nights giving me the opportunity to do some proper hiking with a full day in the mountains. I arrived at Halls Gap in the middle of the afternoon and after checking into the hostel headed back out in the car to visit some of the many view points in the park.

The first view point was at Boroka lookout 15k drive from Halls Gap. This view point was at the top of one of the ridges at the edge of the national park. The photo is taken looking back towards Halls Gap and Lake Bellfield. The rocky mountains on the right contain the Pinnacle - where I would be headed for the next day. The view the other side extends for miles across the very flat country.

Halls Gap and surrounding mountains

The Boroka viewpoint didn't really stretch my legs enough as it was only a couple of minutes from the car park and so I got back in the car and made my way to Reed lookout where I could do a 30min walk to the Balconies viewpoint. There were some great views from the car park at Reed lookout but I still headed up the short track to the higher view point at The Balconies. The Grampians are really rocky mountains with some fantastic view points at unusual rock formations. The Balconies are two rock ledges sticking out of the mountain. Unfortunately the park service had put a fence up around a lookout restricting access to the actual Balconies. The path looked relatively safe so I jumped the barrier and went out onto the Balconies for a great photo!

The Balconies

The timer function wouldn't work for this shot as it only gave me 10sec to jump the barrier and make my way to the viewpoint - running would not be a great plan!! Fortunately there was a group that I had been chatting to that were doing the same thing and offered to take my photo - getting very trusting with my camera! It was starting to get late and so I made my way back down to Halls Gap for some dinner. Halls Gap is a tiny village in the centre of the national park with tourists making up the bulk of the population.

The Pinnacle
The next day was cloudy to start with but it looked like this was going to clear to bring another beautiful day. I was planning to do a couple of big hikes today. The first one would be a 10k loop taking me to the very top of the mountains to the Pinnacle. You can actually drive most of the way up and just walk the final section but I think that you appreciate the views more when you have made a real effort to get there! The track from Halls Gap winds its way up to the 'Wonderlands' car park along a small creek. I stopped at Venus Baths for a break on route.

Venus Baths

The track was well cut but with some big rock steps - a nice track with a bit of challenge! It was also properly in the bush but I had been assured by the guy at the YHA that snake sightings were very rare in this area! The track passed a nice little water fall before arriving at the Wonderland car park that most people use to access the Pinnacle. The track then passes through 'the Grand Canyon' which is a deep crevice in the rocks. This part of the trace was fantastic with lots to look at on the route up. The path cuts through the centre of the Grand Canyon before climbing out over the side at the top. There were some great views on route and it took me ages due to the numerous photo stops!!

Me in the Grand Canyon!

Once over the top of the canyon the track continued straight up the rock face with only tiny yellow arrows to point the way. The final stretch of the track was through 'Silent Street'. This was a really narrow crevice/canyon with barely any room for passing! There were a few lizards hanging around here but no snakes!! It was starting to get very hot and I was glad of the shade provided by Silent Street.

Me in Silent Street!

After coming to the end of Silent Street there was one final scramble up the rocks to the Pinnacle and the amazing views provided from this lookout. The Grampians is famous for the rock climbing and you can see why at the Pinnacle as there are high cliffs everywhere. There was another fantastic photo opportunity at the top of Pinnacle. There were no barriers to jump for this one but I did have to push my way through the bush and climb over some large rocks. The ledge that I was standing on was narrow and very high - I didn't stay there for long!!

The Pinnicle

I had my lunch at the top (not on the ledge in the above photo!!) and enjoyed the view. There was a rock wallaby jumping around in the bushes, it was too shy to pose for a decent photo! Unfortunately I had to leave the top to start making my way back down to Halls Gap as there was another walk to do for the afternoon. The following photo shows the main lookout at the Pinnacle.

