Sydney to Melbourne

For our last day in Sydney we decided to hit Bondi beach for one last look around before leaving, so we got up early in the morning swimsuits on and hit the beach. The only problem was we hadn't checked the weather and while it was lovely and sunny it was only 23 degrees with big gusts of wind. Being British we did try to withstand it and we even had a little dip in the ocean but after 10 minutes of being pelted with sand we decided to give in and head home, via a stop for a hot chocolate and churros to warm us up!

In the evening we headed out to a nice little bar which I had read about which served cocktails and was based (somewhat loosely) on a European ski lodge. There was a ski film playing in the background and the bar was very small but this made it cosy. After a couple of very nice cocktails and some dinner in the bar we headed back home.

The following morning we picked up our campervan and started the drive to Melbourne. The van is not as big as the Winnebago but is larger than the last camper we had which we are grateful for. We have decided to drive past Melbourne to join the Great Ocean Road (GOR) in order to drive back to Melbourne. This is supposed to be a beautiful drive that takes place next to the ocean with lots of scenic viewpoints. The first day we drove for between 8 and 9 hours to get as close to the GOR as possible.

The second day sees us joining the GOR at Port Campbell where the 12 apostles are located (these are large rock formations out at sea, however there are only 7 now as a couple have collapsed due to erosion from the sea. After this we carried on driving the GOR and made a couple of stops to admire the view. We also drove to Cape Otway which has a nice lighthouse, although we decided not to go in for the tour due to the poor visibility that day, and on the way we spotted some Koalas in the tree, including one with a baby on her back. After continuing on down the road we found an animal sanctuary where they have some animals that have needed to be hand reared and therefore are tame and are in a petting area. We went in and were able to get up close with Kangaroos, Emus, Wallabies, deer and even a couple of dingos (well Rich did, I wasn't going anywhere near the Dingos). For the Dingos there was a large sign with lots of rules which we read and thought we understood and then Rich went in with the dingos and the two came up to see him quite quickly which was a little concerning but they were soon all over him wanting fuss and attention. After we finished in the Dingos we moved on and started chatting to another couple who informed us you were not supposed to go in there without a supervisor from the park, whoops! It was really amazing to feed and stroke the animals and we were both amazed at the size of the feet the kangaroo and the emu had, you wouldn't want to be on the wrong end of either of them. It was rather a surreal experience but it was good fun, although we did learn that I am a bit of a wimp when it come to wild animals and that Rich is a bit of a risk taker!

After this detour we continued on the road to our caravan park where we parked up and went in search of koalas who live in the caravan park as it is part of the large national park. It didn't take us long to find them and lots of birds including cockatoo and lorikeets, who were noisier camp mates than the koalas.

On our final day in the camper we continued driving the GOR into Melbourne and stopped a couple of times, firstly at the lighthouse at Aireys inlet, which is the one used in many TV and films, including Round the twist, and then we stopped into an American diner for a milkshake as a bit of a treat. We also stopped at Bells Beach for a look at the surfers as this is the beach where they hold the rip curl surf competition every Easter.

After this we headed to Melbourne, dropped off the camper and checked into our accommodation for the next few days. For the rest of the day we just got ourselves sorted, showered and went out for some drinks and dinner.

The following day we headed into central Melbourne for a bit of a wander and headed down Hoosiers Lane which is a street covered in different forms of street art. There were some amazing pieces, however there was also lots graffiti on the walls. We also saw St Paul's Cathedral, Federation Square and we walked around Brunswick. In the evening we headed over to St Kilda where we sat on the pier in the cold waiting for some penguins to come to shore. This happens every evening once the sun goes down and the penguins stay on the rocks on the pier until sunrise. Even though we were somewhat wrapped up we were frozen by the time we left after 9.

The following day we headed to the Australian Museum of Moving Images which was really interesting  and had lots of fun things to play with, including old Atari's, and Nintendo, as well as old TV clips and movies.

Now we have a final morning before we jump on a plane to NZ!

Check out Rich's encounter with the dingo!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDo-WUGmcOw&feature=youtu.be