They were coming to Australia for a better life, but in the middle of the night fate struck and the ship they were travelling in hit the rocks – it was Australia’s Titanic tale with only 2 surviours to tell the story. This is just one of many tragedies you will hear along the Surf coast of Victoria. Though not all stories are sad as the famous waves have brought happier times for the surfing greats of the world and of course led to the birth and ongoing success of surf brands: Rip Curl, Quicksilver and Billabong.

If you are not into surfing the Great Ocean Road, which starts in Torquay and ends at Warrambool, brings you rugged coastlines, dramatic limestone formations and Australia’s unique wildlife: The Koala, Kangaroo and Emu. These are just a few things I have seen in my first 2 weeks of Australia and what a great start. I arrived in Sydney with a mad dash for the bus to take me to Canberra to visit a friend for a few days and of course to see what this Capital city was all about. It is beautifully structured and my walks around the lake brought me into my first contact with some of the colourful, tropical birds that are all over Australia – I have yet to learn their official names so you will have to be content with my photo labelling of a red bird and a green bird.

It was then a whistle stop tour where my friends, Justine and Dylan, took me out for a wintry picnic in the Dandenongs. While eating great steak sandwiches we had a fantastic view in front of us of the forest along with the abundance of birds who were not shy to pose for the odd photo.

Geelong saw me put up my feet in the Sheraton (thanks to Lynne’s mother in law to be) while taking in the many colourful bollards on the waterfront – my favourite surprisingly were the lifesavers. It was from Geelong that I hopped on a tour to Adelaide to take in the sights of the Great Ocean Road and the Grampians where the landscape and nature is just truely amazing. It was a pity however that the Grampians are still recovering from a major fire in 2006 with only one sighting of Koala spotted but the Kangaroos obviously less concerned as they are back in abundance.

One of my most exciting moments on this part of my trip was seeing a baby Koala girl a metre high in the tree. She posed so well for her photo and just gazed down adoringly – oh okay, it could just be the drug like effect from eating all those toxic eucalyptus leaves!