Day 3

Bairnsdale to Geelong

After frugally eating a breakfast in our Motel room we quickly loaded the car and headed out on another nature hunt. If yesterday was about pelicans, we hoped that today would be koalas. It was! And more!

A short drive south took us to the lovely small waterside town of Paynesville. We boarded the small car ferry across to Raymond Island, as foot passengers. Disembarking only a few minutes later we immediately found a board promoting the Koala Trail. Emma happily posed for a photo with a painted Koala which was very quickly sent as a birthday greeting to cousin Sophie.

We then set out westwards to explore the circumference off the island. The boardwalk path took us past some beautiful houses on unimaginatively named, unmetalled streets (1st Street to 12th Street in a grid pattern. Pretty green and red birds (parrots maybe} were occasionally flying overhead and lots of black swans floating and swimming around the water edge.

We came across the Abbey and remarkable Church Hall before eventually finding what we came to see. At the intersection of First and Tenth streets we saw our first koala. Of course, fast asleep and hidden at the top of a eucalyptus tree.

We continued our walk around the island, stopping for photos at the Yarn Circle before finding more koalas and eventually back to the ferry terminal. 

Our timing was great and we managed to walk straight onto the ferry to return to mainland Victoria. After a swing in the park we returned to the car for our westward trek to Geelong. Rural scenery became more and more devoted to cattle farming and we soon found a lunch-stop at Traralgon, which is apparently the biggest city in the City of Latrobe. We had a fresh and enjoyable Mexican meal at Zambezi’s.

The drive then continued through cattle sheep and horse country as far as Pakenham. Thereafter our rural idyll was replaced by busy modern suburbia aa we drove straight through the centre of the City. Remaining on the highway as it used bridges and tunnels to speed our progress. We passed under the AAMI stadium, home of Melbourne Storm until eventually reaching the fantastic suspension bridge which whisked us above the Port of Melbourne.

The busy traffic thinned out as we headed out to Geelong and our final night in Victoria, at the Shannon Motor Inn. Although the Great Ocean Road is only 40km west, it will remain an adventure for another day. 

We walked to dinner in West Geelong before returning to organise for an early departure in the morning.