Melbourne 28 Nov to 2 Dec

We dropped in to see Ian's brother and his family in Melbourne. We were keen to spend Chloe's birthday with family and Aunty Angela was looking forward to baking a cake for her niece.

Morning tea at the Historic Boatshed on the Yarra River.

Chloe and Oliver making a Gingerbread House.

The finished product and proud cooks.

Chloe's beautiful raspberry ripple birthday cake that she helped Aunty Angela to make.

The girls at the Victoria Markets.

Ian with freshly chucked oysters. Ready to enjoy immediately.

Andrew and Chloe with Philip and Angela's youngest son Oliver.

Angela, Philip, Ian and Jodie out in their lovely backyard.

Chloe....we think... at one of the exhibits in the Melbourne museum.

The kids with the famous Phar Lap.

Jodie and the kids about to jump on a famous Melbourne Tram....a must do!

The Great Ocean Road 24-25th November 2011

                We lucked out with the weather for the Great Ocean Road. Beautiful scenery.......

The Grotto

London Bridge

Natural Arch

Down on the beach at Loch Ards Gorge.
Chloe, Jodie and Andrew looking out to where many ship wrecks had occured last century.

Looking north from the Twelve Apostles at sunset.

Chloe at the "Twelve" Apostles approaching sunset.

Enjoying a picnic lunch at the beach in Lorne.

South Australia 19 - 23 November 2011

                                                  


We left Ceduna headed for Streakey Bay; left our van and drove down to Point Labbot a mainland Australian Sealion Colony. Andrew and Chloe at the lookout at the top of the cliffs.

The sealions at the bottom!We stayed for about an hour and watched the sealions interact.
It was quite amazing seeing the males fight over the girls, the cubs follow and feed from their mothers and couples lazing on the beach stretched out along the coastline.

We heard about a rock (Pildappa Rock) that was similar to Wave Rock in WA so we thought we'd check it out.

It wasn't a bad impression!

About 50 km from Pildappa Rock were the Organ Pipes at Gawler National Park.

Chloe and Ian on the rocks.

Jesuit Church at Sevenhill Winery, the oldest winery in Clare Valley.

Belgian Chocolate Fountain in one of the shops on the main street in Hahndorf....just pretending to indulge but they did get a taste shortly after.

The kids got to put a punnet of strawberries under the fountain.
We think they were meant to just get a topping of chocolate but Andrew and Chloe did it very carefully and slowly so it actually filled the container with chocolate!

Doesn't get any better!!!!

Our last stop in SA was Mt Gambier. This is the Sinkhole sunken garden.

Blue Lake Mt Gambier.
During December to March, the lake turns to a vibrant cobalt blue colour, returning to a colder steel grey colour for April to November.

The Nullarbor Crossing 15 - 18 November 2011

The view from our first camp on the Nullarbor, 80km out of Norseman...we certainly felt very much in the Australian Outback.

Many long stretches of straight road.

It was about 40 degrees when we were driving along the Nullarbor so when we reached this blowhole at Caiguna, it was a welcome relief with cool air blowing up from below the ground.

Seemed like 1146.6 km

Madura Pass....beautiful looking out to the plains from the plateau.

A 'swarm' of budgies invaded our campsite at Modini's Bluff. We saw several flocks for the next 100 kilometres or so. It was an amazing site as they landed on our car, van and even covered the green when playing the 11th hole at Mundrabilla Road House.

Less than 3000km to go!

We finally came to the 'treeless' part of the Nullarbor.

After the Nullarbor Roadhouse we had rain, fire and a magnificent rainbow.

This was truly a unique spectacle.
The rainbow stayed with us for at least an hour and for much of this time it seemed like the 'pot of gold' was on the road  ahead of us.

The dark clouds added to the effect.

When we drove into Penong to fuel up this was on the fuel bowser.
Our $150 bill seemed OK after that.

We drove from Penong to Point Sinclair.
There was no mention of a 'Pink Lake' but to our surprise we drove across one.
As you can see it was pink on the right but a normal blue on the left!

Nullarbor Links 15 - 18 November 2011

Ian decided to play the Nullarbor Links(The Longest Golf Course in the world from Kalgoorlie in WA to Ceduna in SA). We thought it would be a great way to break up the journey across the Nullarbor.....and it was. We got to see a few interesting sites off the beaten track and stretch our legs every few hundred kilometres or so.

Ian putting on the Nullarbor Roadhouse hole.

About to hit off on the 1st at Kalgoorlie....nice green tee and green.... seemed normal enough.



About to hit off on the 3rd hole at Kambalda...a slight change in the tee and....

......'green'. The kids caddied for dad so also endured the heat,rain and horse flies.
We almost stood on a goanna on the Kambalda fairway but thankfully didn't see any snakes.

At each hole there is some history about the local area and usually a hole is dedicated to a local person who has made a significant contribution to the region. The story about the Nullarbor Nymph is a classic and worth a look. http://www.thenullarbornymph.com/nymph.html     

Looking down the fairway at the Nullarbor Roadhouse. We ran into Charlie who was also playing the Links. Notice the two clubs on the back of the bike. A 3 and 8 iron. That's all he used...hit a better score than me (Ian).

A mound and hole in the middle of the fairway.
 Didn't cause any problems for me as I didn't hit the fairway on this hole!

Last putt on the 18th! Was hoping it would be a real green.

The 19th!
That's Charlie who was on the bike...caught up for a few more beers later on.
It was a long and unique 18 holes.