For Thai trip diary go to WEB page indicated on the right.
The trip is nearly over we are now in Sydney and leave for Thailand on Thursday.
1st Feb. Got up early to do a 10km walk we were expecting it to get hot and it was (40c). saw a number of kangaroos, a large lizard and some very big spiders!
2nd Feb Got up at 6:30 to go walking up the mountains again and beat the heat but it was very cold. Walked up the side of the pound to Mt Ohlssen Bagge, had to turn back after an hour as the walk became a rock climb up a steep rock face. Drove 17km to Arkaroo Rock and walked for an hour to see the Aboriginal rock paintings.
3rd Feb Left at 8:15am heading south to the Barosso Valley and Adelaide. We feel that we have left the outback behind as we travel through the farmlands, mainly wheat and sheep until we reach the wine growing region of Clare Valley. Stopped in Clare to get a postcard to send to Claire. Stopped at the Jacobs Creek Visitor Centre, it�s near Rowlands Flat. Carried on to Adelaide and booked into the Colonial Hotel in the center, went to an Indian Restaurant where they had a Jazz Band called �etype jazz�.
4th Feb. Went on a city bus tour, Adelaide was designed by an Englishman who surrounded the city with a park which make it really pleasant. Walked around the city all day, visited the Migration Museum and the Botanical Gardens. Found the Market which had loads of fruit and veg stalls and cheese and meats.
5th Feb Left Adelaide with a view to going to the McLaren Valley, another wine region.
Drove through the vineyards and south on to Victor Harbour a seaside town 100km south of Adelaide. As it was the weekend there wasn�t a lot of accommodation available. We wanted something nice for Suzanne�s Birthday so we checked into a B&B for one night and a resort call Whalers Resort for 2 nights.
6th Feb Got woken up at 6:30am by Nigel to wish Suzanne a Happy Birthday, that was nice. Suzanne�s Mum and Lorraine called at around 8am. Walked over a 600m pier/causeway to Granite Island, �Little Penguins� live on the island and each night at dusk they return from fishing to their burrows. We did see one penguin standing in the entrance to a burrow. Went for a drive south to Port Elliot & Goolwa, this is where the Murray River meets the sea but by the time it does there is very little flow on it so the river mouth is in danger of being silted up. There were 4 dredgers operating continuously at the mouth and the channel for the boats looked quite narrow.
7th Feb Walked along the coastal path west for about 2.5hrs, after lunch we booked to go on the Penguin tour which started at 8:15pm. Ws saw about 30 penguins climbing up the rocks to get to their burrows or resting as they got out of the water ready for their climb home. There were also quite a few large water rats and numerous possum.
8th Feb Drove south east along the coast to Robe for lunch, cool and cloudy again. Moved on to Mount Gambia and checked in to a B&B out of town for 2 nights.
9th Feb Pouring with rain, went into town and then to the Blue Lake which is in the crater of an old volcano. The town is built of limestone, there are caves and sinkholes everywhere, even just behind the town hall. I had my first haircut since leaving the UK! Walked up the rim of one of the volcanoes to Centennial Tower, great views. Eat our bacon and egg breakfast with curried baked beans for dinner.
10th � 13th Feb Arrived in the Grampian Hills to discover that there was a Jazz Festival on for 3 days. There were over 100 bands appearing in 7 different venues around the town. We decided to splash out and bought a badge covering all three days, this set us back A$40 each (�16). The Jazz ranged from Classic to Ragtime, Trad, Modern, Swing, Mainstream, with Big Bands being covered by the college bands. It was a terrific weekend with everybody thoroughly enjoying themselves. One of the lady performers said to me that it was nice to see the youngsters there, referring to us. We did manage to do a few walks in the hills and take in the countryside and the wildlife.
14th Feb. Left the Grampians and headed back south to the coast again to start the trip along �The Great Ocean Road�. First stop was Port Fairy which is a small fishing port established in 1830 by the whalers. We walked around Griffiths Island which is a Mutton Bird (Shearwaters) sanctuary and then had a Fish & Chip lunch by the wharf. Drove along the coast stopping every 5 minutes to walk to the coast and see the limestone formations. Stopped for the night at Port Campbell, a lovely day with clear skies and temperatures in the low 30s.
15th Feb. Woke up to grey skies and a cool 10c; continued along the great ocean road stopping to see yet more impressive limestone formations, the twelve apostles being the most well known. Took a detour down a peninsular to a lighthouse, as we were driving through the forest we came upon a couple of cars and a few people looking up into a tree, a Koala was sitting in the lower branches. Arrived at Kennet River around lunch time Jane & Brian Burch had told us that we could see Koalas in the camp grounds, we saw 6 in total and as it was quite cool they were active, mostly scratching themselves. Stopped off at Lorne and checked into Erskine on the Beach (another Breakfree Resort), checked in for two night and later extended it to 4. Max Temp 21c. Suzanne and I had a game of tennis must be 25 years since our last game!
19th Feb Left Lorne, continued along the Great Ocean Road, stopped off at Torquay to see Australia�s first surfing beach. Drove through Geelong and on to Ballarat, Australia�s biggest gold mining town.
20th Feb Went to Sovereign Hill, a reconstructed gold mine town, it was really quite well done. That evening we went back for the sound and light show.
