Great Ocean Road and Kioloa

On Saturday at 18.40 the bus to Sydney left from Byron Bay. They showed a movie on the bus and after that we had a nice sleep.
We arrived in Sydney at 6.40 and we thought we had to wait until the afternoon to get the bus to Melbourne. Well the driver from Premier told us that another company, Firefly, left at 7.30 to Melbourne so we decided to go with that. When arriving to M we had done a 24 hour bus-ride. 🙂
We found a hostel close to the bus-station, The Friendly Backpackers, which was 25 $ per night. Very expensive, but it was 4-bed dorms and looked nice so we decided to stay anyways. We would probably not find a cheaper place in the city anyways.
In the dorm was Leoni, a German girl. She will be in M for about 6 months to work on a Architect-firm, to finish off her studies.

On Monday we walked to the Observation Deck to see the view of Melbourne and after that we went walking around in the city.
We visited some free museums and they had a exhibition about Sonic the Hedgehog, the game that I loved so much when I had my Sega. Was fun to try it again. 🙂
We also saw some art and then took loads of photos of nice old buildings in the city.
Us three girls spent Monday-evening with pizza, Coca Cola and a DVD that we watched on Leonis laptop.

On Tuesday-morning me and A-M got the rental-car we booked (a gold-coloured Hyundai Sonata Automatic) and we couldn’t help but going first of all to IKEA, were we bought some presents to Dale and Kath. We also bought some Digestive and candy for ourselves of course. 🙂
After this we drove out of Melbourne and started our two day trip to the Great Ocean Road.
We had to drive about 45 minutes before we saw the amazing view from the road. The road is following the coastal-line and it’s beautiful.
We decided to drive directly to the Twelve Apostles (people around here says that there was never 12 of them though) and that took quite a few hours. We did stop at a few places to take some nice photos. It’s an amazing landscape there.

At about 5.15 PM we arrived at the apostles and it was an incredible view. I really got a wow-feeling. The sun was starting to set and there was a nice glow that hit the apostles. The weather was ok, but very windy and cold.
http://www.greatoceanroad.org/highlights/apostles/index.asp
We got a lot of nice photos and also some movies. When the sun had set we went back to the car and drove to Port Campbell, just 15 -20 minutes from the apostles. We froze a lot and decided to have a warm meal in a restaurant. Port Campbell isn’t big. It’s about one main street that takes 1 minute to pass, but they did have a nice restaurant though, called Waves, so we went in there and ordered a meal with trout and vegetables. We also got to charge our batteries for the cameras, which was very kind of them to let us do.

After that it was sleeping-time. We parked the car at a camp-site and got ready for bed. Sleeping in the car was fine, but there was a big storm going on outside with thunder and lightning. I was happy to have the eye-mask from Thai Air. 🙂
At about 5am the alarm went off and we drove directly to the apostles to see the sunrise.
Unfortunately it was raining and the wind had increased since the day before so we decided to stay in the car and sleep a bit more.
Before we left I had to go down to the apostles to get some dalagoat-pics (www.varedalageten.nu) and I did so when there was a pause in the raining.
The wind was hysterical but I got my photos. 🙂

We started to drive towards Cape Otway, and the sky was clearing up. We got to the Lighthouse area and walked around to see the telegraph-station and then to the lighthouse itself. Cape Otway is the oldest lighthouse on Australia’s mainland and it had it’s 157th birthday 2 days before our visit.
We walked up in the lighthouse and went outside. It was about 55 knots in the wind and we laughed so much. At one side of the lighthouse we could hardly move forward and when getting to the other side, the wind was so strong it pushed us. It was hilarious. 🙂
After this cold experience we went to the cafe’ to have some hot chocolate.

