Great Ocean Road

We had managed to fit in a day trip to part of the Great Ocean Road when my parents & Katherine were here in December, but we were still keen to see more of it and so last weekend we decided that it was time for a road trip. Our little car is doing us proud, and all I can say is thank goodness for air conditioning! Temperatures when we left Melbourne on Friday were already in the 30s, and stayed that way for much of the weekend.

Although the Great Ocean Road drive is described as an easy trip from Melbourne, it is only really close by Australian standards! It took us about 4.5 hours to drive to Warrnambool along the most direct road - it's more along the winding Ocean Road - whilst on the map it all looks very close together. We stayed the night at a nice motel, had some great seafood for dinner (well, at least I did) and started on our way back along the ocean route on Saturday morning.

After passing through Peterborough (a bit different from your version J&V!), we stopped at a series of lookout points all with gorgeous views. The most famous is the 12 apostles which we reached early afternoon. Although you can't see 12 of them any more as some of them are obscured and the sea is constantly eroding the rock, it is a very beautiful sight. What's left of London Bridge (see 1st photo below) is also really impressive; it used to join the mainland until part of the "bridge" collapsed in 1990, leaving 2 unfortunate tousists temporarily stranded on the newly formed island! We also passed through a lot of forest throughout the day, beautiful in its own right but it is definitely not an ocean road in many parts.

We went for a dip in the ocean when we reached our stop for the night, Apollo Bay, which was a much needed opportunity to cool down. We stayed the night at the Eco Lodge YHA, an interesting new hostel designed to be as environmentally friendly as possible. After heading out for some fish & chips (had to be done) we watched a film on the hostel's huge plasma TV - not sure on the energy consumption angle there... Hostels here seem to be pretty posh, and a double room can cost as much as an en suite motel room! We will have to be a bit creative on our accommodation choices as we travel in Australia, as we were definitely more than a little bit spoilt with South American prices.

The winding drive from Apollo Bay to Lorne on Sunday morning was one of the prettiest sections of the route. I tried to take photos from the car with limited success, but the one below should give you an idea. It was still blue skies all the way and as we reached the beaches closer to Melbourne (including the famous Bells Beach) it was clear that the surfers were out in force. When we stopped at Lorne beach just before Christmas it was pretty much deserted, but this time you couldn't even find a parking space!

We returned to the city mid afternoon and having got the travel bug back immediately started planning our next trips. We have just booked to go to Sydney then Brisbane late March/early April, and aiming to fit in some shorter trips in the meantime...

Summer in Melbourne

It seems quite odd to be blogging now that we're not rushing from one place to the next every few days, but then on the other hand I know that people are still keeping up with us via this site so thought it was time for an update. Also, although we now have our very own landline and a cheap call package, the 11 hour time difference means that I am not chatting to people in the UK almost as much as I did when we were in London. I hope to catch up with more people properly soon!

OK, where to start in summarising the past month+? The first thing I have to say is that unlike the UK we most definitely have not seen any snow in recent weeks - it's certainly the warmest February I have ever experienced! The weather in Melbourne is in many ways unpredictable - for example today it has been 38 but is now raining. That has its advantages, especially when much needed rain falls, but from a personal point of view can also be a complete pain when you get caught in a thunderstorm in your flip-flops (or thongs as I've been told I must call them!) Someone said to me recently that without having the weather to talk about Melburnians would be lost, so at least that makes me feel not too far away from home...

I'm really enjoying my work here which is proving to be really varied, and of course it's a great chance for me to improve my Spanish. Andrew is also happy where he is, and it's good not to be back full time at this stage. We definitely want to focus on the holiday side of things while we have the chance, and we are currently in the process of pencilling in dates for trips within Australia. We're very aware of how much we want to do and how quickly time is flying by. We are just back from our first Aussie mini adventure - a weekend on the Great Ocean Road (post to follow) - and so we now have the lovely feeling of coming back to our own home after a few nights away.

We now feel well and truly settled in flat (we even have internet!) and have already had several friends round for dinner. The chef is also back in action - in fact we've both been cooking a lot - and don't you just love the apron?!...



We also had a party for Andrew's birthday here. We were supposed to have a few drinks here then head out to our local pub, but that pretty much went out of the window after a second trip to the bottle shop (otherwise known as off licence - they have drive-thru ones here!) As the photos show a good time was had by all, and you won't be surprised to see that we still can't dance...







On the day of his actual birthday we decided to take the day off to be tourists, including taking a wander around the Melbourne museum which has diverse exhibits to say the least. Ryan, this one's for you - see if you can work out whose kitchen this is from the original Neighbours set, now housed in the museum:



In the evening we had dinner with Andrew's mum and sister, so it can safely be said that the day was well and truly celebrated!

Other things to report...

Australia Day (26th January) conveniently fell on a Friday this year so everyone made the most of the long weekend. We started by reintegrating ourselves with the world of hostelling - not though staying in one but going on a pub crawl with Tania who we know from London. Remember the story about the girl we bumped into in a La Paz hostel? Well she is now here! It was a really good night albeit slightly strange to be part of a group of about 30 backpackers again!

Whilst recovering on Friday we saw this little air show from our balcony, especially put on for us obviously:



..and the rest of the weekend was spent at various BBQs, so yes there is some truth in the stereotype on that one! I also went to see Charlie (a friend who some of you will know/may have met at our wedding) performing as Mole in a really lovely production of Wind in the Willows at the Botanic Gardens here. I went with some friends and their 8 year old son, so didn't feel too silly pretending to be a rabbit!

Another interesting evening out was watching the ‘soccer’ semi final between Melbourne Victory and Adelaide United at the Telstra Dome. I have to admit that the prospect of going to watch a game of football that everyone insisted on calling soccer was a little bit worrying; I was even less pleased to discover that I had to support the blue team against the red one! The first half was pretty disappointing and an early goal from Adelaide didn’t help. The game was however livened up by the interesting shouts from the crowd, my favourite being “go home you Adelaide bogan” closely followed by “ it’s soccer not football” as yet another slightly far from accurate shot went flying miles over the bar…

A Melbourne equaliser early in the second half sent the crowd a bit mad, but as time ticked away it looked like Adelaide were going to win on their away goal. Just when we thought that all was lost, supersub Robinson came on for "the Victory" and saved the day in the 93rd minute. When he was interviewed afterwards his Scouse accent filled the stadium - as if we needed any confirmation of where the real home of football is! In case you were wondering, Melbourne have since won the final - against Adelaide, don't ask! - by a pretty impressive 6-0...


Celebrating the Victory's victory

And finally, here are a few photos from December that we never got round to posting:


My parents with Andrew's Dad and sister Jo at the Melbourne Wedding party


Andrew and Andrew (aka Loud)


Mum, Kath & Cath in the sea at Lorne