The road trip began with a huge stock up on food, ciders and petrol. We then were able to set off to Torquay when we spend our first night. It was dust as we arrived and we saw the sun set over Bells Beach (The beach where they hold Australia's big surf events). By the time we got tea it was dark so we ate our fish and chips in the van whilst we were trying to search for somewhere to spend the night. The choice was between a boat-trailer car park or by the side of the road down a quiet side road. We went with the road side - Meg had the best nights sleep, I know this because I was literally up all night on look out for the police! Luckily they didn't come.

The alarm woke Meg up at 6am for us to grab coffees from Mc Donald's and to watch the sun rise from the beach. The beach was packed with keen dog walkers and other people just admiring the views too! It was magic. We had our coffees and walked across the beach.

We left for Anglesea on the hunt for Kangaroos! We arrived at the golf course and did 'Roo Tours' where we went round with another family on a golf caddy and saw all of the Kanagroo's living on the golf course, approximately 150 at any one time :-) We then went to the beach to top up our tans. On route to Lorne we stopped off and explored Split Point light house, then finally made it to Lorne where we had fish and chips (again) on the beach, this time! We paid to stay at Lorne Foreshore for the night what a relief to spend the night in an offical campsite surround by the smell of BBQ's, children playing and tent/awning zips. We had a few ciders in the van before bed which was nice after a long day of travelling.

First thing the next morning we headed for Erksine Falls, stopping for coffees on the way - take away coffees = massive Ozzy thing. We were pretty much the first ones there it was peaceful listening to nothing but the water coming crashing down. On the way back down we stopped off at the most amazing lookout of the south coast you could ever imagine, Teddy's lookout it was called. Then onto Apollo-Bay where we spent the rest of the day chilling on the beach before the storm came! As the grey clouds came over we were locking for somewhere to stay and with no free camp stops near by we checked into to another campsite. We had BBQ for tea, at the campsite and most public picnic areas they have electric BBQ hot plates where you can cook your food, for free! So we both had a couple of burgers each, few ciders and got an early night.

The following morning it was awful weather, heavy rain and strong winds. We thought there isn't much to see and do in bad weather so we re-fuelled and headed for the Grampians national park. 200 miles and an estimated arrival of 5 hours from now. We made a few pit stops, inbetween being blown all over the place, including one to a picnic area which had BBQ's so we could cook up some burgers again for lunch. By this point we worked out how to use the gas camp stove which we used to boil water for teas, coffees and cuppa soups. It was dark before we arrived at Dunkeld (Closest township to the Grampians) we stopped for fuel. It was at this point that I had discovered I had left the fuel cap in Apollo-Bay.. Ooops! Tea was at Cafe 019 tonight and we both had our favourite - PIZZA. As you can see the diet is going well ;-)

We drove another 20 minutes to our first FREE official camp ground in the Grampians national park where we spent the night. At the crack of dawn we left for the heart of the national park Halls Gap. McKenkie falls was what we drove all of this way to see and oh my god was it magnificent - the photos don't do it justice! We spent the morning there getting loads of photos (see album) and soaking up the atmostphere before driving to other various falls and lookouts. The weather was better, dry but still cloudy so the views were slightly spoilt by the clouds which was unfortunate.

We made it back half-way stopping off for the night at Port Campbell, we had fish and chips again for tea (don't judge) and spent the night at a recreational reserve - we had our first shower since being on the road!

We decided to make our way back, this time with no rain. We stopped off at the 12 Apostles, Loch-ard gorge, London bridge, Razorback, the Shipwreck walk etc and a close encounter with a wild kanagroo (which I got some great footage of for the video). We attemped to head back to Lorne but got diverted due to an accident on the road, ended up taking us three times as long as it was supposed to but meant we was able to top up on food and now wine for the final night. We eventually made it back to Lorne for our final night. We had a walk across the beach before dust, ordered Pizza and took it back to our campground all before 6pm. To our surprise the campsite was literally full. As we were eating tea people kept pouring in!

We were sat on a patch of grass beside our camper with our table and chairs drinking our wine and ciders after tea and we had an invite from 4 frenchies to join them for drinking games. We sat around their huge table with our camp chairs, thankfully they had a light too! We exchanged stories and expierence with them for what seemed hours, even if their English wasn't great. We went in at 10pm, as we are now early birds. The final morning in the camper took us back to Apollo-Bay on a wild goose chase for the missing fuel cap. Eventually we got it and made our way back to the city.

The campervan had to be clean or else we risked getting a $200 cleaning fee so we paniced as we couldn't find a jet wash. In the paperwork we were given it said to take the van to a car wash, when we arrived we realised it was a hand car wash garage and the cheapest wash was $22 - We thought no way we'd rather do it ourselves! We remembered that at the fuel stations there was a windcreen wiper cleaner so we ended up cleaning the whole of our van with the windscreen wiper cleaner in 7 minutes! and rushed back to the wicked camper depot to drop off. Turns out they hardly checked the van and was very happy with it so we quickly got out of there and headed to our hotel room in Melbourne city for a night of luxury! and a SHOWER! It was just what we needed.

Now back at Hazel and the family's for Easter! We soon leave on Friday after almost 6 weeks! They've been a huge part so it will be strange leaving but exciting for our next adventure!

Lots of love, Ryan and Meg xx