Day 9 (31-Dec-2010) Great Otway National Park

Following low calorie breakfast, we drove to Kennett River, a small settlement further west on the Great Ocean Road, to (hopefully) glimpse koalas in their natural habitat. Our efforts were soon rewarded, with numerous cuddly critters spotted quietly napping in the knaves of eucalyptus trees along an unsealed road above the settlement. They are clearly one of Nature’s cutest creations. Unfortunately, they are also very camera shy. Impervious to any type of commotion, no matter how banal or loud, a koala's stoic disdain of attention seekers is legendary, frustrating many a photographer. They instead content themselves with burying their faces into chests and focus on the 20hrs sleep needed per day to cope with their low calorie diet. With that said, we were therefore very fortunate to witness ‘frantic’ activity, when one koala decided he preferred to sleep in another tree, and so slowly descended to the forest floor, lumbered over to an adjacent tree, and then scrambled up to a suitable vantage point. The entire ‘journey’ took about 5 minutes, and was punctuated with frequent rest stops.

All the while the wind had veered round from the south to the north, causing the temperature to soar from a chilly 14C to a sweltering 41C, within an hour! We thus beat a hasty retreat back to Lorne, via short trek to Cumberland Falls. Alas, the heatwave had caused a complete blackout, with N&N opting to ride out the heatwave with an afternoon siesta. Astrid & I decided instead to tour the countryside above Great Otway national park cocooned in the air-conditioned comfort of our car. On return to the house, while the power had been restored, the temperature indoors was still very high. We thus donned our beach gear and headed off for a dip in the Bass Sea - a cryogenic experience, with those in budgie smugglers losing their budgies!!! Suitably chilled to the bone, we emerged for a short hike along the beach to watch sunset. By then the wind had swung back round to the south, with air temperature plummeting back to a pleasant 20C.

Following another BBQ feast, we toasted in the New Year, watching the fireworks display over Lorne, and then played a game of Pictionary. Alas, drunkenness meant that half way through the game we were no longer capable of scribbling our initials, let alone draw elaborate pictures. We thus abandoned the game and stumbled off to bed.