View from the Pinnicle

The track down to Halls Gap took a much more direct route and effectively went straight down the mountain with the occasional switch back to rest the knees! There were breaks in the trees every now and then and stunning views down to Halls Gap. I practical ran down and made it back to the YHA in less than 45 mins. I had really enjoyed this walk and it was good to do a proper hike again.

Hollow Mountain
The afternoon would be spent at Hollow Mountain, which was about an hours drive from Halls Gap along a dodgy dust road - not sure the car hire company appreciated me driving down this road as my car was filthy afterwards! I drove slowly along the road as had been warned about the possibility of a kangaroo jumping out. In fact the only wildlife that I saw was another snake! At first I thought it was a twig in the road but then as I got nearer it shot across the road. I missed it by less than a foot! I stayed in the car this time so no photos!

Typical Ozzie road!

Hollow Mountain is properly in the middle of nowhere and was completely deserted when I got there. I was a little bit freaked out by the fact that my car was the only one in the car park and that there was no phone signal - hopefully I wouldn't have any accidents or meet anymore snakes!! The track up to the summit is a 2 hour return and seriously difficult. The track involved some huge rock steps/scrambles and a number of exposed ledges with huge drop-offs. This was definitely a challenge!

View from Mt Hollow

The view from near the top were amazing and you could see for miles across the flat land. I had started this track in the car park that is deep in the forest (patch of sand in mid-right of photo). The track is so steep that it gains altitude very quickly - i.e. great views for not much distance! I was starting to get a bit worried about how exposed this track was at this point but I could see the top so pushed on! The top required a short scramble but was worth it for the stunning 360 degree views.

Standing atop Mt Hollow!

There was no where to balance my camera at the top and so had to position the camera on a ledge below and then run up the top within the 10 seconds that the timer function allows. It took at least 5 attempts to get this one photo (and some grazed knees!). I really need to get a remote control for my camera! I was a bit disappointed that the mountain wasn't actually hollow! There was one bit where a cave extended right to the other side but the gap was too narrow to make it through! I safely negotiated my way down and started the long drive back to Halls Gap, I went for the detour route on sealed roads that was 40k longer than the dirt track but quicker!

I had walked miles and was absolutely shattered in the evening but headed out for a walk anyway. I still had not seen any kangaroos and apparently they should be somewhere in Halls Gap feeding. It wasn't long before I saw them on the cricket ground. There was actually a game going on but it didn't bother the kangaroos. The Kangaroos are much bigger than I thought they were - definitely wouldn't want to hit one with the car! There was a mother carrying a large baby in its pouch - the joey barely fitted in with its head and legs hanging out!!

Kangaroo's having dinner!!

I spent ages watching the kangaroos and took loads of photos, much to the amusement of a local girl who had obviously seen them before! I could easily have spent longer in the Grampians as there are many more hiking trails and I would also have liked to do some climbing. Unfortunately I had to get the car to Adelaide the next day and it is over 500k away! I left Halls Gap fairly early the next day for the mamouth journey, stopping at Mackenzie falls on the way out of the Grampians national park. These falls were impressive.

Mackenzie Falls

The area around Mackenzie falls had been destroyed in a bush fire less than 5 years ago but the regrowth was amazing. There were still burnt out trees but a lot of recovery in the ferns and 'kangaroo tails' plants. Nature is just incredible! The journey from the Grampians to Adelaide is along some very straight and long roads. The only stopping point of any real interest was the Mount Arapiles range where I stopped for a short climb to the top and some great views.

View from Mt Arapiles

I didn't really stop for the next 400k - had the ipod and the air conditioning on full blast to keep me awake!! I probably should have researched this journey a bit better as I had not realised it would be such a mamouth drive on the final day to get into Adelaide. So in the four days that I had the car I had gone from city to beach to mountains to desert and it was a fantastic journey!!

I left Melbourne early the next morning after picking up my hire car. The plan was to drive to Adelaide in 4 days via the Great Ocean Road and the Grampians. The hire car company kindly upgraded my car to some sort of beast of a car which was scary in the city but great fun on the Ocean Road! The weather was perfect and I was keen to leave the city behind and get out to the coast - as was everyone else in the city!!

