The first day of the Great Ocean Road was very exciting, great to have the freedom to drive together wherever we wanted, to make our own decisions on where to go.. the car was our 'oyster'. Our journey started through Geelong, the gateway to the Great Ocean Road. The Great Ocean Rd officially starts in Torquay - Australia's surfing capital - the first town we headed to, which was absolutely stunning. It was here where the band their surfcentric founders also invented boardshorts and wetsuits.. pretty impressive! On the way in we actually went to an amazing surf city plaza retail outlet.. the 'Mecca' for surfers and lovers of surf culture - which sold cool surf clothes for half the price!! We fell in love with so much!! Afterwards Chris and I headed to 'Cosy Corner' beach, where we had amazing $5.50 fish and chips whilst looking out onto the beach at 'Danger Point'. The coast was absolutely gorgeous with many cliff lookoutS. After lunch we decided to go for a walk along cozy corner beach to stretch out legs and burn off a few cals haha.We later drove onto the famous 'Bells beach', the home of the Ripcurl Pro surf competition - also where Point Break (Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze) was filmed. The beach was really small, but VERY windy.. clearly the reason why its one of the best surf spots in the world!! The beach epitomises Australias reputation for sun, sea, sand and surf!! Whilst walking up the stairs back to the carpark, Chris and I saw a Porcupine (The Aus call it something else, but I cant remember!) rustling around in the bush.. alot bigger than i'd imagine it to be - the spikes were massive!! Our first night in the camper was really cosy. So nice to watch a movie with the DVD player in the car after having a lamb hot pot over the barby.. next to the river after a long first day. We found the car very comfortable (thank the lord!) and fell asleep whilst looking at the Stars, through the rear car window above us!!

The following morning we were up early to visit the neighbouring town of Torquay, Anglesea and Aireys Inlet. In Anglesea we checked out the kangaroo's at the local golf course. When we arrived at the golf course there were big signs saying that tourists were not allowed on the golf course to view the wildlife, however we completely ignored that haha. We saw some kangaroos surrounding one of the greens near the clubhouse but they were to far away to get a really decent picture so Chris and I drove down the road and Chris jumped the fence, it was so funny. He was running around this golf course with our camera like a lunatic trying to get some decent photo's while people were trying to play a cival game of golf hahaha. He did us proud though and got some great shots as well as some dirty looks!!! He should have been part of the paparatzi. Anyway it was quite strange to watch these animals mooching around minding there own business. I wonder how often they get smashed by a golf ball, ouch!! After some fun we took a walk along Anglsea beach, the day was a little greyer but it was still very pleasant. Moving on we went to check out Aireys inlet, where the famous 'around the twist' (Split Point Lighthouse) light house was filmed, Nestled in the shadow of the Great Otway National Park. It was built in 1981, standing 34 metres above the coast line. We wondered around the cliff tops near the lighthouse peering out at the lookouts chilling to some vocal tunes of the around the twist theme tune "Have you ever.. ever felt like this, when strange things happen.. and your going round the twist!!"haha. Moving on we headed round the coast to a small town called Lorne. Here we visited Erskine Falls, a 30m waterfall in the Great Otway national park. Compared to some of the waterfalls that we had seen it wasnt great, so we quickly moved on. Our next stop just up the road was 'Teddy's Lookout', a grand view of the Great Ocean Road, the surrounding ocean and the Great Otway National Park. It was here that it really clicked that we were doing one of the best coastal drives in the world! We were really enjoying ourselves! We ate lunch at the lookout before getting back on the road heading back into Lorne town centre, a cosmopolitan seaside resort, for a ponder and some shopping.The town was the wealthiest of those on the great ocean road with lovely little cafes and boutiques.

