Boxing Day on the Great Ocean Road

One of the things Pete really wanted to do when he and Chloe came to visit us for Christmas in Melbourne was to go and see the Twelve Apostles, so we decided that if the weather was good, we would do the 700 odd Km trip, and take the kids along the Great Ocean Road, to see all the things that we had seen a couple of weeks earlier, except we would have to speed do it as we only had the day. Apologies if this seems like a repeat of a previous blog, but I want to document the photos of us all being on the Great Ocean Road together.

It rained when we left Melbourne, but by the time we got there the weather was perfect. The kids were stoked. This time instead of visiting the Twelve Apostles first we started at the other end, and went to "The Arch" first, and then we worked out way back.
I am pleased we got to go visit these places again and see them in the middle of the day when they looked so sensational. The fortnight earlier when we visited, we saw the arch later in the afternoon. It was freezing cold the first time we visited the Great Ocean Road and it was freezing again this time. Would would have thought that we would have been rugged up with coats on at the end of December.

After visiting "The Arch" we dropped in to see "London Bridge"
What they saw here made their day. Just beneath them they saw a Fairy Penguin. Chloe was absolutely rapted. He was aptly named "Arnold" and all she could do was talk about how very cute he really was.


We headed off to "The Grotto" next
They had a great time exploring the Grotto and we got some great photos.

Steve was keen to show them the boat ramp so we headed to the "Bay of Islands" next
Got much better photos here than the last time we visited. Found a very tame seagull here also. He was sitting on the bonnet of the car, and never budged even when I opened the door and climbed in and closed the door. A car pulled in next to me, and five people hopped out of it, opening and slamming doors, and this the seagull sat there. He must have sat on the bonnet for a good 20 minutes or more, whilst Steve took the kids on another short walk to one of the other lookouts. I decided not to do that walk, as I had done it a fortnight earier, and I wanted to get my journal up to date.

I am sure that this is one of STeve's favourite spots along the Great Ocean Road.

From the Boat ramp we headed to Loch Ard Gorge. There is so much to see here and all of it magnificent. We were here a good hour and a half, and still could have spent longer here.

I was standing up the top of the steps and suddenly I saw this head bobbing around in the ocean in front of me. I just knew it had to be Pete, even though they recommend that you don't swim here. Just wanted to have a dip in Bass Strait. It was freezing cold. He had worn a coat most of the day. I just couldn't beleive it. When he came out of the water he was BRIGHT RED - from the cold I am sure.
He probably spent all of five minutes in the water. ( Thankfully we carry some old towels in the car, and he did have a change of clothes ( He had bought his board shorts with him.)

From Loch Ard we headed to the Twelve Apostles.
We arrived later in the afternoon, so the views weren't as good as a fortnight earlier when we were there in the middle of the day. Also it had started to cloud over, so the ocean had lost its vibrant blue colour. Also we learnt that you don't visit the Twelve Apostles on a public holiday. There were thousands and thousands of tourist there mostly overseas tourists, and it was very hard to get a decent photo as there were so many around. I was pretty thankful that we had taken the bulk of our photos when we visited a fortnight earlier. Also there were no water falls this time.
Our last port of call was Gibson's Steps
By this stage it was after 5pm, and the glare from the sun made it impossible to get decent shots. The kids climbed down onto the beach and had a bit of fun down there before heading back up to the car. We needed to get going as it was almost 5.30pm and we had an almost five hour drive to get back to Melbourne.

Unfortunately it rained for a good part of the drive home, only clearning up after we left Apollo Bay. But it is was good to go back along the Great Ocean Road from the opposite direction - you definately see different things.

It was almost 8pm by the time we got to Lorne, so we decided to stop and get some fish and chips to eat on the beach. Even though it was dark, we also had a quick stop over in Geelong along the Esplanade so that we could show the kids the Bollards, before taking off and heading back into Melbourne. It was after 11pm by the time we got home.

It ended up being a really late night by the time we all had showers and crawled into bed. We were too pooped to do too much the next day, so just sat around and chilled out at the park.

We did take Chloe out to do some shopping for the Boxing Day sales later in the afternoon and she sure picked her self up some bargains. The kids time in Melbourne had just flown and we really weren't ready to put them on a flight home the next morning.

In fact once they left, we spent the day packing up the annex, and van and getting ready to leave ourselves the following morning. We had planned to take a week or so to meander back into Qld, but after checking road conditions and hearing about all the floods in Qld, decided to head straight home with two very long days in the car travelling. I think we did the right thing, as the roads were very busy, and would have only got busier if we had left it to the weekend.

We travelled from Melbourne to camden our first day, and then Camden to Grafton on our second day, and then we were back in Brisbane by lunch time on our third day. This was good because it meant we got to spend some more time with Chloe before she headed off to Hervey Bay to be a leader on a youth camp, and we got to spend New Year's Eve with our kids.

The other thing though, we also realized that the end of our holiday was fast approaching. Once we crossed the Queensland border, we felt like it was the end, as we were back now in familiar territory - territory we visit most years when we are on school holidays. It is so hard to beleive that a holiday we had longed for, a holiday we had planned for, for almost three years, had come and gone.

Back to routine, back to work, back to responsibilites, but this is a holiday that we will never forget and hopefully we will get to do it all again within a few years. I can definately understand why people long to become the Grey Nomads, how they sell up and just hit the road. We loved every minute of our time on the road, and I could easily do it for a year or more.

Must go... am pretty sure now that I am up to date on all my posts.
Will be back again soon, with photos and an update on the floods back home. At the moment, we are stranded, we cannot get home. It may be two or three weeks, before the waters are down sufficient enough for us to head home, but oh what a massive cleanup there will be, and what an awlful stench we will have greet us as we arrive in town. Right now my heart goes out to all of those who have suffered through these floods. I know my sister's house in Emerald has had water through it again, and our really good friends the Brays, have also had water go right through their home. They still had not recovered from the past flood three years ago, and now they have to go through all of this again. I think that what people don't realize is that this sort of devastation takes years to get over, and that also, it is not now, but a couple of months down the track that the emotional drain takes place. We need to keep these guys in our thoughts and prayers this year.