The woman at the lighthouse gave us a tip about a waterfall that was worth seeing so we drove there. It was 12 km from great ocean road, and the nature was beautiful.
When we parked the car and started to walk towards the waterfall we only came about 5 minutes and there was a creek in the middle of the path. Since I had my sneakers it wasn’t a good idea to cross it, so we decided that we had to go back.
At least the nature was worth the drive, so we weren’t that sad. 🙂

Our next stop was Kenneth River, where we got a tip from Katie in Byron Bay about wild Koalas.
We drove behind the caravan-park and started to look up in the trees. It took a few minutes and then we saw the first one in a branch just above the road.
We drove around in that national park and saw quite a lot of them. They are mostly sleeping, but a few was awake and eating.
Was cool seeing them in the wild.

We got to Torque at sunset and that was the end of Great Ocean Road. It was two great days with a lot of fantastic scenery. We decided to park as close to Melbourne as possible so we stopped at the Shell-station just outside, parked the car and got ready for sleep.
At 7am on Thursday we woke up and drove back to the hostel. We checked in and after a nice, well needed shower I rested a while.
We had a lazy day and just hung out with Leoni, who was still in the hostel. Very nice girl. 🙂
She let us lend her laptop so we could upload some pictures, check our mails and put some music on our Ipods.

On Friday we checked out but Leoni let us have our bags in the room, so A-M and I went out for some sightseeing. We went with the free trams that goes round Melbourne.
At 5.45pm the bus to Termeil (about 3-4 hours south of Sydney) left from the bus-station and we arrived at 6.25 in the morning. Dale (we met him and Kath in Siem Reap, Cambodia) and his dog, Jessie, came to pic us up and it was about a 20 minute ride to their home and there was Kath as well. Was great seeing them both again and they have a great house in a little village called Kioloa. We got one bedroom each which is luxury to us. 🙂
D&K took us down to the beach for a little sightseeing and it was beautiful. Big beach with clear water and rocks on the sides. We had some breakfast, drove to Dales work to get a car that we could use during the week and then Dale&Kath went to Wollongong for a wedding. We went back to the house together with Jessie after some shopping.

In the morning that day we met a lady with two Border Collies and she told us that there was a competition going on in the caravan-park just next to D&K, so we took Jessie and went there. It was Fly ball (http://www.flyballdogs.com/FAQ.html) and it was amazing how fast the dogs are. Also little poodles and jack russels participated and it was hilarious to see them jump over the hurdles and then step on the box to release the ball.
We stayed about an hour and then all the barking got to us. 🙂
We walked on the beach back and then we started to make some Swedish meatballs. It was part of the gift to D&K that we would make a Swedish meal, and we had bought lingonberries, sauce, herring, knackebrod and some other stuff at IKEA in Melbourne.
We spent the evening watching some movies and TV-series, sitting in the big, luxury armchairs in front of the TV. We felt like Joey and Chandler in Friends. 🙂

On Sunday, lunchtime, D&K came back and we had a lazy day, since they had been partying all night before. 🙂 We watched Gallipolli, which is a movie about how the English treated the Aussies in the 2nd world war. Was a very good movie with a young Mel Gibson in one of the lead roles.
We had a nice meal with steak and I tried oysters for the first time. I ate them natural with some lemon and it tasted ok, a bit saltwater though. Was cool to try them.

On Monday-morning me and Kath went to Pretty Beach at 7 in the morning. It’s a place just 5 minutes drive from their house and it’s really a pretty beach. Before we went down to the beach we saw wild Kangaroos. Many of them had Joeys (they say that about their babies) in the pouches.
We had a 30 minute walk on the beach and it was a nice sunny day.
When we came back Dale already left for work and A-M was up and making breakfast.
Kath almost didn’t want to go to work, because she felt like it was vacation with us being there. 🙂

After Kath left we did the dishes and then we went to Pretty Beach, so A-M also could see it. I fed the Kangaroos with some bread and there was about 6 of them with babies in their pouches around me. One of them got a bit to close and put up it’s hands so I got a bit scared. The Kangaroos can grab you and then kick you and with those claws I wouldn’t want that to happen…She was just a bit eager to get more bread, so I guess there was never any risk of anything happening, but you never know and they are still wild.

