Monday morning, November 18th, we began the next portion of our journey. Geelong is a gorgeous seaside town, but we were in the mood to get on the road to our next destination, so we just did a quick driving tour of the town before heading off again.
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| Photo from our hotel room in Geelong |
While driving in Geelong we saw an interesting church with a familiar name, St. Mary of the Angels. That is the same name of the parish I grew up in, and my family still attends, in Wien, Missouri. The churches themselves look quite a bit different, but they are both outstanding works of architecture.
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St. Mary of the Angels in Geelong, Victoria
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We drove southeast from Geelong to Queenscliff to get a ferry across the bottom of Port Phillip Bay. (We opted for the 40 minute ferry ride over the 2+ hour drive back into Melbourne to get on the other side of the bay.)
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| From Geelong, we drove to Queenscliff (where the words Ocean Grove Nature Reserve is) and the dotted line to Sorrento is the path of the boat. |
On our way out of Geelong, we got some drive-through coffee at a place called Bean Squeeze. Sean and I got excited because drive-through coffee is something we never see in Australia (except at McDonalds). To top it all off, it was really good coffee! The ferry was fabulous. It was nice and big and had a play area for the kids. So, they played while we got to sit back and enjoy the beautiful views. The ride was 40 minutes, but I could have stayed on there all day!
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| Our car on the ferry |
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| Aubrey on the upper deck of the ferry |
When we landed in Sorrento, we started driving around the Mornington Peninsula. The Mornington Peninsula is popular for having tons of wineries and farms in the gorgeous countryside just an hour and half south of Melbourne. It lived up to everything we had heard and felt even more rural than what we were expecting. We did not end up trying any wines since it was still fairly early in the day. I know, I know, that does not always stop us. But, I was still on antibiotics for my ear infection, and I was still not yet feeling my best. So, drinking wine before we had even eaten lunch did not seem like a wise decision.
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| We drove along the road following the coastline of Port Phillip Bay up the Mornington Peninsula. |
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| Kangaroos in the countryside |
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| They got a little spooked and started jumping away. I love seeing kangaroos jumping; they make the motion look so graceful. |
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| We did stop into one winery called Ten Minutes by Tractor just because we liked the name. It was once we got there that we decided to wait until after lunch to drink any wine. We saw this beautiful peacock walking around the grounds. |
The beach that ran along the bay side of the peninsula had the most stunning blue/turquoise water. We had our picnic lunch at a little park along the beach. It was definitely a lunch with a view!
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| There were little shelters like this along the beach. It was perfect! |
Aubrey was still battling some motion sickness while we were driving on Monday, so after lunch we decided to just go the quickest way to our hotel on Phillip Island and get the driving done for the day. We did finally treat ourselves and stop for one tasting at a winery, Purple Hen, once we made it to Phillip Island.
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| We drove up the Mornington Peninsula and around the bay with French Island in the middle to end up on Phillip Island (where the town of Cowes is located). |
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| Purple Hen Winery |
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| The view from Purple Hen Winery |
We pulled into the Ramada resort at around 2:30 pm. We had our own little self-contained cabin. It was fairly basic, but it was nice that it was large enough that we could stretch out a little bit. A big bonus was that it had a washer and dryer. These were huge luxuries after we had been traveling for almost a week. We spent the rest of the afternoon chillaxing at the cabin. In the early evening we went into the town of Cowes to eat dinner and do a grocery store run. Cowes had the laid-back feel that you expect of a touristy beach town. We had a delicious Italian meal at Pino's Trattoria and did a bit of grocery shopping. Then we went right back to the cabin. We were all enjoying a little downtime to reboot and regain our energy. After all, we still had another 5 more days of this marathon road trip to go.
Amazingly, Carter had his nose in a book for a good portion of the trip, even when we were driving in the car. As a parent, his reading style completely frustrates me. If he finds a book he likes, he won't put it down. However, as soon as a book loses his attention, he puts it down and doesn't look at it again. He started reading the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series right before we left on the holiday. I was thrilled for him to find books he enjoys, but I was not thrilled that he was going through a book every day or two and they cost $15 each. That can add up very quickly. Luckily, he was also reading the first book of the Harry Potter series on his own, which is not such easy reading, so that saved us from spending a fortune on Wimpy Kid books during our vacation.
