The Tale of Mr Turtle

Once upon a time......... early last year, the children found this baby turtle slowly walking on the cement in our backyard. Apparently it had wondered from the river a few streets away. The children were very keen to adopt him as our new pet, however there were a few problems with this, including our extended planned road trip beginning the following week!

To satisfy all curiosity we kept him for the night, then made a quick visit to the local pet shop the next morning. There we were informed that these turtles are difficult to look after in captivity and it would be best to release him back by the river. I think the pet shop owner could detect my reluctance to keep him, despite the children's eagerness to do otherwise! ("Did I give the right answer?" he asked me as we were leaving.)

 So home we went, collected Mr Turtle and with the children taking turns holding him, we walked to the river. Some were more eager than others to be close and personal with Mr Turtle!

One more goodbye from everyone then Mr Turtle was rather reluctantly set free.....

and he lived happily ever after.......


Sharing at Project Alicia: Critters, Photo Story Friday and PicStory.

Accommodation for 10 Please!

One of the greatest organisational challenges of our big driving holiday in March 2010 was finding suitable accommodation for our family of 10 and preferably also for our tall family bus/vehicle. During our three and a half weeks away we drove over 4000km and stayed in 11 different locations.

Four sets of family and friends were very brave and hospitable, insisting we sleep in their homes/tents-in-the-yard. We were overwhelmed at their generosity in feeding, preparing room for us to sleep and making us feel at home.

This left seven cities/towns to secure accommodation. Let me share with you a little of the amazing self-serve bed and breakfast historic home we stayed in at Ballarat.

 One of our children found this house on the internet. We were amazed at the beauty and authenticity of this "B & B" when we saw it online and thought for sure it would have a "no children" policy. However as we scrolled down their webpage (which no longer seems to exist)....it stated clearly "CHILDREN WELCOME". I could hardly believe it! We quickly booked for the two nights we would be in Ballarat.

It was dark and late at the end of a very full and exciting day by the time our GPS finally declared we had arrived! We were all quite eager to explore the house but also rather exhausted. It wasn't until morning that we could fully appreciate the beauty of our new place, particularly the manicured gardens.

With only two nights and one very full day of sightseeing, I wasted no time grabbing my camera to try and capture some of the delights very early in the morning. Above is the front entry, and below, the scene as you enter through the door! Everything seemed of huge proportions, from the ceiling heights to the thickness of the walls. Just around the corner, into the next hallway, you are greeted by the row of hats, my first photo above.

The next three photos are taken in one of the bedrooms.....it was enormous!

Below is a photo of a dresser in another bedroom (and my eldest, trying to stand in the corner out of view as I wander around with camera).

The following two photos are in another huge bedroom which also had a fireplace and the massive cupboard as shown.

The lounge/ dining room, complete with antique furnishings, musical instruments, silverware and toys!

Last, but by no means least, the enchanting backyard.

Complete with veggies, herbs and espaliered fruit trees, in fruit!

Staying in "Cumberland House" was one of THE highlights of our holiday. Delicious food was provided for us to make our own breakfasts and the owners even home-delivered the morning paper.

 It would have been lovely to have had more time in Ballarat to enjoy more of this beautiful city (I was secretly hoping to make it to Ballarat Patchwork) and to snap even more photos! We DID manage a very long day at some well known historic tourist sites, I'll share about that another time.

Shared at The Creative Exchange.

The Twelve Apostles

The Otway Fly (previous post) was breathtaking. We then drove on to The Twelve Apostles which are absolutely magnificent! Arriving very late in the day the view into the sinking sun was shimmery and full of huge shadowy stone "statues".

Looking eastward we saw the stunning coastline stretching before us.

The top two photos were taken from the viewing area straight ahead.

Above and below-zoomed in on some of the intriguing details of the giant rock stacks.

We traveled on to  Port Campbell (where we had something to eat) then a long sunset-into-dark drive inland through a changing and beautiful countryside.

Just on dusk we could see an amazing big shape rising from the flat surrounds to our west. Our trusty maps informed us we were looking at Mt Elephant!

Into the night we arrived at our accommodation in Ballarat. Now Ballarat is a whole other short but wonderful chapter in our journey. On this one exhilarating and exhausting day, 19th March 2010, we had experienced the Great Ocean Road, Cape Otway Lighthouse, the Otway Fly, The Twelve Apostles and a delightful dusk drive. Certainly a day well worth remembering, thank you for joining me on my photo journey.

Sharing at PicStory: Holidays (and voted an equal second).

Otway Fly

After leaving the Cape Otway Lighthouse (previous post) we drove inland for a while to the Otway Fly . Once you have walked down into the warm temperate rainforest the 600m treetop walk begins. This was heaps of fun and just amazing. If you look carefully at the photo above you will just see the spiral stair tower at the end of the steel walkway.

You really are right up in the forest canopy at the top of the tower.

Love those huge trees!

And these wonderful people!

The huge tree ferns look amazing from above.

The walk back out of the forest, all uphill.
This was our afternoon adventure for 19th March 2010. Still more to come for that day.

Cape Otway Lighthouse

                                                                                                                                                Available for purchase here

About a half hour drive from Apollo Bay, Cape Otway is the southern most point of the Australian mainland apart from Wilsons Promontory. Cape Otway Lighthouse was built over 160 years ago and was only decommissioned in 1994.

I imagine it would be a rather bleak place for much of the year.

Guided tours allowed internal access and informative details.

And it was windy!!!!

Another informative guide in a nearby building. Sometimes it's easy to forget that the presence of a lighthouse also means many lives had been lost and ships wrecked at that location prior to their existence.

                                                                                                                                             Available for purchase here

The Otway Telegraph Station is only a short walk from the lighthouse. Having these two located nearby helped overcome the problems of isolation for those who manned them, particularly in the early days.

We often take modern communications for granted. There are joys to be had in both eras, yet I think we are spoilt for choice in ours.

Great Ocean Road

19th March 2010 was another huge day on our adventure, filled with great variety and stunning beauty. I will spread the photos over several posts so I can savour the joys and splendour once more.

Not long after we had left Lorne we were held up with a well organised road closure. Eventually we saw camera cars and a sparkly new car drive past, along with other associated vehicles. They had be filming a car advertisement! The road was soon reopened.

Another peculiarity was a number of road signs I had never seen before, all stating traffic had to drive on the left-hand side of the road! I guess they have an unusually high number of overseas visitors hiring cars to travel this road.

The Great Ocean Road along the Victorian southern coastline is magnificent. I didn't know much about this drive so my expectations weren't that high. On this section of the Great Ocean Road we were amazed by the vivid coastline stretching on before us, following curve after curve for more than hour.

Thankfully we were driving east to west and could take advantage of the frequent stopping bays on the coastal edge of the road to soak up more of the views.

We stopped a while at Apollo Bay. The weather was overcast and lightly raining at this point, making it look and feel more like something from another country, maybe England?

After Apollo Bay the road leads away from the coast for a while, winding through the surrounding hill country, before hugging the coastline again further west.