21st Feb Took a look around Ballarat town, a lot of the buildings in the town center were once quite grand, having been built in the 1880s. Went to the botanical gardens, there was an avenue of Californian Redwoods planted in the 1860s.
22nd Feb Drove to Melbourne and into Albert Park where they hold the F1 GP. We drove round half of the circuit and stopped by the pits. Checked into a hotel in North Melbourne, lots of hotels were full as Rod Stewart was playing two nights at the Rod Laver Arena followed by Cher. Took the tram into the city and had dinner at an Italian by the Yarra River.
23rd Feb Took a tram to the Yarra and went on a boat trip to Williamstown which turned out to be a bit of a dump so after an hour we hopped back on the ferry back to Melbourne.
24th Feb Visited the botanical gardens which are very impressive and quite big.
25th Feb. We decided to go into the hills to the north east of Melbourne for the weekend. Found our way to Marysville and went into the visitor center. When we asked about accommodation the man on the desk said we could stay at his place, a B&B on the edge of town, so we went and had a look and took it for two nights. We also got a glass of wine and some salad & grilled goats cheese each evening so we didn�t want for anything else.
26th Feb Did a number of walks in the forested hills.
27th Feb Arrived at Phillip Island around lunchtime, went to Rhyll first and had lunch by the beach then move on to Cowes and Ventnor to find somewhere to stay. Unusually we found that a lot of the places had no vacancies but we finally settled for a Motel in Cowes not far from the beach.
28th Feb Phillip Island, booked to see the little penguins come ashore at dusk. This was a much more commercial venture than at Victor Harbour. There was grandstand seating by the beach and floodlights. We saw about 60 little penguins emerge from the surf and make their way up the beach to their burrows. As we left at around 10pm we walked up the boardwalk and saw quite a few walking through the grass and shrubs to their burrows.
On the TV it said that Melbourne had had the coldest February in 40 years and I can well believe it.
1st Mar. Arrived at the Wilson Promontory (National Park).Found a nice holiday cottage overlooking the bay with the mountains in the distance. Bought a two day pass for the park and drove down the Prom to Tidal River. Walked in the hills by the coast for a couple of hours, saw a very dark wallaby. Got quite hot today in the 30s.
2nd Mar. Cool Today 22C and sunny. Drove down the Prom and walked for couple of hours on the headlands overlooking the sea.
3rd Mar. Continued driving south east down the coast to the Gippsland Lakes �the southern hemisphere�s biggest network of inland waterways�. Checked into a nice little motel with rooms overlooking the channels and jetties.
4-6 Mar. Had a relaxing time pottering around Paynesville, went over to Raymond Island where there were loads of Koalas sleeping in the trees all over the island. 30 Koalas were introduced on Raymond Island in 1950, there are now over 100 on the island. Quite cool (17c) and had some rain on Saturday, practice day at the F1 in Melbourne.
6-10 Mar. Moved east along the coast to Mallacoota Inlet a small town on the edge of a large lake. This is a busy area for campers and there were loads of trailer tents and caravans by the waters edge. We took a small boat out on the lake, it had single cylinder inboard engine so we didn�t go very far in the two hours we hired it for. The lakes are very shallow in places so you have to follow the marker buoys, which I very nearly missed. Did a couple of walks but didn�t see any wildlife but we saw evidence that they had �been� that way.
10-13 Mar. Drove further along the coast and then inland to the Snowy Mountains, it�s autumn here now so we were expecting it to be cooler but it�s warmed up with clear blue skies (25c). We are staying in Thredbo at "The Lantern" which has nice views over the valley (see www.lantern.com.au). Yesterday (11th) we walked up Merritts Nature Track and on to the Mt. Koscuuszko lookout. We covered 14 kms in 5 hours which was not bad given we climbed up 700m. We could have used the ski lift but as Suzanne doesn't like heights we had to walk down again. Today (12th) we took a more gentle walk along the valley and by the golf course for a couple of hours, our legs were a bit stiff from the day before.
13th Mar. Drove through the Snowy Mountain NP and then back to the coast. Checked into a Motel in Bermagui, across the street they were hanging up a Marlin that had just been caught. The fisherman was being photographed with the fish, a board said that it weighed 103kg (220lb).
15th Mar. Continued North up the coast towards Sydney, stopped off at Nowra where we had booked in at the Back Forest Retreat where we had two bedroom �cottage� for 5 nights. The weather changed from 30c to 16c in the space of a couple of days, they said on the news that it was the coldest March day on record.
20th Mar. Drove to Sydney and checked into the hotel.
21st Mar. Went down the Parramatta Road to find a car dealer who would buy the car, given the high number of Kms on the car they weren�t that interested. Finally sold the car and cashed the cheque at the nearest bank. Although we got a low price for the car we still saved a lot compared with renting a car. Went out to dinner to a Spanish Tapas Restaurant with Nigel Curtis.
Some Facts & Figures
We drove 24,000 kms ( 15,000 miles) over the 4.5 months we have been in Australia.
The price of petrol varied from A$0.89 to A$1.36 per litre (on the Nullarbor), on average we paid about A$0.95 per litre.
The Hotels we stayed in varied in price from A$65 to A$185 on average we paid about A$114 (�47.50)
