Staying in Melbourne

Manouevering one's way around Melbourne with a caravan is a nightmare! Our hearts were in our throats whenever we had to get from one place to another. We had to stop in Melbourne so that our caravan could have a warranty service. It took a few days to get everything finalised - all sorts of things were fixed, even a new set of wheel rims and nuts. Once this was done all we wanted to do was get out of the city. It is a mad house!! Perth is a paradise compared to the hustle and bustle of Melbourne - or maybe I am just getting too old.

One thing we did notice was the price of fruit and vegetables being a lot cheaper than Perth. In the Greek/Italian/Middle Eastern area we were in we also found the freshest Greek pastries that we could not resist - $1 each!

After the caravan servicing was done we thought we'd go and stay in "a quieter area" near the Dandenongs. Oh my goodness. The population of the Dandenongs area is over 1 million people with 140 ethnic groups. At times we could have been in a market somewhere in Asia or India. Our navlady didn't help either as there are so many new roads. One thing we did notice was how the Victorian drivers were very forgiving of our sudden turns, stops and lane changing. We were so relieved once we eventually found our caravan park in the Dandenong region. (I thought it would be a sweet little spot close to the Dandenong ranges. Not so. It was a little spot off the main Dandenong/Frankston Highway about an hour away from what we wanted to visit!)

We did keep to our plan of driving into the Dandenong Ranges for a day without the caravan and that worked out well. The little villages were quaint especially going into the teapot shop, seeing the whole of the Melbourne skyline from the highest point in the ranges, walking through the "yet to flower" rhododendron gardens and the William Rickets sanctuary where the artist has formed amazing sculptures as part of the natural rocks. (I wanted to revist the Dandenong ranges as it was one of the first places I visited when we first came to Australia. I hadn't remembered a thing from that time as I was so stressed about being away from "home.")

As we drove out of the greater Melbourne area we said goodbye and don't think we'd come back in a hurry...though life always has endless surprises.

The GREAT Ocean Road

We traveled along the road eastwards from Port Fairy to Geelong staying a few nights at Peterborough and Marengo (just outside Apollo Bay). The drive is completely awe inspiring and must be one of the most beautiful ocean drives in the world - crystal blue, shimmering ocean, lush forests and rolling, green fields.

All we could say was how lucky we are to be able to be doing this.

From Adelaide to the Grampians Vic

We were very happy to be back in our caravan and start traveling again. We stayed in the quietest, most peaceful park next door to the suburb of Walkerville. We rode our bikes along the Torrens River, visited the city and generally spent time preparing our van for the next 3months of our travels.

After leaving Adelaide we headed onto the Grampians where we stayed at Halls Gap - right in the middle of the mountains. It was beautiful. We were the only caravan in the park aside from the masses of kangaroos and beautiful, white cockatoos. Most of the time it rained but we did manage a drive to see the waterfalls and valley views, which were mostly covered in mist!

In January 2011 Halls Gap had 280mm of rain in 3 days. Many roads and bridges were completely destroyed and are still not able to be accessed. Luckily the road through the Grampians, south to Dunkeld, was opened on the day we left which made our route to the Great Ocean Road much shorter. We were even at the opening ceremony with the Minister of Vic Roads! It had been closed since the January floods.

The area is beautiful with mountains and farmlands - sheep and cows grazing all over the lush, green -often water logged- fields - very different from the lush, tropical forests of Northern Queensland - a place I love.

Cooberpedy!!! Opal town.

It's been 2 months since we were "gypsies". We stored our car and caravan in Adelaide while we went to Perth to catch up on family, house affairs and friends. We have now come back and are comfortably settled back in our "gypsy house" again.

Time went by so quickly that I never got to describe Cooberpedy - the weirdest town in the world. As someone said, if the end of the world happened no one in Cooberpedy would notice.

It's all mounds of earth for flat miles and flat miles, smelly, underground houses, shops, hotels and churches (note the air vents and satellite dishes sticking out the ground)....and some very weird looking people. There is even an underground caravan park which we didn't stay in.

Opal finds still happen but are not as common as in the past. There are about 250 active miners (so I was told.) The temperature in summer can reach over 50deg C so being underground keeps everyone cool. There is not a plentiful supply of water either. It's very expensive and not even available at your sites in the caravan park!

Close by, are the Breakaways - a range of coloured mountains which have broken away from the Stuart Ranges. This was where Mad Max was filmed. The area looks exactly like a moonscape. This was also where we saw the famous dog fence that runs for 5400 km from the Darling Downs on the east to west of the Eyre peninsula on the cliffs of the Nullarbor Plain.

We weren't too keen on staying any longer than we had to. Two days was enough to see all the strangest things we had heard about.

(Chris was pointing at the opal in the wall at the Catholic Church. Opal can be found anywhere in the soft sandstone. The trick is that no-one knows where!

The guy he is standing with was a cleaner from the backpackers. He took us in and showed us all the underground bunks. It was rather smelly - probably dead mice that get caught in the seams of sandstone. Not for me!!)