Torquay

I wasn't sorry to leave Melbourne, I liked the museums I visited and the gardens and parks were nice but the city centre felt crowded and claustrophobic. The traffic never stopped either. Maybe the pouring rain as I made my way to the bus stop this morning didn't help! 

I picked up my hire car from Melbourne Airport at noon. I've done it a few times now but its always nerve-wracking driving a car I don't know through a city I don't know. So I gave myself a small task only today, to drive down to Torquay at the start of the Great Ocean Road. Actually getting out of Melbourne was straight forward and well signed. I haven't bonded with my car yet though! Its something called a Cupra, a make I have never even heard of, and everything is electronic even the air-con is controlled by a screen. Its also longer and wider than I'm used to so parking will take a while to get comfy with. On the plus side the indicators are back on the usual side. 

I made it to Torquay mid afternoon. Loads of places here have English names which still seems odd. Torquay is a big surfing town and you can see the surfboards of famous surfers in the Australian Surfing Museum here. As I can't name any famous surfers I gave that a miss and headed to the beach instead (after stocking up on kiwi fruits and koala chocolate bars at the large Woolworth).

The sun came out and Torquay seemed very chilled and low key. Not much surf so only a couple of surfers out but lots of people walking their dogs on the beach. There is a street of cafes and shops but the beachfront is very under developed which is lovely and I walked along the beach and back along the parkland overlooking it. 

I'm going to do the Great Ocean Road over two days but its very confusing trying to work out where best to stop.... so I'll see what I see! Hopefully the weather will hold out. 




This is a sundial - you need to stand on the eagle in the middle on the right month.
These bottlebrush trees are everywhere
Skiing art at my guesthouse


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Malmsbury & the Yarra Valley

Image
I was woken by a very noisy crow. The cawing of crows has definitely been the soundtrack to Australia! It was also very cold outside - don't be fooled by the blue sky in the pictures, temperatures were between 7 and 9 degrees all day with a wind that I reckon came straight from the Antarctic. At least it was mostly dry. As I went to school in Malmesbury, Wiltshire I had to stop in Malmsbury, Victoria even though they lost the 'e' at some point. This was once a supply town for the goldfields and now retains a small high street and gardens. It was actually a bit more charming than it came out in the photos and I did my bit for the economy by visiting the bakery and antique/gift shop.  I then realised I was driving straight past Hanging Rock so that made a nice place for a walk and explore. It was too cold for a Picnic at Hanging Rock which is just as well as apparently that's quite a dangerous activity. The rock itself is an extinct volcano and rock type is trachyte. It l...
Read more

Jurien Bay

Image
Yesterday was spent driving south on highway 1. This is the 9,000 mile road which circles Australia but I had enough of it yesterday - I was on a very straight bit for several hours. As I got south though there started to be noticeably more trees, flowers and colourful shrubs.  I stopped off for the night at a lovely Airbnb in Geraldton and this morning drove another couple of hours south to Jurien Bay. I bypassed Jurien Bay on the way north when it would have been raining anyway. There was not a cloud in the sky today. As usual there are pristine white beaches and a turquoise sea. In fact this stretch of the coastline is dubbed the 'turquoise coast'.  There are three things to do in Jurien Bay 1) take a walk along the beach 2) eat fresh mackerel at the beach cafe and 3) go snorkeling with the friendly Australian sealions. I completed the first two today and have a boat ride booked at 7am tomorrow to tick off number three. Apparently sealions like to wake up early.  Some ...
Read more

Phillip Island

Image
Today I took a day tour from Melbourne to see the penguins on Phillip Island, with a couple of stops on the way. First we drove via Albert Park, which has lovely views of the city over the lake, to Brighton Beach. This is famous for its colourful Victorian bathing boxes. They used to be changing rooms and now go for a small fortune even though you can't do much with them!  Next stop was Moonlit Sanctuary wildlife park which is a small park of Australian animals. The wombat was my favourite as well as the koalas of course.  Then onto Phillip Island and after a couple of viewpoints, and some swamp wallaby spotting onto the Penguin Parade.  Phillip Island is home to the aptly named Little Penguin. They are only about a foot tall - really tiny. They come on shore shortly after sunset each night to their cozy burrows. Visitors have been coming to see them since the 1920s. One beach is open to visitors with boardwalk and seating area you need to stay within. The penguins don't ...
Read more