We continued having some lazy downtime up until mid-morning on Tuesday. We finally got ourselves put together and out the door to go to Koala Conservation Centre located there on Phillip Island. We walked around for a little bit, but it was not nearly as exciting as when we ran into koalas in the wild a couple of days earlier. One notable event happened though; Sean bought himself a true Aussie hat. This was mainly because he had burned the back of his neck during our recent picnic lunches outside at midday when the sun was at its peak. We have a newfound appreciation for hats after living under the intense Australian sun for almost two years.
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| The kids and I walking through the Koala Conservatory |
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| So cute! |
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| We found another Superb Fairy Wren. |
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| Sean showing off his Aussie hat with a koala in the background |
After walking around the Koala Conservatory, we went over to San Remo (right by the bridge from the mainland to Phillip Island) to watch them feed the pelicans at noon. We weren't sure what to expect, but the woman at the front desk of the resort recommended it to us. It was such a cool experience. We were standing on the beach on the other side of a rope from the pelicans. The local fish and chip shop, the Pelican View Fish Restaurant, did a little program and fed the pelicans all the fish heads/bodies left over from the shop. For the unplanned finale, a massive stingray even came up to the shore for a treat. It was awesome! Of course, we walked over to the Pelican View Fish restaurant to eat fish and chips for lunch when the program was over.
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| The pelicans waiting on the beach |
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| The lady feeding the pelicans |
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| A pelican getting ready to catch a fish head |
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| The stingray coming up to shore |
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| The woman went out and fed the stingray a fish head |
After lunch we went to the Churchill Island Heritage Farm. It is a real working farm as it would have been in the 1800's. Unfortunately, Sean was having a horrible bout of hay fever while we were touring the farm, so he hardly saw any of it through his watery eyes (and he was constantly shutting his eyes to sneeze). However, the kids really enjoyed it. They were fascinated to watch sheep being sheared. Plus, they got to milk a cow!
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| The cottage on the farm |
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| The gardens behind the cottage |
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| Luckily for this turkey, Australia doesn't celebrate a Thanksgiving-type holiday. |
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| More proof that sheep are living the good life down here. |
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| Another peacock! |
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| Carter milking the cow and Aubrey taking notes for her turn |
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| Aubrey did a great job despite being scared to get that close to the cow. |
We saw some interesting birds on Phillip Island. We saw these geese all over the place and from afar they looked like they didn't have a beak. Sean and Carter started calling them "no beaks". Once we saw them up close, we realized they did have a beak, but it is small and lime green. So, Carter renamed them "short-beaks". I did a little research and discovered they are actually cape barren geese.
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| A cape barren goose. They look really plain from a distance, but they are very pretty up close. |
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| We also saw quite a few galah birds. |
We had a little bit of time after that to go back to the cabin for a couple of hours of downtime (and to let the antihistamines Sean picked up at the pharmacy take effect). We knew it was going to be a late night because we had tickets to the penguin parade, which would not start until 8:30 in the evening. We were all rested up and feeling better when we left in the evening. We left a little early for the penguin parade to stop at the Nobbies Centre. As with everything else we had experienced on Phillip Island, it was much more impressive than we had anticipated.
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| The outside of the Nobbies Centre building |
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| Looking out at the Nobbies. There is a herd of seals that live out on the rocks, but we didn't see any on our visit. |
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| Interesting coastline |
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| The clouds opened up for a little bit right over the Nobbies |
We didn't spend a lot of time at the Nobbies because we were excited to get to the penguin parade. We had to be there an hour before the penguins were expected to come up onto the beach so that all the people are settled before the penguins arrive. We ended up with awesome seats to see the Little Penguins come out of the ocean, make their way up the beach, and head into the grassy areas to their burrows for the night. It was an amazing sight to see. There were thousands of Little Penguins making their way home. We were seated right by this little cliff that they either had to slide down or jump off. It was actually kind of funny to see how different penguins handled the obstacle. We saw a few of them awkwardly slide down and then recover their balance before continuing on their journey. Some burrows are right next to the beach, while others were as far away as 2 kilometers. They don't move very fast on land; it was going to be a long commute for some of them! Unfortunately, Aubrey got tired pretty quickly since it was so late in the evening. The parade lasts for 50 minutes per the website, but we were only in our seats for about 25 minutes. But, the best part was actually after we left our seats and started walking towards the building. We were walking on a wooden boardwalk and the penguins were walking right alongside us on the grass. They were talking to each other in penguin language. We even saw one of them pick a fight with two other penguins and they were yelling at each other very loudly. It was such an incredible experience. When we got to the building, they had a couple of burrows that had a glass top where people could look in. There was one burrow with two baby penguins in it. Aubrey had been tired and kind of whiney until she saw those baby penguins. She loved them!