The Great Ocean Road is 234k of road running west along the south coast from Melbourne. The drive is supposed to be one of the greatest drives in the world with amazing scenery. Having now completed the journey I can confirm that this is correct! There are so many stunning beaches and coves on the way that you want to keep stopping at all of them - unfortunately I only had one day to explore! My first proper stop of the journey was actually not at a beach but at a lovely waterfall called Erskine Falls. It was a bit of a walk down to the bottom of the falls but worth it for the great view of the 40m water fall.

Erskine Falls

Near to the Erskine Falls was Teddy's lookout where I stopped to check out the views of the coast and the sections of Great Ocean Road that I would be shortly travelling down. The views from Teddy's lookout were amazing with the sea being fantastic shades of blue. The weather was definitely working in my favour for a change, it was actually starting to get too hot - thank goodness for air conditioning!!

Teddy's lookout

The road hugs the coast and there are some amazing views. However, driving by yourself is not ideal as you have to concentrate so much on the road that you miss some of the views. I kept stopping to admire the views whenever possible. The road had started to get a bit busier when I reached the halfway point with a number of large bus tours slowing the traffic down. The next view point was ontop of a hill overlooking on the main towns on the road, Apollo Bay. It was a 15 min walk up a steep hill to this view point - good to stretch the legs after several hours in the car!!

Mariners lookout over Apollo Bay

The tour guide from my Phillip Island tour had recommended the best places to stop off on the Great Ocean Road and I was following his plan. It was good advice so far and so I turned off the main road for his next suggestion, Cape Otway. There is a lighthouse at the top of the cape which is the oldest working lightstation in Australia. There have been many shipwrecks on this stretch of coast and the light houses are really important. There is loads of history at this site and I spent some time wandering around the various buildings before climbing the stairs to the top of the lighthouse.

Cape Otway lighthouse

There was an actor on site who was dressed as a ships captain and was stumbling around the site in a drunken manner shouting the story of his demise to anyone who was listening. I managed to get the whole story whilst I was at the top of the lighthouse and he was somewhere far away on the ground!! The drive to and from the lighthouse station was along a road that cut through a eucalyptus forest and there were many Koala's in the trees. I kept stopping on the way back to check them out and take some photos. These were properly wild Koala's!!

More Koala's!!

Twelve Apostles
Unfortunately I had to leave the Koala's behind and get back on the Ocean Road for the final stretch of the day to the Twelve Apostles before sunset. The main sights on the Great Ocean Road are concentrated within a couple of miles of Port Campbell, where I would be staying for the night. I stopped off at the visitors centre at the Twelve Apostles viewing area with the intention of booking a helicopter flight for the next morning and to get my first sight of the rock stacks from the viewing platforms. The guys at the helicopter centre said that they had a spare front seat in a flight that was leaving right then and that I should take this opportunity as the weather may not be so good in the morning. Seemed like a sensible plan and so I jumped in the front seat of a tiny helicopter for the 15 min flight. The views from the helicopter were incredible!

View from the helicopter

This coast line has loads of rock stacks and mini islands separated from the main coast by the crashing waves. We went up and down the coast flying low and close to the rock formations. I had the best seat in the helicopter, there was me and the pilot in the front and a couple in the back. The front seats have glass windows almost down to your feet and unobstructed views - bit scary when banking round corners though!!

Me and the helicopter!!

The flight was over too quickly but was a great way to see the coast and to put the rock formations into a bit of perspective. I would be visiting most of the sights we saw on ground level over the next day or so. I walked around the viewing platforms at the Twelve Apostles but it was a bit too busy - my arrival had coincided with a couple of big tour buses! I decided to go to check into my hostel and come back later on for sunset. The hostel is in a tiny seaside town called Port Campbell and the hostel was right on the main beach road. I chose a bed in one of the front rooms and ended up having the whole room to myself!

