Downunder Diary II: Victoria

December 22 – January 2023

From now on we are on foot again. But we realize right away that this is not a good idea. How are we supposed to drag all the camping equipment around? Buying another car is out of the question at these prices. So we have to rent a car.

We drive from Bendigo, where our generous helpers in need have dropped us off, first to Macedon, where we want to start our house-sitting position in one week. We introduce ourselves to the family whose dog we are to house-sit. But more about that later.

Afterward, we drive on to Geelong. It's been almost ten years since I visited the Browns with my sister. It is a joyful reunion. We stay only one night but promise to come back soon.

But first I want to show Seraina parts of the Great Ocean Road south of Melbourne. It is Christmas and a very busy time.

We know where to look and discover a few koalas in the gumtrees (eucalyptus) in Kennett River.

We turn off the Great Ocean Road and drive the winding road through the jungle to Forrest. There the Browns have their cottage where I felt at home ten, sixteen, and eighteen years ago.

Things are a little more up and running in Forrest than they were ten years ago. The village of a few souls even has its own brewery now. Still, it's quiet here as ever. Only the birds whistle, squawk, hiss, and make other Star Wars-esque noises.

I have circled Lake Elizabeth several times. It is only a short drive through the jungle fern forest from the village. It is an enchanting spot.

We feel like a gnome and an elf as we stroll down the small path to the lake. Dinosaurs must still live here somewhere. Their close relatives, the birds, are definitely all around us.

The following day we drive through the green hills and forests until, against all expectations, we come across a little piece of California. In a valley not very far from Forrest, they planted redwoods about seventy years ago and they are thriving here.

Not only do they look just like they do in our beloved California, but they also smell just the same. That's how fast we traveled once around the world!

The road leads us back to the coast, back to the Great Ocean Road, into the swarm of tourists around the Twelve Apostles. They all want to see the rocks in the water. So do we, even if we can only stand it for a short time in the pack.

In Port Campell, we taste the local beer and then look for a cheap campground for the night (there a young German family with two small kids tells us that exactly the same thing happened to them as to us: the engine died on them, too, shortly after they bought their used car. But unlike us, they had the engine replaced. It seems to be a well-known Australian problem).

Another stop on the list of our short six-day round trip is the long-extinct volcanic crater Tower Hill. There, I know, live emus and koalas. Here, too, we meet many more tourists than I remember from my last visits.

But there are also koalas and emus. The latter is a little too confident so Seraina has to build herself up in front of ut in her whole size to defend our breakfast.

In the Grampians National Park, we hike through the rugged beauty of the rocks and look from the very top 360° to the horizon. A long dirt road brings us to a small, secluded campground where we watch the wallabies grazing at dusk.

I am here in the Grampians for the umpteenth time and would not want to miss the park on my next visit to Australia.

Before we leave it, we encounter an Echidna, a kind of Australian hedgehog.

Finally, it is time to go back to Macedon. Through the website mindahome.com.au we have found someone whose dog and house we are invited to look after for nine days.

At first Koah, an English Staffordshire Terrier is a bit shy. When we settle in at home, she is not comfortable. But it doesn't take long before she gets used to us.

When we take her for a walk for the first time, we let her guide us. So she shows us her idyllic village Macedon, which we get to know better during the course of the next days.

The big garden behind the house becomes our little paradise. Here we spend hours with Koah and all the colorful parrots and kookaburras that come to visit us.

The days in the house fly by and we already have to think about how we want to travel in the new year. We know that Nat is on vacation at the moment. We want to go camping together in the southeast of Melbourne.

Nat is the Australian who got us to buy a piece of land in Palomino nine years ago in Colombia. But this story doesn't belong here, you can read it in the Bananatree diary .

It is with heavy hearts that we leave Koah in Macedon (but with the knowledge that she can look forward to the return of her family) and drive with Nat to the coast of Wilson's Promontory.

Nat didn't promise too much. We are invited to camp with Nat's good friend Mark on his sister's land, right where the grassy green farmland merges into the sandy dunes.

It is truly a magical place. The time the four of us get to spend there together is just as magical. We will always remember it. We experience the "Dunes of Contemplation" as no one has ever experienced it before. There we create, attention: insider, the new Swiss-German word: "Blibtnschmigl".

Many have already raved about Wilson's Prom. When we go hiking in the National Park, we quickly find out why. Dark green wooded slopes and gray-brown rocks merge directly into the turquoise and dark blue sea.

Of course, many tourists occupy the perfect beaches, whose sand squeaks so beautifully underfoot. Hence the name of one of them is Squeaky Beach.

Then a few days are over and we say goodbye to Nat and Mark. We plan to spend another week down in Geelong and Forrest to help Adrian and Thea with house renovations and gardening.

Yes, feels good to do some physical work again. As I cover the roof of the porch in Forrest, I feel like I'm in Palomino. The work, the heat, the not quite insurance-compliant way of working...

A week later, we are in the mood to leave again. We say goodbye to the Browns, to whom we will always be grateful for their generous hospitality and kindness. We will be back, no question!

With a rented Corolla Hybrid, which is the car of our choice for a second time, we start our last stage through Australia: northwards towards Cairns.

Our first stop is at the same time our last in the state of Victoria: Bruno's Art.

Here we better let pictures speak. Just one more thing: We met Bruno and his partner in their gallery, where Bruno willingly explained his paintings and artwork to us.

Bruno is the spitting image of the eccentric free thinker and wild artist. It is not long before we are standing in front of the portrait of his father, whose genes he inherited. Perched on the father's head is an egg.

'For a while, he only painted eggs because he thought it was an "eggcellent" idea to showcase his "eggspertise" in an "eggshibition."'