Cape Otway

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Love the cabin as it poured rain all night and was cold and windy in the morning.  Winter has hit in Australia as the temperature dived to 12 C, but we did have the good fortune of sunny skies everytime we got out of the vehicle.  We headed out to do the Walk and Waterfall driving loop.  Our first stop was at Mait’s Rest, which is a one kilometer hike through rain forest.  Incredible the size of the gum trees.  Their bark strips off and drops to the ground, with a whopping 40 tonnes of biomass falling per hectare per year.  We then drove on to the Otway Bay Lighthouse.  Built in 1840’s, it has been instrumental in preventing disasters at the meeting of the Bass Strait and the Southern Ocean.  Great views from the top of the lighthouse, but breezy and cold with 80 km winds.  We then moved on and drove the loop.  On the way out we had the good fortune of seeing two koala’s in the wild.  The last part of the drive was 20 km through thick rain forest on an exceptionally windy one lane wide road with all blind corners meant for two way traffic.  Glad there were no posted logging trucks on the road, as I have no idea how that would have worked.  Guessing it would better for the logging truck than for our little SUV.  Finally back home and back inside in time for the rain to start again.  The entire drive, whether on the ocean or not, was spectacular.  Unlike other drives (such as the Garden Route in South Africa) that will have a break in the spectacular views, this was not stop amazing.  And we have been told it only gets more spectatular as we move west.  Cannot wait for the drive tomorrow when we hit the Twelve Apostles and London Bridge.

What a drive!

Tuesday, April 25, 2017

ANZEC day today, in commemoration of the Australians who fought at Gallipoli (Turkey) in 1917 and defined Australia as a nation.  30 000 people attended the 6:30 am service in Melbourne.  We woke up to heavy rain in Lorne, but as we headed out for a walk on the beach, the sun came out and gave us a great day for both our walk and for our drive down the Great Ocean Road to Apollo Bay.  Prior to heading down the highway, we checked out the Erksine Falls.  Then the drive!  Spectacular, and good reason this drive is considered one of the best in the world.  The road is carved into the side of the mountain leading into the ocean for the entire duration.  It was built after WWI to commemorate those who fought in the war.

From the road, the whole way to Apollo Bay.

Surfing central.

At Torquay

Monday, April 24, 2017

Packed up from Geelong and headed for Lorne on the Great Ocean Road.  On route, we stopped at Torquay which is the home to Rip Curl and Australian surfing.  Lots of shops.  In at the Rip Curl shop, we figured we could by a basic board for 1000, the fins for 150 each, a wet suit for 700, and then there are always lots of other accessories.  But like any other sport (i.e. skiing), you are always in for a couple of grand.  We then stopped in at Bells Beach, which just finished hosting one of the world surfing competitions.  Our final stop was at Lorne.  Glad we booked a little cottage, as it rained solid all night.

Surfers at Bell's Beach

The race is on.

Sunday, April 23, 2017

What a day!  Started with Luke and Cindy running the Geelong half marathon.  About 850 runners in the half marathon.  Beside the “Look out for Snakes” signs, not a lot of signage but enough to get our runners to the finish line.  Luke finished in 1:38.04 and Cindy finished in 1:50.43.  Excellent results for a broken training schedule.  A cool and pleasant morning, excellent for a run.  Of course, they give out top three prizes out for every category, except for the under 20 category, in which Luke finished third.  Laughing, as they are handing out the awards, one of the organizers leaves in his truck, and attempts to drive up the incline next to the presentations.  However, the ground is soft from the rain last night, and he ends up sliding backward down the hill into the middle of the award ceremony and almost wiped out some kids standing at a table with boxes of bananas on it.  The announcer handled it well with the statement, “We will just pretend that this is not happening.” and then continued announcing category winners.  There was some food, and they did give all the runners a piece of sausage, so Nate and Levi were happy.  We then took the afternoon train into Melbourne and caught the Hawthorne Hawks host the West Coast Eagles (Perth team) in Australian Rules Football at the G (Melbourne Cricket Grounds).  Of course we missed the train, and therefore missed most of the first half, but that worked out all right because each quarter is 30 minutes long, so we still saw over an hour of actual play time.  For never really taking a look at the game before, what a great evening of entertainment.  A small crowd of 30 000 (the G holds over 100 000), they were lively and passionate about the entire game.  The Hawks won their first game of the season handily, but both teams played hard until the final horn.  Again, what a fun game, continuous action.  Someone gets injured, the trainer comes out and looks after the injured while the play goes on around them.  At the end, the home crowd sings their teams song, and then they show the team on the big screens in the dressing room singing their song with the team start in the middle of the circle.  On the way out, Karen and Ashley bought the boys an Aussi Rules Football, which they have been busy passing and kicking to each other.

Seeing old friends again!

Saturday, April 22, 2017

Packed up from Melbourne and headed to Geelong.  Our house is right across the street from a Primary School that has a very nice playground and field.  Karen and Ashley come in from Naracoorte to meet us in the afternoon.  Good to see Ashley five months after her visit to us in Canada, and great to see Karen again 20 years after our last visit.  We then had to head to the start line of the marathon to collect starting packages.  After seeing very little action there with very little indication of a marathon happening in the next 16 hours, Luke is not feeling confident there is going to be a lot of food at the finish line tomorrow.  Carb load for our dinner and an earlier bedtime in prep for the big run tomorrow.

Cross Country Club with the open door true running feeling.

What safety standards?

Thursday, April 20, 2017

A quiet day around the apartment.  Watched some hockey in the morning and then headed off to a local park.  Beautiful location with great play structures.  Kids loved it. 

Friday, April 21, 2017

Went for a ride on Puffing Billy, the steam engine that runs out of Belgrade, about half an hour out of Melbourne.  We were amused, for a country that has hand rails on their bike paths at slight inclines, they allow every one to ride on the window sills with their legs out the windows.  There is Africa with no safety standards, but you would not be allowed to ride the train with your legs out the window, and then there is Australia.

Around Melbourne

Tuesday, April 18
A slow start to our travels today as we found playoff hockey on the TV, and watched Toronto beat Washington in OT.  The biggest surprise of that statement involves both Toronto and playoffs being used positively in the same sentence. 

Another beautiful day, and we headed back into Melbourne central for the days adventure.  We had to make copies of Levi's medical forms and get those mailed off to the insurance agency.  To do our photocopying, wee ended up at the Victoria State Library, a beautiful building that was amazing to tour around.  From being packed with university students working, to the art gallery and on the top floor where the infamous outlaw Ned Kelly's suit of armour was located.  Ned was a crowd favour in the 1800's as when he robbed a bank, he burned all the mortgage statements of the local farmers.
We then headed to the Federation Square, the meeting place in Melbourne, and voted (rightfully so) one of the ten ugliest squares in the world.  There was a busker going in the square and a fairly good crowd had formed.  The day before people were watching footie on the big screen, and today we were on it.



Wednesday, April 19
Made the drive to Phillip Island, about 90 minutes SSE from Melbourne.  Another excellent day.  We started by going to the koala park, and then headed over to Churchill Island Heritage Farm.  The boys got to try their hand at milking a cow and cracking a bull whip, and watched a sheep get sheared and a Billy the dog round up some sheep.  As we departed the Island, we stopped for an hour at the Surfer's Reserve Beach, what waves!  No swimming here, the riptide looked wicked, and the waves were huge.  We then had the opportunity to drive by the beautiful Melbourne skyline at night.

Thursday, April 20
A quiet day with us spending the afternoon at the park, and then planning our Australian route after dinner.