When they tide is low you can walk out on some cliffs just at the beach. We saw some funny, looking things out there.
When we came back we started to prepare for our Swedish meal. Dale was a bit late from work, so we started with giving Kath a welcome-drink made of Absolut Raspberri, Flader-saft and sprite.
After that she got some Spendrups-beer and a plate with dill-herring, mustard-herring, boiled egg and hard bread (knackebrod) with butter and cheese. Dale came home shortly after that and after the appetizer they got Swedish meatballs with boiled potatoes, creamy sauce with mushrooms, lingonberries and a nice salad.
It seems like they love the meatballs, and Jessie definitely did. 🙂

On Tuesday-morning at 7 Kath took me and A-M to a beach on the other side of Kioloa. There is a lake close to it and we had a nice 40 minute walk there.
After some breakfast Kath had to go to work again and we did the dishes. Feels good to be able to do something as a thank for them letting us stay there.
We spent the day with a walk on the beach and A-M met some locals at the boat-ramp that gave her a few tips about where to go in Kioloa. They also told her that the best way to see pelicans is to come in the morning to the boat-ramp at 10-11 when the fishermen gets in.

When Kath came home we helped her with dinner and then their friend Steve came by. We chatted and then Dale put on some Swedish music, The Cardigans. We almost felt like home. :p

On Wednesday-morning I woke up at 5.55 and saw that the sun was about to rise so I went down to the beach. It was an ok sunrise, and after that I went to bed again.
A-M and me went down to the boat-ramp at 10.30 and there was John, just taking his boat up. He had gotten some fish and it didn’t take long until there was 3 pelicans waiting to get some snacks. They are not pretty but they are darn cool those pelicans. 🙂

In the afternoon we went down to the boat ramp to read some in the sun and after a little bit the locals came. It was Coxi and Roger and we sat talking to them for a while. Coxi had a pot in the water to catch lobsters and Roger told him he should go in the water to see if he had any and then give them to us. Well after one beer more he did. When he came back and we had to go he told us to go to his truck with him. There we got a bag with two big lobsters! It’s the kind that doesn’t have claws and they where heavy. That was so nice of him. 🙂
When we came back we put them in the sink and called Kath to ask what we should do with them. She said the best thing was to drown them in fresh-water, so A-M started to put water in one of the sinks, and then the lobster started protesting with flipping around and then we had water in the whole kitchen.The lobster also scared A-M that screamed and then scared me. Poor Kath that was still in the phone. :p
We put them in a big pot and eventually they stopped moving…poor guys 🙁

At 5 Steve came to pick us up to drive us to a viewpoint to see the sunset. It was his friend, Marks, land and he also came up together with Simon. It was quite windy and cold but we parked the cars in a good angel and then had a beer and a chat.
It was a nice view from up there but to many trees in the way to see a clear sunset.
At 6.30 we came back then it was dinner-time. We had the lobster as an appetizer and it was excellent! Dale & Kath was impressed with us getting them and said that we seem to be well known in Kioloa now. 🙂

I love this place. It has everything that you need to relax. We have seen wild Kangaroos, Wallabys, different birds (color full, loud and just different from ours in Sweden), grapefruits hanging in their trees (we can only see them in the fruit-section in the supermarket at home), great beaches, amazing cliffs, met nice people.
Dale and Kath are amazing. We met them for two days in Cambodia and they took us in and trusted us to stay in their home without really knowing us.

Kioloa is the Australia that I wanted to see and now I feel like we are ready for Sydney and then on Wednesday morning we fly to Auckland, New Zealand, for a 2 month stay there.
These 5,5 weeks really went fast but we managed to do a lot during that time and still relax a bit. I am satisfied. 🙂

I will upload more pictures as soon as I can.
Hugs to you all!