Warrnambool to Nangwarry

Good evening everyone,

Today was a really rainy day! When we woke up we decided to stay in a little longer just because of all the rain. When we finally did get up we took a shower and had some great homemade steak sandwiches before heading off into Warrnambool.

Because the weather was awful we only did some quick stops near the places of interest, like the houses John used to live in with his family. We also drove by the school John used to go to and a lot of Johns old haunts.

Afterwards we went to Tower Hill and fortunately it stopped raining for a little while when we got there. We walked around the site and climbed up to the crater. We spotted some wild wallabies and an Emu. The Emu was quite shy so when we got close it started moving away. The only wallaby we got close to hopped off, but not before I took some pictures.

It started raining again so we got back to the campervan. Here we heard on the radio that the weather was so bad that it was advised not to head into the mountains, so Halls Gap was out of the question, sadly. We had to change our plans and decided to skip ahead, so we phoned Henny to see if we could come early.

It was no problem so we made the long drive to Nangwarry. A warm welcome awaited us as we drove into the street where Henny lived. After trying to squeeze the campervan into the front yard we got inside and quickly started chatting about nothing and everything.

She had prepared an incredible dinner for us. Pea soup as a starter, mashed potatoes with beans and lamb as the main course, and apple pie as dessert. It was the best meal we had since we left the Netherlands and we were quite happy with having a decent meal instead of the fast food we were having all the time.

We'll be going to bed soon. Tomorrow we'll go to Mt. Gambier to see Anne and Sandra.

Jeremy

Great Ocean Road - day 2

Hello everyone!

Today we woke up with the sun shining brightly on our campsite. We started our day off by taking a shower and using the local barbecue. We prepared some sausages and some steak to eat later on, while fighting off the birds in the area.

After we were done we had some breakfast and explored the surrounding area of Lorne. We headed down to the beach and made our way along the coastline up into a small portion of the village and went back over the road to our mobile home.

We drove off, following the Great Ocean Road again until we saw a sign which said: Sheoak Falls Car Park. We stopped here and looked around. There was a small passageway leading up into the mountains and we followed it for quite some time. We finally got to see the waterfall after a while and climbed down to reach it.

When we got back we continued our journey along the Great Ocean Road until we reached Apollo Bay. We decided to have a lunch break here and found a food hall almost immediately. A cheap but incredibly good lunch, with exceptional coffee according to John.

We quickly drove off again though, no time to lose. We kept driving until we noticed a turnoff to a rainforest walk. We stopped at the first car park at the side of the road and followed a walking route through this rainforest from there. It was incredible to find this rainforest basically right around the corner of Apollo Bay, a town at the beach.

After walking around for about 20 minutes we went back on the road and after a short while we took a turn left towards Cape Otway. It was about a 24 km detour and about three quarters into the first half of the way we had to stop for a crossing echidna. We even had to sign a car on the other lane to stop. The echidna itself was a bit shy so it was quite hard to get a picture.

On our way back to the main road we stopped on the left hand side at a tree where koala's were hanging out. Five of them to be exact, and all awake! Though, to be fair, some were yawning all the time. A lot of people noticed a few cars had stopped there so it quickly became crowded, which was our cue to drive off again.

Our next stop were the twelve apostles. Here we found the most people we had seen together since leaving Melbourne! But apart from it being crowded, there were some amazing views of some incredible rock formations. Further up the road we also found the London Bridge, which collapsed in 1990. This was a natural bridge between a rock and the main land. The rock itself cannot be reached anymore nowadays, but John had been there before.

After what we had thought to be our last stop we found another point of interest: The Bay of Martyrs. Just some quick looks and photos before we were on our way to our last stop of the day. Warrnambool.

In Warrnambool we drove past the first house where John lived there, and along a lot of old places that John remembered from his childhood. We also drove to the beach, and tried to find a camp site near it, but they were all full or closed... We decided to turn around and grab a bite at Taco Bills. Robbie Berger wasn't in, but his wife Crystal was. She made one quick phone call after our dinner and fixed us up with a place to stay in Henna street.

