How big is the outback?! Having travelled through the night, I stupidly thought we would wake up in Adelaide but we were still in the outback! Australia is big!
Like we didn’t know that…
We woke up on The Ghan, our last morning.
We were due into Adelaide in the late morning so we had lots of time to pack up our belongings (I need to reduce time spent in my new found hobby of shopping…) We had a leisurely breakfast and got packed up.
It was incredible to watch the landscape change from outback, to farm land and then to city. Stepping off the train, everyone was saying their goodbyes to newly made friends and wondering into the shop… not another shop! Oh yes, we toddled in too.
We were overflowing with bits and bobs so needed some luggage to contain the ever expanding array of items that now followed us around. We purchased a couple of duffle bags sporting The Ghan logo, I picked up a new bag for work (a children’s version of a back pack with The Ghan on!) and a key ring/bottle opener to go in the dog show van!
We were hiring a car in Adelaide and embarking on a 3 day tour along The Great Ocean Road back to Melbourne. We taxi’d to the car hire and filled the boot with luggage, set the sat nav and off we went.
The other half had booked rooms in motels and holiday parks for these last few nights so we motored off to the first in Robe.
We went through some lovely parts of Adelaide and both wished that we had more time to spend a night or two in town, it looked really lovely! That’s on the hit list for next time!
We motored through some really lovely towns, stopped at a great place for lunch and got to our one night stop off before dark. It was called Ocean View for obvious reasons. Our host recommend a pub in town for supper so we sorted our stuff and headed off for a pint!
I can’t remember what the other half had but I ordered crayfish – very nice, but I seemed to be fighting with the thing and he was quite sharp in places. We walked back in the rain, having noted what looked like a good place for breakfast and retired for the night listening to the rain on the roof!
Morning came around all too quickly and we headed back out for food via a walk to see the full ocean view
We packed the car and headed off for our next location along the Great Ocean Road. We saw the ocean, we saw trees, we saw pelicans but we didn’t see any snakes (phew)
Our accomodation for the night was about as far from the advertised spec as we could believe, so we scarpered and headed off with no where to stay that night.
Thank goodness for google! I found a place while the other half drove. The weather wasn’t great. it was starting to get dark and we needed somewhere half decent to stay. We are not overly bothered about staying in old fashioned rooms but we do expect things to be clean, not have cigarettes holes in the pillow cases and not smell musty! We found such a place, a motel and the landlady cooked us a hearty meal too. An added bonus was beer and a good chat to the landlady!

We awoke to fog in a place called Laver Hill in the middle of the forest! We had slept well and decided not to wait for the local cafe to open but use our old friend google to find us somewhere for breakfast. We ended up in a post office, shop, cafe, gift shop, bakery, tourist information place. All those things were behind one counter – we just loved wondering around, looking at the eclectic mix of gifts, cakes, sandwiches and postal boxes all available for what seemed like a very reasonable price. There was nothing to purchase other than coffee and a croissant and we said our thanks and goodbyes and drove off. headed for what we hoped would be a good clean pillow case for the night!
We went through forest, up hill and down, saw cows, sheep, horses and the ocean. I have seen the ocean on many coasts off quite a few countries around the world, but I have never seen waves as big nor a coast line as spectacular as the area known as 12 apostles – to find our more click here
(I am writing the last few days of this blog sat at home, determined to finish it, determined to complete my holiday of a life time blog before the next round of pups need playing with! I have been overwhelmed so many times throughout this trip and I don’t mind sharing with you that I shed tears when I stood at looked at the mighty ocean roaring in, smashing itself against the coast line, feeling the spray hit my forehead and just breathing in the freshest of air. I was overwhelmed. I have seen so much in the last month, shared it all with the other half and yes, I am still overwhelmed by it all days after arriving home.)
Our journey back along The Great Ocean Road took us from Adelaide to Robe, then on to Laver Hill and finished at Geelong before we returned back to where we started, Melbourne.
We liked Geelong, having walked along its marina area and through its streets, it felt like a pleasant town to spend some time. We wondered around, with no particular place to go, just enjoying our last few hours in Australia.
Our friends had invited us to see their Cairns before we departed so that was our target for Tuesday before we went to the airport late on Tuesday night (we had to check in for our flight home at 1am)
On Tuesday morning we visited a lovely light house at Split that was built flat pack, in The Black Country, just outside Birmingham in the UK and then shipped over and put together on site! We then drove to visit our friends and got my Cairn fix! (thank you friends!)
We returned our hire car and went back to where we had spent our first night in Australia, the Park Royal Hotel at Melbourne Airport. Our thinking was that we needed to be tired so when we eventually arrived home at about 9pm UK time on Wednesday, we would want to sleep. Hence, the stupid o’clock flight (4am) back to the UK.
The flight home was long, very long and we both agreed that if we ever return to Australia we would break up the journey home with a stop over in maybe Singapore, so that it broke up the two flights of 13 hours and 7 hours.
Our family, very kindly met us at Birmingham airport and drove us home. Arriving home was great, all but one of the dogs was pleased to see me. My Irene, my favourite Cairn, was most disgusted that I had left her for so long and took herself off upstairs to hide under the bed. It was 2 days before she came to me and pawed me for a cuddle!
Australia is now complete.
Australia was phenomenal and often overwhelming.
I think it is only with time, that we will fully appreciate the enormity of our trip. When recalling our experiences to friends, it makes it all the more real and special and of course we keep our memories with us forever.
I can’t end this Australian part of my blog without thanking everyone who helped make our time in Australia possible. There are our Australian friends within the Cairn Terrier Club of Victoria for inviting me, back in 2018, and of course, for helping with all the arrangements!
The stay at home team here in the UK… When you have a hobby as involved as mine, I am wholly dependent on friends and family to step in and look after everything. They enable me to go away and be able to focus on “being away”, not having to worry about home. I can never thank my family and friends enough.
This holiday, being away for a month, was also the first time that I have left “my” business for so long. (For those that don’t know, I started my business back in 2006 with just me and one grooming table! Now there is a fab team of 10 that run The Dog House, Worcester! ) I now know that “my” business is no longer “my” business but it is an entity that can stand alone. Thank you Team for making this possible. I always get the praise and congratulations for how well the business has done but, it is the Team that makes it all possible. It is the Team that are now taking “our business” forward into the future…
Thank you all for enabling me, enabling us, me and the other half, to see Australia.
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