The plan for the next two weeks was a road trip from Sydney, down the Grand Pacific Drive to Melbourne, then head back up north to Australia’s capital Canberra. The Grand Pacific Drive which rivals the famous Great Ocean Road, took us around six days to drive, and this blog post will look into the stops we took on our way down to Melbourne. Watch our road trip video here!!
With a hire car sorted, we set off with friends George and Kate, who are also blogging their adventures – you can find it here.
The first stop was a brief one, the small seaside town Kiama. Kiama is the home of the Kiama Blowhole.
With the tide not being “in”, the blowhole wasn’t at it’s most extreme, but we did get a slight taste of what the Kiama Blowhole had to offer…
We took a little stroll around the rocks to see the coastline, before making our way south to Nowra, the next stop.
Our first camp site was just north of Nowra, at Shoalhaven. We assembled our three man tent, and blew up the inflatable mattress in the expectancy of a decent nights sleep.
We were lucky enough to catch the sunset glistening over the river, situated right next to our tents. It did mean however that there were a lot of bugs!
After a relatively successful nights sleep, we packed up the camping stuff, and headed to Jervis Bay, just south of Nowra.
Readily prepared with lunch, we took in the beautiful views of the huge bay, and caught up on some much needed tanning time! With a little afternoon shower not dampening our spirits like true Brits!
After a little explore we discovered another beach. It was a more picturesque beach, and the sea was a lot calmer so we had some fun in the sea with a tennis ball.
We began to make our way down the coast a little further, ending the day close to Narooma, in a town called Dalmeny.
The clouds were now rolling in, but it made for a pretty awesome sunset shot.
In the desperation of the wifi we needed to sort out our new SIM cards, we found the “Million Dollar View” pub, which overlooked Narooma and the sea.
After a draft Coke, we made our way down to a small café for some much needed lunch.
In our opinion better than the Million Dollar View pub view!
Amy getting all photographer here – pretty cool shot though!
After a delicious lunch, we took a little stroll round the town – where we spotted these big pelicans fighting over some dead fish…
From Narooma, we continued our coastal drive inland slightly via the Princes Highway, with Eden as our end destination.
There was a little detour through the gold mined village of Tilba, and it gave for some awesome scenic views of the mountains.
After three or so hours of driving, we reached Eden. The girls set about some late afternoon sunbathing.
Whilst George and I, headed off towards the rocks and hill in search of cool views.
One particular rock caught our attention, and overlooked the small bay. I clambered up to get a better view.
And here I am, being a poser on top of the rock!
We proceeded to scamper up a track, to a neat lookout of the Eden beach.
After another successful night camping, we approached the Victoria border – for some reason we expected a more impressive sign?
And the first call of action when we were in Victoria was to traipse down a dusty to road to Point Hicks. In hindsight not the best idea with the new hire car.
Point Hicks is apparently the first sight of Australia from Captain Cook, centuries ago. The lighthouse which (apparently) stands here is the attraction.
We however, didn’t find the lighthouse so had taken a 90km detour only to end up walking along this beach – which, don’t get me wrong is a cool beach, but not worth the three hours of uncomfort that the detour had entailed.
Back on the main highway again, and we were desperate to see either of these two! Kangaroos and Wombats are apparently common around here, but we didn’t have much luck with seeing any…
A quick stop over at Cape Conran, gave us this view of the sea, and a short break from the intense day of driving.
After about six hours of driving we reached the gloomy looking, Lakes Entrance. The ‘entrance’ to the three huge lakes in this local region.
We settled into our campsite at Bairnsdale, and endured an hour or so of table tennis, before finding pizza was only $5 at Dominos!
The evening had consisted of a little planning, and today was an intense drive down to Wilsons Promontary. The first stop was Lake King, one of the three huge lakes that ran alongside the coastline. It’s just a massive lake really, not a whole lot to see!
Stop number two, was a trip to Golden Beach. Here, we topped up the tan, indulged in a chicken baguette and dipped our toes in the sea.
It was horrendously hot though, and we didn’t stay too long in fear of roasting ourselves.
We proceeded along the highway to Agnes Falls.
Amy and I at Agnes Falls.
It was difficult to get a picture of how tall the falls were, had we been able to get down the bottom we may have ended up with a better shot.
On the way back down from Agnes Falls, we stumbled across this impressive view from Slade Hill.
Having seen the potential, I scouted my maps app to find another lookout point nearby. We found Silcock Hill, which was just stunning. The pictures really don’t do it justice.
After grabbing a group shot, we made our way back down the winding road and back on course to Wilsons Prom (as they call it out here).
There was one more viewpoint that I’d found with just a slight detour, Mount Nicoll. The view overlooked the National Park of Wilsons Prom, and the beautiful clear blue sea.
Mount Nicoll also had views of the wonderful countryside and landscape that this part of Victoria had to offer.
Group shot of the four of us, at the summit of Mount Nicoll. If you’re wondering, we could pretty much drive right to the top, so we didn’t have to walk far!
The campsites at Wilsons Prom were full, and it was getting late. With the advice of a local we headed to Foster, just outside the National Park. There was quite a storm that night!
Sleep deprived, we made the short journey back to Wilsons Prom in the morning. The plan was to do a bit of bush walking, before making our way to Phillip Island for some penguin spotting!
You can see why it’s one of the best National Parks in Victoria!
A short break provided the opportunity for a quick picture about half way up the bush walk.
The view from Pillar Point. Pretty spectacular.
We were joined by a friendly Blue Tongued Lizard at the top.
The views were just breathtaking, and the water was so crystal clear, it looked amazing.
A nice picture at the Pillar Point lookout..
We slowly made our way back down to the car, and set off for Phillip Island. The small island just outside Melbourne is famous for the Penguin Parade, that happens every evening about an hour after the sunset.
Joined by a few hundred other tourists, we sat in the temporary stands and waited for a glimpse of the smallest penguins in the world. They’re the same little guys as the ones at Manly.
There was a strict no photograph policy, but I managed to grab this shot of some of the penguins returning back to their nests!
After a great nights sleep in our first bed of the trip, we made our way to Churchill Island, a small farming island just next to Phillip Island.
It was ever so cold, but we did take a short walk around the island, it’s a shame the weather was dreary as the views of Phillip Island would have looked a lot nicer.
We finally made it to Melbourne later that day!!
Alex and Amy's Travels 