The weather was still amazing and so I headed out of the hostel and back to the Twelve Apostles for sunset. The Twelve Apostles were once a set of 12 limestone rock stacks but have been slowly eroded by the sea. There are now only 7 remaining. The last one to fall was only in 2005. It is likely that before too long there will not be any left - a couple of them certainly did look a bit precarious! The viewing platforms allowed some great views of the rocks.

Five of the twelve Apostles

There were a few people on the viewing platform for sunset but it was much quieter than earlier in the day. There are some really annoying barriers on the main viewing platform which restricted the viewing and photo taking opportunity but I guess they must be there for a reason!! The sunsets over the ocean but as it goes down the colours on the rocks change to a fantastic orange. The colours changed all the time and I ended up taking loads of photos!!

The other two apostles

I waited around until the sun completely disappeared before heading back to the pub in Port Campbell for a relaxing pint! It was definitely worth checking out the Apostles whilst the weather was good as when I woke up the next day the weather had changed and it was very cloudy. I did head back to the Twelve Apostles to go down Gibson Steps to the beach at the base of the Apostles. You really appreciate the size of these rock formations from the ground level - they are massive!! I thought the tide was going out and so walked along the very narrow beach to try and get a view of the other Apostles but just as I got round the corner I realised the tide was actually coming in and about to cut me off!! I got wet feet as I made my way back to the base of the steps!

Gibson Steps

I had an early start this morning as I only had a couple of hours before needing to head inland to the Grampians. It was going to be another long day of driving but I wanted to make the most of the morning by checking out some more of the amazing rock formations around Port Campbell. Before leaving the Twelve Apostles, I went back to the viewing area whilst it was virtually empty to take some photos of me at the Apostles. Once again my gorillapod came in handy!!

The Apostles on the next day

I drove a short distance further down the coast to Lord Ard gorge. The Lord Ard had sunk after striking the rocks killing all but two of the crew. There are a number of short walks to viewing points around the gorge and I set off on one of the longer ones. It was still only 8am and I was essentially on my own - far too early for tour groups to arrive! I got half way along the path before spotting some movement in the grass verge. I bent down for a closer look and realised that there was a snake curled up in the grass. I was really excited about my first snake sighting!! I thought the chances of it being poisonous were slim and so knelt down to take some close up photos. A man then tapped on my shoulder and told me to slowly get up and back away - this was an Eastern Brown snake, one of the deadly snakes!!

A deadly snake!!!

This gave me a bit of a shock - I definitely need to be more aware of snakes and give them a bit more respect. A bite from one of these could have left me in serious trouble!! I had not expected to see a snake at all let alone so close to a main pathway. I kept my eyes on the ground after this and walked down the middle of the path keeping as far away from the edges as possible!

Having safely negotiated my way back to the car I continued my journey further down the coast to the London Bridge. This arch had once been a double arch bridge connected to the main land but in 1990 the first arch collapsed. This arch was always called London Bridge and was now falling down!! There is a good chance that the rest of the remaining arch will collapse at some point in the near future.

London Bridge (is falling down!!)

Close by to the London Bridge was my final stop along the Great Ocean Road at The Grotto. This is a really cool arch way where you could look through to the ocean on the other side. There are some amazing limestone rock formations along this stretch of the coast and because of erosion these may be completely different in a few years time.

The Grotto

It had been a pretty rushed tour of the Great Ocean Road but I had managed to see most of the key sights in the 24 hours that I spent on this stretch of coast. It was amazing and the great weather definitely helped! I was heading inland next for a couple of days in the Grampians mountain range. I had now seen Koala's and snakes and was hoping for a kangaroo in the Grampians (and no more snakes)!!

