The early sunshine we had driven into as we made our way from Werribee towards Geelong sadly only lasted long enough to raise our hopes of enjoying a sunny day cruising the Great Ocean Road (GOR) for a brief minute, before the rain and wind returned and reality set in.

We had left earlier than usual as we wanted to make a fair few stops along our route this day. The first being Australia's number one iconic surf beach, Bells. The coast line is magic and only serves to wet your appetite for the next couple hundred clicks of the GOR! We were able to get a few snaps down at the surf beach and were amazed to see so many surfers out braving the freezing cold to catch a wave. I will take my hat off to 'em they are a dedicated breed the surfer. The wet and cold, not to mention the wind, that seemed to be blowing straight of the Antarctic, soon had us back in the warmth of the silver bullet and on our way.

Now it is a few miles further down the road and you find yourself winding around tight bends and following the ragged coastline as you pass many smaller little landmarks and coastal towns. We managed to pull over at plenty of lookouts and viewing areas, as this also freed up traffic that was following behind us. The most common thing asked of us so far, down here, has been "what the hell are you doing down here at this time of year". The weather must even give the dyed in the wool Victorians the s***s at times! Chelsea and Charli were a lot more at home looking through the car windows on this drive, however Kylz and I were out and amongst it. Kylz even managed to jog about a kay back down the road! The things you do for that perfect shot!?

Our lunch stop found us in Apollo Bay and braving a midday maximum of 11'C as we huddled out of the wind and rain to enjoy the pies we bought at the local bakery. The girls ventured into the playground for a quick burst of activity before the rain drove us back to the car. Now this second leg of the day was more of the same with plenty of stops for the obligatory tourist snaps. The road had also become very tight and winding so much so that I had to tip water on my tow ball cause I thought it was smoking at one stop we had!!? It was a very cold and long day of driving but we finally made it to our free overnight camp at Johanna Beach.

Named after a shipwreck, (complete with the wrong spelling apparently) as a lot of things are on this part of the coast, it is a very large area with nice green grass and not much else. We setup and headed off for a tour of the beach. The surf was pounding hard and the wind was not letting up so Kylz and I decided there was nothing else for it but to pour a rum, and go meet the neighbours. Our closest neighbours, Phil and Deb had been camped for a week before we arrived and assured us the weather was quite good until the day before we arrived. Sounds like our luck with the weather may be over!? The other secret Phil let me in on is that your Coke needs a fair bit of anti-freeze in it down this far south! So we all enjoyed a few hours of trying to get the mix right?!

Being a free camp and after asking around I had my generator out and pumping sweet 240V into our van and powering the heater, microwave and anything else you usually just push a button for. Now Kylz did manage to overload it once but you can be forgiven as electricity is something not too many of us think too much about in a normal day. Till the bill turns up at least anyway!!

The next day while packing up we discovered that Phil and Deb and a couple of other campers were bound for the same free camp as we were. So getting away early again we headed for the famous Twelve Apostles and more of the ship wreck coast.