Campervan

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Our next mode of transport was a campervan

We hired the van from a company called Wicked and all of their vans are individually painted, ours had the Pink Panther on the side and so was known as Pinky. The vans were aimed at backpackers and were some what basic but fuctional. The back of the van was storage and table during the day and converted to a bed at night. When the back door was lifted you had access to a small kitchen (sink and shelves) and a sigle gas burner that had to be taken out to be used. Thus with everything we needed (except a toilet) we set of to explore Australia.

The main plan was to head north starting in Melbourne, going up the east coast and ending in Cairns, but just south of Melbourne lay the Great Ocean Road, a sight and drive just to good too miss. Due to time constraints we couldn't go far along the GOR but had been told the 12 Apostles were not to be missed so set of accordingly.

We soon became used to brushing our teeth in public toilets and showering in full sight of everyone under beach showers. We learnt to cook complicated meals with just one burner and two pans (many of our fellow campervaners seemed to live on pot noodles) and we had hearty breakfasts of bacon and sausages cooked on the comunal BBQ's that are to be found all over Australia. We had occasional difficulties finding places to stay overnight, most of the time we stayed in carparks overlooking little beaches but in the more touristy towns there were 'no camping' signs everywhere (a couple of time we got woken up by police or park wardens and moved on).

Having the van gave us a lot more freedom than using buses. We could stop where ever and when ever we wanted and if we saw some where with an intersting name we could zoom of the main road for a look. During our travels we passed long journeys by spotting wildlife (inc road kill) other wicked vans (the most memorable one was bright pink with Barbie on it and three blokes trying to hide their faces inside) and Big Things, these are where the locals have got carried away with chicken wire and plaster of paris in order to get there town put on the map, it started off with a Big Mango and Big Banana in towns where these were grown but we also saw Big Lobsters (which towering over the road was quite impressive) and a Big Captain Cook.

One last thing I have to mention is that they have drive in booze shops here, that did seem a little strange to me, you could drive up to a little window, order your drink and collect it at another window and just drive off.

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Photos

shower
en suite bathroom (with sea view)