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Sorry this has taken so long! But here goes....
We left Melbourne and headed west towards the Great Ocean Road (GOR). Although this was a bit of a detour to our schedueled route we had heard it was worth the trip, would be a good test drive for our van and we're just plain crazy, care free and to what the bliimmin' heck we want!
I guess I should decribe to you the luxury in which we were travelling.. our white Toyota Tarago made in 1986 with over 300 000 kms on the clock plus the obligotry dents, rust to go with the sexy brown interior had a real retro feel about it. It had 8 seats but we folded the 3 at the back up to allow more boot space (we could just about cram all our stuff in there), even with 3 in the back it was pretty spacious with plenty of leg room. All the back seats could fold down to make a very lumpy bumpy double bed. We attached the elephant mask (from the zoo day) to the front bull bars as out little mascot too.
With Jon at the wheel of the newly christened 'Ducky' (the letters on the number plate are DUC), the stereo blaring and the sun shining we we're in high spirits! We took the road in the vague direction of the ocean and hoped for the best. The first stint took us through Geelong and along some highways which appeared to be nowhere near any ocean let alone a great one! After a couple of hours got our first glimpses of the sea and, amazingly enough and to our great delight, we stumbled upon the lighthouse from the kids show Round The Twist (have you ever.. ever felt like this? when strange things are happening are you going around the twist?) we pulled over and took a stroll up to the cliff edge and took some pics of the classic lighthouse. Our first stop was in the sea side town of Apollo Bay. Its was much like any standard English equivalent. We stocked up on gas for our canister and bought a few supplies before setting up our first camp site. It was about 5ish by the tiime we were pitched up so we had an hour or so to throw the ball about a bit before it got dark. We were all a bit low that first night as it was such a shock from being at the Nunnery and staying up chatting or watching TV till the small hours but here, in the dark with nowhere to sit (tent too small, van bed down) and no light we were faced with going to bed at 7.30pm! Luke, Jon and I had a VERY uncomfortable night in the tent while Stu and Chris had the van (we drew names out of a hat to decide). The sunrise woke us up early and we didn't hang around before hitting the road again. We decided we'd only sleep one night before heading back toward Melbourne so it meant a fair drive the next day.
Stu piloted us out of Apollo Bay and further along the road. A while later Luke tagged in for his first stint behind the wheel. The roads we were on we occasionally very steep and full of sharp bends so we were often holding up traffic as ducky can only manage 55mph at the best of times! Tis meant we'd constantly be pulling over to let the other drivers past, at one of these very stops Luke randomly chose a spot with wild Kowalas in the trees above us! what luck! a few other tourists were already there taking snaps and we keenly joined in.
I (ollie) took the wheel after Luke and took the road upto the 12 Apostles- 12 rock stacks formed from crumbling coastlines, the main attraction of the GOR. The roads here were incredibly windy and so steep that I could only get 40kph out of the van! We got very close to running out of fuel on the way as the van guzzles it down and the petrol stations are miles and miles apart. Thankfully Ducky did us proud and we got to the 12 Apostles fine. It was actually a bit of a disappointment after the 5 or so hours of straight driving. We didnt actually get to drive past them as the road is to far from the cliff edge so we had to pull over and walk to a view point. It was nice but I think we all agreed it wasn't exactly spectacular! Definitely stop there if its on your way around the coast but I wouldn't really recommend driving there especially. After some photos and a little stroll Stu drove us a short drive further down the road towards London Bridge (another rock formation and 2nd attraction of the GOC) it was actually more impressive than the Apostles so we took a few more photos and then headed back East toward Melbourne.
Thankfully we took the highway back as its much quicker and easier on the poor old van. We skirted the city and got on the Princes Highway (the coastal road toward Sydney rather than the main, dull  highway). Jon drove us to our next stop but on the way, in the dark, Luke noticed the stars we shining brighter than ever so we got Jon to stop. We got out in the middle of nowhere are stared up in wonder at an almost unrecognizable night sky! None of us had ever seen the stars so bright and we could even see the milky way! It gave us a real feeling of being away from home where the cities shine even brighter. The next stop was a town called Barinsdale. A small place with one high street, a pub, pizza place and a camp site at the far end (we utilized all of these amenities). The pub was similar to a classic american saloon with deep south music on the juke box and typically disgusted looks on the locals faces as we walked in the door! We only stayed for one pot of Carlton each there. The camp site was nice and cheap but we didn't see much as it was dark when we arrived and we left fairly early in the morning after buying more supplies.
