Sorry I've not written in a long time!!! Iv finally got round to buying a laptop so I can update without checking my watch!! January was all about work! I was Tom's apprentice and became a labourer for 3 weeks! It was hot and tiring and I have never slept so much in my life! Plastering is hard - I AM A WIMP! So when we had earnt a good amount of money we hit the road...

Well, It all started with a $1 tent we bought on ebay and a 1985 Dahatsu Charade for $750! we set off down the great Ocean Road ( see photos). The Great Ocean Road is one of the most magical roads I have ever been on... there are beautiful bright white beaches, pebbly beaches, nudist beaches, SHARKS! waterfalls, rivers, ecalyptus forrests, underground cave systems, you name it it probably showcases it somewhere along the way! We surfed, we walked, we ate, we camped, we met some fab people, we saw koalas, we nearly ran over kangaroos! I am no longer afraid (ahum!) of birds because (apart from Casowaries) they cannot kill you (unlike spiders) and they are absolutely beautiful!! Whilst we were in Lorne there were so many Cockatoo (cockies) and they are MASSIVE and they come right up to your tents!!! They are very impressive but make a rather rude call at 6am! Grrrr...

So we stopped at Torquay ( where a shark was spotted and the beach was cleared), Lorne, Wye River, we drove through Apollo Bay but it was rammed with tourists so we carried onto Parker's Outlet. Parker's Outlet is a place I spotted on the map and told Tom i wanted to visit. It was a detour from the Great Ocean Road and looking back a bit to far out of civilisation and a bit too offroad for our little car. BUT, nevertheless we stayed for one night ( we were in bed by 8.30! As there was nothign to do, no lights and a lot of creatures we did not want to see). When we woke up there was a snake trail in front of our tent!!! EEk but we saw a lot of koalas!

After that we travlled along and stopped at The Twelve (Seven remaining) Apostles - limestone formations off the coast, The Grotto, London bridge and a couple of other SCENIC LOOKOUTS along the way to Port Campbell and Port Fairy.

Port Fairy (again somewhere i spotted on the map and decided I wanted to go because of the name ) is probably the cutest town in the world!!! Except west kirby - of course!!! we stayed in an awesome little campsite and instead of cockies screeching it was Korellas this time! Port Fairy has a surf beach, a snorkelly, white sandy beach, a fishing harbour, an island like hilbre island, the oldest pub called The Caledonia!! Home from home! And loads of cute little shops and houses. We ended up spending about a week there - chilling out, melting (in the 38degree, 91% humidity!) and eating yummy food! We saw a Stingray and a little seal!

We then went on a long journey through the outback (well a stretch of road where we didn't see another car for about an hour! SCARY!) to Mount Gambier. Mount gambier was fab! We walked for a total of 10 hours in 2 days... which for us in the heat is a miracle because the humidity was record breaking! Here we saw the Blue Lakes, Tom managed to cook me a kind of roast on the bbq and we became Sperlunkers(people who explore caves for fun - apparently!) we went into the Englebrecht Caves which were actually super cool! We're becoming geeks in our old age and we asked the guy tonnes of questions!! hah.

We then decided that it was a VERY long drive to carry on to adelaide in our little brum and headed back changing our route a little. When we arrived back in Lorne we met some fab people, a canadian couple Meg and Tak who we've kept in touch with, a couple of australian guys who we went camping again with last weekend. Tom bought me a surfboard and I had a go at surfing again in Lorne.

as we were heading back to Mount Eliza we stopped off at torquay to buy a surf bag for my new board and the guy said "you'll also need a surf sock for that" and i told him i make my own so he asked to see Toms. I showed him and he asked if id be intersted in selling them in the shop.... so since then i've been making a lot of surfboard socks and have another shop interested in selling them! woop. so check out our website and have a gander at my handywork!! Lol

www.7tsurfskate.com

Lots of love, see you in 7 weeks!!

Ally (and tom)

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