04.03 Sarah Comes to Town!
 Nathan & Joanna become Tour Guides for the day!    Views over Melbourne City from the Rialto Towers' 360° Observation Deck! We won't talk about the bargain entrance fee we paid, but with a combination of buy-one-get-one-free & YHA cards, it was very little!  Fortunately everyone is still smiling and we're still together! 'My group follow me...!'  Everyone waiting patiently for the drinks & cake to arrive on Southbank! I don't think anyone was disappointed or had any room for anything else!  Grand Prix preparation under way at Albert Park!  This is actually a picture of the dredging taking place in Port Phillip Bay by the boat named 'Queen of the Netherlands'. This was in fact before they had given official approval to the scheme to actually start! The lighter colour following the boat is the result of lifting the clay and silt from the Bay. Labels: albert_park, joanna, melbourne, nathan, photos, port_phillip_bay, queen_of_the_netherlands, rialto_towers, sarah_caroline, southbank, visitors
09.12 Grampians: Great Ocean Road
Unfortuantely when we hit the GOR, the weather wasn't quite what we expected! And we didn't expect it to be such an eventful journey either!   The Bay of Islands!  London Bridge!  Port Campbell!  On the beach at Gibsons Steps! At some point after leaving the Gibsons Steps we came up behind a 'Crazy Queenslander' (the car was registered in QLD), who was driving a little erratically. We came across some roads works (road works here normally mean a few signs, reduced speed limit and a lot of gravel!) down a steep incline, so we slowed right down and saw the 'crazy queenslander' disappear at speed round the bend at the bottom. When we got round the bend there was glass, hub caps and plastic mouldings from a car over the road. We looked to our left and our friend was pointing the wrong way towards a muddy bank down a small turning, with both occupants looking a little shocked! He had managed to roll his hire car - small marks in the road indicated where the wheels & the roof had hit while it was sumersaulting, plus the glass deposit from the rear screen! Somehow he had avoided rolling straight into the nearby river! It turned out our 'crazy queenslander' was a Chinese fellow, who had given himself a bit of 'road-rash' on the journey 'round' and his wife a serious bit of concussion! Luckily there weren't any serious injuries, as it took the emergency services about 30mins to reach us! The event did shake us all up a bit though, but fortunately we were joined by a number of other passing motorists!  Moonlight Head, which is at the end of a pretty dodgy unsealed road, plus a couple of bogans driving some old Datsun at full pelt too - not the best thing to see after what we'd come across earlier!  Moonlight Head is well known for its ship wrecks, in fact two anchors lie on the beach from two ships. You can just see one of them in the water, just to the left where the cliff meets the beach/water.  Looking back before the weather came in again! Labels: bay_of_islands, gibsons_steps, grampians, great_ocean_road, joanna, london_bridge, matt, moonlight_head, photos, port_campbell, victoria, visitors
09.12 Grampians: Penshurst
On our way home we decided to head south and join the Great Ocean Road at Warrnambool. On Matt's journey down the GOR on his bike, a sea mist came in and covered the Twelve Apostles to a point where he couldn't see a single rock! So being the good tourist guides we are, we took the very picturesque drive down. We came across a little place that reminded us of home, Penshurst. It didn't quite have the large 'Place', but it did have a few projects in the village!   Looking for a small little residence?  How about setting up a small garage business?! Labels: buildings, grampians, great_ocean_road, penshurst, photos, victoria, visitors
08.12 Grampians: Mount Arapiles
Having pretty much completed all of the North Grampians tourist sights we decided to head to Victoria's own Uluru, Mount Arapiles. This is a very popular spot for rockclimbers and abseilers! Mount Arapiles is also home to a fire-watch tower overlooking the Grampians and all the way to the South Australia border!  This was our initial greeting to Mt Arapiles!   Looking over the salt lakes of the wetlands. In the distance you can see a fire burning on South Australia border. The fire-watch person said that there were 20,000 hectares burning, but it was now under control. There was so much smoke that you couldn't see the Grampians! The car filled with ash as he had a drink in Horsham!!   Labels: grampians, joanna, mount_arapiles, nathan, north_grampians, photos, victoria, visitors
08.12 Grampians: Ngamadjidj Shelter
After a picnic stop at Zumstein, and a quick look at Wartook Lake we headed even further north to the Ngamadjidj Shelter to view the Aboriginal rock paintings.  A typical aussie road scene!  Well, this is what we came across as we headed to the Shelter!  These are the painting from the Shelter.  This was the only way to the Shelter! Labels: grampians, ngamadjidj_shelter, north_grampians, photos, victoria, visitors, zumstein
08.12 Grampians: MacKenzie Falls
08.12 Grampians: Reed Lookout & The Balconies
08.12 Grampians: Boroka Lookout
Today was going to be a day exploring the North Grampians and doing all the tourist sights along the way. Our first port of call was the Boroka Lookout, looking back towards Halls Gap and Lake Bellfield where we walked the evening before!     Labels: boroka_lookout, grampians, joanna, lake_bellfield, matt, nathan, north_grampians, photos, victoria, visitors
07.12 Grampians: Hall Gap Lake Bellfield
An evening stroll along the very imposing wall that stood high above our campsite formed part of the local dam, Lake Bellfield! As you can see it was certainly lacking some water, and had done so for some time!    Labels: grampians, halls_gap, joanna, lake_bellfield, matt, nathan, photos, victoria, visitors
07.12 Grampians: Halls Gap Lakeside Caravan Park
In a desperate bid to catch, we have managed to compile the following posts for our weekend trip to the Grampians! I think that this will bring our blogs for 2007 to a close, and hopefully allow us to get back on track with 2008!! After a couple of hours driving we arrived at Halls Gap, which is pretty much in the centre of the Grampians. We stayed in a campsite called Halls Gap Lakeside Caravan Park, which was situated just outside the town next to the local dam!  First job was to clear the kangaroo pooh with the aptly named 'kangaroo sh*t shifting stick'!   The tents are quickly erected under the close gaze of a 'mob' of kangaroos!  The view from campsite, and the area where the 'mob' collects!    Other spectators take their positions! Labels: camping, grampians, halls_gap, matt, nathan, photos, victoria, visitors, wildlife
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Nathan & Joanna become Tour Guides for the day!
Views over Melbourne City from the Rialto Towers' 360° Observation Deck! We won't talk about the bargain entrance fee we paid, but with a combination of buy-one-get-one-free & YHA cards, it was very little!
Fortunately everyone is still smiling and we're still together! 'My group follow me...!'
Everyone waiting patiently for the drinks & cake to arrive on Southbank! I don't think anyone was disappointed or had any room for anything else!
Grand Prix preparation under way at Albert Park!
This is actually a picture of the dredging taking place in Port Phillip Bay by the boat named 'Queen of the Netherlands'. This was in fact before they had given official approval to the scheme to actually start! The lighter colour following the boat is the result of lifting the clay and silt from the Bay.
