Wednesday 14th March

Liz -

Our Anniversary meal was fabolous, we chose by recommendation to go to a restaurant run by a German couple.   We weren’t disappointed and later waddled back to the campsite.  One thing I noticed about the aussies is there very casual and bad dress atire even when going out for meal.  Some men even chose to leave their coats on all evening.  Bizzare? 

Next day, from Phillip Island we drove to Wilsons Prom National Park and spent a day admiring it’s outstanding beauty.  We bravely took on the walk that climbs slowly up Mount Oberon for fabulous 360 degree views of the park and out to the ocean.  Shame about the wasps that accompanied us all the way but they helped me get up the hill a bit quicker!  After taking some pictures we headed back down the same path which was much more leisurely and then drove to a beach called Squeaky Beach.  We just had to experience it for ourselves.  Quite rightly so, the lovely soft white sand squeaks as you walk across it.  Someone said it was due to the fine particles of coral in the sand.   All in all it was somewhere we’d like to return one day as we didn’t realise there was camping in the National Park.

Next stop was Toora.  More of a stop over than anything.  A small historial town aparantely but we didn’t get to find out why.  The campsite in particular was nice, even though it was packed with noisy kids enjoying the bank holiday weekend.  We took a walk up a steep cow field to a wooden bench situated at the top and enjoyed the sunset over the mountains we’d climbed earlier that day.  Oh yeah, we are so fit and healthy!

The next day we drove to a town called Sale and stopped off their for the night.   Another evening walk but this time to the port and watched the boats returning from their day in the ocean.   It was nice to see the seagulls catching fish rather than scrounging food from the locals BBQ nearby.  

Bairnsdale was our last stop on along the coast before heading inland up the Great Alpine Road – a recommendation from Uncle Frank and Auntie Wendy.  Thanks for that

We booked out pitch for the night at Bairnsdale and then took a drive up to Lakes Entrance.  This was still during the bank holiday weekend and the town was packed with people jetskiing, fishing, swimming, windsailing, surfing, the lot.  We were quite envious that we didn’t have our own boat to join in the fun so we just chose to watch instead.  The drive back to Bairnsdale was er pretty scary for me to say the least.  The sidewinds were blowing our little van all over the road.  Naturally Lee loved it.

To make up for the overeating every evening, we’ve been trying to go for a walk most days so this evening we did a loop walk up the Mitchell river and back again.

Our budget has been slowly declining as our overspending was increasing.  We’re now budgeting ourselves to just $100 per day which equates to 40 english pounds.  This must cover fuel costs, campsite, food/drink, sightseeing costs, the lot.  Some days can be hard but others are easy if were just spending the day on the beach or something.  One thing we learn’t from a couple was the ‘Chateaux de Cardboard’ which is boxed wine and very cheap prices.  It’s cheap, it’s tasty, it gets ya drunk and it doesn’t give you a hangover! 

Lee -

So next morning I woke up all excited looking forward to driving the Great Alpine Road. Man I wasn’t disappointed, it is truly breath taking bend after bend after bend and going up all the time. Our camper was doing bout 40kph up most hills and if there is ever a road I’ve needed to be on my super-bike, this was it! I was gutted but was still leaning into most bends with my knee out! lol

I must say that we as with most, knew of the Great Ocean Road and its awesome views but this road (for me) was much more exciting to drive, oh and its a walkers paradise there are lay-bys with walking tracks that just disappear over the crest of the mountains.  Mummies, you would love it.

As with most of our Australian animal encounters, it’s been a case of seeing the road kill version before we see the live one, so we are pretty excited now because we have seen many roadside Wombats on this road so anticipate a live one soon.

Large parts of this region has been burnt by massive bushfires that ripped through in December time and was a shame but did not spoil it’s beauty at all.

We stopped at a village called Omeo for one night, this town appeared when they found gold in them hills! We went for our evening walk along the gully/river and was well chuffed to have our first sighting of a Echidna, naturally we saw a dead one the day.  An Echinda is a cross between an anteater and a porcupine.     Half way through our walk we came across a warning sign stating… ‘Unprotected cliffs, Unmarked mine shafts, Collapsing tunnels, Falling tree limbs’ only in oz hey I thought SWEET! Liz thought SH…T.

Our Omeo campsite was not the best equipped but it was far the most relaxing. I got talking to an Irish man who came out in January 1968 for a better life.   As he was now a migrant was drafted into the Australian army and by August 1968 he was sent to Vietnam to fight. Like he said to me ‘you gotta laugh’.  Man that’s crap luck as he was injured quite bad 1 year later.

Now we are up in the hills it is noticably cooler at night and we have had to purchase a little heater for our camper who would of thought it hey!

We’re now in a town called Bright for a few days, not much further up the Great Alpine Road.  There’s plenty to do here despite it being a small picturesque town in the middle of nowhere.  I took my first Tandem Microlight Flight this morning and were fortunate that as he had a quiet day, he gave me extra time for a lesser price.  Sweet!  I was up there for half an hour and I got to fly the pups too.  We’ve got some pictures, but again this pc is too slow to upload them.  Will post them soon hopefully.

Anyways still enjoying this pace around oz its nice to know we still dont have to rush round as we have booked our flights to New Zealand 1st of May.

Cheers for all your comments its nice to know your all looking it makes it worthwhile, oh and I’m still carrying the Burgin t shirt for a appropriate photo opportunity.