We awoke to our first, and only, wet morning in DARPA. This made running for the showers and packing up interesting but sure enough we managed it and set off towards the Great Ocean Road, a 151 mile stretch of road along the South Eastern coast built by returned soldiers between 1919 and 1932, and is the world's largest war memorial; dedicated to casualties of WWI. Apparently, as one of the world's most scenic coastal drives it is on most people's bucket lists so I can tick that one off! We couldn't quite get to it in time in one day so we had a quick stopover in Narrawong so we could fully appreciate the Great Ocean Road in all its glory, ie, in daylight, the following day.

Great Ocean Road day, as it will be known by future generations, commenced sunny but windy so a determined DARPA set out from Narrawong after breakfast, ready to have a good drive along this most scenic of routes.

Our first stop was the stunningly named 'Port Fairy', which I'm sure you'll agree is potentially the best town name in the history of town names. Well, second only to Forster but you can't have everything. We literally only stopped because of the name but it was a lovely little town, the port had some pretty impressive boats, particularly 'The Albatross' a very expensive looking two hulled number that probably cost more than the Olympic stadium. They also have a thing about calling a fish shop a 'fish and chippery' which I found very bizarre. It's not even a real word, at least Microsoft word doesn't recognise it. After we had tired of sniggering at the name we left Port Fairy and continued on our way to the Bay of Islands. It was nice, don't get me wrong, but nothing much different from what I had seen on the West Coast down in Albany. Nature is impressive but it can repeat itself sometimes. Bay of Martyrs was much the same as the Bay of Islands, and I didn't get an explanation as to why it was named that which I was very disappointed about, I love a good fact.

London Bridge was soon in our sights and it looked a lot different to the one I'm used to but nevertheless an impressive monolith. It really does look like a bridge as well - they don't beat around the bush these Australians! It was interesting to read that it used to be attached to the landmass but collapsed one day in 1990 stranding two unfortunates on the now separated rock. Oh well, at least they got a nice helicopter ride over the 12 Apostles from it, costs a pretty penny that. 555.

We drove past the entrance to the 12 Apostles park - typical - so instead went straight to Gibson's steps, an excellent workout for the old legs climbing down onto the beach. Nina was very concerned it wouldn't be worth it but once on the beach you got some gorgeous views and looking up onto the sheer cliffs was a sight to behold. The sun finally decided to come out from behind a cloud, totally changing the colours of the landscape from dull browns and yellows to warm umbers, golds and ochres, a much more beautiful vista. The only downside was the profusion of tourists on the sand (yes I know we are classed in this category) which made it difficult to take some decent photos but I just about managed.

After huffing and puffing our way back up the steps (I am really feeling this no gym malarkey) we drove back on ourselves to finally get to the 12 Apostles, the big daddy of tourist attractions on the Great Ocean Road. True to form it was packed, several coaches were there and the car park was stuffed full of cars and people who didn't seem to understand the concept of a zebra crossing. Not to be deterred, and managing to avoid mowing down any tourists whilst trying to park, we set off over the road to view these magnificent behemoths. And magnificent they were, rising from the ocean seemingly from nothing and trailing off down the coast. Now it is pretty impossible to see all 12 from one vantage point, they are spread out along the coast, some smaller ones are behind larger ones, they are out of sight behind the bulge of a cliff, etc, but that aside I was suitably wowed. The main downside to the 12 Apostles was the time of day we went - usually I wouldn't complain about sun but it was directly behind the Apostles and so made it pretty difficult to take any photos where I was more than just a silhouette, and I know you all want to see my face. I'm afraid in this respect you'll have to be disappointed! Sorry all.

The 12 Apostles seem to mark the end of the touristy part of the Great Ocean Road - the remainder of our drive wasn't particularly coastal, it wound through farmland a lot of the time, and a highlight of mine was driving through the Aire River region - sadly we didn't slow down enough to get a photo as our favourites, local drivers, were up our backside most of the time and didn't allow for much dallying around.

I think it is very important at this junction to tell you about our little foray to the Apostle Whey (get it?) cheese factory which was slightly off the main road but a well worthwhile diversion. We got to try some amazing cheeses - this trip has definitely turned me into more of a cheese lover, surprising when you think the main cheese variety is 'tasty' and one of the main brands is called 'Coon'; I honestly don't know how they get away with it. Anyway they had the most mouth watering garlic and herb cow feta and a to-die-for pepper cheese. Om nom nom. Nina and I bit the bullet and bought some brie (it was half price…) to share in our last two nights with DARPA. We also went via the G.O.R.G.E chocolate factory and managed to sneak in some chocolate tasting too. All in all a productive trip over to Apollo Bay for our penultimate night (or so we thought) in the little DARPA mobile.

After an evening eating fish and chips with the most bizarre tartare sauce in the history of mankind (it was thousand island I'm sure of it) we slept at the world's best campsite, replete with brand spanking new camp kitchen with sparkly floor, Foxtel and thus 'How I Met Your Mother' on the mahoosive tv screen in the games room and nice shiny clean bathrooms, we woke up ready for our last day with DARPA. As you can tell we were very attached to her by this point but were also gagging for a normal sized bed where we didn't need to wear three layers to be able to sleep warmly.

This last day saw us visiting perhaps the most iconic lighthouse in the world, and one that many of you will know and love from the best and most insane Australian kid's tv show ever, Round the Twist. Yes Matthew, tonight I'm talking about the Split Point lighthouse. Hooray! I hear half of you yell, whereas the other 2 people reading this blog are scratching their heads going 'what the hell…?'. Suffice to say I was beyond overjoyed to be there, a childhood dream come true indeed. Apart from being part of many a fond, rose tinted, childhood recollection, there isn't much to say about Split Point, nothing makes it notable from the countless other lighthouses on the coast.

It was the perfect end to our last day with DARPA, and nothing could spoil it! Well, nothing apart from the rain which was hammering down by the time we got to Melbourne. Usually this wouldn't be a problem but we ran into a definite roadblock when we couldn't find any suitable campsites to park our beloved vehicle in overnight. This led to an emergency hostel booking and me attempting to find my way through Melbourne city centre in rush hour, wipers full blast, attempting to avoid the toll roads and get to St. Kilda in one piece. This challenge completed we checked in and had our first night in a bed in 2 weeks. Half of me was sad we hadn't got our last night in DARPA but the other half was ecstatic I didn't have to sleep outside in the rain.

Becca