A brief rundown of my holiday trip, and some photos to share! Where there's a reference in bold, there'll be an attachment showing that photo.
Day 1:
9 hours in the car on the way to Albury Wodonga. Stopped at Holbrook to see the (attachment 1) big submarine, wasn't bad. A long day but we arrived at John (xstream) and Anna's house at about 2pm. In the afternoon we headed to the (attachments 2 and 3) Hume Dam wall which was pretty cool. Would've loved to see water spilling over the side.
Day 2:
8 hours in the car on the way to Warnambool, arrived at Robin's house at about 2pm. Spent the afternoon touring around warnambool and went to a nice (attachment 4) beach lookout where they usually get some whales at the right time of year.
Day 3:
Headed off to Port Fairy, where we walked around Griffith Island, saw the (attachment 5) rockpool, the (attachment 6) Lighthouse, and a (attachment 7) storm coming, so we got out of there About 20 km's out of Port Fairy we went to see the (attachment 8) Wind Farm, unfortunately I left my camera case (not my camera, phew!) on the bench! doh!
On the way back, we stopped at the (attachment 1) Crags which was a pretty nice spot, and also found a nice (attachment 2) rundown house for the October photo challenge.
That afternoon, we saw most of the sights on the way to the 12 apostles, including the (attachment 3]) Bay of Islands, the (attachment 4) Bay of Martyrs, the (attachment 5) Arch, the (attachment 6) London Bridge, the (attachment 7 and 8) Grotto,
and of course the (attachments 1-7) 12 apostles. Stopped at (attachment 8) Port Campbell for a nice sunset dinner. Absolutely beautiful scenery and a beautiful coastline. I really wish I had a polarising or ND filter, most of my apostles shots are overexposed in the top left corner because we were looking in teh direction of the sun. A magical afternoon.
Leaving warnambool now (Thanks Robin for your generous hospitality!), we headed back the same route on our way to Apollo Bay. After a beautiful sunny afternoon yesterday, today it was cold, windy and raining. We stopped at (attachments 1-3) Loch Ard Gorge, saw the Gorge, the blowhole and thundercave. Marvellous spot. Unfortunately the blow hole wasn't working, it just wasn't stormy enough! Stopped at the (attachment 4 and 5) 12 apostles again, and a very different view today with strong wind and rain!
Leaving there, headed through the rainforest and stopped at Cape Otway for the (attachments 6, 7, 8) Lighthouse. It was sunny now, but extremely windy.. Strong 70km/h+ winds at the point, and walking around the balcony of the lighthouse was quite scary, felt like we would get blown off! Made our way to Apollo bay where we stayed the night. I found a chemist there with a photo kiosk so I could burn the contents of my memory stick to CD, since I lost the connection to my laptop when I lost the camera case.. my memory card was full and the holiday wasn't even half over!
In the morning, went up to the top of the hill at (attachments 1,2,3) Apollo Bay, a beautiful spot and took some shots, including a nice 7 photo panorama. The original is almost 10000 pixels wide! This part of the great ocean rd was beautiful, winding along the cliff edge.. Stopped at (attachments 4,5) Carisbrook Falls on the way, and then at (attachments 6,7,8) Erskine Falls at Lorne, beautiful spot.
Finished the day at Queenscliffe, and went for a walk down to the (attachments 1-6) wharf. A nice little town.
Day 6:
Headed out to Ballarat today, took 2-3 hours to drive there. Went to Snake Valley in the afternoon to meet the guys that were there, took the family back to the motel for dinner and came back out later. Unfortunately it was cloudy that night so we sat around and chatted for a few hours before I headed back to the motel.
Day 7:
Took the family into (attachment 7) Melbourne today.. it was the spring carnival so there were nicely dressed up young ladies scattered throughout the city on their way to Flemington for the races. Went to (attachment 8) Melbourne Zoo, road some trams and had a nice day in the city. Headed back to cloudy Ballarat, no viewing tonight!
Went to (attachment 3) Soverign Hill today with John and Anna, didn't find my fortune Nice place to visit though, we had a great time there. In the evening, we headed back to Snake Valley for the Spit Roast dinner (beautifully done!) and the weather look marvellous for a long night of observing. We looked at Venus, then we looked at the clouds rolling in. By the time it got dark, it was cloudy and it stayed that way for the rest of the night. Still, had another nice night chatting with the folks.
Day 9:
A relaxing day today.. took the family to the lake in Ballarat and took the kids to the (attachment 2) adventure playground. Snapped some pics at the (attachments 1,4,5) Botanic Gardens and the (attachments 6,7) lake. Back to Snake Valley in the evening, started off looking like yesterday but this time it stayed clear and we had a marvellous night of observing. Brilliant night with great company.
Day 10:
Heading home today, drove back with John and Anna to Albury/Wodonga where we stayed at their house for the night. It was a 6 hour drive and we spent the rest of the time relaxing.
Day 11:
Really heading home today, left John and Anna's (thanks for their generous hospitality!) and spent 8 hours driving home. Got home about 2pm.
Had a really great time, thanks to Robin, John and Anna for letting us stay at their houses, and it was great meeting everyone at Snake Valley. Victoria is a beautiful state.. I just couldn't believe the roads.. magnificent! Great roads, safety signs every few km's, no potholes, great directions, everything was good. Shame about your weather though
I had over 400 pics from the holiday, but I managed to whittle them down to about 140. You can see them all in the Victoria 2005 section of my gallery.
Nice to see your pics Mike.Always great to see someone elses pics & interpretation of your part of the world.The southern right whales are here from june-early sept.
You must have racked up a few kms too!
Pleasure to have you, Kate & the kids.
About 20 km's out of Port Fairy we went to see the (attachment 8) Wind Farm, unfortunately I left my camera case (not my camera, phew!) on the bench! doh! 
Nice place to visit though, we had a great time there. In the evening, we headed back to Snake Valley for the Spit Roast dinner (beautifully done!) and the weather look marvellous for a long night of observing. We looked at Venus, then we looked at the clouds rolling in. By the time it got dark, it was cloudy and it stayed that way for the rest of the night. Still, had another nice night chatting with the folks.
