After our speedy trip to Melbourne a week previously, we decided to bypass the city this time and head straight for the beach – the weather forecast was, for the first time since we arrived in ‘sunny’ Australia, in our favour.

After a beautiful night at a little place called Tooradin Foreshore, where we were able to fly our beloved and ever faithful £8 kite, we headed for Mornington Peninsula, settling at Sorrento Back Beach to enjoy the 25 degree Sun.

 

Our next stop for the night was called Bass Valley Reserve and although it started out as a fairly normal place to stay, the evening quickly got WEIRD.

• We heard a baby cow sneeze.
• Listened to a man play guitar REALLY badly with his mate on the water jug/drum (and in poor time).
• Weird man introduced himself as Daniel and invited us to his fire pit. We declined as we were exhausted – we were glad we did.
• Daniel played a mix of Bob Marley and Disney Songs including ‘Your Welcome’ from Moana.
• Daniel proceeded to tell another man around the fire pit that he could sense he wasn’t happy, despite the man repeatedly telling him he was. Awkward.
• There was a huge explosion, that shook the campsite. Turns out, someone has thrown a gas canister onto a neighbouring fire.
• Daniel starting playing Psytrance and throwing fire at 11pm. Really LOUDLY!
• After being asked to turn it down by an older chap on the camp, Daniels immediate response was: “Who does he think he is, Jesus???” (in his German accent..).

It made for an interesting few hours.

Anyway.. We made a quick get away the following morning to soak up as much of the sun as possible, heading to Phillip Island and one of the top 10 beaches in Australia: Cape Woolamai. We met some lovely people from Worcester and enjoyed 28 degree sunshine, for the SECOND day in a row! I know, in Australia?? Madness!!

An hour inland, we stopped and spent the night at a lovely little reserve next to Franklin River. After testing the rooftop shower for the first time, which worked surprisingly well for a tube with a watering can attachment, we settled in for dinner; Soup surprise. To spice up soup night, Dave came up with the genius idea of taking all the labels off the soup so we never know what we are having as neither of us can ever remember what we bought days previously. Franklin River Reserve was also the night we saw our first echidna. We thought they were tiny like hedgehogs, but after hearing it stomping through the undergrowth opposite our car, we found out they actually more like wombats! And definitely not called Enchiladas as I keep referring to them as! Unfortunately, this was not our only brush with wildlife that evening – a Huntsman Spider took residence in my curtain, next to my pillow and I have never moved so fast in all my life. That was until Dave came to the rescue and inadvertently flicked it in my direction resulting another speedy exit. Wildlife gone and all the van doors/windows closed, we slept and set off early the next morning for Canberra.

Our journey to Canberra took us up the most beautiful rainforest road, complete with roadside waterfalls and onto our first shower in a good few days – free of charge, bonus! After a stocking up on dinner for the coming days and rubbish weather, we drove even further inland to a place called James Reserve which came complete with a herd of cows and Black Charlie Creek, dating back to 1880! Despite battling our way through a storm and narrowly avoiding being struck by lightening (a huge bolt hit the road directly in front of our car..!!) the clouds cleared as we arrived and allowed us to explore the creek before enjoying a camping favourite of ours; Paella.
Rather naively, we went to bed thinking that was the last we had seen of the storm, only to be woken rather abruptly at 06:30am the following morning when our awning came crashing down under the weight of the rain water that had lashed it overnight. Whoops! Time for a coffee and getting back out on the road.
As the weather was still so hideous, we were aiming for all the free and indoor attractions on the road to Canberra.

First stop: Glenrowan – the home of Ned Kelly and his escapades. We were also able to see the location where Ned found his demise too. “So is life..’

Holbrook was next and, we were pleased to find out, had a wonderful Portsmouth connection to it. Despite being an inland town, it is known as the Submarine Town because of the submerged submarine that sits in the centre of the town but also because of its namesake.
At the start of the first world war it was known as Germantown, but for obvious reasons, locals wanted this changed. After a vote, the new name of Holbrook, was announced. Holbrook was the name of the first Submariner to receive the Victoria Cross and he was born in Southsea, Portsmouth!

