Splashing In Puddles of Sand

THE ROAD TRIP

So here's the latest update on my adventures! Michelle and I bored at work one day decided we'd take a road trip, so off we went. We rented a camper van and took off on a 12 hour drive to Melbourne.

Now I must say Michelle and I make the worst possible combination as travel buddies...simply because we are both trouble makers. From getting complaints from our neighbours, getting questioned by police, stealing chairs from restaurants when we are drunk and on our way home, even insisting on making our own pizza at our local pizza place...we always get up to some sort of trouble, especially while drunk.

So we get our van and drive back to Bondi, load it with alcohol and junk food, and hit the road. We didnt really think we would need a map. Big mistake. It takes us 2 hours to get out of sydney. Finally on the highway we hit the gas...and hear police sirens. Thankfully they were pulling over someone else, we've had enough encounters with sydney police already. As we pass through toll bridge Michelle gets in the wrong lane and goes through the prepaid lane...so we have to call up and pay a fine! The trip was doomed from the start!

After about 9 hours of driving we were going to stay at a campsite, it was 11 pm and we were very tired and had our fill of stopping off at every McDonalds along the way. So we pick a nice looking site from the camping book that came with our van. We pull off the highway, drive round in circles...no campsite. So back on the highway, start drivign to the next one--and last one--on the map before we hit melbourne. It was a truck stop. Literally a lane on the side of the highway with all teh truckers. I couldnt help thinking about Wolf Creek and we both knew we wouldnt sleep, so we hopped back in the car and found another place about 10 minutes later. The same sort of thing, a trucker stop, but a little less creepy. We climbed into the back, saying we probably wouldnt sleep but we had to stop drivign for a while. Within two minutes we are both fast asleep. We wake up with the sun beating down, all the trucks gone...we slept till 9 am.

So we spend the next day seeing the sights of Melbourne and staying at a real campsite. The next day we head for the Great Ocean Road. One of the best drives in the world apparently. It was really cool and amazing weather for it. We saw the lighthouse from Around the Twist, that show we used to watch when we were kids. We walked up to is singing the theme song (have you ever, ever felt like this...when strange things happen, are you going round the twist!) Funniest moment was getting to the main attraction--the 12 apostles--around 5 pm. We had seen *AMAZING* pictures of it at sun set, so we decide to get into our van and wait for the sun to go down. one hour...two hours....three hours...finally the sun sets at about 8 pm. We run back to them only to see the sun setting NO WHERE NEAR the bloody rocks. So we have to laugh because what else can we do. We get back in to our van and drive back to Torquay...on old country roads with no phone reception, running low on petrol, no houses in site. Typical. We roll in with the petrol lamp on.

We visit Bells Beach the next day, home of surfing in Australia...on our way home that night we hear a surfer got attacked by a shark. Good thing we cant surf. Then after searching for Brighton Beach we finally found it, snapped some pics and had to head back home. A 11 hour drive in 36 degree heat with no air conditioning...not fun. But the trip as a whole was great! I miss our camper van!

posted by Oreo @ 6:21 AM