Day 4 - Just a rainy day

Woke up nice and snug in our cabin. We had a cereal breakfast and took a stroll into Apollo Bay for some chicken. I apparently forgot to pack what we were making for dinner so we needed to pick that up in case we got back late. It was raining while we strolled through the town.

We headed back to our cabin for a quick bite to eat and then back in the car to Otway National Park. We wanted to go to the tip and see the lighthouse. My mom was on the lookout for wild animals so she did her best to ignore Lilly who was trying to get her to sing songs and play games. This would come back to haunt her later when she turned down Lilly's game of Santa Claus. I couldn't begin to tell you how to play or what went wrong but Lilly refused to hang out with grandma later in the day because of it!

Anyway, when we turned off The Great Ocean Road we turned our attention to the trees. There were signs everywhere for koalas. Mom suddenly said "I think I saw a koala!" So we backed up quite a ways and got out. Sure enough, there was one in a tree. Someone else pulled over after seeing us looking up. They spotted another one. After looking up at these two koalas and taking 38 pictures of them, we discovered there were about 12 koalas right above our head. So we walked around taking another 42 pictures including a mother and her baby. Most of the koalas didn't move (they sleep apporximately 16 hours a day) but a few moved to different branches.

Back to the car we headed down to the Cape Otway Lightstation. We checked out the visitor center and saw the price for entry. We wondered around the gift shop for a bit and all wondered out of the building. We were all a little surprised at how much it cost to just tour the area around the lighthouse!

We loaded into the car and tried to decide where to go. We figured we would do a big loop and end up back in Apollo Bay. Seth wanted to go see this Otway Fly and it was part of the loop. There were times on our GPS that the road looked like it was dirt but we figured it wouldn't be a big deal.

We drove for about 40 minutes and came upon the signs for the Otway Fly. Had to walk another 15 minutes to get to the visitor center. We then found out the cost to see this was more than the lighthouse but we had driven all this way, we were going to see something! Seth had told us this was some sort of boardwalk so I pictures a boarded path through the woods. Wrong answer! It was a metal structure that went through the trees, and way off the ground!

The path started off just along a dirt path. There were information markers along the way talking about different types of trees and the area. Next was a dinosaur area but I am not real sure why they included this in here. Then you turn onto a metal walkway. I'm not keen on heights but the walk was pretty cool. It took you very high up and you in some areas it was hard to figure out how high you were cause the undergrowth was so big.

Then there was the tower. Again, the height didn't freak me out, it was the swaying of the tower that sent me into a small panic attack. I made it down without incident. The path wound through the woods for quite sometime. It was getting dark by the time we got back on the dirt path. It was apparently time for the park to close. We got picked up by a ranger on a gold cart and taken back to the visitor center.

There was the ride home that I really wish we had a video of. I drove and my hands hurt when we got back from gripping the wheel so hard. The road didn't turn out to be dirt but then again, the GPS had no idea where we were. I don't think we really knew where we were either. The road was incredibly curvy and most of the time was only one lane. Then there were the drops on the side, who knew we were up in the hills? It was dark, raining, and then the fog came. No wonder our GPS said it was going to take 4 hours to get back to the cabin at that point, the speed limit was 20 kph.

The night ended with a puzzle, dinner and a movie. Not too bad!

Day 3 - Hit the Road Jack

Monday, bright and early, we loaded up the car. We headed toward Point Lonsdale to check out the lighthouse. It took about two hours in the car and somehow we avoided all traffic.

When we arrived it was rather windy and overcast but not raining. We got out of the car and walked down to the beach. We walked to the end of the pier where two fishermen had about a dozen poles in the water. The water was very choppy, so glad we weren't taking any kind of boat ride! We walked up to the lighthouse and walked around it. Read all the facts and info about the place. Hopped back into the car.

Next stop was to find some lunch. We drove a little further to the city of Torquay where we actually know an American couple. We parked the car and started walking around. We agreed to have Chinese and went to the the place only to find out they were closed on Mondays. We walked some more and finally stumbled on a Mexican place that was open. After lunch we walked around for another 15 minutes trying to find a public toilet. We had to ask for directions a couple of times.

Back into the car we hit the Great Ocean Road. This is similar to Highway 1 in California. It's curvy with lots of awesome views. One of the first places we could pull over, we did. I thought this was going to take forever if we were going to stop at each pull off! Anyway, we went down to the beach and took some pictures. The water here was a bit harsh. Lilly might have considered sticking her hand in but couldn't figure out how to do it without getting her feet wet. A couple pictures and a bit of sand was what we got from this stop, then off to the car.

A bit later we saw a bunch of cars pulled over so we did as well. Would you believe we saw whales? We really did. There were about six of them playing in pairs. Of course I took about 80 pictures and mostly got a fin here and there. The whales weren't very far out either. Maybe a couple of football fields, if that. It was impressive.

We jumped back in the car and watched the views of the ocean go by. We also checked out all the houses strategically place on the hillside. There was one that looked like it was going to fall over. It was basically on a pillar. To get to it you had to walk across what looked to be a covered catwalk. It looked scary, I couldn't imagine living there! I have to think that it would always be swaying.

At some point along the road, the weather got a little worse. Colder and windier. Not bad since we were in the car, it was when we got out that we were shaken up. We didn't stop at that point until we got to our cottage just outside of Apollo Bay. We had booked a three bedroom cottage and were excited about staying here. Somehow the reservation (all done online) was messed up and we ended up with a two bedroom, not a big deal. Mom got to sleep in Lilly's room.

The place was great. It had a television and we could get free dvd's (although mom and I picked some weird ones), a full kitchen, tiny hot tub and a fireplace. As soon as we got inside and shut all the windows we started the fire. I would avoid telling you that I set off the smoke detectors but it was pretty funny because I had to go and open all the windows again. Pretty soon we were all nice and toasty. We had a nice few but by the time we had onloaded the car and got all settled, that was when the rain started. It rained the entire time we were there.

That was our Monday. We made some spaghetti and started putting together a puzzle. Got Lilly off to bed and then mom and I watched a movie.

Day 2 with our visitor - August 9

Not moving very quickly with the posts. That's seems to be ok. Not sure that many if any people actually read them!

So we thought we would head to the CBD. We hopped on a tram and went to the middle of the city. We walked around the river where there is a wonderful Arts and Craft Sale. This happens every Sunday. We have seen it a couple of times but still haven't bought anything.

Next we tried going to a footy game. However, we were hoping to use a coupon to get a reduced price. Apparently, in order to use the coupon we had to be with a member (sort of like a season ticket holder). Little did we know! So we opted out of the game and headed towards the Docklands to walk around before my soccer game.

I really had a reason to head to the Docklands. The Costco was going to be opening in a week and I was hoping to get a membership so I wouldn't have to stand in line. I was able to walk in, fill out the paper, and get my picture taken in about five minutes. We saw the inside of the warehouse but weren't allowed to walk around. I was asked if I was excited and said sure. The lady then said that it seemed like most foreigners were excited about it. Ok, that's great.

After getting our membership we had to head down to my soccer game. Hopped on a couple of trams and arrived in plenty of time. Played, we lost, nothing new. Headed home with a quick stop for dinner (probably at McDonald's). We didn't stay up too late because we wanted to head out pretty early on Monday.

Monday's post will have more interesting stuff, trust me, you'll want to see it!