Current Mood: Tired & Cool

… my baby beside me at the wheel.  Well sometimes anyway!  We’re heading down the Great Ocean Road at the moment in our hired Subaru Outback (Blue, 4WD, Steering Wheel and a big boot!).  Having some really great times on a shoe string budget as we are trying to save as much money as possible before we head over to Perth and the west coast. 

We headed out of Melbourne serenaded by the horns of irate locals, pissed at the tourists swinging u-turns in the middle of busy city streets, trying desperately hard to negotiate the many one-way streets and other hazards (like trams) in order to get ourselves out of the hustle and bustle to the quieter outskirts.  These aussies haven’t really got the whole moterway thing down yet, the highways are like short dual-carriage ways that are badly signposted and held up by a the numerous traffic lighted crossroads!  Grrrr… 

First stop was Philip Island and after a short detour out to the east when we should of been going south (I swear the girls were holding the map the wrong way) we eventually got to the island.  This was so ‘quaint’ I guess, with loads of little houses dotted down tree strewn roads intersected by the odd shop or cafe.  We stayed at the YHA on Phillip Island which was like your grandmas house, with flower power wallpaper, clashing carpet and beige!  Yum…  A couple of nights here was easily enough, but the island did have its quirky charms and tourist spots – the first of these being the ‘World Famous Penguin Parade’ which is a natural attraction where you pay $17 to sit on the beach and watch these cute little tikes make their way up the beach.  Weird to see Penguins on the sand rather than ice, but these aren’t ordinary penguins, no no no…  These are the Philip Island Little Penguins, stanging a measly 30cm tall, they are small in stature but big in heart.

We were there in chick season so every single day one of the parents wanders out into the ocean before dawn to go fishing all day.  They swim about and catch little tiny fish, swallowing them so they can regurgitate them later for their chicks (nice eh!) and then just before dusk they all meet up in their hundrends (a kinda penguin posse if you like) so they are safe from predators in the water just off the coast.  Around 9pm every night (yes, they must have watches!) the first little brave penguin (the Fonze of the group), ventures up onto the sands to check the coast is clear.  Apart from the 3500 people sitting on stands and a stadium it is, so he signals to the other dudes that they can come on shore.  So in groups of between 10 and 20 they all emerge from the ocean (you do get the occasional loner, who you can’t help but will on – go little fella) and wander up past you to their dens…  So after about an hour and 1500 little tiny waddlers making their way over the sands you get up and follow them with the aid of boardwalks up the dunes to their man made dens.  You got to feel sorry for the ones that have been given the dens at the top – it’s miles in human strides!  But they do it – will power!!! 

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So apart from that I had to do a man thing, spending three months solely in the company of women can drive a man to distraction, so I took them to Philip Island Circuit where they do the Moto GP and World Superbikes - you probably won’t find this very interesting though, so I’ll skip it (the circuit is lovely though with flowing bends and spectacular vistas!) and just say the oil in the museum smelt good.

After Philip Island we headed down the Great Ocean Road to a place called Lorne, a really lovely seaside town, for a couple of nights – the highlight here being the boogy boards and the trampoling!  So much fun…

I’ll put more about the Great Ocean Road when we get to either the Grampians or Adelaide.  But so far it has been excellent fun.  Stay in contact and mail me! 

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 31st, 2007 at 10:18 pm and is filed under Australia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.