Our free stop for the coming night, just an hour outside Canberra, was a lovely place called Beehive Hotel, complete with cute dog called Rollie. Evening made! We made a plan for our few days in Canberra and after a wonderful hour long video call with Mumma, we slept peacefully.

 

To Canberra!
To see the Dinosaur Museum, Questacon, Australian War Museum and Heath Ledger!
Rather obviously, as soon as Dave found out there was Dinosaur Museum, we wasted no time in getting there. Although, we timed our visit rather poorly to coincide with 4 groups of 30 something 4 years olds. After a quick coffee (we were essentially hiding across the road until the children vacated…) we were able to enjoy the museum in peace, even getting to discuss one of the new exhibits with the manager. It was a fossil, complete with skin and rocks that were in the dinosaurs stomach and cost $10,000 to have bought over to Australia. He was very excited and full of knowledge about the displays.
Fun Dinosaur Facts we learnt:

• T Rex is closely linked to the Ostrich, which has been around for 35 million years!
• During the Ice Age, sea levels were so low you could walk from Ireland, across Europe/Asia and to New York!
• Stegosaurus means ‘roof lizard’
• Largest egg in the world belonged to the Elephant Bird which lived in Madagascar until the 1800’s. Their liquid capacity was 8.5 litres – the equivalent of 7 Ostrich eggs or 12,000 Hummingbird eggs!!

Equally full of children, but no cafe to escape to, was Questacon in the centre of Canberra. Questacon was celebrating 30 years of science and technology with 7 rooms, each one focusing on different topics: Colour, Fundamental scientific principals, the Earth (complete with earthquake machine!), a Shed (where we made our own stop motion film!), the energy room where Dave beat a computer at Air Hockey – TWICE! And finally, the moon – a room where you could lay on cushions and watch the moon slowly rotate above you. Even cooler than the rotating moon was finding out Brian May from Queen has a Doctorate in Astrophysics! Who knew?! A wonderful way to spend a few hours whilst the rain fell outside.

Our final visit in Canberra for the day is a place so interesting and full of information, that we had to visit it twice just to take it all in – the Australian War Memorial. Now, if you’ve visited a fair few war memorials, you will know that a lot of them are mostly the same – once you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. Not this one! The landlady of the lovely Beehive Hotel recommended the memorial to us and it did not disappoint. Free to visit, the Australian War Memorial housed not only the names of 109,000+ Australian service personal who perished in the first world war, but also one of the most thorough and interactive war museums Ive ever visited. Even after 2 hours there, we had only made it to 1917 before everyone was ushered outside for the Last Post ceremony at 16:55. The Last Post ceremony always makes me emotional and this one was no exception – a particularly lovely touch was the telling of a different service mans story, each day. And of course I sobbed silently throughout! We made a promise to come straight back the following morning to finish seeing the rest of the collection.

After doing so and thoroughly enjoying our morning, we made our way to the National Archive of Film and Screen to see the Heath Ledger; A Life in Pictures exhibit. Im not ashamed to say I can still remember where I was the day I found out he had died and Ive watched the documentary of his life more than I can count on 2 hands (its a must – I am Heath Ledger – GO watch it) so I was really looking forward to this. The exhibit included diaries from film roles, his motorbikes, costumes and personal photographs taken by Heath himself. It was a wonderful and personal look into who he was both on screen and off. Equally cool was the 30 minute talk we were given by the producer who cast Heath in his first role – Sweat. He said WOW was the his initial impression and that sort of flare and talent in such a young man was not easy to put into words. The producer was as enthralled by his directing as he was his acting too. Such a waste of a wonderfully talented and unique human.

Luckily for us, our free camp for the next few days was situated right next to a pub – you know where you will find us…