We would have loved to stay in Nundroo for another week there’s just so much to see and do, but with the hilux wheel bearing dodgily repaired we had to race across to Melbourne to see Sharni’s brother before he headed off for Christmas holidays. So we did the roughly 1700km from Nundroo to Melbourne in 1 and a half days.

In Melbourne we did the usual city things – check out some buildings, examine sophisticated art, bump into people, wait in lines, visit museums, consume food and drinks, get stuck in traffic and get honked at. Wow those Melburnians are really running the rat race hard as shown by their driving behavior.

Melbourne ArtVo Museum T-Rex feeding time

In Melbourne I also had to replace that pesky axle that was damaged when the bearing failed. I ended up replacing both axles and the axle housing from a 2014 model. So now when someone asks what year my car is I say 2014.

Thanks Robyn and David for letting me use your workshop!

After a few weeks in Melbourne and with our fancy new 2014 hilux ready to go we headed off west. First up Great Ocean Road.

Sparks Gully Great Ocean Road

Great Ocean Road really is pretty bloody good. I’d suggest it’s great. We especially enjoyed the beaches and fun festival holiday atmosphere of many of the towns and of course checking out the main coastal attractions like 12 Apostles.

12 Apostles walking to lookout

A particular highlight was the bird life at a camping spot called Big Hill Campground. The parrots patrol the camp looking for easy targets to steal food from. One parrot perched upon the open tailgate of our car and allowed me to take a very close photo.

King Parrot perched on the tailgate at big hill campground

This photo is so close you can count the feathers.

Here’s a Parrot stealing small cut up pieces of apple that someone was storing on a bollard.

We had organized a meet up with some friends in Adelaide so had to scoot through eastern South Australia quite quickly, but not without camping up at Coorong beach for guaranteed gargantuan mulloway. I didn’t catch any.

Camped at Coorong Ocean Beach fishing for Mulloway.