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Hi everyone,
First off I would like to thank any and all who have been reading my journal, especially those who have taken about a week of their time to read Jesse's travel novel. The next few installments of our journal will be a bit long, but that’s because so much has happened in such a short period of time.
As many of you know, we finally found an awesome van to travel around Australia in. The only drawback was that it didn’t have any extras. It was just bare bones. We believed this would be good because we could stylize it in our own way. We figured it would be fun to add the neat little touches making it the all Canadian dream wagon. I must admit we were both quite keen on the idea of getting a big red Cadillac convertible, but we figured the gas alone would probably break the bank. So our 1986 Toyota Hiace Campervan would have to do.
Our first mission was to head to Torquay for a night or two to catch the finals of the rip curl world surfing championships. We only had a few small problems to deal
with first. Insurance, gas leak, and couldn’t get the van into fifth gear. Other than that all was well. Could be worse right? Our first night was spent overlooking Jan Juc Beach. This was a very popular surf spot for the locals. We found this out the hard way, when we were woken up at about 5:00 a.m. to the sweet soothing sounds of about fifty surfers waxing their boards. At least we got a good early start to the day. After breaking down camp, we departed and headed back to Geelong, a bigger city than Torquay, to get insurance, stuff for the van, and some other necessities. That evening we parked the van in the harbor front. Another great spot.
At this point, we headed back to Torquay. We had to see a little bit of the competition before hitting the open road. Finally after many phone calls we got insurance, two cheap wet suits, a stereo and an inverter for the van. Great. So we headed to Bells Beach, where we were lucky enough to not only arrive as the competition had ended, but as soon as the rain hit. If anyone cares, Kelly Slater, the fan
favorite won AGAIN. Bloody excellent. Ah well. No big deal. Have lunch and start the great drive to the twelve apostles down the great ocean road. By the way, still no fifth gear. We must be missing something here. Eighty km/h just wasn’t going to cut it. Keep trucking. Life could be worse.
Our third night we stayed at a beautiful beach about 50 kilometers outside Torquay, called Point Addis Marine Park. Our next stop would be somewhere on the great ocean road. Both Jes and I had been quite exited about seeing the 12 Apostles, which as you can see in the pictures are a bunch of very large naturally formed stone monuments dotting the coastline. This was amazing. We stayed about two hours until the sun had set taking tonnes of pictures, and then packed it in for another drive. I will add that the actual drive on the great ocean road was amazing, twisting and turning along the ocean. Probably the most beautiful drive thus far.
Our next stop along the coast would be Warrnabool, a small community which was mainly farmland and beaches. Here we spent the night at our first Caravan park. It
was time to find out how our power hook up worked. The long and short of it was that we had the wrong cord, had to shower in darkness, didn’t get our laundry done, still no fifth gear and still pissing fuel. Still, all was good. We were on the road. Next stop Mt. Gambier.
We continued to drive west along the coast. Enjoying a mix of small beach towns, and nice sunny weather. I have up until this point neglected to mention that every night so far has been FREEZING cold. Our only heat source comes from the gas burner we cook with. So every night we bundle up in sleeping bags, socks, tuqes and thermal gear. This is Australia right? At this point we were approaching the Victoria/ South Australia border. As night approached, we decided to go off the beaten path and head to Princess Margaret Rose Caves for the night. After shooing a Kangaroo from our site, failing at starting a fire with wet wood in the rain, finding our tarp we set up as an awning had more holes than a spaghetti strainer and accidentally burning down one of our new Tiki torches, we
decided to call it a night and get some sleep. Tomorrow we were going spelunking.
As morning arrived, we packed up, ditching our useless tarp, and burnt torch, and headed to the caves for the grand tour. This was also very interesting as neither of us had been to caves before. The last time I tried to go see some cave’s Mr. Succumbed and I were hit head on by a drunk driver. Since this accident I had little interest as they had become a bit of a symbol of bad luck. After getting Jes over a lick of claustrophobia, we desended into the darkness to view these beautiful caves. An hour later and we were on the road again. Van Problem count: 2 Fuel leak and no fifth gear. Ah well it wasn’t that bad. Our new saying: " Ah it could be worse! " Next stop Mount Barker, just south of Adelaid. Time to fix the Van.
Till the next one.....it gets better from here. Believe me.
Kyle
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