We didn't get to take any photos during the penguin parade because the flash hurts the penguins' eyes. The guide said that many people had still tried to take photos using flashes, so they had to ban cameras altogether.
The kids were so exhausted by the time we made it back to the car. They were already fast asleep when we got back to the cabin and it had only been a 10 minute car ride. It may have completely worn the kids out, but the experience was totally worth it.
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| Not the best photo, but this is the outside of the penguin parade building. |
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| The sign leading out the walkway to the beach |
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| I got a couple of photos off the internet to show what the parade was like. Here are the little guys coming up the beach. |
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| I have no idea who these people are since I got this photo of the internet, but they are sitting on the walkway we had been on. We really were that close to the Little Penguins. |
Wednesday morning we got up and loaded the car once again. We did a few errands in Cowes and visited one last sight on Phillip Island, Woolamai Beach. It is supposed to be a great surfing beach. The weather had taken a turn and was once again chilly and windy. So, we had the beach to ourselves that morning.
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| Beautiful!! |
We then began driving the coastline heading east.
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| Playground stop! Carter is holding his Little Penguin stuffed animal from the previous evening. It was his pride and joy for about a day. |
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| So glad she can swing herself (when she wants to)! |
We then stopped at a lighthouse on Cape Liptrap and ate a picnic lunch. (I wonder if our kids will laugh with each other about these picnic lunches. When I was younger I never understood why my parents would stop at the grocery store and get bread and bologna when we were out. Now, I understand perfectly.)
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| We drove from Cowes on Phillip Island along the coast the Cape Liptrap Coastal Park. We were making our way to Wilsons Promontory, the big green hooked peninsula next to Cape Liptrap. Wilsons Promontory is a huge national park and it is the southernmost tip of Australia's mainland. |
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| Cape Liptrap peninsula |
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| We saw this little guy on our walk to the lighthouse. He looked like a snake except for his stubby little legs. |
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| Cape Liptrap lighthouse |
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| View from the lighthouse lookout |
We made it to Wilsons Promontory in the afternoon. We tried to go as far south as we could driving. Unfortunately, you have to hike quite a little distance to actually make it to the southernmost point of the peninsula. We were a little bummed about that. It is a beautiful park, but very little is accessible by car; it seemed like it was mainly for camping and hiking. We may have tried to hike more than we did, but the clouds were looking like they could downpour on us at any moment.
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| The road going through Wilsons Promontory National Park |
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| Driving on the road going up to Mount Oberon |
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| It did have some gorgeous lookouts.... |
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| The view from Glennie Lookout |
We did have an exciting moment when we saw some emus alongside the road at the park. I also caught a glimpse of an echidna, but it was not at a point that we could pull over, so I have no photographic proof.
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| There are the emus! |
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| Closeup! There is a third one on the left. It shows how well their bush colored feathers work. |
As we were leaving the park, we decided to pull over to take a photo by a sign. The kids and I were hanging out while Sean set up the camera Aubrey had been messing around with her first loose baby tooth for a couple of weeks, but it was finally really, really loose. I ended up pulling it while we were just waiting along the side of the road. She was ecstatic. She was so proud of herself for not crying when I pulled the tooth.
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| Aubrey was already missing her tooth in this photo, but it is a little hard to see. |
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| My proud girl with one less tooth |
The direction of our journey took a more northerly turn after we left Wilsons Promontory. We still had a 2 hour drive to get up to Sale, Victoria, where we were staying for the night.
We pulled into the hotel in Sale, Victoria, a little after 6:00 pm. It was a dinky little motel. It had been refurbished, but it was still far from luxurious. There were not a lot of choices in Sale, so we couldn't complain too much. Plus, we were too tired to drive further at that time. The front desk guy recommended a place for dinner, Sports Legends. It was kind of like an RSL with gambling on one side and a restaurant on the other side. What made it nice was that it had a game room for the kids, and the games did not even cost money. They got to play while Sean and I enjoyed a few moments alone. We tried to get the kids to bed early after their late night the previous evening, but Aubrey had a hard time settling down. She had to keep getting her tooth out to look at it. She couldn't wait for her first visit from the tooth fairy.
Thursday morning was extra exciting as Aubrey found that the tooth fairy had left her an American dollar bill. That tooth fairy is pretty fantastic.