It was time to leave Sydney again but this time for a trip down at the far south of Australia to do a road trip from Melbourne to Adelaide. I experienced my first flight delay of the entire trip on the way out of Sydney. We were just about to board the plane when they had to shut the airport due to a storm. It was an impressive amount of torrential rain. I had visions of having to stay in the rain in Sydney for another day but fortunately they reopened the airport an hour later! The delay mean't that I didn't arrive in Melbourne until mid-afternoon and only had a couple of hours of daylight to explore Melbourne. I also got lost on the way to the hostel and wasted an hour of the limited daylight going round in circles! I only had this afternoon to explore the city as I had booked a full day tour to Phillip Island for the next day and we would leave early and not arrive back till midnight! I dumped my stuff at the YHA and walked downtown. The YHA is in a central location with some cracking views from the roof terrace.

View from the YHA roof terrace

Melbourne is a really nice city with some great architecture and it also feels a lot smaller than Sydney, which I like! The downtown area is concentrated around Federation Square and the Yarra river. It only took me an hour or so to walk around the main sights in central Melbourne. The weather was not perfect but at least it was dry - a bonus point for Melbourne on the Sydney v Melbourne scale!!

Downtown Melbourne

The best way to get a quick view of the city is to head up high and the Eureka Skydeck was the way to go in Melbourne. This is the 88th floor of a huge skyscraper that has amazing 360 degree views of the city. The views from the ceiling to floor glass windows were very impressive - everything below looked so small!! This photo shows the same sky line as the one above. Flinders Street railway station is in the middle.

View from Eureka Skydeck 88

I spent a lot of time up the tower checking out the views as it was nearly sunset so worth staying up for both the day and night time sights. The only problem was that the glass windows were really reflective and not great for taking photos. The small outside deck was far too windy & scary to take too many photos as well! I felt the need to obtain my adrenaline fix for the day and decided to upgrade and buy a ticket for 'The Edge'! This is basically a glass box on the 88th floor. After waiting my turn I was taken through to a dark cube with a small group of other crazy people. The cube then is rolled out into position jutting out from the side of the skyscraper. The glass on all sides of the cube is opaque as it is rolled out but then suddenly they flick a switch and all sides of the cube are turned to clear glass. The cube is suspended 3m from the side of the building and 300m above the floor. Seriously freaky!!

Me in the glass box!!

The Edge is really clever and the effects are great - completely different to just walking on a glass floor. It was scary though when the cube was rolled in and out, especially as they play clunking noises as a sound effect! I fulfilled my adrenaline needs and headed back down to earth. I called it a night and went back to the YHA for an early night - needed some rest for the follow day's trip to Phillip Island.

Phillip Island
The next day was essentially devoted to Phillip Island and the wildlife. I had booked a small group tour of the Island and the highlight being a private penguin experience at the nightly penguin parade. Phillip Island is a small island joined to the main land by a short bridge. There were only 12 people on my tour and they were all really friendly - it was going to be a good day! The first stop was at the Australian Gardens an hour away from Melbourne. Our guide gave us a guided tour of the main highlights of the newly established gardens. The gardens are set up to show the native Australian plants and to demonstrate the importance of water to Australia's landscape.

Australian Garden

The gardens were great but mainly because our guide knew his stuff and could highlight the best bits. We stopped for an early lunch at the gardens before getting back in the bus for the short trip over the bridge to Phillip Island. Next on the agenda was a quick stop at Penny's Amazing World of Chocolate. I thought that this was a bit of a bizarre stop for a nature tour but it was fun anyway. There were lots of chocolate sculptures and artwork on display including this one of Michelangelo's David. There was also a good amount of chocolate tasting on offer!

Me and the chocolate David!

Suitably buzzing from the chocolate fix we headed to a Koala conservation park to hopefully get my first sighting of a Koala. I was not disappointed and literally as soon as we walked out of the visitors centre there was one high in the trees. The Koala's are not captive in this park and are free to come and go as they please - I class this as being wild! Fortunately there were several Koala's around the park at the time of our visit. There were some boardwalks around eucalyptus trees so that we could get pretty close to some of the Koala's. We also spotted a Kookaburra sitting in a tree and a couple of wallabies.

