A leisurely start to the morning today was followed by a frustrating hour-long queue at Hertz in Melbourne waiting to pickup a car – a standard for a Saturday apparently! It doesn’t quite beat our three hours at Rome airport last year but certainly started to come close!

After picking up the car and checking out of the hotel, we hit the road and after an hour or so on the freeway we joined the Great Ocean Road. At this point though it was already lunchtime so we had a spot to eat in Anglesea. A lot of the towns seem to be closely named to UK seaside towns – there’s the aforementioned Anglesea, plus Torquay, Winchelsea, Hastings and St Leonard’s all within spitting distance of each other (in Australian terms anyway).

Straight after lunch we carried on along the Great Ocean Road – think jaw-dropping scenery as the windy road hugs the cliff-face for about 250 km – quite spectacular, although Mel and William started to get a bit bored with me stopping every 5 mins for another photo!

We’re currently staying at the Great Ocean Eco-Lodge about half-way along the Great Ocean Road at Cape Otway – all in the middle of a national park. When we arrived, we were greeted by a troop of kangaroos just chilling  in evening sun.

The eco-lodge is run by a local conservation centre with the aim of helping and preserving the local native wildlife. It’s very small, with only five bedrooms and, after checking in and getting installed in our basic but stylish room we  were treated to a delicious dinner. We had initial aprehensions about how William would be at dinner – sitting at a communal table with a load of “grown-ups” – but he was brilliant and hilarious – chipping in with his little comments on the conversation and laughing at everyone elses jokes.

When I grow up I can drink wine

That’s a lovely camera, can I have one like that Daddy?

After dinner, we went out on a night walk with one of the owners to see and feed some sugar gliders and potaroos, both of which are being looked after and being rehabilitated here at the lodge. Sugar Gliders love honey and, again, William was so well behaved. After putting on his little “safety specs” he put a little bit of honey on his fingers and let the sugar gliders lick it off without any hesitation at all.

We should be seeing lots more animals in the next few days as the area is apparently heaving with kangaroos, koalas and other natives – can’t wait!