Rola koala

And the first thing to posses me is to swim in Port Campbell Bay again, having been lulled into a false sense of security the day before but

........the water was freezing!

The original plan had been to get as far as Port Fairy but we figured it was a bit too far and anyway P had rounded off the night before by wowing me even more with a trip to Peterborough so I was good. And anyway I hadn't endured 24 hours in cattle class not to see koalas and the brosshure in our motel was sure if you went to Cape Otway lighthouse you would see the big k along the way. My eyes were already on stalks having scoured the horizon for the last 1750 kilometres. So we pootle along for quite a long time and yes the trees are the right trees; they only live in 1 type which is the one they eat from so they do not have far to travel since sleeping 18  hours is exhausting.

I am begining to lose faith but then there is a huddle of human bodies in the middle of the road hopping and gesticulating and grinning, so we park up, a little more responsibly and boom

And in to the bargain looking straight ahead which noone else does is a little bonus, though they refused to look at the lens.

Anyway the koala is one of about 15 once you get your eye in but the rest are not as active as Bradley Wiggins above ... and how can you believe they feel and smell like a toilet brush (junior's words not mine). 

I believe this one is weighed down by the knowldege that his/her kith and kin is dying out due to loss of environment and chlamydia (surprised me too!)

 

 

This is 3 of about 45 I took, many had to be deleted as a full lens extension, pointing upwards and shaking with excitement led to some blurring.

 

We proceed on to the lighthouse and in my enthusiasm I do a Del boy into a pot hole.

 

Heading back up the Great Ocean Road in the sunshine

 

 

To our next night's rest, in the working  port of Lake's Entrance or was it Lake Sentrance

 

 

and another glorious sunset

 

 

 

 

 

with swans obliging in the shaft of light

 

 

 

 

To the sea

Now we start the serious stuff

 

 

 

to..

 

And the image equivalents of pararhymes...doesn't this end in ....King?

Being teased, not a whisker of a Joey in sight...

And for some reason P retained a constant mental block about these...Enchiladas

 

And the Great Ocean Road in the grey

 

 

 

 

 

Until we arrive at another vintage joint in Apollo Bay

 

 

A warm evening permits spag bol, red wine and cigar..the only thing missing really is a tent and mo...oh no there it is on the leg....mossie bite rising!

Apollo Bay in the morning and the question has to be asked..Are there sharks in there?

The road takes you away from the Ocean into Otway Park

And our destination looms up..The 12 Apostles...and before you count there dotted about

And this bay where nobody is meant to swim....

Followed by more impressive rock formations

Onto Port Campbell our next stay which included a swim.....but first a quick check

- Are you sure there are no sharks

Limbs still in tact, fish and chips and  - a night trip to the Bay of Islands...where P gets chatted up by a local farmer's wife with the equivalent opening phrase

- Nobody's knows the trouble Oi've seen.

I took pictures.

A squillion bridal shops

Melbourne home to jaunty bridges or civil engineers overcompensating for the curvature of the earth

Melbourne the place where the oners and twoers of Sydney buses seem childsplay  and the transport authorities appear to have gone out of their way to irritate residents and tourists alike with Myki...you cannot go anywhere without a Myki...which costs $6 to buy each and then you have to load it with day passes which are $7 each and you can only by them in shops and not on the transport itself. So one day's worth of a single bus journey was to be $26  and if we walked the 3 km into town you got to the free tourist shuttle! 

Guess what we did; I distracted myself from my ever shrinking legs by looking in the 40 bridal shops we passed along the way. According to Junior the Aussies go in for the frock and nothing else...except maybe a bridegroom.

On the outskirts it is a city of wide open boulevards

 

Then you hit the Central Business District and log jam on this day because all the teachers were out on strike.

 

We catch the tourist bus which can't show you half the sites because of the strike and head for Victoria Market with lots of

 

 

 



And old fashioned stalls

 

 

 

 

 

It clearly is in competition with Sydney for high buildings but this picture belies the amount of buidling work going on too.

 

 

 

and it is also full of theatres and events. Next to this mosaic was a person dressing up in an animal suit to be filmed by attendant cameraman and there was a violin wafting across the airwaves too

 

 

 

 

The grand finale to the day was treating P to a Thai green curry in one of Melbourne's most celebrated (expensive) restaurants, on Valentine's day...the last of the romantics managed to bite into a green chilli

- eyeballs start to pop

- steam out of ears

- face turned puce 

- and to finish - the loudest bout of hiccoughs which interrupted all the mooning doe eyed lovers and made the great wind release of Phillipsburg pale into insignficance (I spare you the detail in both blogs suffice to say glaziers are expensive in the US).

 

Bless....

 

 

 



 



West Texas revisited?

On the road again and we scour the countryside for  bouncy things and these...a strangely positioned moose acting out a Tommy Cooper sketch ...(according to daughter number 1). Of course we could be looking at a rear view of an elephant in repose

but all we come up with is

And here we are in the district of (not City)

in true Wiles style we pick a classy joint for lunch

with top grade facilities

There's a man on the roof trying to get Australian Rules to stop being fuzzy on the tele,
hot mongrel on the menu and flies in the sugar bowl. 

We fight our way to the front of the queue as Sheila Roadblock sasshays out of the kitchen and starts to flirt with P ...the first 3 items we pick are off but she offers him anything he wants in a sandwich as long as he wants white.

And that special touch....thumbprints on the top slice to make sure the contents don't fall out.

Clearly this place holds a special kind of talent

And we move on to the next place

I swear this could be West Texas, the same dwindling communities, the youngsters migrating to the big cities and now there is not enough left for a proper hospital  

We didn't hang around to discover the special talents here

At last

If Les Pattison had been a red coat

It's been a long time since we did a proper road trip.

First to Canberra to see the capital, yet another expensive compromise on capitals because each of the citizens of Sydney and Melbourne felt they should be the big C!

So woo hoo..oh...it looks like Texas

Lots of dry, yellow, dusty earth with a sprinkling of trees now and then and some gentle musings from the woman who makes Margaret Thatcher seem like your favourite aunt - Julia Gillard , if you are not familiar.  We saw remnants of the politicians she was spitting out as we drove along. The peak was a politician being sent out of the room for breaching parliamentary procedure ...speaking when not permitted.

3 hours later and here we are in Butlins circa 1973

 For the culturally bereft. It had to be done luxury accommodation...in single beds

The politicians prefer to work out of here

Close up

And directly opposite close by the:

which gets knocked down periodically, but springs up. Currently Stralia is going through a 5 year apology to the indigenous population with alsorts of events. I believe the US may be beating  apathway to their door for tips as we speak..........................................
Not.

And directly opposite across the valley an equally impressive building

Which turns out to be, the war memorial:

And some impressive sculptures

Next stop Melbs.