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!