Monday
Set off on the next stage of the adventure going down the coast. Today we were travelling to Huskisson on Jervis Bay. We drove slowly out of Sydney through busy traffic and slow traffic light changes and our first stop was at Sea Cliff bridge which was opened in 2005 as the old road was blocked with a landslip. This is built out on posts in the ocean to avoid any more problems with falling rocks. We must have driven along the old road last time we were here, 23 years ago. We then drove on a short way to Scarborough and stopped at the hotel there for morning coffee in the garden overlooking the ocean. The bonus was seeing a whale off shore slowly turning and showing its dorsal fin, we presume a humpback, travelling south back to the Antarctic for summer.

We had a brief stop at Kiama to see the blowhole but it was not co-operating today, probably combination of low tide and fairly calm sea. We then moved on to Ulladulla and stopped for some lunch. We arrived in Huskisson about 4pm and checked into the motel then went straight out down the coast about 15 minutes to Hyams beach which has white sand and turquoise sea.

We moved back towards Huskisson, to where the Moona Moona creek comes into the sea. This is where we had stayed previously, although the place we stayed in had been knocked down and replaced by some modern units (flats). We saw Kookaburras which were very tame, although we couldn’t get them to laugh. We walked out onto the rock pavement which extends out into the ocean, beautiful place, although there were no dolphins around today.

There was also a Father Christmas on the beach with a crowd of people around him, which seemed a bit bizarre at this time of year but reckoned they were doing a photo shoot for some Christmas campaign.

Tuesday
We set off quite early to travel down to Eden, first stop at zzzzzzzzz, then Tilda for lunch, which is an old heritage village with all the houses made of wooden boards, rather quaint. We turned off the main road to Pebbly beach which used to be a dirt road but is now tarmaced, since we came here last time. We found some Kangaroos and Joeys at the end of the road as well as a beautiful quiet cove, quite remote and lovely. We spoke to a man who has lived there for 33 years and he rents out cabins for tourists on his land.

We arrived in Eden about 4ish and went down to a lookout where the whalers used to set out from, spent a bit of time looking round the port. The whole town is very much a fishing place, it looks a bit run down, maybe there isn’t as much money in fishing as there used to be.

Wednesday
Woke at 4.30 this morning, the whole sleeping thing is strange, we seem to have adjusted quite well to the jet lag but some nights are disturbed and others ok. Sometimes, during the day, you find yourself drifting off at odd moments, the sleep just overtakes you. Mind you, I don’t know if this is too much different from at home. Had a shower about half 6 and went for a walk round a couple of blocks, which is probably about a mile and picked up a coffee on the way back. Everything is on a huge scale here and this reminds me of America, wide open roads with little traffic once you are out of the city, large houses set in large gardens, lots of space. Longer drive today but made good progress this morning and stopped at Orbost thinking we would have lunch but it was only about 11am so had a coffee and bought some butties for lunch later. We took a detour to the Gippsland Lakes entrance and walked across a bridge onto a spit of land that was the back of ninety mile beach. We sat under the shade and ate our lunch, watching the black swans and Pelicans on the lake. It has been a very hot day today, 32 degrees at times but the clouds were gathering and we had a couple of sharp showers later on. We arrived at Traralgon about 5pm and checked into the motel, then walked into the town for dinner at the Ritz on Horam.

Thursday
We set off to drive to Philip Island but stopped at mmmmmmm for a coffee. We set off and we were riding shotgun, Tim and Graham went through the lights on the way out of town but they had changed to red so Graham braked but the woman in the car behind didn’t and ploughed into the back of us. We pulled over and looked but there didnt seem to be any damage but took her details anyhow. We drove on towards Philip Island but the rain started and as we approached the bridge it turned quite misty and grey. Not the best day for seeing the island but we drove onto the motoGP Grand Prix course and had a quick look, but not a day for hanging around outside. We went onto Nobbies, which is an eco centre at the end of the island but it kept on raining so it didn’t seem worth walking down to the blowhole and the seals seemed to have disappeared and so we went into the Antarctic exhibition instead. The best bit was the films of whales, seals, albatrosses and other wildlife on massive screens.
We drove into Cowes for some late lunch at a rather weird Danish place, Graham had the best choice of meatballs with lingonberry jam and a ton of coleslaw, happy Ikea memories. And on to Blairgowrie for our final stop before the start of the Great Ocean Road. We went out in a minibus to the RSL club in Rye for dinner before an early night.