It's already one month in to 2013, and I've only gotten round to the first blog post of this year...
Last December, my family and some family friends made a fairly late decision to go on a 10 day road-trip around Victoria, which I planned the itinerary for. If you know me, you'd know that my holiday itineraries tend to be fairly well packed with activities. This one was no different, though the distances were greater due to the tour agency being unable to get hotels at optimal locations for us. However, it worked out, and we went zooming around in four cars all over south-west Victoria, and even slightly across the border into South Australia.
This blogpost will be sort of a quick skip through / summary of the entire trip. More photos can be found in my Facebook ~
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After landing in Melbourne, we covered the Dandenong Ranges and Yarra Valley on the first day (Where not too much was done due to jetlag and tiredness)..
The next day, we headed over to Ballarat, were there wasn't too much to do, but where we met some really, really cute animals...
The day after was Christmas, and also the most ambitions distance wise, starting in Ballarat and ending in Mount Gambier. Apart from all that driving, the remaining time was mostly spent up in the highlands of the Grampians National Park, a very beautiful place (Though somewhat out-of-the-way).
An evening and a morning was spent across the state border in Mount Gambier, which had the spectacular Blue Lake and several interesting sinkholes.
After that, we crossed back into Victoria, for the next phase of the road trip. The journey through the Great Ocean Road began after we reached Portland, with a visit to the lighthouse at Cape Nelson and the wind generators (and scenery of course!) at Cape Bridgewater.
We then spent two nights at Warrnambool, a nice place with a hard to spell name. In all that time, we drove up and down the Great Ocean Road, visiting as many of the classic scenic locations as we could, including the Loch Ard Gorge, Twelve Apostles, and Cape Otway.
There was quite some excitement at seeing wild Koalas on the road to Cape Otway, and there were so many of them!
From the Great Ocean Road, we crossed over to the Mornington Peninsula via the car ferry from Queenscliff to Sorrento. Didn't actually take much photos while we were on the Peninsula, mostly because we spent more time trying foods, drinks, and eating. We also spent a night on Phillip Island where we watched the Penguins, but as there was no photography allowed there, nothing but memories were taken.
The restaurant at Port Phillip Estate (above and below) had some of the best food in the entire road trip, and we almost didn't get to eat there; But that's another story which I may write elsewhere...
The final two days of the road trip were spent back in Melbourne, where walking around filled up most of the time left as driving around was tough, especially with the odd hook turns.
Overall, it was somewhat an epic, but very tiring trip, especially for me, due to all the planning and organizing I had to do even on the go. But it was really, really fun too. Victoria and Melbourne are great places, and everyone should definitely visit at least once. I hope to come by again :)
Till the next time,
Raylen