02.12.2024 Melbourne Australia Day 1/2

Melbourne Australia per Google :
Australia's cultural melting pot: a place where stunning architecture and a vibrant arts scene combine to put on a constant performance to rival that of New York or Paris.
Sunrise from our balcony.
Today we are spending outside the city on a private tour with 7 other folks. Warren (Alison is still quarantined) Paul(who put the tour together and his wife Joyce, Mark and Trisha, Don and Kully. We are doing the Great Ocean Road Tour. Here is a brief recap: Discover Australia’s Great Ocean Road on this day trip from Melbourne. Admire the natural beauty of Victoria’s coastline, from surfing beaches to the Twelve Apostles rock formations. You’ll make stops at seaside villages, watch for wildlife like parrots and koalas, and travel through the Otway Ranges .
While waiting for our driver we saw lots of parrots in the trees above us. Rainbow lorikeets.

Our first stop was Lorne Beach. Diana put her feet in the water. Saw lots of cockatiels.
We saw Koalas in the wild sleeping.

We stopped at Apollo Bay for lunch.
Our driver/guide Dominic knows a lady who runs a wildlife preserve. We stopped and fed wombats, parrots, island kangaroos and the star of the show, koalas. They are so soft. We hated to leave but we had to get to our final stop The Twelve Apostles.

The Twelve Apostles is a collection of limestone stacks off the shore of Port Campbell National Park, by the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, Australia.
Their proximity to one another has made the site a popular tourist attraction. Eight of the original nine stacks remain standing at the Twelve Apostles' viewpoint, after one collapsed in July 2005. Though the view from the promontory by the Twelve Apostles never included twelve stacks, additional stacks—not considered part of the Apostles group—are located to the west within the national park. They were formed 15 to 5 million years ago - Wikipedia.
Long drive back to the ship but it was all so worth it.Read more