Thursday 2^nd February 2012

As our bones were tired we made a lazier day. First we drove to the Dandenong National Park. At the car park we saw many cockatoos and parrots. You may feed them there with prepared feed. Suddenly, shhhh, and all cockatoos flew away. As I still felt the hiking from yesterday, we just made a little walk in the park. And again we observed a echinda. It seamed to take a nap. We drove on towards Melbourne, more exactly to St. Kilda. It is quite a way from the edge of the city until you reach the beach. The late afternoon and the evening we enjoyed with a long walk along the seaside. We closed the day observing the sunset.

Thursday 26^th January, 2012

First we went by bus to downtown Melbourne. We wondered why there were so few people in the city. Later we learnt that it is Australia Day, the national holiday. But in exchange the queue at the counter of the car rental company was a bit longer. With the car we drove towards Anglesea. It seamed that the Melbournians also wanted to leave the city and we had sometimes traffic jam. After we reached the coast, we used to stop on the lookouts. In early afternoon we saw a sign pointing to the Seoak Falls. A nice little hike lead to it, but there was not much water, it was just dripping a little. Our next little walk was in the rain forests at Maits Rest. It is unbelievable how big trees can get. Now the main attractions of the Great Ocean Road were awaiting us. First at Gibson Step we went down the cliffs to the beach and enjoyed the view to the wild cliffs. Not much later welcomed us the 12 Apostels, which are rocks standing in the sea. OK, there are only 8 left. Unfortunately the sun was hiding behind the clouds. We continued to the Loch Ard Gorge. After the beautiful sunset we drove to Port Campell. Konrad said that I should tell him when I see a Kangaroo. We just started as one was standing on the road. Now it is sure: we are in Australia!

24^th and 25^th January, 2012

We started punctually in direction Hong Kong. As the plane was not very full, we had 3 seats to accommodate us. After a short break in Hong Kong, where we could move us again a bit, our next destination was Melbourne. In the late evening we were welcomed by agreeable temperature and felt to bed very tired.