Kookaburra (sitting in an old gum tree!!)

The main highlight though were the Koala's that were chilling out in the trees. There were some with babies as well. I took loads of photo's but this is one of my favourites with a very sleepy mum & baby. They didn't seem too bothered by the people below taking photos. I was really happy to see a Koala (not in a zoo) and starting to feel like I am now seeing the proper Australia. Just need to add a kangaroo and a poisonous snake to the list now!!

Sleeping Koalas

I could have stayed watching the Koala's for ages but we had to move on to get round to the penguin parade area for the evenings main performance! We stopped at a small seaside town on route for an early dinner before heading to The Nobbies for a sneak preview of the penguins. Phillip Island has one of the largest groups of Little Penguins, the worlds smallest penguins, which come out of the water every night to waddle up the sand dunes to their burrows i.e. The Penguin Parade. We spent some time at The Nobbies, which has a number of boardwalk sections around the sand dunes where some of the Little Penguins have made homes. There were a few penguins around but these were hiding under the boardwalks!

Penguins hiding under the boardwalk

Photos are not allowed at the actual penguin parade and so The Nobbies was the only opportunity to get some photos of the Little Penguins. The sun was starting to set as we left The Nobbies for the Penguin Parade centre. I had gone for the upgraded viewing option and was booked for a private penguin experience. This is a small group tour with a ranger who would give us some more information on the penguins. We also get the prime seats at the very front of the viewing areas for the parade. We settled down in our seats on the sand and waited for sunset. The penguins are at their most vunerable as they cross the beach and so wait until sunset before coming ashore in groups. The penguins are out at sea fishing for a couple of days and only head back to rest and to feed babies that waited in the burrows in the sand.

We could see a few groups of penguins waiting in the surfing. The first few groups would come up onto the sand by a couple of metres and then get freaked out by something and head back into the water! The first group made a couple of attempts of crossing the beach. I can't help thinking that it could be the floodlights and the 1,000 odd people sitting on the beach freaking them out!! Once one group safely crossed the beach the other started coming out of the water and waddling right past us to the dunes. It was an incredible sight and one of my trip highlights. This photo is not mine - as you were not allowed to take photos but its just to give an idea of what it looked like.

Penguin parade

We spent an hour watching them come up the beach and along the side of the board walks. The penguins are really noisey as they call out to find the young in the burrows. Watching the waddling is funny - they get a bit of speed up then almost trip over their feet! I could have stayed watching them all night but the bus was going to leave at 10pm and it would be a very long walk back to Melbourne. As we got back to the visitors centre there was a small group of penguins that had obviously got lost and ended up on the boardwalk by the centre - the ranges had to sheppard them off the boardwalk and back onto the sand!

This has to be one of the funniest signs I have seen but everyone dutifully checked under their cars for stray penguins!!

Amusing sign!!

It had been a really long day but it was brilliant. The penguin parade is one of those experiences that I will remember forever and that I can't do justice in my explanations. I suggest you get over here and do it for yourself!!

That was essentially my time in Melbourne as I left the city early the next day for the Great Ocean Rd. I really liked Melbourne and wished that I could have stayed longer - perhaps next time!!

Firstly, sorry this blog has got a bit out of date - things far too hectic for me in Australia!! I am now back in a city after spending a great week travelling round the coast & mountains and so will get the blog back up to speed in the next couple of days!!

I arrived back in Sydney after a great trip out to the Blue Mountains to more rain - is it ever decent weather in Sydney!! The main event of this stay in the city is New Year. I failed to get any hostel accommodation over New Year and so had to break the credit card and book into a hotel. The three nights cost more than a months worth of backpacker hostels but it was really good to have my own room with a made bed and fluffy towels!! It was the first time I had watched TV for 2 months as well!! The hotel was good but in a very dodgy area - there was a huge fight right outside the hotel on the final night including some impressive chair throwing!!