So here we are now, in Warrnambool, Henna street. It's quite late already so we're going to go to bed now. More photos will be uploaded tomorrow morning because the internet connection here is slow and we need to upload manually because the site isn't cooperating. We'll see you tomorrow!

Jeremy

Great Ocean Road - day 1

Good evening everyone,

Today we started out by walking to the train station. From there we took the train to Tottenham and then walked a short dstance to the rental company (Britz). It was quite crowded, so it took some time before we were helped.

After watching the instructional video and checking if the exterior of the car was in order we entered our mobile home and started giving our bags a place inside. Some cushions were missing, but apart from that everything was fine. A quick run-through of how everything worked and we were ready to hit the road.

I sat down on the drivers seat, initially to test the GPS system, but I didn't mind trying out driving on the left first. With that decided, we took off towards Geelong, where we visited the hospital in which John was born, and the National Wool Museum where (grand)pa used to work.

Afterwards we drove off towards Ocean Grove to visit the old house where John had spent his first year of life, the beach nearby and the church where John got Christened. It took some searching but we made it and quickly continued on our way to the Great Ocean Road.

After a while we ended up in a little town called Barwon Heads, where we did some grocery shopping and had dinner. At this point the GPS system failed to work and we had to find the way ourselves. It wasn't much of a problem though and in the end we got the GPS working again.

We followed the road untill it eventually turned into the Great Ocean Road, at which point you could look out the window and see nothing but pure beauty. The incredible views were all around us and we didn't hesitate to stop multiple times just to enjoy the scenery.

The sun hid behind the horizon at some point though, and we found a place to spend the night; a little caravan park right next to the main road we were following in Lorne. We set up camp and I got to tune the guitar we bought along the way to try out some songs. It quickly got really late though and we had to prepare our beds and make a plan for tomorrow.

In the end, driving on the left wasn't so hard. The scary parts were the freeway where the wind was blowing with enormous power and I had to adjust constantly and the Great Ocean Road where the sharp turns along the steep ridges were quite startling. We managed ok though, and I got used to driving on the left pretty fast. Although I might need a reminder tomorrow morning...

We'll see you tomorrow!

Jeremy

Instructions for non Dutch speakers

My apologies for assuming that the Dutch in our blog would be understood by everybody. I have heard that it is not so obvious and that some of you would also like to post comments on the blog. So for those of you who do not understand Dutch but would also like to post some comments on our blog, here is a quick translation of the most important terms:

Verhalen = Stories
Foto's = Photos
Kaart = Map
Profiel = Profile
Laatste Verhalen = Last Stories
Laatste Foto's = Last Photos
Laatste Reacties = Last Comments

vorige = previous

volgende = next

Reageer = (literally react) = post a reaction/comment

Blijf op de hoogte! = Stay posted! (by providing an e-mail address)
Opslaan = Save

You can post comments ('Reageer' in Dutch) on stories and photos. When you wish to post a comment you must enter your name and the message.
naam = name
bericht = message

Stuur mij een e-mail bij nieuwe reacties.. = Send me an e-mail when new comments are posted..
Opslaan = Save/Submit

Best wishes to you all,
John.

Last Day in Melbourne

Good evening everyone,

Today was our last day in Melbourne, tomorrow we will take the train to our camper rental company and from there on we will drive to Adelaide. We hope to be able to keep blogging every day but we can't make any promises, sorry.

On to the events of today: We left the hotel quite early and took a tram to the Melbourne University. The entire campus was a bit hidden. When we exited the tram I couldn't imagine the whole university being on our left hand side, but once we went through the little alleys, passed all the old buildings with names as 'Mathematics & Statistics' and such, we realised we were in the right place.

We went through all the little cosy passageways and through the old buildings and inner courts. When we left the university grounds, we took the tram back into the city. A lot of students did the same, and they all exited at La Trobe Street, where the State Library was located.

