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Published: April 24th 2015
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Ready to go .... After just over 4 months in the wonderful City of Melbourne we were ready to move on to the next stage of our travels with Kerry & Novo. Our road trip in February was a small taste of what was to come in March / April and as it had went so well we were all very excited!
After a few leaving drinks with our flat mates and a folk we've met in Melbourne along the way, we packed up and were ready for an early start on the Monday to pick up the van and get on the road. It was a short train journey to pick up the van out of the city which we were slightly dreading as the Wicked Van we rented a few weeks prior was very old and a tad unreliable, especially for 18 days and 1000's of KMs. Thankfully, the van was absolutely perfect. Near enough brand new with cruise control, reversing camera and full working kitchen. Good start!
The first stop on our itinerary was the Great Ocean Road...
Day One - 130km driven: First thing's first. We had to name the van since it was now our car,
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SHEILA living room, kitchen and bedroom for the next 18 days. Sam decided Sheila was a good Aussie name for her and from that moment on she was part of the group. Our recently acquired Sat Nav was also given the name of Shane because he was Irish (imaginative, I know).
Geelong was the first designated stop after a brief shop in Australia's version of Tesco to stock up on important stuff (like beer and wine). This was a quick stop before the real adventure started and it was a sign of things to come. A great beach with a nice boardwalk and fish & chip restaurants everywhere. This was a whistle stop tour of Geelong and we soon jumped back in the van to head down to Torquay. This was officially the start of the Great Ocean Road and once we found somewhere to stay for the night we went a wander along the beach, made a couple of pals in the campsite and had an early night ahead of a big day of driving.
Day Two - 81km driven: The road trip started properly on day two. We went a big walk in the
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Geelong morning to get our legs going, stopped at a couple of beaches with some incredible views (although as it turned out, these views were very average in comparison to the next few days ...) and then we got on the road.
Our first stop was Anglesea where we jumped out, had some lunch and wandered along the pier with Kerry braving the cold river for a quick dip! Close after Anglesea we stopped at Aireys Inlet which was recommended to us the previous night. We trekked up to the lighthouse where the views were pretty spectacular.
Lorne was our final stop for the day where we managed to find a cheap campsite ran by the state of Victoria which was a bonus and saved us some cash. Admittedly it didn't have a shower or flushing toilets but we got on with it and it was actually very comfortable. We did however find this to be very uncommon with everywhere we drove being very 'touristy' so we accepted most nights accommodations wouuld be pretty pricey.
Whilst in Lorne we saw our first glimpses of some of the wildlife we would see along the way. 20-50 Cockatoo's just perched
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Captain Barnett in a tree above the van where we parked for a quick stop. They also lined the walls and were eating bread out of people's hands (although it did say not to feed them so we just took some snaps and let them be).
Before we settled in the campsite we managed to go up to Erskine Falls which was great. Novo and I decided to try walk over to the falls with some rock hopping and tree ducking. We didn't manage to get as close as the crazy Aussies in their thongs (flip flops). The ever helpful Visitor Information service had recommended we go to Teddy's Lookout which none of us had read about or heard of but we decided to check it out after the falls as we had time. As it turns out it was the best decision of the trip for me. The best view of the whole trip and it was only day two!!
Day Three - 175km driven: Due to no shower situation we decided to stop by the beach on the way out of Lorne and go for a morning dook. It was cold...very cold. And the cold
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First night in the van (the guys weren't as smiley in the morning ...) shower after it to wash our hair/bodies was not pleasant but certainly woke us all up for day three! Today was the day we aimed to see some Koala's but more on that later.
Due to the incredible view from Teddy's Lookout we managed to spot a cracking bit of beach below so we decided to stop there first. Looking back up at the lookout was almost as good as looking down!
En route to Kennet's River (a known Koala hot spot) we spotted a couple of vans stopped randomly and people taking photos. Novo slammed on the brakes (carefully of course) and we jumped out to see what the fuss was all about. It was a Koala!! Day 3 and we ticked off a major 'must see'. Unfortunately in the excitement of seeing a Koala, Liam was viciously attacked by a BULL ANT. Now most people who are bitten by these little cretins go into anaphylactic shock. Not me. I simply soldiered on, took a quick antihistamine and got on with it (that is what happened, no matter what Sam, Kerry or Novo tell any of you).
After my near death experience we got back in
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Teddy's lookout, best view of the trip. the van and continued on to another spot known for Koala spotting (Grey River Road). We saw a huge big Koala up close, which was great (once we managed to get past the 3,000 Asian people from a tour and take a photo).
Apollo Bay was our over night stop which also involved seeing a lighthouse which was a good 30km out of the way down a crazy road. Unfortunately when we arrived we found out it was $20 per person to get in. We drove a long way to get there and decided we kind of had to pay it. A heads up from the Visitor Information Centre or in the travel books would be good though. It was a lovely place and very well set for tourists. We climbed the lighthouse through the gale force winds and took some cracking photos. For me the $20 was only worth paying because we had driven all that way. I wouldn't drive out that way again if I had known the cost beforehand. Fortunately for us, on the way back along the crazy road we spotted another 4-5 Koala's.
Next up was a biggie for us. The 12 Apostles.
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12 Apostles We walked down the Gibson Steps and took some incredible snaps on the way down. Once we got to the beach, the size and scale of the rocks was amazing to see. We took some cringey couple photos in the sea with the rocks as a backdrop (cute right?). We headed up a few kilometers to the main area and tourist centre. Obviously it was very busy but again the snaps were great and we could all see why so many tourists flock to this area of the world.
Our last stop of the Great Ocean Road was Port Campbell, another wee beach town. Our campsite was great (although they had an infestation of 'Marsupials' - big rats). Fortunately they didn't bother us. Whilst BBQ'ing we met a great German couple who we chatted to and told them our plans. They had been driving through Australia and suggested our route was potentially a bit awkward and said we should consider altering it. After a brief discussion and consultation of the map, we decided they were right.
Adelaide was next for our road trip.
To be continued...
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