Melbourne, Australia (Great Ocean Road tour)

Today was my 28th birthday and what a way to spend it being in Australia! (At 27 degrees it is definitely the hottest birthday I've ever had in November!) Since we couldn't get the Neighbours tour til Sunday I really wanted to do the Great Ocean Road tour on my birthday. We left Melbourne at 7am to get picked up and headed for a drive for around an hour or so. Our first stop was Urquhart beach where the sign for the Great Ocean Road starts. The route was so scenic and windy and we travelled through lovely towns of Lorna and Anglesea until we got to Kennett River which is a campsite where wild Koalas live. I've seen (and held) a few koalas while I've been in Australia but none in the wild so it was great to see how many we could spot up the trees. There are also lots of wild birds fed by the locals including parrots and cockatoos and I got the chance to feed a wild parrot. After some animal spotting we drove to a town Apollo Bay where we had some lunch and then to Mait's rest rainforest located in the Otway rainforest (who knew Melbourne even had a rainforest! - it's a temperate rainforest rather than a tropical one). It wasn't as impressive as the ones up north but we saw some of the tallest Eucalyptus trees in Australia. Finally was Port Campbell national park where we saw iconic limestone cliffs -The twelve apostles, Loch ard gorge, Gibson steps and some of the most stunning beaches I have ever seen. One we found had a snake on it. We seem to have had a snake upgrade as the one we saw is the 4th one we have seen now and is a Tiger snake - 5th most venemous snake in the world eeek! We also saw a Echidna (a bit like a hedgehog) in the long grass which was brilliant. What a truly fantastic birthday though, could not have asked for a better one :)