Sydney - Melbourne

6 days, Sydney to Melbourne (plus a bit the other side). We decided that car hire was the way to do this stretch. It would be quite a drive at about 1500 kilometres! This was our 'nature and sightseeing trip' in Oz so don't read on unless you're really interested!! But look at the photos because they're really cool!

We were given a Toyota Corolla automatic. It was very easy to use apart from the odd emergency stop when we thought the brake was the clutch!

As we left Sydney, we stopped at the 2000 Olympic area. It didn't look that impressive and a little run down, especially compared to Beijing.

We headed to the blue mountains. We were driving, and not that impressed until we reached Wentworth Falls. It was a breathtaking view of the waterfall with lots of walking tracks to do.

The Three sisters at Echo point was next and is quite famous. It was again situated in a huge canyon. See photos -three rocks together. We camped nearby and it was cold and wet!
We weren't meant to stay but time just went! The weather the next day was rubbish! We went to kings tableland which despite standing on the edge of a massive cliff was foggy and we couldn't see a thing! That was the same story for the rest of the lookouts unfortunately, however we did go back and get better pictures later after we had drove the Blue Mountain loop. It was such a good area with views just off the road that you never thought would be there!! You could miss everything driving through the mountains as all the cool stuff is off the main road loop.

That evening we drove down the coast and found a campsite literally on the beach at Coaldale! We even got up for sunrise which was pretty cool!

The next day we drove to some falls but they were charging a fair bit to get in. As we were driving we came across Carrington falls and Fitzroy falls which were equally as amazing and free! There were loads of viewpoints and a cool old bridge (Hampton bridge circa 1898).

We also visited Kiama blowhole which wasn't blowing much, cathedral rock which did actually look a bit like a cathedral and Bombo headlands that are famous for tv ads apparently but just looked like a pile of rubble to us! The camel rock was good however and we thought did look like a camel!

We headed along past seven mile beach To Jervis Bay. We wanted to stay on the beach again, but as it was a national park area you had to have prebooked, which was annoying! We did get to see wild kangaroos though, luckily none jumped out infront of the car though!! We properly splashed out in the evening having a 3 course meal! The steak came uncooked on a sizzling hotplate which we then cooked ourselves! Yum yum in my tum.

Our third day saw us doing a lot of driving! It's not as bad as driving along way back home though, there's no traffic, and beatuiful scenery instead of boring motorway. I can't think of anywhere back home where you can have a pitstop at a deserted beach surrounded by stunning cliffs. We made it to Orbost and pitched our tent for the night.

On day four we needed to reach Phillip Island to see the penguin parade for 7.30pm! Thinking we had loads of time we did a bit of sightseeing and then somehow got lost on the Grand Ridge highway! The road took us through amazing scenary, very narrow roads and steep cliff drops!! The road was a gravel track and we were lost for about 1 and half hours!! I secretly enjoyed it though as I felt a bit like a rally driver, especially when the back end of the car started to slide out - don't worry folks we're safe now!!
We had never been so happy to see a 'sealed' road when we finally found ourselves on the map!! We even stopped to take a picture (dusty car pic).

We dashed to the penguins only to find out they wouldn't be arriving until 9pm! Don't they know we rushed there to see them?! We didn't have any accommodation sorted so we decided to wing it later!

We sat on the steps waiting for the penguins and sure enough they started to arrive at 9pm. They were hesitant in leaving the sea so they waited until there was enough of them and then waddled as fast as they could up the beach and into their burrows in the dunes. It was so funny to watch! We left the beach to watch the penguins goto their burrows which was the best bit! The walkways were right next to them and they didn't seem phased by us apart from when the (so stereotypical) Japanese tourists would run over to them squealing!
At one stage there was a kangaroo, rabbits and penguins walking on the same track!! Wildlife overload!

So we left at 10pm and had no accommodation booked. We went to all the campsites on Phillip Island but they were all closed!! Nooooooo. We decided to drive to Melbourne in the hope there would be a 24 hour hostel! We found somewhere in the end so no dramas. Kris did drive into the wrong side of a triple lane motorway but it was quiet and so we lived!!

We had a lie in the next day and left quite late for Warrnambool to see Kris's friend from Gloucester. We headed for the Great Ocean road which is a world famous drive! We were in Torquay which is a famous surf destination and decided to try sell our board. We found the best outlet shopping centre ever as it consisted only of surf shops!! We quickly left while our wallets were intact and headed to Angelsy (another stolen English town name!) for a 2nd hand surf shop. Initially they shop owner said he wouldn't take the board but once he heard he'd been recommended he changed his mind!! He gave us an amazing price (especially as the board had a crack) and we left smiling! We hadn't left enough time to drive the ocean road and the weather wasn't great so instead we went the quick way to warnambool.

We met up with kris's friend from glos and his ozzy girlfriend and had a good night out! They took us on a drive to an old volcano where we saw wild Kangaroos and Emus!! They took us for lunch the next day to the best cafe ever! It had amazing views over the sea. Cheers Will and Liz!

The next day the weather was much better, so we started the Great Ocean Road drive. I'll list the places we went to. It was the best coastal scenary we'd ever likely to see. Check the photos...

Bay of Islands
Martyrs Bay
Grotto lookout
London bridge
The Arch
Blowhole and thunder cave
Apostles

After seeing all that we still had another 30km of winding coastal drive which was equally amazing!! We got back to Melbourne at 9pm. The journey took us 8 hours!!

We were so glad we hired the car, of course there were map reading issues(!) and if the term 'do a ue' (u-turn) hasn't been coined yet, it has now! We did...get ready... 2953 km. If we did the journey the quick way it would have only been 1100km! We obviously did a few diversions!

That evening our Swedish stalkers Bear and Oscar were at the hostel we booked (planned this time) and we had a few beers to chill out!!

Sorry if there are spelling mistakes but I'm doing this on phone!!

We have now added the photos of the Great Ocean Road as we forgot to add them!!