Stu then drove us a short 20kms to the next town called Lakes Entrance- a more touristy and brash resort with all the trimmings including a Crrrazy Golf! We walked along the harbor towards the only attraction in my lonely planet; the '90 mile beach'. Its a beautiful beach and, as far as we could see, indeed 90miles long. Our first taste (hopefully not literally) of Aussie golden sands and sunny weather but sadly we couldn't stay long as we we hungry! We walked back to the van and took our stove to a small park to cook up some hot dogs before taking to the road again.
Stu carried on on this stint and I (ollie) was riding shotgun and as i got in i accidentally snapped the ipod connection to the stereo!! The team was NOT happy with me! We played some cards as we went to kill the silence as we planned the next stop en-route. After a few hours we got to the first possible stop but it was nothing special so carried on further. I (ollie) took the wheel from Stu about an hour before sun set and, much to Stuarts annoyance, an hour from the border to New South Wales! We saw our first wild Kangaroo jump across the road before the sun went down, which was nice. To brake up the silence from the lack of music we began to sing some seriously cheesy 90s pop music at the top of our voices! Classics such as Spice Girls, S Club 7, Take That and, a personal favourite of mine- Luke saying "oh my god we're back a again" in his best Backstreet Boys voice to fire up a rendition of 'Everybody'! At some points along that road i didn't see another car for like 2 hours which was pretty nerve racking knowing our tendancy to run out of fuel and the van constantly making strabge new noises!
A few dark, rainy hours later we were feeling ready to stop so pulled into a camp site but the guy at the desk said they didn't take new arrivals past 9pm! what a joke! We figured we'd just drive a little further to the next one. When we got there the lady wanted to charge us 80 dollars, to hell with that so we carried on yet further... the next campsite we stopped at wouldn't let us in as it was past 10pm and the last one we stopped at was just plain shut with not a soul at reception as it was getting on a bit. I carried on up the road towards the next big city and we were all desparetly tired and hungry by this time. Nothing was open when we got there so I resigned to pull in to a random car park on the edge of town. We slept as we sat that night, snug is not the word! To add to he fun we had a nasty cough disease passing between us so so i dont think any of us got more than a hours sleep at a time. We left that delightful spot pretty early the next morning and as we drove out we noticed that the road we stopped at was actually called Camp St! How random is that?
We drove to a spot called Jervis Bay- highlighted in the lonely planet for its natural beauty. Its a national park and requires an entry fee, plus the campsites were full so we stayed just outside in a little town with a lovely beac of its own. We got there pretty early (to avoid more van sleeping) and rushed to get cleaned up from the night before. The weather was pretty crappy so we cooked up some pasta in the rain before taking a strole up the village high street not much to see so we bought a slab of beers and headed to the beach to try our hands at bonfire lighting. Sadly our survival skills are somewhat lacking... we all sat round as Luke lit a toilet role! Lame i know and it didn't exactly give us time to sing Kumbaya! At least we had time to star gaze before it started to rain and we headed back for shelter and more beers.
In the morning we packed up and went to the national park to see if it was as special as they say. It was kind of odd in there as half of the park is run by aboriginal folk and that section seemed to be filled with dead dogs and random kids chewing their knees! (honest). A quick glance of the map and we noticed 'Bristol Point'! We obviously headed straight over. It was actually a really beautiful spot and almost empty, even the sun had come out so we took a couple of hours to throw the ball, skip stones and have a little paddle in the water.
After that we got pack on the Princes Highway and towards our next stop- the bright lights of Wollongong- Chris's mecca of the trip.
We got a prime spot in a campsite just outside the city. It was a place right on the beach and our tent was just about as close to the sand as we could get. We pitched up and headed to the sea. The sun was setting and the beach was picture perfect. I (Luke), Stu and Ollie played in the sand, jumping off sand dunes and Stu won the competition for the longest jump (I need longer legs). That night we went out to find a bar I (Luke) didn't want to drink (makes a change doesn't it?) so I was behind the wheel. We got very lost because I had Jon, Stu and Ollie all shouting at me at once telling me when to turn, it was a nightmare. Finally found the ONLY bar in town though so we had a few beers and played some pool but soon realised it was a social club a felt kinda out of place. We headed back for our last night in the tent.
The last stint of driving was relatively short and went pretty smoothly, we didn't even get lost driving around the city with the distraction of the Harbor bridge looming on the horizon.
We parked up down the road from Glebe Village- The Nunnery's sister hostel, and unloaded all our junk to spend a night in the luxury of our very own beds!
The trip up to Sydney was a good laugh once we got into it and even the camping was pretty enjoyable. Most of the town we drove through were almost identical but the places we camped we usually. Just being able to cruise around in our our pimpin' ride listening to some decent tunes with the sun beaming through the windows was a great feeling. At last, it felt as though we were properly travelling.
I'll leave it there and let the adventures of Sydney be our next chapter. So stay tuned as we have a sad story to tell! ... OOooo how exciting!
Cheers.
The guys x
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