New Years Eve in Melbourne

Friday, 28th December 2018 started with a second swim in the river right next to our campsite due to the extremely high temperatures.

Afterwards, we refreshed ourselves and returned to the highway towards the coast. On the way, Krissi experienced a dizziness attack, fortunately she was not the driver. Kenny stopped our little car by the roadside on the dirt road and Krissi put her feet up in bed. After a while, we were able to continue. To strengthen ourselves further, we had a small ice cream at McDonald's. The temperatures reached 43 degrees Celsius that day.

For lunch, we spontaneously sat by the Moruya River. Just at the time when we tried to cook our rice pudding, it was very windy, not so practical for the gas stove. Before and after lunch, it was hot and completely windless. Cheeky.

On this day, we arrived early at the Bodalla Park Rest Area. We slowly have to start thinking about the time after Australia. We booked our ferry to Tasmania. It will take place on 27th January. Until then, we still have to make it to Adelaide and back to Melbourne. We also booked our flight from Melbourne to Christchurch in New Zealand. We plan to spend about a month there. So if anyone can help us with travel reports, highlights and recommendations - please write to us. :D

Also on Saturday, we started the day leisurely. While still at the campsite, we compared the rental prices for campervans in New Zealand. Maaaan, everything is so expensive. We haven't really found a solution yet. Renting a campervan, buying a car or traveling by bus?

Eventually, we got ourselves together and drove towards Kiana. We made a spontaneous stop at Carters Beach Lookout. We saw cliffs and a pretty rough sea. The cliffs on the beach are becoming more frequent. However, there are still plenty of white dream beaches that stretch for miles.

Afterwards, we made a short stop at Bar Beach, which was crowded with bathers. At the nearby Mill Bay Board Walk, we had our first highlight of the day. We saw two huge stingrays. They glided leisurely through the shallow waters of the beach and looked like giant floating carpets. We could even see their eyes and gills in the clear water. A little purple squid went unnoticed by most tourists. By the way, it was quite afraid of the ray and quickly swam away when it approached, then it hid in a safe place.

In the next town, Narooma, the next highlight awaited us. Wild seals. They rest at the mouth of the small bay and warm themselves on the dam stones. We watched a younger seal swim in the water and enjoy turning around and playing. Others just lay in the sun, slept and cleaned themselves. Apparently, there are real territorial battles for the best sunbathing spots. These spots are not shared. The seals are relatively unaffected by humans, but it is advised not to stand between the animals and the sea, as you would block their escape route to safety. So cute, the little ears of the seals and their stubby tails. :D

It's really great to be able to observe these animals up close in their natural habitat. It's different from seeing them behind bars in a zoo. Really, really great. :)

The Australia Rock, right at the same spot, lost a bit of its significance. Here you can see a rock crevice that looks like the continent of Australia.

After that, we went to the associated Bar Rock Lookout, which offered a view of the bay and the sea. But the stingrays and seals couldn't be topped anymore.

For lunch, we went to Corunna Lake. Apparently, this is where the Australian neighborhood meets to go motorboating and water skiing. One of the Australians loaded his boat onto the trailer and repeatedly revved the engine, he just cheerfully called out to us, 'My Boy Toy'. ;)

We briefly stopped at Wallaga Lake. A vast lake. Krissi's toilet adventure was the highlight here. While flushing, she suddenly discovered a panicked frog clinging to the toilet bowl. It was a big shock, the frog survived, but the goosebumps remained for a while. And if you consider that in Australia, other animals do tend to stick to toilets.. ohohhh.

We then went to a beach, where we wanted to see the Camel Rock. A stone in the shape of a sitting camel.. On the way there, Kenny said, 'The closer you get, the more you see that it's not a camel.' There was also supposed to be a rock in the shape of a woman's face. Well, we were there anyway.

To cool off, we then jumped into the Bruce Steer Pool. A small bay with very calm water, but really cold. That's apparently how it is down here in the south. Still great during the hot temperatures. After that, we took a thankfully moderately cold shower. Refreshed, we drove to the Dusty Wagon Camp Ground. This place definitely lives up to its name. We drove along an unpaved forest road to a dusty spot in the middle of nowhere. There were only two other campers there with us. It was nice and quiet, but we were attacked by tiny biting creatures. However, Krissi slept very poorly. In the middle of the night, she saw lights flickering through the forest and heard footsteps very close by. Peaceful sleep was over. Next morning, you can logically explain everything, in the middle of the night you can either successfully or unsuccessfully reassure yourself.

