We started from Sydney (of course) and drove south along the Pacific Highway and the Pacific coastal roads, stopping along the way for photo opportunities and to see the sights (sites?) that were highlighted for us in our various travel books.

Along the way, we stopped at a lighthouse – being from Nova Scotia, we know a thing or two about them – and checked out Perpendicular Point. We did a short walk through an area that had recently been burnt out from a bush fire. As with forests in Canada, the bush needs a bit of a burn now and then to rejuvenate. The Grass tree and the Banksia Tree are two of the first to recover from the fire.

We carried on towards Murramarang National Park and the Pebbly Beach Campground where we spent our first two nights. This park has an amazing Spotted Gum tree (Eucalyptus tree) forest between the highway and the coast. The drive into the park from the highway is spectacular.

The campground is swarming with kangaroos and birds of all sizes and shapes.

Have you ever wondered what kangaroos do all day?

There are other, slightly more scary animals as well including monitor lizards …

… which can jump up and scratch you to death.

And cute little echidnas, which look something like a porcupine, but in fact are a type of anteater.

We thought they were endangered, but actually they are as common as porcupines back in Nova Scotia.

I must say, the Australians have great park facilities. Every park, even day or picnic parks have these great cooking shelters, usually with rain water for washing and gas BBQs for free use. I think they provide the gas for free so that people are not tempted to start a cooking fire and burn down the forests.

Even still, it is often easier just to set up our own cooking station and open a bottle of wine.

Being in the bush, we often had guests who wandered into the campground for a bite of food.

We continued our drive down under down under to the very bottom, spending Christmas day itself on the road to Inverloch …

… where we spent two days exploring and, I believe, got as far south as we could without going to Tasmania. We had a chance to take our pet wombat for a walk.

We were more or less as close to Antartica as we might ever get. So close, in fact, that we had the chance to see penguins!

We paid a visit to the Penguin Parade on Philip Island where we had the chance to watch them coming ashore after a long day at sea fishing for their family.

Onwards then to the Great Ocean Road …

… where we spent two nights camping and two days exploring some fantastic scenery. We camped at Johanna beach and spent some beach time enjoying the southern skies.

Nearby are the 12 Apostles. Needless to say, there are not 12, and they aren’t really apostles, just, as one Aussie behind me commented, “rocks in the ocean – amazin’”.

We finally made our way to Warrnambool and the Tower Hill Reserve, which was just about our furthest point from home on our trip. We actually went just a bit past this point to get some great Fish and Chips in Port Fairy, and then turned around. In the reserve, we were able to see quite a bit of wildlife bouncing, swimming, or flying around.

While walking through the forest, or the bush, as they say here, I saw what I thought were bats hanging in a cave, but were in fact bees!

Finally, after capturing a few pictures of the elusive Koala bear, high up in the gum trees…

… we took the back roads and those less travelled on our way back home.

With the help of a few street signs, and our GPS, we finally arrived in Rydalmere, 3550 KM later.