Travel report #26

Australia - Great Ocean Road, Mildura and Blue Mountains

Saturday July 7, 2001

Said goodbye to Tor Arne and headed for the Great Ocean Road. The sun have left us, and the rain has come :-(
Nice scenary along the coast as we drove west from Melbourne. Made it to Apollo Bay where we camped, I&OA tired of the campervan and got a cabin instead, leaving the two of us in the car :-)

Sunday July 8, 2001

Another day with part rain, part sun. More fantastic scenary along the Great Ocean Road.
Drove down to Cape Otway and found wild Koala bears! Fantastic, cute animals. They sit in tree all day and sleep. And do almost nothing else!! What a life :-)

(A lazy Koala in the wild!)
Then we saw a light house and drove on towards the famouse Twelve Apostles. Spectacular sight, lots of small mountains coming up from the sea just off the shore. Amazing. We waited for the sunset there, not that fantastic, but nice.

(Twelve Apostles on the Great Ocean Road)
Drove north to Hamilton where we stayed the night.

Monday July 9, 2001

Dove more than 400km this day. Made it all the way to Mildura. Saw lots of sheep along the road. As we made it north, into the country, it was all completly flat!

Tuesday July 10, 2001

Had hope for this country to be real out back Australia with red desert, but not so. Have to go a lot farther to see that unfortunately. But it is a bit out back, at least according to the tourist office :-)
The girls went for a swim in the local community pool, while the boys was inspired by the Wimbledon and played tennis.
The afternoon we had a really nice balloon flight! Very expencive, but very fun! An older man with help from his daughter, had a small ballooning company and took us on a joyful ride. We took part in all the setup and taking down of the balloon. Fantastic views for the city and the river! A bit scary for B, but again his freight of heights was under control :-)

(Preparing for a balloon flight in Mildura)

(Mildura from above)

Wednesday July 11, 2001

Had signed up for a tour into Mungo National Park. Unfortunatly the wheather was not on our side, but the tour went on anyway. We had a bit of rain, and no sunset, and it was very cold, but otherways ok. We got to see the Walls of China, not as impressive as we thought it to be from the photo in the guide book. Learned alot about the area and the aboriginals that lived/live here. Our guide was a descendent from the local aboriginals.

Thursday July 12, 2001

Another day in the car. Drove all the way from Mildura to Orange near Blue Mountains. Saw little other than flat landscape with lots of cattle! Could not find a Caravan Park that night and we all stayed at a nice motel. Nice to have some luxury for once :-)

Friday July 13, 2001

After a warm shower in our nice motel, we started towards the famous Blue Mountains. Spectacular drive up and we stopped at the Pulpit Rock lookout. Fantastic views into a huge canyon!!
Later we drove on to Katoomba and got nice views of the Three Sisters! Again spectacular. A bit similar to Zhangjiajie in China, only there it was more than 3000 "sisters"...
Walked down and onto one of the "sisters", OA made it all the way down the steps. Had another pancake lunch before we went for a nice walk down into the canyon.
At night we visited a local pub and had a couple drinks. Went to a pizza restaurant and the girls had white wine that they brought with them, funny system here with some restaurants not selling alcohol but you can bring your own! Live music at the pub after the pizza :-)

(Blue mountains, the Orphan rock)

(And the Three sisters!)

Saturday July 14, 2001

Our last day with Ingrid and Odd Arne and with the campervan. We started with a hike into the Blue Mountains and took a cable car back up! Spectacular views, specially of the Orphan rock. I&OA also took a ride with the steep cable train.
We then drove into Sydney and OA was filming it all, trying to make up for parts of the lost tape. We drove past the Opera house and over the bridge and got new views of the lot!
We said goodbye to I&OA, 3 fantastic weeks. Now we really look forward to coming home... ;-)