The Great Ocean Road

We have just spent the last 9 nights on the Great Ocean Road.  A fantastic and very picturesque road, narrow, hugging the cliff, right next to the beach, we thought it was much like the Amalfi coastline in Italy.  Shame I spent most of the time trying not to feel car sick - what is it about being an adult that we get car sick on those roads?  I remember as a child my Mum always used to complain about being car sick on those type of roads meanwhile I would be reading a book in the back wondering what she was talking about.  So with me concentrating on the horizon and Jack and Josie reading books in the back, I now understand.

First stop just before the Great Ocean Road was Warrnambool, a great town, bigger than we expected, with some great walks by the beach and a great adventure park.  We spent LOTS of time here, it had a maze, heaps of play equipment, bridges over the lake, splash pool and a great flying fox - and best of all, it was free!!

Then onto the lovely and very picturesque Apollo Bay.  We spent a lot of time playing on the beach, and had some hot weather there, which was coupled with a really strong northerly wind which meant a total fire ban on the region. It was hot and humid.  We had a lovely campsite there, right next to the river looking out over farmland.

From there to Torquay, the surfing capital of Australia.  It was hot when we arrived and there was still a total fire ban, but then a cold front came through so in one day we went from a total fire ban to an extreme  weather warning with the chance of flash floods!  And we did get lots of rain, luckily the tent kept us dry.... just!  From Torquay we went up to Geelong for the day, and did the 'bollard' walk - which Jack and Josie loved.  Basically there are bollards all along the Geelong foreshore, about 50 of them all up, and they go through the history of Geelong.  A great morning activity in the rain!  From Torquay we also went to check out Bells Beach and went to the Surfing Museum - which Richard thoroughly enjoyed.

Tomorrow we head to Ballarat, to try our luck at gold prospecting...

 The Warrnambool coastline

 The flying fox

 More Warrnambool coastline

 Chasing the birds on the beach at Warrnambool

 Apollo Bay

 Fun on the beach

 Chasing the waves

 The Geelong bollards

 Jack was adamant we find the bollard with the bike, he had seen it in a magazine and wanted to find it as he thought Daddy would like it.  It took a bit of time and I had to pop into the information to find the map of the bollards, but eventually we found it!  

 Torquay beach

 Bells Beach

 Winkipop Beach - just around from Bells Beach which is also used in the Bells Classic if Bells Beach is not 'firing'.

 The Surfing Museum

The Twelve Apostles

We are now travelling along the Great Ocean Road, and before we arrived in lovely Apollo Bay from Warrnambool on Thursday we went to see the Twelve Apostles.

Visually they are as stunning as the Great Australian Bight, there are many great viewing platforms which means you can see them from a number of different places.  The major downside was the number of people there.  The Great Australian Bight is really in the middle of nowhere, if you are going to see it you are travelling across the Nullabor or have made a special trip, it is not really close to anything and not on any 'beaten tracks', as opposed to the Twelve Apostles which is on the Great Ocean Road and very close to a number of towns.

It was hectic there.  People jostling other people out of the way to take photos, you couldn't walk along the boardwalk as you had to keep stopping so you didn't get in someone else's photo.  It actually got a bit stressful at one point as someone had a go at someone else for not moving out of the way so they could take their photo!  Nevertheless, I jostled and shoved with the best of them and managed to get a few pics.  We all left there very impressed with what we saw, but slightly stressed at the experience!

The Lane family!

The Grampians

Had a great few days in Halls Gap in the Grampians.  Did a couple of walks in the Grampians, one that lead to a lookout and one that lead to a waterfall.  The walks themselves weren't that long, but seeing as Josie wanted a 'Mummy carry' pretty much the whole way there and back for both walks - it wore me out!  It was a warm day so we celebrated our efforts with a swim in the local outdoor pool, lovely.  We then got back to the tent just in time as a big front came through with heavy rain, wind, thunder and lightning - which meant Rich had to run outside in his raincoat and secure all the guide ropes and pegs whilst I reassured Jackson and Josie inside the tent that thunder was nothing to worry about.  Whilst we were there they had a Hot Rod event on, with hundreds of the 'funny cars' (as Jack called them) everywhere.