Due to all the tiny biting creatures, we fled to the Blue Pools for breakfast.

At this point, Kenny started to have severe stomach pains. So after breakfast, we went directly to the pharmacy. Fortunately, the proven Gaviscon quickly helped again on this day. It seemed to be our week of little ailments. We then continued to the Tatrah Memorial Park. It was built in the past because the city did not have its own cemetery, so a small brass plaque was dedicated to each deceased person. Today, the dedication is only for the immediate members of the city's Lions Club.

The next stop was supposed to be the Tathra Maritim Museum. First, we discovered a café at the small jetty, which was packed. The jetty was also filled with fishermen. Suddenly, they all started running from one side of the jetty to the other in panic. We asked what happened and were told that a kingfish had been sighted, apparently a pretty big fish that everyone was excited about.

We then went to the docks of Tathra and fortunately again saw two of the huge stingrays. Under the guidance of their father, two teenagers tried to feed the rays with fish scraps. But it didn't really work. The ray came by from time to time and looked at the offering, but did not take a bite. One of the boys dared to stroke the ray.

Next, we wanted to refresh ourselves at the Mystic Magic Pools in Tura Head Lands. Unfortunately, it started to get cloudier on the hike there. When we arrived, it was already relatively cool. But the pool looked great. Right in the cliffs by the sea. Krissi was the first one to go into the water and it took her breath away for a moment, it was so cold. Kenny followed shortly afterwards. It is probably a fantastic place in the sunshine. In front of you, the sea and behind you, the steep cliffs. Some of them were even reddish. When we sat back on our towels, it started to drizzle. So we went back to the car. We caught up with a few other travelers, who unfortunately smelled a bit unpleasant, so we let them pass us again. Hopefully, other people don't do the same to us... :P

For lunch, we used a nice Rotary Park. Here we had a great view of Eden and the estuary with its numerous white sandbanks. We continued refreshed to a lookout, from where you could see a deep gorge and walk along the cliffs.

At some point on this day, we were shocked to realize that it was already the 30th of December and not, as we thought, the 29th of December. We wanted to spend New Year's Eve in Melbourne, but at that time it was still about 600km away from us. But we also wanted to see a little something on the way. So we agreed to drive a lot of kilometers in the evening and get up at 7am the next day.

We spent the night at a free campsite, the Drummer Rest Area, and were the only ones there. Due to the remoteness of the camp, we also had no cell phone reception in the forest area. Equipped with a handy car key and a knife, we both slept peacefully that night. :)

On the 31st of December, Kenny had to drive about 500 km. Krissi's foot is not approving of operating the gas pedal very well. We started with the McKenzie River Rainforest Walk. It's a 1km loop through rainforest and eucalyptus forest. Two suspension bridges over a small river were particularly cute. Apparently, nobody had walked along there for a long time or the spiders are very active. In the end, Kenny went ahead with a stick in his hand to collect all the spider webs from the path.

We were suddenly surprised by a dark brown, almost black kangaroo jumping in front of our car on Mount Raymound. We were going uphill, so we were driving quite slowly and this could happen. After this start, the view from the top was impressive. Although it was a bit hazy, you could see the valleys all the way to the sea.

Next, we continued to Lakes Entrance. We walked along the pedestrian bridge over a river to the sea. There were hundreds of jellyfish in the river. We learned that they are not poisonous, but even the Australians were surprised by this phenomenon. We definitely didn't want to fall in there.

On the way back to the car, we quickly got ourselves a portion of fish and chips. We were under time pressure, so it was convenient for us to save time during lunch. Before eating, we briefly stopped at Lakes Entrance Lookout.

We saw the estuary and the numerous branches of the river in the region. We continued to Fish Bay and enjoyed our fish and chips there. :)

On this day, we actually wanted to go to a national park, but we decided against it because of the time. So, the tight schedule became a little more relaxed and we treated ourselves to coffee and ice cream in Sale. We also visited the former home of Francis (a friend of Kenny's parents) here and enjoyed our iced latte by the lake in front of the property.

