Poowong and beyond: Giant Earthworms live there

The Poowong campsite was a very peaceful woodland clearing which made it a great place to spot birds and other wildlife, we spotted a kangaroo hiding in the long grass, just the other side of the stream. We explored the local area, including coal creek, a reconstruction of an historic mining town which also randomly had an excellent exhibition about Anne Frank. From there we went on to Loch, another charming little town where we found out more details about the giant earthworms of South Gippsland. We first learned about them from Bill Bryson's book, 'Down Under'. Sadly, the  place where Bill went to see these strange creatures pickled in jars has, for some reason, closed down. So our only option was to look at the info panels located under a motorway bridge in the tiny town of Loch. Unlike David Attenborough, we didn't hear them gurgling under ground, they would have been drowned out by the rain anyway.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxeT_GDKv9g&feature=youtube_gdata_player

From there we made our way through the Gippsland countryside, stopping at a couple of wineries on the way. Lyre Bird Hill and Drummond's estate were both very small operations producing lovely wines so we replenished our stores and continued South for Wilson's Promontory National Park.

Queenscliff to Blairgowrie: The Mornington Peninsula

The ferry crossing to Sorrento was pretty quick with a few penguins to spot on the way. In Sorrento, a well-to-do town where we thought we'd spend the night, the camping options were limited with many of the public municipal sites not open until December. We caught the tourist info just as it was closing to prevail upon them for some camping options. 'Are you in a tent or a van?' The lady asked.... Never quite sure how to reply to this question we replied truthfully that we were in fact sleeping in the back of our station wagon. The lady seemed concerned that this might not be acceptable to the nearby caravan park, at which point we assured her that we had stayed in numerous caravan parks so far and no one else batted an eyelid. In fact this lady was the only person we have encountered so far who did bat her eyelid! Eventually, we made it to the charming Blairgowrie caravan park where we would spend the night.
The next day led us to explore the beautiful region of the Mornington Peninsula, where fortunately for us they also make excellent wine. It is a cool climate area and offers Pinots and Rieslings more than Shiraz which had been the most common variety so far. The real surprise favourites were the Chardonnays, which if we didn't have to store the wine in our car, we would easily have bought numerous bottles.
Montalto was the first vineyard and chosen primarily by its proximity to Flinders. Named for Captain Flinders who was a distinguished navigator and cartographer, the first to circumnavigate Australia in 1801-1802 as well as carrying out a lot of explorations and expeditions. A great deal of land features are therefore named after him, from the historic town in Victoria to the university in South Australia and much more in between. In Flinders we partook of a record breaking custard slice. The shop we bought it from holds the Guinness World Record for the largest ever custard slice, weighing in at 500kg, our slice came in at 500g! Still rather too much for us! We went to a second vineyard called Ten Minutes by Tractor mainly because of the name and unique because it's the only vineyard where we left empty handed!
While on the peninsula, we also took the time to visit the Cape Schanck lighthouse where we took a walk along the cliffs, nearly getting blown over before turning back to the safety of the wagon. Back in the carpark we admired the bravery of a surfer heading out into the high seas, high winds and rocky shores. Following our adventure in the peninsula, we originally planned to stay in Frankston. Though this was thwarted when the caravan site was full. Free camping is limited in the region so for the second time that day, we opted to go somewhere for the name. Poowong. Not only is it a great name, but the campsite was free. We stayed there for a couple of days, all the while exploring the South Gippsland area. It's very lush and green, beautiful pasture and rolling hills that are quite stunning, even in the continued rain.

Torquay to Queenscliff: oil leak ahoy

We left Torquay and headed to the next major town, Geelong (pronounced Je-long, as in the French Je). After some supplies and an explore we hopped in the car with the hope of exploring the areas wineries. It had been raining pretty solidly since the previous evening and when we arrived at Jack Rabbit vineyard, the water on the ground showed up iridescent rainbow blobs in our tracks, in other words, we were leaking oil.
We decided to carry on to the next town, a small place called Queenscliff and get the problem (hopefully) sorted out there. Once again we decided to get out of the rain for the night and so booked ourselves into the local dive centre accommodation. It is as it sounds, a place where you learn to scuba dive but they also have great rooms and a large open kitchen for tourists or scuba groups to stay in which must help things along in the off season. We were welcomed by Dave and Johnny. On our asking for a mechanic in the area, Johnny, who also happened to live in the centre as he's a dive instructor, offered to look at the car for us so Tom and he went out in the rain to have a look under the bonnet. I thought it best to leave them to it, yet five minutes later on going out to see how things were looking, there were not two but four men peering into the engine! One of whom was on the phone to his mate (presumably a mechanic) saying "If I were a Commodore station wagon leaking oil, where would I be leaking from?" The overall view was that it could be anything, however they did suggest a mechanic to take it to the following day. It was great though and that helpful and supportive attitude has been echoed in other circumstances on our trip.
We dropped the car off at the mechanic and decided to take a walk to see the nearby Marine Discovery Centre. Someone must have found people walking this stretch of road peculiar as they stopped to offer us a lift. Don't worry Mum, we didn't get into a stranger's car as we didn't have far to go! The marine centre was essentially a small but very informative aquarium focussing on the eco-system in the wetlands of the region and nearby Port Philip Bay (where Melbourne is). Happily, we arrived at feeding time so had a great tour around the tanks including that of a Blue Ringed Octopus. We stood and watched/listened in abject horror/surprise as the guide hand fed one of the most deadly creatures in Australia. He also recounted a story of a friend who for some unknown reason had decided to keep one of these poisonous cephalopods as a pet. In a tank. In their house. The guide himself had also kept one and his friend rang him to tell him to get rid of it. The reason being that his wife had woken up one morning to find all the fish dead in the tank and having scooped them out with an ice cream tub was laid out paralysed for half a day. Even though the tank was huge and the amount of poison secreted by the octopus was very small, it was enough to knock out this lady and mercifully she survived. It was as he told us this story that he put his hand into the octopus' beak to feed it, its rings getting more blue by the second, something that happens when it's aggravated or threatened. Bizarre!
Before too long the mechanic called to say the car was ready and the problem had been caused by the oil pressure switch. Unfortunately, it was cup day in Geelong (horse racing) so he wasn't able to fit a new part, so a second hand one would have to do for now...
We had delicious fish and chips in Queenscliff town centre before getting the ferry to Sorrento to explore the beautiful Mornington Peninsula.
x Annie & Tom

