We got up and ready on Saturday 17th, I started de-pitched the tent while Rachel was still in the shower. As I was putting the bits in I noticed one of the biggest spiders I had seen (I'm pretty sure it was a huntsman). It was sitting on the car next to the open door, I tried to get it off the car but the second I moved it ran away…… into the car. I started emptying the car, then Rachel came back, we couldn't see it so decided to just leave the door open for a bit while we sorted our bits out and hope it left. Fingers crossed it doesn't crawl on us while we are driving. We then heading off. After struggling through the Melbourne roads for a bit we finally got on our way towards the Great Ocean Road. We stopped off at Torquay (the entrance to the road) tourist centre and got some great advice of places to stop at along the way. We started off at Bells Beach to see the beach where apparently the surfing championships are held. We then headed to Airey's Inlet where the lighthouse for 'Round the Twist' was filmed. Then it was on to the memorial arch which goes across the road in memory of those who fought and died in the war and those who came back and build the Great Ocean Road. Then it was on to a lookout stop called Teddy's Lookout to see the Great Ocean Road from a hill. Then onto Erskine Falls which was a nice little waterfall. Then a couple more nice lookouts, then stopped at Apollo Bay to get some food supplies. Then on to Cape Otway lighthouse to see Australia's oldest lighthouse, on the way here we stopped due to a load of other cars stopping as there was a Koala sitting in the road. This was our first Koala we had seen in the wild so pretty impressive, after him we saw loads in the trees around the area. We then headed on to Triplet Falls, as you have probably guessed by now after doing all this stuff it was starting to get late and we were starting to get concerned that the campsites may close and we might not make the Twelve Apostles for sunset. I did think that if I had moored over the Koala we could have saved a lot of time but as we couldn't turn back time we decided to run round the Triplet Falls house rainforest walk in 25 minutes (which was actually supposed to take an hour so proper workout!).

We then dived back in the car and managed to get to a campsite, check in, pitch the tent and drive to the Twelve Apostles for sunset. Not that this really mattered as the sky was solid with clouds so unfortunately we didn't get to see the sunset, so it was a good job I didn't moor the Koala over. The Twelve Apostles were still impressive to see though and we stayed for a while before heading back to the campsite for grub and bed in the pouring rain and wind.

The following day (Sunday18th) we woke up to pouring rain and headed off again and stopped at Twin steps. We climbed down them for a walk along the beach and got to see some of the Apostles from down low. We then carried on and stopped at the Twelve Apostles viewing platforms again for another look. This was a big mistake as within 10 strides from the car Rachel slipped and we spent a while checking to see whether she had broken her toe or not. Luckily it was only badly twisted and bruised. After she walked the pain off around the Apostles we headed on again, stopping at a few viewing platforms on the way including; London's Bridge, Loch Ard Gorge, and Bay of islands. We then drove onto a Volcano at Tower Hill. As we were driving in we saw big emu bird things and kangaroos - really big ones. We did a short walk to the top of the peak. After the Volcano we headed on to Dunkeld, which is the start of the Grampians. It was 6:00 and we were surprised when we drove past the tourist information centre and it was open, on a Sunday as well. We parked up and headed in, we were a bit surprised to see so many people in there, then we realised we were gate crashing there Christmas Party. We were about to leave when one of them came over and was very friendly and gave us a map and directions of where to go. We managed to find a campsite not long after that and pitched up and relaxed for the evening.