Greetings from Down Under!

Our first stop in Australia was Melbourne, arriving in top notch form from a red eye flight from Bangkok. It was shocking to be able to read all the signs in English!

When we arrived at the airport, we were pretty tired, but we had to figure out where we were going to be staying for our time in Melbourne. Robin also wanted to locate her friend Loren, so we spent some time on the phone in the airport.

After a few calls we contacted our Servas hosts Bronwyn and Malcolm who agreed to put us up for two nights. Melbourne is a very transit friendly city and we were able to take the tram to their neighborhood, South Yarra. Bronwyn and Malcolm were wonderful hosts and their dog Skeeter was very cute too.

Their home in South Yarra was really unique and comfortable. We cooked dinner for them one night with ingredients we bought at a local market. We had some very lively dinner conversations too.

While in Melbourne, we did some sightseeing and we decided to rent a car to drive the Great Ocean Road which would take us to Adelaide. Adelaide is the stop for points up to the Red Center or Centre..where Uluru and Kings Canyon are located.

We picked up the car and took a one day detour to Philip Island. Philip Island is a small island about 2 hours drive south/southeast from Melbourne.

Philip Island is claim to lots of wineries, lots of cows and sheep farms, a koala preserve, elusive kangaroos, and a nightly migration of little blue penguins called the Penguin Parade.

The Parade is quite a tourist attraction, with lots of busses and tourists along the beach in special bleechers to keep us at a safe distance. No photos allowed on the site. We got front row seats and watched them head up from the ocean where they had been feeding, spending several days in the ocean. At dusk, they head out of the water to their homes on the beach and beyond. It was breeding time and there were the cries of all the hungry babies in their nests.

The nests can be up to 2 kilometers away and its dangerous for them to go home because of birds and foxes. They were really cute and it the words of a nice Australian man we met their small size "makes you want to feed them."

While on Philip Island, we made contact with Robin's friend Loren and met up with her and her family later in the day in Melbourne.

We had a wonderful visit with Loren, Mark and their two young boys, Albert and Vincent. We spent the afternoon touring Williamstown (a close-in neighborhood of Melbourne) and having pizza and celebrating Loren's birthday.

Loren and Mark are renovating a storefront for her clothing design business, and have been living upstairs in a small apartment. It was cozy, but they still offered to have us stay the night, which was great too! Albert and Vincent had to give up their room!

The next day we headed out of Melbourne along a scenic drive known as the Great Ocean Road, where it is generally impossible to take a
bad photo!

The Great Ocean Road winds its way along the coast of the Southern Ocean and ends up inland in Adelaide. The roadway is generally two lanes with stops along the way to take photos and take in the scenery.

We saw some great rock formations:

12 Apostles (at least one sank into the ocean!)

Loch Ard Gorge

London Bridge

Bay of Islands

Here's a shot of us in front of the Razorback formation!

On the way, we stopped at Bells Beach, a world famous surfing beach and Maits Rest, a small trail through some ocean rainforest.

We spent the night in Port Campbell, a small town along the way. The next morning the scenery changed to farmland with lots of grazing sheep and cows.
After four hours, the roadway went inland and changed to semi arid land with salt flats and some sense of desolation. Not really the place to run out of gas, but we almost did!

That day, we had a total of about 9 1/2 hours on the road where Matt did all of the driving on the left. He was a pro, even handling lane changes, roundabouts and parking with ease....while Robin was a willing passenger!

In Adelaide, we met up with Wayward Tours and along with our guide Mark and about 20 other travellers set off in a mini bus up the country through South Australia.