Victoria

The past month touring Victoria has been just as we expected: cold, windy and picturesque. Nice place to visit, but the weather… We are currently coming back through NSW and will be home soon; well in time for some Christmas shopping for the kids. I think I signed off last time by saying the kids had not once mentioned home. That all changed a few days after penning those fateful words. Home is on our collective mind as we visit some relos and inch our way closer to Sydney.

The Great Ocean Road

Taking up from our last blog post a month ago, after Kangaroo Island we followed the SA coast eastwards, crossing the Murray River at Wellington on a punt before skirting the very large Lake Alexandria (or the mouth of the Murray) and staying at Robe on the Limestone Coast. Our first destination on the Victorian coast was Warrnambool, where its Flagstaff Hill provides a wonderful historical tour and multimedia/laser light show re-enacting the sinking of the Loch Ard on that treacherous coast in 1858.

From there the Great Ocean Road meanders about 200km along very windy and beautiful coastal terrain. It took us over eight hours to complete the journey, stopping at most of the lookouts and lingering at the Loch Arch Gorge dreaming about what it would be like to be ship-wrecked on a stormy night in such inhospitable waters. Just two of 58 people survived, somehow.

We camped at Anglesea for a few days and toured around, visiting Tourquay and Bells Beach, which conjured some wonderful surf but looked far too tricky for me to test my novice skills. For more than 22,000km my second-hand, soft surf board has been tied to the under-carriage of the van and not once has it been used (until reaching the coast of SA and Victoria there hasn’t been any opportunity but when there, the water was too bloody cold or the surf was too big for my inexperience).

See Great Ocean Road pics here.

The Goldfields

From the coast we headed due north to Ballarat, that famous gold rush town of the 1850s in central Victoria where the Eureka Stockade uprising took place. There are some nice old buildings there but the town itself seems a bit tired and in need of a makeover. I don’t know when I last saw so many teenage mums pushing prams around. The kids loved the Sovereign Hill gold rush theme park. I travelled by bus to Melbourne on a Saturday and flew back to Sydney for the night to see my mate Memsie off to live in Japan (temporarily) with his expecting wife (who has since given birth to a healthy boy).

From there we travelled north east to Bendigo, a much prettier town, via some very lush countryside and cute towns (such as Castlemaine, which the Victorians pronounce “casle…” as opposed to the more common “carsle…”). Recent rains this year have apparently turned the hills green again. The “talking tram” in Bendigo is a popular tourist attraction and having a son mad on trains/trams meant that we had to ride on the little circuit several times (at least Liz and Tabitha got to go shopping).

See Goldfields pics here.



Melbourne

From there we travelled through the wine regions north of Melbourne to that state capital, destination the Big 4 caravan park of Coburg. It was funny being back in a big smoke after being on the road for so long. The kids loved the city and Charlie couldn’t believe his eyes: there were trams and trains everywhere. He and I rode trams for many hours, to the point that he decided he only wanted to go on short rides in future.

Liz also flew back to Sydney for one night (with Tabi), to join in her mum Kaye’s 70th birthday party, which nearly didn’t happen because Kaye didn’t want one. If Liz’s dad Ray didn’t reveal to Kay that Liz was flying back for the occasion it probably wouldn’t have happened. By all accounts, it was a very successful event. You can’t let a big milestone pass without a party!

See Melbourne pics here.

Phillip Island and the Gippsland

We continued south on the South Gippsland Highway to Phillip Island, home of the Aussie Moto Grand Prix. It is a lot like a smaller version of SA’s Kangaroo Island, but just a lot more touristy. The “penguin parade” was a fantastic experience, witnessing hundreds of little penguins emerge from the surf on dusk and walk across the beach to their burrows in the sandhills and nests in and around the nearby car park. We were asked to check under our cars before leaving. The only disappointment was that you were not allowed to take any photos.

But that didn’t seem to matter at another location called The Nobbies where the little penguins wander around in the day time. The island itself is a serene place and while we were there “out of season” you could tell it was a very touristy destination. There are various sites and activities to do but they all cost plenty of mula.

From the island we made our way to Wilson’s Promontory, an amazing outcrop that is Australian mainland’s most southern point. This national park seems so completely different from the rest of the southern coast. It was like being on a tropical island: beautiful beaches, creeks, dune regions and mountains.

Next stop was Omeo in the Victorian alpine region, a quaint mountain town with trout infested creeks and rivers. At least we were told the waterways were brimming with trout but despite our best efforts all we caught were snags and colds. From there we headed straight up, and I mean up, all the way to an elevation of 1950m via Mount Hotham on a cold, wet and foggy day. It took us over six hours to travel the remaining 300km to the NSW boarder where we crossed the Murray River again.

We are now travelling from the Riverina through the South Western Slopes and will soon be home, from where we will pen our final blog post along with some tips and “best of” and “worst of” things experienced from our five month sojourn. Amazingly, we family of four are all still talking to each other having lived almost on top of each other for so long!

See Gippsland pics here