Great Aussie Roads

We set off from Melbourne on a Monday having picked up our new Campervan - Chubby 'Sandy' Sandman (no we don't name them, they come like that). Sandy is a 2.4ltr Mitsubishi van with a small 'kitchen' at the back and bench seats that convert to a double bed in the back. To be honest, we have only once used the bench seat configuration and it was a right faff and Josh was too tall to be comfortable!

We battled out of Melbourne which is a chaotic mess of trams, strange 'right turn from the left' lanes, non-traffic savvy students and crazy pedestrians who try to throw themselves in front of the van. Somehow we ended up a few kilometres off from our intended route as we missed a junction, this did however lead us to have to turn around at a discount liquor store so we were forced to stock up on beer before hitting the road again.

Our intended course was to travel a section of 'The Great Ocean Road' before travelling around 'The Great Alpine Road' before we make our way towards Sydney (or around Sydney, we'll come back there later on) and up to Brisbane before travelling back to Sydney, our last destination in Oz. Oh and all that in about 3 weeks.

We were pretty psyched to be out of the hostels after 10 consecutive interrupted nights of sleep, and looking forward to road trippin' along some of the best roads in Oz.

Our first port of call was the town of Torquay, the start of the 'Great Ocean Road' (GOR). We stocked up on food supplies and water and had a good look around the many surf shops, including Rip Curl and Quiksilver which both started out in Torquay. Torquay is also near to Bells Beach which is the spiritual home of surfing in Oz. We were a bit shocked by the price of the campsites here so carried on to Airey's Inlet a little further along the coast. This was a nice campsite with a lot of bird life but we were extremely cold overnight. In the morning we visited the lighthouse there which featured in the TV show 'Round the Twist' which some of you will know, appreciate, and probably now have the theme tune stuck in your head. I did, for the rest of the day!

We drove on along winding coastal roads past perfect beaches, wild blue seas, creamy surf and dramatic cliffs towards Lorne. Lorne was lovely, lots of little shops and food places, a lovely wide curved beach and some quirky little shops. It felt quite Cornish and we enjoyed our lunch overlooking the beach. We also tried to fix our gas stove as the van hire company had given us one that didn't fit our gas bottle (genius) but unfortunately we weren't able to. We bought a wool blanket from the op shop to keep us warm at night. After Lorne we went in search of Sheoak Waterfall which was a picturesque little gully with lots of birds and lizards but no waterfall, as it was too dry, so we decided to carry on along the road.

Further on we passed through was 'Kennett River' which of course I got pretty excited about. I got the compulsory picture next to my road sign then we parked up and explored my village a bit. Within 2 seconds of getting out of the van a king parrot tried to land on Josh, and another landed on the windscreen wiper! We walked up a track a little way in search of another 'K' animal - koalas. And we found them! Just lazing around in the trees next to the roads, munching on some leaves and totally nonplussed by the human attention they were attracting. We felt pretty lucky! We got an ice cream and sat by the River Kennett and then saw a kookaburra. Kennett River, king parrots, koalas - kool place!

After Kennett River we drove to Apollo Bay which was a bit disappointing, with not much there, so we went to our campsite for the night at Johanna's Beach. This being one of only a couple of free campsites on the GOR it was pretty busy, but had a nice chilled out feel to it. We ate cold tuna bean salad for tea (no stove) and headed to the beach to watch the sunset. We were not disappointed, the beach was breathtakingly beautiful with spray and waves and the orange light reflecting off the water. We watched the sun dip behind the cliffs (no sea sunsets on this coast) and then headed up to the lookout above the campsite to watch the clouds go gold, orange, red, pink, purple and eventually a sleepy grey.

After another freezing night we drove on to see the 12 Apostles, great sea stacks used in many Australian advertising brochures. There aren't actually 12 anymore (we recall reading there have never been 12) as some have been eroded almost flat. You view them from a clifftop boardwalk; you can't actually access the beach below. They were pretty, as was the surrounding coast, but somehow a little underwhelming. This was the furthest point we planned to travel along the GOR so we turned back and headed to Cape Otway Lightstation for some lunch. The road to the lighthouse took as past several tubby koalas sat in the trees, but feeling hungry we headed for the lighthouse, opting to visit the koalas on the way back. Unfortunately at $18pp to get in we decided that we'd save our pennies and drove back to picnic with the koalas. They are SO cute, especially when they are asleep cuddling onto the tree trunks! They didn't seem bothered by people at all; we supposed they wouldn't be there if they were.

We drove back towards Lorne for our second night on the GOR. On the way we stopped at Mait's Rest, a small rainforest boardwalk where you walk amongst the humongous mountain ash trees that are about 100m tall. It was lush and green with gigantic fern trees everywhere. By this point in the day we were both feeling sleepy so we went to laze on the beach at Lorne. Josh braved the water for a paddle; it was much colder than in WA, this was some of the coldest sea surrounding Oz. We used one of the beach barbecues to cook our lamb for dinner, joined by several cheeky crested cockies and a laughing kookaburra as well as the usual opportunistic gulls. The campsite was a few kilometres out of town in the forests. There were lots of people there, including Chris, a guy from Austria who we got talking to when he asked us about the English meaning of something (what is the difference between drowsy and sleepy? In relation to the road safety signs he'd seen everywhere). We passed a pleasant evening drinking goon (wine from a box) and discussing language and travels.

It was cold again overnight but we were offered a cup of tea by Chris the following morning which was pretty fantastic! We had come to the end of our GOR journey and faced a drive back to Melbourne to get our camping stove sorted at the depot before heading eastwards. We waved Chris off and stopped for baked goods and fuel in Lorne and saw another koala, then battled strong gusty winds all the way back to Melbourne.

Had time allowed it we would definitely have liked to have spent more time going further along the GOR, and spent some time relaxing in the lovely places we found. There was a whole host of pretty special wildlife to see and the scenery speaks for itself, they don't call it the 'Great' for nothing. It's definitely up there amongst the best scenery and nicest things we've done in Oz, highly highly recommended!