Victoria to New South Wales

So sad to be leaving our cottage, it has been really cosy and not looking forward to camping again after our comfy bed. However, when we awoke we couldn't get out of the cottage quick enough - As Marc awoke from his slumber, and opened his eyes in a daze, he spotted something unusual on the wall above the bath. It was big, hairy, and had eight beady eyes staring straight at us!!! Remember those baby spiders on the ceiling - well we found the daddy!! Needless to say we packed up quickly, and at all times at least one of us had to have our eyes on this beast to make sure it didn't disappear into our back packs ;)

We decided to get as far as possible today and once we crossed the NSW border Marc realised that the fuel was a little low... lucky enough we made it to the next station as the last petrol station we passed was about 50km back!!

After stopping for lunch at Eden, and checking out the beach, we continued on the road and when we finally started looking for a campsite they were all full!!! We decided to look a little further on down the road and came across a place just outside Mystery Bay and discovered when we got there that it was a Big 4... and it was holiday season so it was packed out and cost $37! We are used to paying between $20-$25 so this was steep!

They literally squeezed us in one of the only spaces left, so it was a bit claustrophobic. Still, it had all the facilities of a Big 4 and had a nice pool to relax in after our drive (though there were a lot of kids around). We then had our BBQ we'd been craving and then checked out the beach for a sunset. There wasn't too much going on though, as the rain had followed us from Lakes, so we had an early night.

Next day we headed to Mogo Zoo - we're not normally a fan of zoos as we don't like seeing animals crammed into small cages, but this one was recommended by the nature lovers from Kalimna Woods, so we thought it would be ok, and it was. All the animals had big cages, and they had quite a range from deer to onyx (extinct in the wild) to white lions to monkey island to tigers. We didn't like the tiger enclosure as it was quite small compared to the amount of space all the other animals have, and we quite like tigers ;)

We headed off to Pebbley Beach, which is where Roos bounce around on the beach, but we had to pay $7pp so decided against it. Instead we went straight to Dolphin Point. There were no dolphins, just a nice lagoon and a nice beach for us to walk on for an hour or so.

After we had our little break we headed on to Kiama to see the blowholes. Now this was a blowhole! We were disappointed in WA when we could only hear the trapped air but here there was a real show going on with water being pushed up to 3mtrs in the air!

We decided to camp here before heading onto Sydney in the morning and when we found a place that had a spot open we where they told that the standard camping charge for the holiday season was $60! Just incredible as that's how much you pay for a dbl room at a hostel. Luckily this place keeps its rates at $35 - great - and we got some free pens :) This place was really nice as well, on the cliffs, big plots for tents, with a pool and TV room, and just a 5 min walk from the beach.

For dinner we got the traditional fish & chips and sat on the benches by the lighthouse overlooking the cliffs and ocean, watching the sun set, in traditional Brit style. It wasn't long before a chorus of "Mine!" rang out from the seagulls looking to get their share of our dinner. We then strolled back along the beach in the dark and watched a bit of TV, when we got chatting to this guy from Bournemouth who knows Ringwood pretty well. Small world!!

When we crawled into our tent to get some sleep & Ev kept thinking that someone was taking a lot of photos as the flash kept going off. After a while this got quite annoying so Ev got up to have a word only to realise that there was in fact an electrical storm brewing out at sea! We both watched the lightning for a while - it was pretty impressive - and the looked at the stars above us, before trying to get to sleep again. We were beginning to realise that the rain from the Great Ocean Road was following us all the way to Sydney ;(

During the night we awoke to our tent shaking and people desperately hammering in more pegs as the storm caught up with us. As we were on top of a cliff we had no protection from the winds coming off the ocean and got the full brunt of it.

We awoke the next day and were planning to head into the Blue Mountains by Sydney, but the storm had cleared and the sun was actually shining and it was hot. So instead, we headed down to the surf beach to catch a few rays and top up the tan. We (well Marc as he's been doing all the driving) needed a bit of R&R. After lunch we headed onto Sydney but not before popping into McDonalds to test out the Yaris's drive-thru-ability ;)