We had already been inside the State Library so we stayed on the tram, all the way to St. Kilda's Beach. We exited the tram at Luna Park, a little theme park area with a rollercoaster going around it entirely. It wasn't opened today so we decided to move on to the actual beach.

We strolled along the beach for some time untill we reached Captain Cooks monument. From there we went up to the streets again to find some place to eat. We found a restaurant named 2 doors down (reminded me of a rockband) and had some local beers and a shepherd's pie for each of us.

After this fantastic lunch we looked up a local music store up in the city centre again. I wanted a guitar to keep practising, but the cheapest they had were over 150 dollars. So instead we went back to the hotel to check out the Australian version of 'Marktplaats' and found a nice guitar there, which we will pick up tomorrow.

From here we went to the Immigration museum to look at the past of Australia, when immigration was a lot more strict than nowadays. We only had about 40 minutes before it closed, but we got to see most of it. It was still quite early (5 pm) so we decided to add a last stop for the day: Young and Jackson. The bar we set foot in the first day of Melbourne.

On our way there we hopped on a tram, which was quite full, so we didn't get to sit down. Halfway down the road we heard a loud bang and the tram's emergency brake was used. No one was prepared for this so quite some people got smacked into something, and one woman nearly hit the floor. Luckily some people were able to catch her and she got off fine.

The tram had stopped completely and wasn't moving any further. The front doors opened and we exited to see what happened. Apparently we had hit a car which had suddenly crossed over onto the tram line. The driver wasn't hurt but there was quite a dent in the car. The tram wasn't able to move on for quite a while and since we were close to the bar we decided to walk the last bit.

We had a drink in the Young and Jackson. It only seemed right to end our last day in the same bar as we had started our stay in Melbourne. We took a tram back to the hotel and are now going to get a good night sleep, because tomorrow the real adventure starts! (Driving left of course!).

Jeremy

Yarra South Bank and Melbourne Parks

Hello everyone,

Yesterday we started off by trying to get a solid internet connection for on the road and some sim-cards for our mobile phones. This proved to be much more difficult than we had anticipated so it took us the entire morning and half of the afternoon to finally get it sorted out.

We lost a lot of time because of this and decided to just visit the Docklands, Southbank and the Immigration museum. Once we arrived at the Immigration museum we learned that it was open untill 5, and since we hadn't eaten anything yet we wanted to do that first. This would cut our visit to the museum quite short so we decided to leave that for the next day. Instead we went to Southbank, just south of the Yarra river and looked for a place to eat.

We first had a drink at the Island Bar, under a footbridge over the Yarra. This cozy place was all about the ambience. It was a little place just to sit, relax and enjoy the scenery. But because they didn't have much to eat we moved on after a drink and ended up in a restaurant in Southbank.

We ordered drinks here and after a while ordered the Baby Squid and the Pumpkin Pizza. We had no idea what to expect from these orders but the result was incredible. The Baby Squids were really visible on the platter we got, and the pumpkin pizza was one big weird combination of ingredients that seemed to go perfectly together.

After our late lunch we followed the Yarra and walked into the parks. These parks were all connected and formed a beautiful green heart inside Melbourne. Everywhere you looked the views were perfect and the sweet smell of eucalyptus was everywhere. Even the music of the song birds and crickets was louder than the traffic.

Halfway through the parks we came upon the Sidney Myers Music Bowl, which looked like a great place for concerts. However, when not used for music, people used it as a sporting area, which was a surprise to us.

We continued going south from here and reached the Shrine of Remembrance. A monument to all the fallen victorian soldiers of the first world war. Very impressive. A bit further were the Royal Botanic Gardens which was also a very nice suprise. Such a beautiful park in the center of such a big city.

We strolled around for hours here untill we finally found our way back to one of the edges where there was a tram line which could take us back into the city centre. From here we walked back to the hotel. I think in total we walked about 9-10 kilomters zigzagging through the gardens, uphill and downhill. Naturally, when we got back to the hotel we were very tired.

