To the Great Ocean Road and on to Adelaide

 Driving west towards Adelaide we had a few big days of driving. The first day we drove through the city for a while before stopping in Canberra to get lunch and have a quick squizz around the botanic gardens. We had a delicious lunch and hit the road again. We drove along stopping at few spots along the way to see some street art before ending up at our Airbnb in Wodonga. It was kinda funny town. It seemed quite large, but we hardly saw any other people despite being a weekend night the downtown area seemed abandoned and even the neighborhood of our place all the houses had their lights off. It was a great stop over though to rest up before another big day of driving. 

Next we drove southwest stopping in a cute town of Warangatta along the day. It was a beautiful little town to stretch our legs in before continuing on to Melbourne where we had lunch with Hope and Scott. They were lovely as always and it was good to have a catchup with them. Next we headed south to the Great Ocean Road. Unfortunately due to our stops and long drives we arrived at the GOR right at sunset which was beautiful, but meant that the majority of our drive along the scenic highway was in the dark. It was a narrow winding road along the ocean making it a bit stressful to drive, but we had an adventure nonetheless. We ended in Apollo Bay and got some take out and rested up for another day along the ocean. 

The next day we headed to Otway National Park. We went on a beautiful rainforest walk through the Nothofagus and Stringy bark gum forest which was carpeted in mosses and interspersed with tall tree ferns. We saw lots of mushrooms and other moisture loving flora. We worked our way south through the park looking for koalas and it did not disappoint. We stopped many times along the road to point our binoculars at the fluffy balls way up in the trees. Of course, most were sleeping and barely noticed the rest looked down at us annoyed for disturbing their naps. We stopped at a lighthouse at the bottom of the Otway NP where we went for a short walk and had some delicious scones and cream before continuing on our journey. After we headed to the twelve apostles which are beautiful sharp sandstone islands made from the eroded cliffs. We went to a number of stunning overlooks and I dipped my feet in the cool refreshing water. We continued on to our stay in Port Fairy. 

After port fairy we headed further west stopping in Portland in hopes of seeing whales. While we were unlucky in that respect, we did see a seal and enjoyed the beautiful sun along the coast. We headed to some lighthouse overlooks before continuing on our journey. Our next stop was Mount Gambier where we walked into some cool gardens that had been built into the bottom of sink holes. It was a neat concept to see a cultivated bottom in a sinkhole and it was a nice walk around. Our final stop was in Robe. 

We made it to the cliffs right after sunset and watched the light go down over ocean. It was, of course, stunning. After we got a delicious dinner where we cracked up at Pat’s indecision making a dinner choice. Everything sounded good and everytime someone said their order she’d go “oh I’ll have that”. She said it after each person and ended up changing her order 5 times which was a real crack up. The next morning we drove north towards Adelaide. We stopped by a big lobster sculpture, but did have many stops after that as the area is pretty empty. Lots of saltmarsh and paddocks for many hours of driving. Finally in the Adelaide hills we stopped for pastries before wandering around Handorf a German themed tourist town for a bit before continuing on to Adelaide and settling into our home for the evening. We had a nice spagetti dinner and Dean and Jenny joined us. It was really great watching my mom catch up with her siblings and I enjoyed spending time with everyone.