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We woke today with the sound of rain on the roof but the wind has eased so we’re all go today. Our target is Mount Gambier, home of the limestone caves.

We started out weaving in and out of the streets to find the highway out, traffic was heavy and visibility poor but we eventually found our way out, to the M1 motorway, 6 lanes wide. From here it was fairly easy, apart from the rain and the traffic, at least we were on the right track and couldn’t get lost. This motorway wound it’s way through the second half of the town, through a pretty cool road tunnel, through the hills, and out of the rain, to rolling farmland. We turned inland at Tailem Bend (who thinks of these names) which then went along the coast, through Coorang – a huge area of saltwater marshland . We filled up at a wee place called Meninges where we met 2 blokes, 1 a fisherman who wanted us to check out Beachport and Salmon bay and the other one who’s dad was a motorcycle cop and told us that they all dressed in black and snuck up behind you to surprise you with a ticket. From here we raced along to Kingston, home of the giant lobster and from there across to Mt Gambier. The whole time we were zig zagging between huge dark clouds which broke loose on us every now and again. We made it to Mount Gambier, huge forests, a huge paper mill and a complex of limestone caves under the city and around the area. We were a bit wet but dried off pretty quickly. Pizza haven for tea and the Aussy Masterchef elimination night on the telly.

Tonight we stay here and tomorrow it’s “the great ocean road” and Melbourne.

Liz’s Blog 16th July

Well maybe I was a bit ambitious with today’s plan.

After we left Mount Gambier we turned off the main highway to cut across to the coast. Our first fill up was only a wee way on in Nelson where we met a guy who warned us of how long it would take us today, as once you get to Victoria the roads are a lot slower, and to watch for cops. He wasn’t wrong. In our travels today we would leave South Australia behind us and enter into Victoria – land reknowned for speed camera’s, strictly enforced speeding limits and wait for it a speed limit of 100km/hr. As soon as we crossed the border the traffic slowed up, passing opportunities were limited and it became quite a bit colder. We stuck to the main road until we reached Warrnambool (population 32000, at least 2 MacDonalds, Subway, KFC and Redrooster) and then turned to join the Great Ocean Road. This road was fairly straight to start with but as it reached the coast became quite winding along the coast. The views of the limestone cliffs were amazing and there were several pull in points where you could stop and take photos. The last time I had been down there was 1993 and it had certainly changed since then. There was a lot more traffic, fortunately going the other way, and they had developed the most famous stop, where the 12 apostles were, to a full on tourist destination. They have built a visitor centre, complete with café, a huge car and bus park, a helicopter sight seeing business was operating from a building behind the car park with at least 4 helicopters, 2 up at a time. They had built a walkway underpass to get to the lookout which was the only part that was the same. The view, however, was awesome, and although you couldn’t see all of the 12 apostles (limestone pillars, built up over thousands of years) it was still a great sight. After this the road continued winding up the hill and back along the coast to Apollo Bay and eventually back to Melbourne. Probably half way back we decided to leave the Great Ocean road as the traffic was very slow, and it was so cold we needed a quick return to somewhere warm. We cut through from cape Otway, through the beech forest, and back to Colac where still freezing cold we joined the A1 towards Melbourne. This part of the motorway was very slow, tedious and cold, so when we finally we got to Geelong, we called it a day. It was already 4pm and we had only gone 440km. A slow day.

Liz’s Blog 17th July

Today we re adjusted our target, it would now be Geelong, Melbourne, Phillip Island then Orbost along the coast.

Late start, Confuser lost the program just before we left

Quick recalculations left us going through the centre of Melbourne instead of around, and I was not pleased. However we did get to see the centre of Melbourne, go over the huge bridge and throught the ??Burney street tunnel which I swear went straight down before resurfacing on the other side of the city, after a very long time inhaling exhaust fumes.

We then went through a couple of toll roads – good luck finding us to charge us for that one as even we didn’t know where we were.

From there we travelled the motorways with “confusers” help aiming for Phillip Island.

The scenery was picturesque and who knew that Phillip Island was actually an island connected to the rest of Aussy by a bridge. The wind was off the sea so it was pretty chilly but the seaside towns were very pretty.

This road into Phillip Island was very slow due to heaps of traffic, road works it took for ever so by the time we eventually got there we were exhausted. The coffee and pumpkin soup at the café were a great reviver. The Phillip Island race track was pretty cool. There were a lot of people there, just looking, they were selling guided tours of the track, the chance to ride a kart around the track, or pay a lot more $295 for a “hot lap” in V8 race car or drive your own car or bike around. Although there were tonnes of people there, the guy in the shop said this was a quiet day and it wasn’t unusual to have a wait of up to 4 hours to ride the karts around the track.

From here we made the long trek back and decided to detour along the coast where “confuser” lost the plot, so we decided to follow our nose and wound our way along the coast and eventually found a place to stay at 3.30pm at a small town called Yarram. Again this was a lot less further on than we wanted but we would recalculate for tomorrow.

Liz’s Blog 18th July

Yarram – Batemans Bay

National Parks, Forests and more National Parks

Sunday markets in Sale

Lunch in Bairnsdale

Lots of little seaside towns

Standouts – Lakes Entrance and Narooma

Golf course with kangaroos pambula marimbula

Guy with Suzuki 650 gsxr Sydney to Melbourne small b train at Cann River

Roadkill – wombat and fox and kangaroo

Slower speeds took 8hours, 8.30 – 4.30 to do 620km

Liz’s Blog 19th July

Batemans Bay – Wollongong- Bathurst 428km

Another long day today. To do only 428km it took all day. The road from Batemans Bay was beautiful again with the many national parks/state forests, but it soon turned in to a congested highway with lots of traffic and many many speed limits. Everytime you came to a wee village you had to slow to 80km, then 60km and then speed up to do it again. Once we hit the highway it sped up a bit but the ride was boring. Once we got to Wollingong we did a quick trip into the city centre and then back to the highway and the turnoff to the Blue Mountains. The road through the Blue mountains was a nightmare there was traffic everywhere, and roadworks everywhere else. The little towns were quite picturesque but the roadworks made it impossible to get tnear them. The road was so slow our average speed was 75km. It eventually picked up once we reached Lithgow when it was a faster run into Bathurst. By now it was freezing cold and threatening rain. We managed to weave through the traffic to find a motel. Where we could see Mount Panorama.

Tomorrow we will drive around the track and head back towards Sydney by another route – thank goodness!!

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