Just on the outskirts was a local coffee shop with a side street next to it called 'Grey River Road', where you can go Koala spotting near the Kennett river. Within seconds we had spotted 2. One of them, was hanging off the branch right over the middle of the road eating Euchalytus leaves - it was adorable! We literally stood watching it for about half an hour as it was our first spotting of a wild Koala. The other Koala was nestled between two branches sleeping away, looking very cosy!! They spend 20 hours a day sleeping apparently, as the Euchalyptus makes them drowsy - what a life hey!! After a coffee and an icecream (and watching some cute ducks with their chicks!) we headed out passing various beautiful lookouts, working our way towards Apollo bay, a small fishing village - which is where we were to meet Paula and james. As it was getting latish we had a quick ponder, met up with the others and booked into a campsite for the night, where James and Chris attempted a spot of fishing, however they had no luck!

The next day we wanted to explore Apollo bay properly before we moved on so headed for a walk along the gorgeous beach to the harbour. Whilst walking along the harbour, we spotted some huge stingrays!! The biggest we had seen, about a metre and a half long (the size of the ones that had killed Steve Erwin!) it was pretty fascinating - we couldnt believe the size of their tales! Hard core! Behind Apollo Bay, there were many hilly pastures. Here, we walked to a lookout, which gave brilliant views of the whole coast and Apollo Bay. On the lookout there was a beautiful friendly white horse that seemed to enjoy all the tourists petting.. as well as two cute goats - that enjoyed our left over apple cores!! We slowly moved on moving inland through the Great Otway National Park. With some gorgeous views along the way we eventually arrived at Cape Otway Lightstation, the oldest lighthouse on mainland Australia - playing an important role in Australia's maritime history. We didn't realise that to view it we had to pay, therefore we decided to walk along a track and view it from a distance.

The Twelve Apostles,Gibson Steps, Loch Ard Gorge, The Arch and London Bridge.. all in Port Campbell National Park - is the most photographed and stunning stretch of the Great Ocean Road. Chris and I were really looking forward to seeing the Twelve Apostles, the main highlight and world recognised icons of the Great Ocean Road. The Twelve Apostles are huge limestone rock stacks (formed through years and years of erosion) in the ocean.. however only seven can be seen from the lookouts. Its quite funny because no-one actually knows whether there were ever 12, so why didn't they call it the seven apostles!?? The apostles were really amazing, the sunlight on them, the haze and sea spray, and bright blue ocean all created an amazingly dramatic scene. To finish off the day, we backtracked a couple of kilometres to Gibson Steps, where the lads thought it would be funny to challenge to humungous waves.. fully clothed!! And yes, of course they ended up drenched, full of sand, and beaming smiles! It was hilarious watching them collapse underneath the waves. Not suprising that this stetch of beach is dangerous for swimmers due to the strong rip pulling the lads backwards into the sea! You can see why so many people get themselves into trouble, plonkers like Chris and James!! Haha. We got some cracking pic's though.

On Chris's birthday we carried on from the Twelve Apostles to the Razorback, Mutton Island and the Thunder Cave Blowhole. The razorback was again a large limestone cut-out which was tall and thin, deep in depth, with rigid spines on the top- from wind and sea erosion, hense the given name 'Razorback', It was actually really impressive, considering it insn't even mentioned in our Lonely Planet. The thunder cave had again been eroded, which is continually getting bigger due to erosion. It is named 'Thunder Cave' due to the thunderous noises which the water makes when its crashing through it.. really cool. The Arch and London Bridge were really impressive, the two rocks were once one formation, however in 1990, it collapsed and left 2 tourists stranded!! Finally 'Mutton Island' is where all you will find tons of Mutton Birds breading. The island itself wasn't that special, but was the home and breading area for mutton birds. To finish off the day, we drove past the Bay of Islands (lots of smaller type versions of The Twelve Apostles) before heading to Warnambool to get our bbq food and drinks to properly celebrate Chris's birthday. We had a barby in Port Fairy by the river, and kept entertained all night with drinks and poker, camping at Dunkeld opposite mt Sturgeon! Perfect!!