The plan for New Year was to try to get into the main firework viewing point at Mrs Macquaries point and then spend the day in the botanical gardens. This is the key viewing area and is a managed site that closes after reaching capacity of 20,000!! There is also no pass-out so once you are in you have to stay there. In order to be able to get into this site you need to queue up as soon as the gates open at 10am. Jeff and I sorted a picnic and headed to the back of very very long queue!

New Years Eve queue!!

This was very civalised queue with some occasional entertainment. Someone at the front set of a mexican wave that travelled the whole way along the snaking queue - must be some sort of world record!! There were also a group of orange people (in the Tango style!) that were having wheel barrow races and generally mucking around. It was a great atmosphere and even the drizzle wasn't too bad! We got to the end of the queue in about 3 hours and gained entry to the site (thankfully!!). We then found ourselves a spare patch of grass at the very top of Mrs Macquaries point. It would have had a great view of the bridge if it wasn't for the huge tree - who thought of putting trees in botanical gardens!!

The botanical garden crowds!

We settled down for the day and got to know our neighbours. I also met up with a couple from the Uluru trip and with a guy that I had met on the canyoning trip in the Blue Mountains. It was a great atmosphere with everyone in good spirits despite the long wait to get in and the rubbish weather! The whole of this top end of the gardens was packed with people. We had a fantastic view of the harbour and passed time by watching the boats come in to get their prime spot for the fireworks.

The New Year celebrations in Sydney are an all day event starting with a 'spectular flying display' which was in fact a bit rubbish. It consisted of 3 little planes flying in circles around the harbour - I did more impressive stuff in my stunt flying in Queenstown and was tempted to offer my services!! There was then the 'cleansing of the waters' with a fire service boat spraying the harbour area with water to get rid of the evil spirits - hopefully that would sort the weather out! We had a brilliant spot for watching all the going ons in the harbour. The fireworks started at 9pm with the practice/kids fireworks. These were really impressive with fireworks being set off from barges all down the harbour.

Practice fireworks!!

After the practice fireworks the cruise ships did a lap of the harbour and showed off their lights. The harbour was so busy I had no idea how they managed to avoid each other in the dark. There was enough time to get one final beer from the onsite bar before settling down for the main show. The area was so crowded and reminded me of Glastonbury with the great atmosphere, various food stalls/bars and very unpleasant toilets!

Boats in the harbour

The excitement now started to build for the midnight fireworks. People were pushing forward from up the hill to get a better viewing spot and it was now completely crammed at the front. There were fireworks set off every 15 mins in the final hour with increasing intensity. There was then a count down to the big firework display at midnight. It was amazing and definitely the best firework display I have ever seen. Unfortunately I could only see the bridge if I bent down but this involved looking through peoples legs!! Still just being there was amazing - once in a lifetime perhaps!!

The main show!!

The fireworks carried on for 12 minutes and there was an amazing finale. The recession clearly had not impacted on the budget for the fireworks - millions of dollars up in smoke!! Everyone then wished Happy New Year to each other! It was definitely worth the queues and having to spend all day saving a spot to be in Sydney for the New Year celebrations. Fantastic way to start of 2010! We hung around until the 20,000 people had started to exit the gardens before moving forward for one final view of the bridge.

The bridge in 2010!!

This must have been the first New Year in about 10 years that I hadn't been drunk!! Perhaps I am getting old! Despite not being hungover on New Years day it was a bit of a write-off. The weather was still rubbish and I had loads of domesticated things to do like washing before heading out of Sydney to South Australia. I even went to the cinema to pass time!! It was my last night in the posh hotel so made the most of it by going down to the bar and claiming free drinks for the night!

A bit belated but I really hope that everyone else had a fantastic New Year and I wish everyone the best for 2010!!