Hey everyone,
I was finally able to get travelling again, and it was so much fun. I didn't realise how much I actually missed it. I'm a lot happier now I'm on the road again.
I spent a week on the Great Ocean Road, built for the Anzacs in the world wars, with a couple of guys I met via Gumtree on the internet. We hired a campervan and set off on a proper little road trip! Adam, the Englishman, and I were driving, but Valentin, the Frenchman, didn't have his licence so we ferried him around. We got down to Torquay on the first night, near the beach where the RipCurl Pro surf competition is held, and went to a few of the lookouts around there. The weather really held out for us on the first 3 days, it was beautiful, and it made driving all the more fun. Sunnys on, good music blaring, and a great driving road - it was fantastic. We were all feeling awesome.
When it came to sleeping though, we really didn't want to pay for caravan parks every night, so we had to find places to park up where we thought we wouldn't be discovered and fined $125 :S it was fairly interesting, trying to decide between different spots, but we went the whole week without being fined, so it was a success! Evenings were pretty much spent drinking beer and playing poker, there not being a lot else to do in a van, but we did have a good time with it. The second day, we had to push start the van, cos we had left the lights on for too long. Rookie error, but once it was going, I went and did my surfing. The waves were pretty decent and I got on 1 or 2, but generally, I didn't do too well, normally nose-diving off the front when it dipped in the water :S I'm going to put it down to being out of practice! At least I can finally say I've surfed in Australia! I did pay the price though, cos for the next few nights, my arm just ached when I was sleeping, not the best at all, so I think I might have overdone it a bit. The next 2 days we spent finishing the GOR, going along the coast to Warrnambool where it finishes, stopping on the way to see the different sights. We saw all sorts of rock formations, waterfalls, really impressive things, and learnt a bit about the history of the road too. Some people do day trips to the GOR, but it's just nowhere near enough time to see it properly, that's why we went for a week.
After Warrnambool, it was the long stretch to Adelaide. We headed up to the Grampian mountains, and the weather along the way was not great. We stayed in a national park campsite (these are free) and did some driving to different waterfalls and lookouts. This was the scary part. The twisty turny roads were good fun on the GOR, but up in the mountains, one slight misjudgement and you're over the edge to a firey death. There weren't even metal barriers on the sides! We did see a lot of kangaroos in the mountains, which seemed to absolutely fascinate Val, who was a bit naive when it came to camping. He hadn't been since he was 8, so we had to kind of help him along with some of the basics. We did a day of really long driving, splitting it between the 2 of us, about 500kms to a place called Victor Harbour where we spent the last night. We found this road to the edge of a small cliff, and it had a turning circle there, and there was anyone for miles, so we figured that was the place to stay. We set up the stove and got the pasta ready to cook just outside the back of the van, before lighting the stove.
AND WE ALMOST DIED. The stove wasn't lighting properly, but when it did, it spurted a jet of flame all around for about a foot in length. It scared the hell out of us cos we thought it was going to explode, and after 3 seconds of trying to get in to turn the gas off, we had to leg it. Adam was about to close the van (parked right next to the stove) door, but I'd beaten him to it and had jumped in the drivers seat, and took off like a bat out of hell! The keys had been left in the ignition luckily, and I figured, if this is going to explode, the van will go with it! It left a fairly long trail of pots, pans, cutlery and food on the ground up the hill where I had driven, and I jumped out and hid behind the van, closely followed by the other 2! The flame eventually disappeared,and we thought it had gone into the bottle, so we braced ourselves for an explosion - but it never came. We eventually decided to approach the gas stove, arms over our eyes just in case, and turned off the gas. After tightening up the valve (which had been the problem), it was good to go again, but it had scared the hell out of us and we couldn't stop babbling, and all the nervous laughter afterwards! Ask me to tell you the story in person, because it's a lot funnier that way, and you'll get a fair bit more detail than on here!
We got dinner done, and were reading our books for a bit before the stars came out, and Adam and I jumped onto the roof and lay looking at them for a bit. Val didn't fancy it, he was too cold, and he missed a couple of shooting stars as a result. The next morning, we woke up and were faced with a rainbow. We could actually see both ends of it! I didn't think it was possible, but I saw boths ends of the rainbow and got really excited! Unforunately, there were no pots of gold. I hate to ruin it for you all, but that part is made up :(
After a little breakfast, we went into town, played some mini-golf and went to Granite Island, a small island with a causeway to Victor Harbour. We had to get going a little after lunch to get the van to Adelaide on time. Once in Adelaide, we returned the van and the other 2 booked into a hostel, before going to get a drink.
I was picked up by Lisa, a friend of my Aunt's, who I stayed with for the last 3 days. After saying goodbye to the guys, we went back and I got a much needed shower at Lisa's place. I had a great few days there with Lisa, Martin and their four boys, I was treated extremely well and got on well with everyone. They're fantastic people, and I really enjoyed staying with them. Whilst I was there, I was allowed to borrow their Alfa Romeo and go and see some of Adelaide, so I went into town and went to the Aviation Museum, spending a good while there. At other times, Lisa and Josh, eldest son age 19, took me to a lookout on Mount Lofty to see an overview of the city, but unfortunately the cloud was too low and we couldn't see anything! I also went to a film with Josh, and saw one of Ben's (second oldest) basketball matches. The whole 3 days gave me a little bit of an idea of what it would be like to have brothers, so that was pretty cool.
On Saturday morning, I had to get a really early flight to Mackay, and Lisa kindly drove me to the airport at 5.30am. I said thank you and goodbye, and went to get my plane. Once at the other end of the airport, I had a 5 1/2 hour wait for my bus, which I spent reading in the arrivals lounge, and got the bus to Airlie Beach. I checked into my hostel for the night, and I am now waiting for a couple of hours before I go on a sailing trip to the Whitsunday Islands which are supposed to be amazing. I'll let you know how it goes on the next post.
Hope everyone is well, please update me with any of your news from home!