After many hours of driving, we finally arrived in Melbourne. First, we went to the DFO Shopping Centre. There are free, warm showers there. We wanted to start the new year clean. Freshly showered, we drove to the beach, surrounded by numerous Arab families who were all celebrating loudly, we fortified ourselves for the night. We found a nice parking spot before the fireworks, which we could also use directly as a sleeping spot for the night. Then we walked to the city center. Thanks to the increasing crowds, we could see quite well from where we would have a good view. After a short stroll and an ice cream with colorful sprinkles, we sat down on the lawn in front of the Convention Center. With chips, ginger beer, sudoko and people-watching, we spent our waiting time until midnight.

The fireworks were set off from several skyscrapers in the city. They were all located along the riverside. It lasted for 10 minutes and then it was all over again.

Afterwards, we sat back down on our blanket to avoid the rush to leave. And it was still only 10 past 12. After a while, we wanted to join the huge crowd around three street performers. Just at the right moment, because when we got up, the sprinklers in the park turned on and soaked some of the groups sitting together. It was really funny for us and all the other observers. :D Fortunately, it was just water.

The show started with a few breakdance moves, and towards the end it became more and more senseless. One quite drunk young girl made sure everyone knew that by shouting 'You guys suck'. She was asked several times to calm down. When the performers asked for donations towards the end of the show, she loudly asked who the donations would go to, and the performers abruptly ended the show... crazy.

So, around 1:30am, we returned to the car sober, thanks to the alcohol ban. Melbourne had already become relatively quiet at that time. By the way, it is also forbidden to set off fireworks yourself. This makes the whole thing pretty relaxed, but somehow less exciting.

Nevertheless, spending New Year's Eve in Melbourne was not a bad experience. :)

After breakfast at Cherry Lake Reserve, we went to the RAAF Museum on 1st January 2019. RAAF stands for Royal Australian Air Force. The museum is free of charge and, of course, very interesting for Kenny as an aerospace engineer. Krissi also found it exciting, as numerous different planes from different times were on display. There was also information about the Air Force, wars, technical details of the aircraft, etc. Really well done and still free - we like that.

Our next stop was supposed to be the Serendip Sanctuary. Unfortunately, we arrived shortly before closing time. Actually, we wanted to have a late lunch and then take a leisurely walk on the Wildlife Walk because we were already quite hungry at this point, but then there was only an apple for the road and we 'ran' along the path, but still saw dark brown kangaroos, emus (even a free-roaming one), and numerous beautiful birds.

Still hungry, we continued towards Geelong. On the way, we stopped at a tourist information center for the Great Ocean Road. Here, we received advice from a super friendly older man and were equipped with numerous brochures and maps.

Finally, we found a BBQ spot in Geelong and finally had pancakes for lunch at around 5pm. We were at the Rippleside North Day Use Area, but we weren't alone. There was a huge group of Asians at the table, who were playing a game very loudly, I mean really, really loudly. But it didn't matter as long as we could eat. :)

Strengthened, we strolled along the beautiful promenade and enjoyed the view of the bay from a jetty. On our way, we realized that the Geelong promenade would be worth a longer walk. We drove along the beautiful Cunningham Pier with a restaurant at the tip, a Ferris wheel, and a sandy beach with many palm trees, everything very well maintained.

But we had to continue towards our campsite and before that, we wanted to see the Point Lonsdale Lighthouse. From the lighthouse, we had a great view of 'The Rip'. A narrow sea passage that, thanks to many rocks and crazy currents, has apparently claimed quite a few ships.

We spent the night in the bush. We drove down an unpaved, dusty road to the Tanners Road Bend Free Camp. We got a good, relatively secluded spot. It gets busier on the free campsites as you get closer to the Great Ocean Road, and arriving early is always recommended. We hope we can snag a spot every night, because both the residents and the campground operators in the region apparently don't like it when you camp wild somewhere.

So tomorrow we will start our tour of the Great Ocean Road. We are curious to see what awaits us.