Busy Going Nowhere...

Up at 5 - on the road for 6. WOW - are we good. Looking forward to an early start, beat the Melbourne rush hour - so we fill the tank and on our way to Loch Sport - a small campsite along the 90 Mile Beach…

We got around Melbourne as planned - we’re on the M1 - middle lane - and the van stopped. Juggernauts were passing on both sides - running up our tail - and we are going no where fast. We phoned for assistance and the police. Our ’men in blue’ heroes managed to limp the van to the side of the road - all this and still only 8am in the morning. Bang goes breakfast.

A tow truck the size of Cleveland show’s up to take away our chariot and we end up back in Melbourne in a suburb called ‘KNOX’. We are getting to know Melbourne really well. We are dropped off at a dealership and the service manager tells us - "with luck we should get to this today. Do you have a home phone number we can reach you?" I tell him - YES - but don’t worry - since home is in your parking lot - we won’t be hard to reach.

The good news is we got our laundry done, did some shopping and were well rested and relaxed by the time our van was done at 5. So, change of plans and off to see the Dandenongs which we had blown off in the morning because we were on a schedule and didn’t have time! Good thing - because they were stunning - a mixture of rain forests with rhododendrons and steep slopes.
Then on to Stratford on the River Avon and hopefully, we have left Melbourne behind for good (Great place though…)

...So where's the Pestilence???

Little did we know when we set off to discover the magnificence of the Great Ocean Road that the fates and furies had caught up with us from Scotland. We were told "2 minute showers only" because of water conservation efforts in Victoria, so when we picked up the Van and asked for the weather forecast - "Rain, mate..." well, we didn't believe it of course - how accurate are weather forecast anyway?

We set off after being trained on how to run a 6 berth motorhome (Tara for short as she is affectionally known), 10 minutes later - we returned for further training on how to lock and unlock the door. Now fully knowledgable on how to enter and exit Tara, we went shopping and finally set off on our adventure - 5 hours later.

After all that - no rain. We decided to go the quick way to Warrnambool (not too scenic) so that we could get the full benefit of the Great Ocean Rd on the way back. (After all - we didn't want to see it in the rain - did we?)

Camped and cozy - in our new home, we crowed about how warm and lovely it was. And at 2 in the morning we were up for a bowl of corn flakes because the wind was howling, the rain was beating and the caravan was swaying under these strong winds. We thought that these were normal caravan sounds that we would get use to them.

The next morning - tired out - we had an early start. It wasn't raining, and it wasn't too windy - just cloudy, dark and fairly cold. Once on the road though - things did start changing just a bit...

We saw the magnificent London Bridge, the Islands in the Bay, The Twelve Apostles -

and then...

we swerved around fallen trees, rescued fellow travellers who had locked themselves out of their caravan, braved buckets full of rain - driven by gale forced winds only to be turned back halfway - because they had shut the Great Ocean Road due to flooding and fallen trees. So we went back onto the road we took yesterday - scenery still uninspiring.

Oh well, another dollar - another day...

Living it up in Melbourne

Arrived in Melbourne late Thursday night so by the time we made it to the hotel - we both just wanted to hit the sack and get some well deserved rest. We have managed the jet lag pretty well, but it still hits us around 1 in the afternoon.

On friday, we finally took some public transport to see Melbourne and did a bit of shopping. Lovely city - very clean - not too busy and a wonderful mix of old and new buildings. their parks seem so restful - even spent a little time at Captain Cook's cottage.

Tomorrow, we pick up the Motorhome and the adventure begins...

Arriving In Australia

We have Arrived!!! The trip was uneventful and while long - was fairly restful. Lots of movies and TV watched along the way. Steve and Shirley were there to meet us and after we arrived at the hotel, Carol and Danny, Emma and Christian also came. So dinner for eight was hectic but fun.

On Thursday, Emma and Christian headed off to Uni while the rest of us did a little window shopping. Finally, we had to leave them behind while we took off for Melbourne and Steve returned to his job.