Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Driving miss daisy....


We've been on a road trip! this was all quite unexpected & done in haste, as I was told I had 8 days too much leave (I found that hard to believe when I just had 10.5 weeks off & only came back to work in august!) but who am I to argue about going on holidays-so rather than be paid out for them I checked out the roster, said there was enough staff & I'll have 10 days please & off we went-all that quick!!!


We left Sydney & drove to Wagga Wagga where we stayed with my friend Marge (of the cupcake postcard) & spent 2 days with her.

Wagga has certainly changed since the days when we lived there- the main street is so pretty with trees planted up on the footpath & lovely wide pavement to walk along. The gardens are looking all a bit sad since we lived there- with all the water restrictions no one has the lovely green lawns that once adorned all the homes- more dusty & dry looking these days. Its hard to maintain beautiful green lawns on water restrictions.


After leaving Wagga we headed down into Victoria leaving the freeway & meandered across country through the top of Macedon, passing Hanging rock & the Organ Pipes (beautiful countryside through here) winding down towards the coast to Warrnambool where we stayed the night in readiness to the Great Ocean Road drive.

The great ocean road is one of those trips that everyone should do once in their lifetime- Wow!!!
we pulled in at all the little vantage points along the way to take in the view, see the rugged coastline & have a break from the driving & to take many pics....many, many pics.


The twelve apostles (I think there are not 12 anymore as a couple fell into the sea-I certainly couldn't count 12 of them) were quite amazing- bus loads of tourists here & it was well set up with parking & an under road walk to get to the coast & the view.

One place where we pulled in had a boat ramp-the sign said only 4WDs beyond this point...sheesh it was nearly a shear drop into the water from the cliff above (we walked to have a look)-I think putting the boat in & out could be quite tricky at this place! It was so steep I didn't even try to walk down the ramp!

Our next stop was Melbourne to visit with our son & his family- they are living in St. Kilda- an interesting mix of people to say the least & we did many trips on the trams. I did not drive in Melbourne- just couldn't come to grips with driving with the trams beside me or behind me- maybe next time.

While in Melbourne we went out to the Dandenongs to go on Puffing Billy- what a fun trip that was- I'm sure its the only train where they encourage you to sit on the window ledges & hang out of the train. Our Grandson was in his element- he choo- chooed all the way & sang his train songs! Took some coaxing by his father to get him to sit on the window ledge with him.

After leaving Melbourne we drove to lakes entrance- not my favourite place of the trip- although DH was sure he saw a penguin- he insisted it was (yeah, right!!!) I took some pics with the zoom- penguin, shemguin -it was a cormorant!!!!LOL

Once I headed the car up the coast towards Syney I was like a horse given its lead to go home- instead of staying another night on the road we drove right on home-long drive, weather overcast & drizzling most of the way-but its so good to be back home again.....until the next time.

One thing we did decide on was that we don't travel by car well together & Dh's idea of buying a caravan & touring Oz in it has been finally put to bed (not that I ever wanted to do it).

I've told him he wants to drive long distances, go right ahead- I'll fly & meet him there!LOL

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