Great Ocean Road - Monday 12 February

Thursday 8 February

This is the day we checked out of our Melbourne hotel where we had been living for the last three weeks. This morning we woke up at 9AM and caught the tram to Melbourne Zoo. The zoo was huge and so much better than Werribee Open Range Zoo. I was a bit disappointed with the koalas and kangaroos though. I wanted to see loads of koalas and maybe stroke, cuddle, feed and kidnap one - but no chance. We walked through a huge bird aviary, which was beautiful. They had a few colourful parrots and lots of other different species of bird. The seals were also very good, they were swimming upside down and you could view them from a glass window under the water. There was also a tiger with three cubs, although we only saw two playful ones harassing their mother, who ended up jumping on top of a large hut to escape. There were also four male lions who were roaring very loudly. Unfortunately the gorilla section was closed off but we did see loads of monkeys. Some cute and cuddly and some not so. Like the baboons. They were disgusting and they smelt really bad. Probably because they had swollen bums which they forgot to wipe. We saw red pandas, giraffes and all the usual sort of animals you would expect to see at a zoo. There was also a butterfly farm which was really great fun. The butterflies were beautiful and so colourful. They weren't scared to land on you either as our friend Chris (Thomas) found out. They loved him. The reptile house was also good accommodating small crocodiles, snakes and spiders. We came across giant tortoises and one of them was trying to escape through the fence. His shell was under one of the planks of wood and he was doing a good job at breaking through. As we were walking down the mail road to see the small cats we heard this really loud noise coming from one of the cages. We thought this was a lion as it was a continuous roar. We got to the cage and realised that it was a seal with a bad attitude.

Saturday 10 February

We picked our "Morman" campervan up at 11am. It took about 45 minutes to go through the procedures and about 10 minutes for the lady behind the counter to explain to me her dad's constipation problems. We loved the van straight away and decided to call her Gertrude (Gert for short). On the back of the van in large spray paint it says 'Normon elders make the best lovers because they practice so much on their own'. The on a sticker at the side of the van it says 'Attention Asshole. 8th Commandment. Thou shalt not steal. God is watching you you thieving bastard. It's a wicked culture, you'll be cursed by it'. We drove straight to Rye where we said our last goodbyes to our friends who had looked after us so well.

Sunday 11 February

We left Rye to catch the ferry from Sorrento to Queenscliff. It only took us 25 minutes to reach Queenscliff but because the weather was so windy and the sea was so choppy we had to turn around and head back to Sorrento. The useless driver of the boad tried to dock at Queenscliff about 5 times, totalling about 20 minutes. Doh! But at least we got to spend some extra time with Nikki and James.

Monday 12 February

We left to catch the ferry again at 9.30am. This time the weather was perfect so we had no trouble reaching Queenscliff. We stopped briefly at a place called Torquay because I had seen a massive shopping centre full of surf shops such as ROXY!! We picked up the Great Ocean Road where we saw some of the most amazing views. The pictures look OK but I took them out of the van window as Carl was driving so they may look a bit wonky. We did see a koala at the side of the road though right by our van. He must have fallen because it was quite a way up to the trees. He looked really scared so he climbed a signpost and just stayed there.

After driving for most of the day we parked up at Port Campbell which was on the coast. The beach was quite small but they did have a pub. We parked by three other Wicked campervans (newer than ours but our paintwork was better) and this is where we spent our first night in Gert. In a carpark. The pub was in walking distance so we had a few pints and I whipped Carl's ass at pool. As always. When we got back to our campervan we noticed that the police kept driving past so we felt safe.

Tuesday 13 February

All eyes were open at 8am. From Port Campbell we drove to the 12 Apostles - a national park consisting of several (although we could not see 12) rocky outcrops on the coast which have become detached from the mainland. After a brief stop at the apostles we made our way to Otway Fly Tree Top Walk - which was meant to have been our destination yesterday. The walkway was in the middle of a huge rainforest. It was like nothing we had ever seen before. The tree walkway was about 25m above the forest floor. That doesn't sound high but for those of us (Carl) who suffer from vertigo it opens the sweat glands. The views along the walkway were amazing - the forest was so lush and green, and peaceful. Towards the end of the walkways are a 45m tower and a 30m cantilever platform on which the daring of us ventured. Carl stayed safely with the 'heavy and awkward' rucksack, which apparently prevented him from going any higher. At the top of the tower you are level with the tree tops and can see across the top of the forest. This was pretty boring really, so I went back down to the lower level and the cantilever. The platform is only connected at one end so it wobbles quite a lot as you walk out to the end of it. Apparently it can take the weight of 14 elephants. But since it wobbled with a few fat tourists I can't imagine that would be much fun for them. The whole experience was amazing and we would recommend it to anyone. It was really lucky we spotted the flyer when we were staying in Melbourne or we would have missed out big time. Neither of us had ever seen anything like it. Next stop was Triple Falls, a bit further into the Otway park. We followed a looping walkway through the forest to the fals. The forest was so quiet and peaceful it was amazing. We hardly saw a single person on our 45 minute trek. The waterfalls were breathtaking. We tried to get pictures but we just couldn't make the camera capture the beauty of the rainforest and the running water properly. You will just have to take our word for it. After leaving the rainforest we turned north and headed towards Sydney via Melbourne. The drive was really boring, but we had our music to keep us sane. After about seven hours drive we pulled off of the Hume Highway and stayed in Benalla leisure park, a few hours south of Canberra.