After spending a great day and a half with the politicians in Canberra squabbling it was time to set of for our final journey on the greyhound (emotional) to Melbourne at 12.55am. We booked it for then as the night bus's are generally really quiet and you can lie down and go to sleep, which we were looking forward to after such a long day walking around the sights of Canberra. However a bus load of South Koreans had booked the bus on the way to some festival so that scuppered that idea haha. The journey took about 8.5 hours and it felt forever but nevertheless we arrived there wide awake after a very tiring night.

Upon arriving we quickly found a nearby hostel which was really nice and homely and included free internet and breakfast which got abused. The first thing we needed to do was find out some qoutes for campervans so we could book it for the Great Ocean Rd. We thought we would book it last minute as it hasn't been a problem doing that so far however due to the Grand Prix weekend coming up many companies were fully booked as a lot of people were either heading out of Melbourne to escape the crowds of the Grand Prix or into Melbourne to watch it. Eventually we found somewhere that could help us but the only available start date was for the next day. We decided our only option was to start the great ocean rd the next day and when we drop the car back of in Melbourne then we could explore Melbourne properly then instead, no worries!! Once booked for 10 days Kate went for a sleep while I explored a bit of the cityand found out where we had to get the tram to get to the car hire company the next day.

After a power nap we tripped of into the city centre for a ponder and it was really beautiful. It seemed like a really busy city with something always going on, such as food festivals, the Grand prix, musical festivals etc. There was also a real restaurant and café vibe about the place. Anyway after hitting Coles supermarket to do some shopping for our road trip we went back to our hostel for our free feed (free feed on Weds nights!!). We werent expecting much but to our surprise they had put on a great spread of Spaghetti Bolognaise with salad, a simple meal but so tasty and plenty of it, especially when it was free. However that didn't mean we didn't want our usual large chocolate fudge Sunday from McDonalds afterwards. Its so good having free WIFI at McDonalds but its to tempting to have there milkshakes and ice cream Sundays. Anyway we sorted a few bits and bobs out there and then phoned James and Paula who had decided to join us on the South Coast to finalise our plans. They were going to join us on day 2 of the Great Ocean Rd as they had to tie up some loose ends there end in Sydney before coming down, which we were really looking forward too.

That night I watched a movie with some fellow travellers while Kate went through her camera manual learning new things, she actually getting really good with it now.
After a great night sleep we were up early the next morning really excited about our road trip. We were all packed and ready to go after our breaky, jumping on the tram to Port Melbourne free of charge just outside the city centre. When we arrived at the car hire place we were realy pleased with what we had booked… A new and modern 'Spaceship' people carrier/campervan named 'The Dish' - with all the 'mod cons', such as ipod player and dvd player etc. To sleep in it you could either turn the back seat around and extend it out or open the boot and put on a type of tent tarpooling around the boot door with popper buttons which made it really spacious and let in some fresh air, which we put up every night, so cosy and warm!!!, especially as its getting cooler at night now. Underneath the bed is where the fridge was and all the gas stoves etc which you could pull a shelf out the back and cook on top off, it was so efficient. The best thing was the dvd player, stereo system and fridge ran of a different battery so you could have it on as much as you wanted without having to worry about the car battery going flat. To recharge it you simply had to turn on the engine which was on a lot of the day anyway.