We set off quite late in the day on Sunday 28th October. Lucy had lent Wendy a "swag", an australian sleeping bag/tent in one. On arrival at our first free campsite we had chosen on the way to the Great Ocean Road the campsite was shut so we ended up sleeping in a layby in a forest by the gate to the campsite. Not a good start and noone would have wanted to sleep in a swag where we were so it was a quick pasta and tomato meal and 3 in a bed before it got too dark!

The Great Ocean Road runs from Geelong to Warnambool along the south coast of Victoria and we had some recommendations of where to go to on our trip along it so we were very much looking forward to the next week.

The journey didn´t let us down in terms of landscape and pretty views. Almost every day we were driving on the coast and could see the sea to one side of us. We stopped in free campsites and paid for one night to have a shower. Wendy and Gem taught Matt how to build a campfire with their girl guide skills and this became Matt´s forte, bit of a God send really as it was so cold at night. Well, probably about 12 degrees but Gem and Matt were wearing ski socks and hoodies! We would have food cooked on the stove every night, mostly something pasta based. Gem tried cooking cornbeef hash one night, not something she´ll try again, Mum would be disappointed!

We did many walks through the rainforest and saw lots of beautiful waterfalls. On one stop to do a walk we bumped into an Australian guy doing a tour with a group and he advised us of where to go to see Koalas in the wild. As we drove along the road that he had told us about Wendy was on Koala spotting duty in the back and she suddenly made a yelp, "I see one". Matt pulled over and we walked back to the spot and there they were, probably about 20-30 of them, mostly sleeping and some eating the eucalyptus leaves. One was particularly close to us very near where Matt had stopped the camper. It was such a treat to see them, an Australian couple who had seen us staring up stopped and they explained they had never seen them in the wild so we all felt very lucky and we got some fabulous photos.

On the morning of our stay at a paid camp site Matt went following some wild cockatoos and they led him to a group of kangaroos hopping through the fields, after getting Gem and waking Wendy up the three of us watched them for about 15 minutes, the wildlife in Australia is so different to home, all a bit strange but great to see.

We went to a place on the coast called the 12 apostles, they are a collection of limestone stacks off the shore in the ocean and are very picturesque although it was a bit windy!

We had a fantastic time on our Great Ocean Road adventure, stopping for lunches on secluded beaches, walking through ferns and massive trees in the rain forest and spotting lots of wildlife along the way including parrots, echidnas, kangaroos and koala bears. It was even easy to spot the odd kookaburra to which Wendy and Gem would sing, "kookaburra sits in the old gum tree".... don't know that one? Look it up!

We arrived back at Lucys in the afternoon on Friday and Lucy and Lachie arrived back from their fishing honeymoon late, Lucy with a cold but happy she caught the only fish on their trip. We were all tired from our different adventures so went straight to sleep.

The next leg of our aussie adventure is in Melbourne for Mike's 30th. Mike is one of Matt's best friends from home who now lives in Melbourne so we are excited to go and stay with him!