9th May 2009

We both had a really goods night sleep and were ready for our first day of driving! We got up showered and had our Nutella on toast (we now have a cool bag with all the essentials in, lol) and made our Tuna sandwiches for lunch (keeping it cheap!). After having a brief look at the map, Mike was first to drive.

The roads out here are so quiet compared to England, the speed limits are alot slower also and you have to stick to them as the cameras out heer arent visible like in England and they are really hot on speeding. The first day was driving for miles along straight roads with fields everywhere and then suddenly arriving in small little towns. There are signs for Kanagroos along the roads and we saw alot of dead Kangaroos, some of them were pretty big and would really smash your car up if it ran infront of you! We passed through Meningie where we changed drivers, I then drove about another 2 hours where we stopped in Kingston SE for our packed lunch lol! It was really nice here, we parked up infront of the sea.

We continued to drive and stopped in Robe, Beachport, Millicent and finally Mt Gambier, where after struggling to find accomodation due to a jazz festival we found Mac's Hotel, a hotel/restuarant/bar/mini casino !! Was a good find and fine for the night.

Times up...to be continued !!

...so we dropped off our bags and headed for a supermarket to get dinner and more stuff for lunches! We then had drinks in the bar and chilled there. We had a few go's on the gambling machines, Mike ended up winning 30 dollars, every little helps!! We then got an earlish night in as were both knackered from the drive, so i got a cuppa and we watched Castaway in bed!

10th May 2009

After another really good nights sleep we got ready, had our brekkie and made our lunch (salami and mayo sandwiches - nice!). We drove to Blue Lake in Mount Gambier. It was created after a volcanic erruption and it really is so blue, there is no reason as to why tho! It was pretty overcast today, so the pics dont show it very well at all.We then continued on our drive, passing through Nelson, Portland and Port Fairy, where we were now in Victoria (so now 10 hrs ahead of you guys). We stopped for lunch at a Port in Warrnambool, which is the start of the Great Ocean Road. There were a couple of seals throwing themselves off the pier which was pretty cool!

ALong the Great Ocean Road we stopped to see and take pics of, The Bay of Islands, London Bridge, The Arch and the 12 Apostles which is now only 6!! All of these are rock formations created by erosion etc but are pretty good to see, although the pics would have looked better with a bit of sun in the background! The drive from the 12 Apostles to Apollo Bay where we stayed for the night was a mission. It was about 1hr 15mins but driving inland and up mountains to drive back down again, the roads were so winedy and its pitch black here by half 5, so we did it all in the dark, only passing 1 or 2 cars! Thank god we didnt break down there!

So we arrived in Apollo Bay at around 6.30pm, its a very small town so found Surfside Backpackers on the coastal Road, we got a room for the night there. Its a really good hostel (recommended). We went to the shop and bought pasta and garlic bread for dinner so went back and cooked that, then went in the games room, watched tv and had pool comp with Mike, he won 3-2, but only just!! Then we went to bed. The end of day 2!

11th May 2009

We got up early this morning, got raedy, had breakfast and made lunch (I bought tetleys t-bags so had my first decent cuppa!), then headed out for our final day driving the Great Ocean Road. We drove through Skenes Creek before stopping at a beach in Kennett River. It was really quiet with only us there, we took some really good pics and had a look around. Mike decided to try and take a picture of our shadows on the beach, lol, so he got our lonely planet Oz book and put it on the sand to sit the camera on, as i was stood there waiting for him to get it ready, a wave really quickly came further and further towards us, so I shouted Mike, which only made him look at me and say 'what', by this time the water was already over our ankles and had submerged our NEW book!! Somehow Mike got the camera, so we are currently trying to save our book, which is still very wet and sandy!! Looking back it was actually really funny and another thing on the list of stupid stuff we have done!!

Today we have been on a road right on the coast, winding around the cliffs, the sun has been out all day with clear blue skys so its been brilliant, our best day of driving by far. Our next stop was Lorne, we had a drive around here then drove up a very steep road to Erskine Falss, Lornes biggest waterfall, which wasnt really very big at all, lool, so we took a quick pic then drove to Cape Otway Lighthouse. Its the oldest lighthouse in Lorne and had amazing views out over Lorne and the sea. We then drove through Anglesea and Torquuay, which is very famous for its surfing and numerous surf shops.

We drove another 45 mintues to Geelong, the biggest city since Adelaide. We stopped at another port here for lunch. Its really nice here. This was the end of the Great Ocean Road, so we then jumped onto the M1 which took us right into Melbourne City. We arrived heer at about 4pm. We drove around trying to find accomodation and where we had to drop our car off, it was like driving through cental London for your first time so was a bit of a mission but managed in the end and ending up finding a amazing hostel just south of the city. Its called Urban Central (defo recommended!!), its like a big hotel/halls at uni. We are in a 4 bed dorm, so me Mike and an Irish guy. Its new, modern and clean, and full of loads of other travellers!! We had a free bbq our first night then took advantage of happy hour and spent the night in the bar here taking part in a quiz which we ended up giving up on as we werent doing very well, lol!! Good night tho.

So we drove around 1000km in 3 days, was the best way to see the great ocean road and places inbetween. We had a really good time doing it and both enjoyed getting back into a car. We are now in Melbourne for probably a week.

Hope everyone is good!!

Love Amy and Mike

xxxxxxx