Great Ocean Road

Sunday, April 15th

After resting for two days in Canberra, Australia's Capitol District, we got back on the road toward the southern coast. The apartment that we stayed in at Canberra was very comfortable, so we enjoyed a respite from driving and we also did grocery shopping and I actually cooked two meals...it was great having home cooking for a change! On the road, we headed toward the coast and The Great Ocean Road. We stopped in a I-Site office (tourist information office) in Geelong, just south of Melbourne where the ladies were extremely helpful and they encouraged us to keep moving along, so we did! The south coast of Australia is just as beautiful as the coasts of New Zealand, with breathtaking views at every turn! We finally stopped at a town called Lakes Entrance. This was a unique area where there are inland waterways and lakes that open to the sea. Our motel room looked out on the boats, etc and it was quite beautiful. The next morning we were on the road again down the Ocean Road. After many miles of incredible coastline we arrived at The 12 Apostles. These are 12 massive rock structures in the water along the coast, however there are really only 8 Apostles left, as the other have fallen to erosion. It is hard to believe how huge these rock cliffs are. I have been continually amazed at the colors of the ocean. The water is so clear and clean and the colors are truly "watercolors". Having gotten quite a ways along the Ocean Road, we checked our calendar and decided that we had better start heading back toward Sydney. We decided that we could drive to a small town north of Melbourne and so we called and booked a room. This was good planning, but we ran into a traffic jam and ending up sitting on the highway for over three hours because of a fatality accident closing the road. By the time we got started and detoured it was dark. Driving here after dark is very dangerous because of the Kangaroos and wallabys. They are just as bad as armadillos, only a lot bigger and there are a lot of them!! We finally did arrive at our motel after 10:00pm and we were exhausted. After a good nights sleep we were off again. We were in the middle of nowhere when Jack realized that we were out of gas. In the hustle the night before, he forgot about filling up! I think that we finally came across a petrol station with just fumes in the tank! All's well that ends well!! Now we were at a dead heat for Sydney with no place to stay. We found a Best Western which was truly a "Hell Hole"! At 2:00 am the noise and partying finally started to quite down! Anyway, we flew out of there this morning and arrived in Sydney to return our rental car and revisit The Holiday Inn at Darling Harbour..my kind of luxury!!! We immediately went to the dining room for a huge breakfast and then out to do some shopping and laundry! Tomorrow we are booked on a 10:00am tour of the Sydney Opera House and then we'll go on a Harbour cruise before returning to our hotel to get things ready for the big ride home!

Emails will not come as frequently, as ship internet is very expensive and slowwwwwww, so we will have to send notes from places that we can find in the ports.

We can't believe that 6 weeks have flown by already. Even though we see and talk to Allie a lot on Skype, we still miss having her with us! We are really looking forward now to getting on the ship and resting! It will be great to put the suitcases under the bed and not see them again for 30 days! It will also be great to eat when we want and not have to "find" a place to eat! We have been doing breakfast in our motel rooms, as most rooms have fridges, micro, coffee and all cooking things. They even offer fresh milk when you check in! Sometimes we would eat a big lunch and skip dinner or visa versa! Today we only ate the huge buffet breakfast and then a few cookies for dinner!

Hope every one is well...

Jack & Terry