Soft

Richard likes to share his ‘thoughts’ on things on his blog (see the link below on the right or www.belikereily.blogspot.com), and now its my turn.  So far all the posts on this site have been about the places we’ve seen, and the experiences we’ve had.  You may be inclined to think its been all good, all fun and all smooth sailing up until now.  Although the reality is, we have now been camping for 4 weeks, staying at one place no more than 4 nights with 2 small children.  For the parents and campers out there, you all know there will have been many ‘challenging’ times.  

This time I am going to share with you what I am increasingly finding annoying about camping...

1. the need to go to the toilet in the middle of the night where you have to get out of your warm sleeping bag and negotiate yourself out of 5 zips just to get out of the tent
2. getting to the toilet, which is sometimes miles away from your tent, only to find you have forgotten the code/key/secret password to get into the toilet (particularly annoying when linked with point 1 above)
3. showers that either want to be scorching hot or freezing cold and don’t seem to have any in-between
4. getting out the shower only to realise you have forgotten your towel
5. annoying campers who like to talk at the top of their voice until the early hours of the morning 
6. the nightly ritual of killing all the mosquitos and flies in the tent before getting into bed
7. putting up the tent and unpacking the car/trailer
8. taking down the tent and packing the car/trailer
9. broken tent poles and bent tent pegs
10. ground thats too hard to get tent pegs in
11. camping on dirt
12. having to sweep inside the tent every 5 minutes

The other day I was having a ‘grump’ day, everything was annoying me, so I shared with Richard all the things that were annoying me about camping (a much more extensive list than above), Richard’s response was “Ems, you’ve turned soft”. Nice.

Fleurieu Peninsula

We have had a great few days in the Fleurieu Peninsula.  Checked out a great adventure playground in Port Noarlunga, wandered around the shops/cafes in Willunga, Rich rode up Willunga Hill which is famous on the Tour Down Under, we rode our bikes to Goolwa, had fish and chips at Horseshoe Bay, checked out Victor Harbor, walked to Granite Island to see the penguins, and saw the Murray Mouth.


Fleurieu Peninsula is a popular holiday destination for Adelaide people, and you can understand why. Victor Harbor and Goolwa are great towns, lots of history and great shops to wander around, along with wineries and breweries further afield.  Whale watching in season (wish we could have been there for that), cycling trails and great surfing beaches.  All about 1 and a half hours from Adelaide CBD.


As we prepare to leave South Australia it must be said that we have thoroughly enjoyed our time here.  We have only seen a small portion of it, but there is so much to do, all within a short distance of Adelaide.  From the deserted and beautiful beaches and cute fishing villages of the Eyre Peninsula, to the stunning Flinders Ranges, the amazing scenery of the Barossa Valley, Clare Valley and Adelaide Hills, to the beautiful Fleurieu Peninsula.  We have thoroughly enjoyed our time here.  Thank you South Australia!

 Horseshoe Bay

 Fish and chips at Horseshoe Bay

 Victor Harbor

 Walking to Granite Island

 At Granite Island

 View across to Victor Harbor from Granite Island

 Middleton Beach

Murray Mouth

Happy Birthday Richard!!

A birthday is not a birthday without cake or muffin...

Beautiful Hahndorf

Some of the buildings that line Hahndorf's main street. Very pretty.

The Adelaide Hills and Adelaide

We have had a lovely few days in the Adelaide Hills and Adelaide.  We have been to a toy factory where there was 'The largest rocking horse in the world'!!, a wildlife park and today we went into Adelaide and Glenelg beach.  Head off tomorrow, destination is Victor Harbour.

 Rich, Jack and Josie climbed to the top of the rocking horse

 Patting the 'wobbily', well thats what Jack and Josie called it anyway

 Glenelg beach

Splashing in the water fountains in Glenelg

Our home...

... yeah its not much, but theres no mortgage and we get a new view from the living room every few days!

 View from the front

 The outdoor kitchen - comes with a two burner gas stove!

 Jackson and Josie's bedroom

 Our room

 The dining room

The living area