Unfortunately, Thursday was a rainy day on the road. We continued northward, but we were feeling like we had seen quite enough rain. We stopped for an early lunch at a cafe at Lakes Entrance.
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| View from a lookout at Lakes Entrance. We were happily enjoying a break in the rain, but as you can see, there was still some in the distance. |
The rest of the 4 hour drive was not necessarily exciting, just a lot of wet, windy roads through trees. We spent a lot of time listening to music or audiobooks and taking naps. We crossed over the border into New South Wales and then got into Merimbula fairly early at 3:30 pm since we didn't stop much on the route there. Since we had eaten an early lunch, it was just natural that we were hungry for an early dinner. The kids got their choice this night; McDonald's. That was the evening that I decided I had had my fill of McDonald's on the trip (and perhaps the rest of my life). Merimbula looked lovely, but the rain would not stop long enough for us to get out and enjoy it. Thankfully, we had a full 2 bedroom apartment on that night instead of a small hotel room. We were all starting to get a little tired of traveling and it may not have been pretty if we had all been stuck in a small room together for an extended period of time.
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| The red pin is Merimbula |
The weather had improved somewhat the next morning, so we were able to get out and take a few photos before we got on the road again.
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| Pelican art at the lake in Merimbula |
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| Beautiful morning on the lake |
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| These gorgeous flowers were on the bush outside of our apartment in Merimbula |
We left Merimbula to continue our voyage northward. We were all feeling hungry late morning and decided to look for a place to eat morning tea in Narooma. We found a place on the water, The Quarterdeck, but it didn't look like much on the outside. We decided to give it a try and we were so happy we did. It turned out to be one of those magical times when we stumbled on something fantastic. Everything about the place was perfect. It had a cool, beachy vibe that was so fun, the food was terrific, the owner was delightful, and the view was stunning. The owner even gave the kids fish food to feed the fish on the jetty (dock) out back.
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| Merimbula is by Pambula at the bottom of the map. Narooma is where we stopped for morning tea. |
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| What we saw on the front of The Quarterdeck |
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| The inside of the Quarterdeck. I wouldn't want to decorate my house like this, but I have a soft spot in my heart for restaurants that have this eclectic, beachy style. |
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| Especially when they come with this view...... |
We had booked a hotel in Huskinson for Friday night. Our original plan was to get to Huskinson fairly early in the afternoon so that we could enjoy some beach time. We did get to Huskinson early as we planned. However, the wind had picked up again and rain was looking imminent. It was not a good beach day. Then, we checked into our hotel and we were not impressed. I knew it was going to be dated, but it was much more than that. The room was small, looked like it had not been touched since the 70's, and had a nasty, musty smell. We left it immediately and went to Hyams Beach for a walk because we were determined to enjoy the beach while we were there. But, the wind was so strong that it was actually blowing sand in our eyes, so we didn't stay too long.
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| We had traveled from Narooma (where we ate morning tea) to Jervis Bay (by where it says Sanctuary Point) |
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| Aubrey and I on Hyams Beach |
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| My little beach girl..... |
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| She was having fun running from the big waves. |
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| How Carter prefers to enjoy the beach. He is not a fan of sand getting all over his feet. He is definitely his father's son... |
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| I'm not sure what was going on here... |
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| There I am, getting blown away. |
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| The kids were excited that they had found an empty shark egg on the beach. |
We then tried to find a place to eat a very late lunch/early dinner at 3:00 pm. There are not a lot of options around the small towns in Jervis Bay. Everywhere we wanted to go was closed since it was the slow time between lunch and dinner. To top it all off, there is not much of anything to do in Huskinson except going to the beach. About this time Sean and I looked at each other and said "we could be back in our apartment in 2 1/2 hours".
So, we checked back out of the hotel and started driving again. We stopped for a beautiful dinner at a Thai restaurant in Nowra and then we were back home in Sydney around 7:30 pm. We got an awesome night's sleep in our own beds. I was very relieved to be unpacking at home. I was getting tired of the routine of unpacking each night at a hotel to just repack everything the next morning. Sean was the happiest to be home; he had been gone for almost 2 weeks. Traveling not only makes you appreciate everything the world has to offer, but it also makes you appreciate all the comforts of home.
It was an incredible road trip and we saw things we would not be able see anywhere else in the world. I know I have stated this often, but I still cannot believe how lucky we are to have these amazing experiences. I never want to take for granted all the opportunities that God has provided for our family. We are so blessed.