We'll have another story for you all tonight!

Jeremy

Perfect timing on a rainy day (2)

Good evening!

As we left the hotel this morning the rain had stopped, so we were in luck. We crossed the street and found some stores there. We tried to find out what was the best option for us in terms of sim cards for our phones and internet for the laptop. To avoid the rain outside, we browsed hrough some clothing stores comparing prices between here and Los Angeles.

After having seen all the shops we went into the train station, which was directly next to the shopping centre. We bought a day ticket here for unlimited travel by train, bus and tram, so we wouldn't get ourselves stuck in the position again of having to walk all the way back to the hotel.

It was still raining so we hopped on the first tram which conveniently took us into the city centre, and when we hopped off the skies had cleared. We aimlessly walked around a little bit untill we stumbled upon Chinatown and the Greek district. We didn't spend much time here and moved right along (because it started to rain again) to find a nice restaurant and have some lunch.

While having delicious chicken schnitzel and fish 'n chips we plotted our course for the day, and possibly the days after. We were close to the State Library so we decided to go there first, and continue from there.

The library was incredible, nothing like where I had to study back in high school! There were also 2 free exhibitions which we checked out, one which told the story of Ned Kelly. We spent some time here before moving on towards the Melbourne Gaol (Jail). Fortunately the rain had stopped again.

We had thought to take an alley leading up to the back of the jail but this wasn't possible since the police had sealed it off. We didn't really see what was going on untill about 20 (could be more, could be less) police men ran towards the entrance of a building. They knocked someone to the ground and tried to take (what we later found out to be) a gun from him. We had to walk around though and the jail itself wasn't that special.

From here it was a small walk to Carlton Park, the Royal Exhibition building and the Melbourne Museum. We went inside the museum and to our suprise we got free admission because the museum closed at 5 pm. This gave us about 45 minutes to rush through it all, which to be fair, was not enough time. We however did not waste any and saw most of it, including the rain forrest inside.

We're going to get a simple meal for dinner. We'll see you all tomorrow!

Jeremy

Starting out in Melbourne (1)

Hello everyone,

After we both took a shower and got refreshed we decided to head out into the city and celebrate John's achievement of having circumnavigated the world (I still have to get back to Holland for that). We left our hotel and went to the City Circle Tramline to take a free ride around the city.

Halfway John remembered there used to be a great pub across from Flinders Street station, so we got out of the Tram there to see if it was still there. And it was. Young and Jackson's it was called. A fantastic place to hop in and have a drink. So we did. We had a couple of beers and enjoyed the live music. Reminded me a bit of Dublin.

When the band stopped playing we decided to head out and grab something to eat, since we hadn't eaten anything yet since we arrived in Melbourne. We stopped at a local pie shop so I could try out the Australian pies, and they were great. I can certainly get used to eating them.

After this little snack we went back to that same pub to find the same band playing a new set of songs, so we stayed there for a bit more. But after a while we got hungry again and went out for dinner.

We sat down at a nearby restaurant and started noticing how hot it was. Being inside a pub with airconditioning was great but being outside in the sun was too warm for me. We tried taking the tram back to the hotel but the free City Circle one only goes around between 10 am and 6 pm so we had to walk all the way back. It wasn't that much of a distance to walk, but with the heat it became quite a tough trip.

All sweaty we made it back to the hotel, where a nice shower and airconditioning system made us feel at ease again. The hotel itself is great, we're at the 13th floor and we have a nice and spacious room with comfortable beds and a great shower. A good night sleep wasn't hard to get!

This morning we had breakfast at the hotel which was better than what we've had so far, anywhere on this journey and decided to head out to perhaps do some additional shopping. It's raining quite heavily though, so we're probably going to find some museums to check out.

See you all tomorrow!

Jeremy

P.S. We can upload photos again so we've added everything that we had from Softengine.nl to this site. Yesterday we forgot to take the camera with us, but we won't forget today!