John Cornhill

Well here I am IN TORQUAY. visited the Surfworld surfing museum and walked along 4 of Torquays beaches on first day great beaches lots of surf and surfers excellent fish and chips. Staying in a cabin on camp site very comfortable. Second day Sunday did day trip along Great Ocean Road. Sue/Wendy please tell periletic Geoff how right he was to tell me this is a must. Amazing sights of cliffs, beaches, the ocean, forest travelling along this road that goes up, down, around, over bridges, under trees, twisting turning wonderful. Our driver/guide was Foggy she careered around corners shouting yahoo and generally made the trip most entertaining and enjoyable. Her favourite saying was 'its all good' and she was most definate that the kangaroos lying by the roadside were just sleeping. Visited Bells Beach famous for surfing championships. Stopped at Kennet River cafe where wild Koalas were everywhere in the trees, parrots flew down to join us for lunch. Foggy put some bird seed in a tray and 3 kookaburras came to visit one of which (of the kookaburras) let me stroke its chest and almost came on my hand, put one foot on. walk thru the rainforest was interesting to realise how different it was to forests further north. also walked along beaches golden sand between raging ocean and huge cliffs of bright orange/cream/red/white sand/limestone. fantastic. Foggy took us to Suicide Point where she anounced how fed up and unhappy she was, lept out of the bus and jumped straight over the wall on the edge of the cliff and disappeared down the other side. How quiet everyone went on the bus. She had seemed such a happy person then her head appeared over the wall and there was a small ledge the other side which she had hoped was still there when she jumped over. What a commediene. Had a good look at the 12 apostles of which only 8 left very striking sticking up out of the sea. Foggy also showed us, on two occasions, echidnas on the edge of the road, screeching to a halt for the first one for us to take photos it didn't move though I think she knew exactly where they would be, probably nailed them to the roadside on previous visits. Saw some more fantistic coastline with narrow inlets with sheer cliffs on either side, also 'London Bridge' which had been a large stack of rock in the sea joined to the mainland by a bridge but the bridge collapsed a few years ago trapping a tourist couple on the stack lots of media coverage including television from helicopters which was watched with great interest by his wife and her husband. A great trip enhanced by Foggy's guidance got back 9pm also on trip mostly young people from canada, india, sweden?, 3 girls from essex a great group. 3rd and last day in Torquay today Monday, catching bus to Melbourne this afternoon to meet Lorraine M&Ms daughter + husband Wayne they have 2 daughters Kristie and Megan. Really looking forward to seeing them. NZ Wed. Take Care, John John Cornhill