The Great Ocean Road trip started today. So our group was now just me driving with Becky and Suzie as passengers. Now for picking up the car i took every piece of id and proof of address i had after the fiasco last time with renting a car. However i soon discovered that Hertz r a far better rental company and there was no hassle with proof of address or anything silly like that! Ooh and i also got a better deal because i’m a member of YHA which was even better! So very easily we picked up our car, a wee silvery blue Toyota Yaris, who would be named Lola after much discussion on the way out of Melbourne. Must admit i was a little bit worried about driving in the center of Melbourne especially as they hav weird right hook turns (i think that swot they r called) where u hav to turn right from the left lane!! Very strange but think its because of the trams running up the middle of the street! But it was pretty straight forward, followed the wee map the rental guy gave us and then followed the signs for Geelong , easy as! There was a bit of traffic as we were heading out but that soon cleared and we were off on our adventure!

Our first stop for the morning was Geelong itself. We didn’t make it into the centre but just got out to stretch our legs really, seems like a nice wee seaside town. From there we headed to Torquay where the Great Ocean Road starts. Went down to a beach to take some photos. However at one point i said to Suzie to stand just in the sea and i’d take a photo, however just at that point a larger wave came along and soaked her, was pretty funny but don’t think she was too amused at being wet lol! Took a wee detour to Bells Beach but we actually missed the turn off (wasn’t well sign posted) and had to do an about turn to go back. Its a pretty nice beach but there were actually more surfers at the beach next to it, Winkipop, yes Joanna u find that funny, i even took a photo of the sign just for u!

It was a really fun road to drive and am so glad i had a manual car as it would hav been crap not having gear to change down to, don’t know y aussies like their automatic cars so much! Think the girls might hav been a tad scared by some of my driving but i knew i was in complete control ;) we actually ended up having to rush to get to the Twelve Apostles as Suzie wanted to be there to get photos at sunset which was a bit of a push but it was ok we made it. And to be honest it was well worth it, it looked awesome at sunset and got some cracking photos!! Its a bit weird when ur there cause u actually cant see all 12. Some have been washed away while others r still buried underground (not sure how they know those 1s r there).

Now the only problem we had after being at the twelve apostles at sunset was that the girls wanted to stay at a campsite that was a while back and it was now dark. Now in Australia it is not very smart to drive while its dark as thats when all the animals come out, in particular kangaroos which will do a lot of damage to a car like ours if we hit it! However it was decided that we would head back to this campsite, Bimby Park, so i took it very slowly as the road had lots of sharp bends and i really didn’t want to hit a kangaroo!! U’ll all b glad to know that we did make it to the campsite in one piece and i didn’t hit a single kangaroo, i did however hav to drive over a dead ones tail which wasn’t fun!

Now by the time we got to the campsite it was completely dark and there were no lights in the campsite so putting up the tent turned out to b fun! We had to use the lights from the car and Suzies head torch as our only guide! Now the only one who had put the tent up before was Becky and she had don’t it in the living room so it was slightly different doing it outside in the dark! It ended up being Becky and Suzie who put the tent up while i was on possum watch! U wouldn’t believe how cheeky these possums r, they totally run up to u and don’t even care if u clap ur hands, stamp ur feet, pretend to throw something at them or go toward them, they still just sit there lookin at u!! So we managed to get the inside bit up properly but didn’t quite know how to secure the outside bit so just sort of draped it over the top and hoped for the best! So having done that we got ready for bed and settled into our tent for an early nite.