After a night in the Capital, Canberra, we continued the long lonnggg drive to Melbourne. The highway had very few curvers or corners and not much to look at. Mostly flat and really dry with the odd kangaroo roadkill.
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| Canberra |
We reached Melbourne in the evening and had to navigate ourselves to our hotel, where we had booked 2 nights, in the “CBD” (Central Business District or as we Canucks call it “downtown”). Driving in Melbourne was probably the most stressful driving I have experienced with strange turning rules/signals and trams running down the middle of roads.
The following day we spent walking around exploring the city. Downtown Melbourne is full of little restaurants, bars and lots of shopping along the streets and within the alley’s. The downtown is built along the river and is very artsy with lots of beautiful buildings and sculptures.
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| Trev's at the corner of Dorcas St! |
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| Stained glass ceiling in National Art Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne |
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| Exhibit at National Art Gallery of Victoria |
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| Its not the greatest "outdoor" show on earth but close |
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| Funky bridge with boat shaped bar underneath |
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| Train station |
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| Dog Paparazzi |
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| Train station |
Our second day we did roughly a 6 hour drive up and down the Great Ocean Road. There were some amazing views along the drive including the 12 Apostles rock formations. We had decided to book 2 more nights in Melbourne on hotwire and after our long day of driving and site-seeing we went to check-in. We ended up getting very lucky (Hotwire does not provide you with your hotel name or exact location until after you have fully booked and paid) as the hotel turned out to be this quaint little boutique hotel, a 30 minute walk from downtown.
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Great Ocean Road
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| Near the 12 Apostles |
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| 12 Apostles rock formations |
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| The Charsfield Hotel - lovely boutique hotel |
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| The Charsfield Hotel |
On the 10th we did some more walking around downtown and in the evening drove out to Phillip Island to view the Penguin Parade. Every night, shortly after the sun sets, the world's smallest penguins come in from the ocean to find their burrows for the night. We walked down a long baordwalk to a viewing area where several hundered people were seated. There was a strong wind coming off the ocean and it was freezing cold... Yes, thats right.. it was freaking cold! As each wave would roll in it would bring a group of 10-15 penguins. They would start to run up the beach and then one would become frightened and run back. When one turned back the whole group would turn back and run into the ocean. Groups of penguins would continue to do this until they became brave enough to run the full distance across the beach to the safety of the sand dunes where their burrows were. After about 30 minutes of this, several hundred penguins had made their way up into the sand dunes. The boardwalk sat above some of the penguin’s path ways where they were running so we were able to get really close to them. We were not able to use our camera as there was a strict NO CAMERA rule. I guess the flash would temporarily blind and scare the penguins. So we copied and pasted a few penguin pics from the web site to give you an idea. Pretty cool!!
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| Wallaby on Phillip Island |
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| Sun setting on Phillip Island |
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| Wallaby on Phillip Island |
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| Stands at which you sit to view the penguins come in from the ocean |
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| Penguins coming in from the water |
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| You can view them waddling to their burrows from the boardwalk that runs from the beach to the car |
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