Day 12 – Portland

Importantly, first up today was getting a new tyre on the car. A few days ago, I noticed a slight bulge on the side of one of the rear tyres. It wasn’t losing air thankfully – but I didn’t want to drive on it much longer than we had to. So I rang a few tyre places ahead to try find someone with who had the right tyre in stock – and thankfully a place in Portland came through with…

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Day 11 – Portland

Today was a day with not a lot planned initially, but a wonderful day of adventuring and exploring Portland! We headed down to the Visitor Information Centre first thing this morning to see if there were some interesting things we could do today. The guide there was really helpful with a few ideas, and we ended up setting off on Walk Portland’s Pride – a decent walk around the town, seeing a really wide variety of things. The walk started…

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Day 10 – Travel to Portland, via Twelve Apostles

Tonight, we’re in Portland – roughly the end of the Great Ocean Road. We want to acknowledge that this area is the lands of the Gunditjmara people. We want to pay our respects to the elders of the Gunditjmara people – past, present and emerging. It was cool to find out that Archie Roach, Lidia Thorpe and Lionel Rose are all Gunditjmara people! What an incredible day exploring the western side of the Great Ocean Road today – mostly around…

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Day 9 – Great Ocean Rd area

The weather today was perfect for a bit more exploring along the Great Ocean Road – 24º and sunny! Yesterday, I neglected to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land we’re currently on – this is the land of the Gadubanud people, and we would like to acknowledge their elders past, present and emerging. Today started with a quick visit to the Visitor Information Centre, conveniently just across the road from us. And also with a quick visit to the…

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Day 8 – Travel to Apollo Bay, via Sorrento / Queenscliff ferry

We said farewell to Phillip Island at about 8am this morning after a really wonderful few days. The first part of today’s drive was around to Sorrento, at the southern end of the Mornington Peninsula. We were headed for the Searoad Ferry – a vehicle ferry that travels across Port Phillip Bay from Sorrento to Queenscliff. In reality, it probably was quicker to drive along all the motorways around Melbourne and through Geelong to get down to the Surf Coast……

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Day 7 – Phillip Island

Today started with a lot of rain. We all enjoyed a slower start to the day, with the kids catching up on their travel diaries from yesterday’s adventures. We had a few ideas of things to do today, but only the Antarctic Journey out at the Nobbies Centre was locked in for later this afternoon. In the end, we decided to head across to the Phillip Island Chocolate Factory for the morning – the kids had spotted it on our…

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Day 6 – Phillip Island – Go Karts & Penguins

For everyone’s birthday presents this year, they’re getting experiences while we’re on our trip. And today was my turn to get my birthday present from the fam (from last December) – go karting at the Phillip Island GP Circuit! Phillip Island GP Circuit has built a smaller sized replica just beside the race tracks for go karts. They have the normal single karts, but also tandem karts for an adult to take a child in. None of our kids were…

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Day 5 – Travel to Phillip Island, via Lakes Entrance

Today was a fairly long drive, roughly following the coast around the south-eastern corner of Australia, to arrive at Phillip Island! We want to acknowledge that the traditional owners of this land are the Bunurong people of the Kulin Nation, and to them, this island is known as Millowl. We pay our respects to the elders of the Kulin Nation; past, present and emerging. We got going close to 8:30 this morning, and headed for the Victorian border, which was…

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Day 4 – Eden

Today started with a visit to the Killer Whale Museum in Eden. We learnt so much about the history of whaling; but more impressively, the partnership between the orcas (killer whales) and mankind. The orcas would strategically trap blue or southern right whales in Twofold Bay in Eden before alerting the Whalers, who would then kill the whale. The carcass would then essentially be shared between the Orcas and humans. While none of us love the history of whaling all…

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Day 3 – Travel to Eden, via Candelo

I had been wanting to start each post by acknowledging the traditional owners of the lands that we visit – unfortunately, in the excitement of getting going, I completely forgot to do that in Jindabyne! I’ve gone back and edited those posts to include that now. Tonight we’ve arrived in Eden, and we’d like to acknowledge the Thaua people of the Yuin nation, who are the traditional owners of the land here in Eden. We acknowledge their elders past, present…

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