Completing the circle in Melbourne

You gotta love the lighthouses here. This one was built in 1872 and moved 15 km to the spot in Kingston SE, where it resides now, in 1974.

Mt Schank, a volcanic crater was a great complete circle rim walk.

The lagoon in the crater at Tower Hill NP.

A look at the 12 Apostles located along the Great Ocean Road.

We arrived early at the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Grounds) to take in an AFL (Aussie Football League) game.  I'm not much of a sports fan but the game was fast, a bit nasty and good fun when watched live.

 

73000 people attended the big game between Melbournes' Hawethorne Hawks and the Sidney Swans.  The home team won after a back and forth battle.  Boy, those Aussie fans love their footy!

Melbourne by night.

It's funny how, when you have in your mind that when it is time to start heading for home everything else start to seem unimportant.  After leaving Max in Adelaide we started toward Melbourne sticking mostly to the coast but visiting a few parks and doing a couple to short walks but I think both Ken and I were starting to think more about ending our trip and what we planned to do when we returned home.  

The road back to Melbourne took us through more farmland and eventually led us to the infamous 'Great Ocean Road' which runs along the Southern Ocean and the Tasman Sea.  The coastline was rugged and dotted with many pillars, large and small.  The closer we got to Melbourne the busier the road became, bus after bus of  tours passed us on route to The 12 Apostles and the Port Campbell NP.  Along the way it was unfortunate but a bus went of the road, killing one person the injuring others...the road was blocked for hours.  A policeman sent us and several others on a detour following a side road that he insisted was paved and in good condition, Ha!    It actually was dirt (more like mud after all the rain we had the previous days) and when we got to the other end we found out the road had been closed the day before.  Once again White Lightning came through for us!

After finishing the 'Great Ocean Road' we hit HOME on the GPS and it took us directly to the Big 4 Holiday Park in Coburg where we had purchased White Lightning and started our trip in February.  After washing the van and taking some pictures Ken put it up for sale on Gumtree and we waited, 5 days without a call, then it happened...everyone wanted it and bang it sold and we had to rebook our flights home.  The lady who bought White Lightning was great, we could keep her until we left and she would give us a ride to the airport the day of our flight.

Yahoo!  Canada here we come!

Perth to Adelaide

It has been a busy couple of weeks with lots to see and do as we made our way down and across the last bit of Western Australia into South Australia across the great Nullabar Plain. 

South of Freemantle we found a wide variety of landscape including the beautiful Margaret River wine district with limestone caves interspersed among the rolling hills. We were captivated by even more beautiful beaches but also we found a rugged coastline, both were made more dramatic by the winds and high seas. The weather, continuing in the true Gassman fashion, turned stormy around Esparance with an extreme weather warning and high winds up to 116 km/hr which blew us across the Nullabar Plain, 1200 km with not a town in sight and little for fuel stations but White Lightning once again purred along, happy to be on the road. The notable stop along the Nullabar was a small detour into the Head of Bight to see the Southern Right Whales. The vantage area was perfect, a boardwalk takes you to a viewing station high on the cliffs where you can look down at the whale cows with their calfs, even in the rough water we were able to see over 12 sets as they travelled along the coast line.

After the Nullabar we headed down the Eyre Peninsula stopping in at several small towns, Venus Bay, Coffin Bay (where we say more Emus then we ever had before, oh and had a great feed of oysters), Port Lincoln, and Port Augusta where we put new front tyres on White Lightning before heading to the Flinders Range NP. 

The weather cleared for the Flinders and we had a somewhat sunny day to drive through the park. We ended our day with a stay at Parachilina Station where we treated ourselves to a dinner out...The Feral Antiipasto plate. 

Next on our route toward Adelaide was the Yorke Peninsula where we spent a night at Marrion Bay and visited the Innes NP. The wind just out blew us off the Cape. It continued to be a windy and rainy day as we made our way though the Adelaide Hills with its many wineries. The wind blew us right to the doorstep of Max (an old friend of Kens who he last visited in New Zealand 25 years ago). Max wined and dined us and guided us through a nice scenic drive around the Adelaide Hills including a look over the city from Mt. Lofty.

We enjoyed our stay with Max (and Toby, the every faithful Jack Russel) but sadly after a couple of days it was time to move on...the last leg of our trip. Back to Melbourne.

Busselton pier, measuring in at 2.2 km.

Cape Leeuwin lighthouse, south of Augusta, WA.

Jewel Cave south of Margaret River.  Amazing cave formations, it contained ever "ite" there is!

The water running into Circular Pools in the Walpole Wilderness Con. Park looked like frothy milk on a cappiccino, brown, light and foamy.

A huge Eucalyptus tree in the Tingle Forrest.

Between Walpole and Denmark, WA, Valley of the Giants Tree Top Walk was a 600 metre boardwalk up in the tree canopy, nice view.

Parry Beach, along the South Coast Highway, WA.  Another lovely sunset.

The Blue Pools, South Coast Highway...not exactly swimming weather but we could imagine how busy a nice spot like this would be in the summer.

A mural on the pubic amenities in Hopetoun, WA.

King of the castle on top of Mt. Barren in Fitzgerald River NP.

The view of Doubtful Island Bay from Mt. Barren, Fitzgerald River NP.

Lots and lots of beautiful beaches to be found aroung Esperance, WA.

Beautiful coastline, as seen from the comfort of our own vehicle...White Lightning.

It will never cease to amaze us the colour of the soil, trees and sky, what a combo.

The Nullabur Plains, the big highlight 145 km of very straight road, thank goodness for the tailwind.

At the Head of Bight the Southern Right Whales lounge with their new calves.

Yes, still many long distances with not too much to see but we enjoyed a great audio book on the iPad.

A storm hanging over Murphy's Haystacks in the middle of some farmers field.

Talia Caves near Venus Bay, SA.

Just nice countyside.

"What you lookin' at?"  A local Emu at Coffin Bay NP.

Desert Pea flower.

The Flinders Range NP SA was a pleasant break with mountians, at last.

We tied the Ferel Plate Antipasto which included, goat cheese, emu pate, camel salami, kangaroo pastrami, camel mettwurst with roasted peppers and mushrooms...served with fresh baked bread.  OMG, sooo good.  Really.

Prairie Hotel, near the Flinders Range, under a Super 'Moon Dog'.

A little warning at the Cape in Innes NP.

Just a little windy!

Ken and myself with our tour guide Max at the top of Mt. Lofty.

Kaiserschharren

We kept meeting up with this great Austrian couple, Christian and Nadja, and to our delight Nadja made us a delicious breakfast one morning....Kaiserschharren :)

Kaiserschharren 

4 servings

6 eggs

3 cups flour

1 cup milk

salt to taste

sugar

cinnamon (optional)

Seperate  eggs and whip whites until stiff.  Mix together flour, egg yolks, milk, salt and a bit of sugar.  Fold in egg whites.  Heat pan adding butter to melt and pour in dough to cover the bottom of the pan.  Sprinkle with pancake with sugar. Flip pancake when brown on the bottom (don't worry if the pancake breaks) when second side is brown sprinkle with more sugar (and cinnamon if desired) and break pancake into small pieces, cooking any dough that has not finished cooking.  Serve with apple sauce and/or yogurt.  Yummy!

You just have to try it, the Austrians can't be wrong!

Thanks for a great breakfast Christian and Nadja!