Johanna Beach / Cumberland River / Torquay

As we have been doing for much of our trip, we left Johanna beach without a particular destination in mind that day. So we drove the winding roads of The Great Ocean Road with glorious sunshine, stopping for lunch in the pretty town of Apollo Bay. We then headed on to Cumberland River, a very pretty  and popular place where we managed to secure one of the last campsites for the night. Turning up at one of the most popular caravan parks on this stretch of coast on a weekend without a reservation is risking it, but there was still room, so we were in luck. There was lovely scenery here, with dramatic cliffs rising from the river and yet another beautiful sandy beach where we watched surfers and fishermen do their thing.
We were just getting to cook dinner when seemingly out of nowhere we were overwhelmed by hundreds, nay thousands of flying ants! Many of which soon expired in the flame of our gas stove and we had to seek refuge and eat in the car! Annoyingly the plague soon stopped and had we waited a little longer, we probably would have missed it. Ah well, such is life.
The next day we did a bush walk in the morning to see a local waterfall, (the name of which escapes me) before carrying on the road to Torquay via Anglesea for lunch. Both lovely towns, Torquay was our stop for the night as we had an all important and essential Aussie experience of a surfing lesson booked the following day. Torquay is also where surfing in Australia really got started.
Our campsite was just over the dunes from the ocean and even better, a great little cafe a mere two minutes away, overlooking the beach. So as it was up and at 'em at a reasonably early hour to be on time for our lesson and we decided to fuel up with incredible bacon sandwiches from the Third Wave Cafe - highly recommended! The sunshine may have gone but the rain held off for the duration of our two hour surfing lesson. It was great fun in spite of the inevitable intake of seawater and wipeouts, we both managed to catch a wave by the end.
xAnnie & Tom

Warrnambool to Johanna Beach: The Great Ocean Road

This section of the road was quite a drive, with the first lot of really winding roads and where we saw a lot of the sights that makes The Great Ocean Road so popular. It was spectacular scenery for much of the way and thankfully, the rain cleared up and we had great views and sunshine. It was a bit windy, but you can't have everything can you?! We had a recommendation to visit Cape Schank lighthouse which is in the Great Otway national park and on the way, we noticed a couple of people had stopped beside the road, pointing their cameras into the trees. They had seen koalas snuggled amidst the branches so we quickly pulled over to have a look. They didn't seem too bothered by us and one of them woke up for a moment and blinkingly looked at me as if to say "I was having a really good dream until you came along." Thankfully, they didn't make the noise of our previous koala encounter in the Narrawong forest nor did they aim their poop in our general direction. In fact, they were more interested in rearranging themselves in the trees to continue their sleep and who can blame them? They looked so comfy and it was early morning after all. On arrival at the lighthouse, we climbed the spiral stairs to the top to hear the stories of the shipwreck coast and the history of the lighthouse and admire the spectacular views. We also took time to wonder around to see some former defences and communications from WWII as well as some Aboriginal artefacts and information which was all fascinating.
Onwards to The Great Ocean Road and we saw the incredibly beautiful rock formations that make this coast so dramatic. The Bay of Islands, the Grotto, the Arch and of course, The Twelve Apostles. We didn't stop at London Bridge as it's no longer a bridge, it collapsed in the early 90's leaving two tourists stranded! All these sights are absolutely stunning rock formations caused by the unrelenting winds and the waves of The Southern Ocean pounding the cliffs. Apparently, Australia is the only country to recognise The Southern Ocean, so to the pommies reading, it's the Indian Ocean, OK? This is what we've read here so if in fact you are a pom that recognises it, please let us know!! There aren't Twelve Apostles but more like 9, apparently they were given the name to make them more appealing to tourists, something which was pretty successful judging by the number of people there.
That night we stopped at Johanna beach, a free campsite that was nestled in the hills next to a beautiful sandy beach. The relentless wind and strong currents meant it was too dangerous to swim but we had a paddle before setting up camp for the night.