The Great Ocean Road - AGAIN...

So once the waves finally petered out and our sleep pattern finally adjusting to bush life, it was time to head on down the road, And what a road it was. The views were superb and the road fun and challenging to drive with lots of potential for crashes - mostly due to people looking at the views or the endless lines of peeling waves along the coast. The further West we went the more remote and wild it became and when we came upon the the wee windy gravely track down to Johanna we knew we were somewhere special, but after spotting the dark corduroy lines of swell and the long strip of sand and the rolling clouds of sea spray the excitement levels hit a new high. The camp-site it's self was nestled in behind the dunes and after climbing the dunes the vastness and remoteness of the beach became clear.

Wooo Swell

This was a lot sexier in my head.

Sun Bathing seal (insert caption along the lines of the one on the photo above) 

Is that a wave?

Laughing at Mairi slapping her self (she claims there was a fly...)

Going for a spot in the ribbon twirling paraolympics  

Add caption

Our first true Argument when did the sun set...? 

Port Campbell the next day turned out to be a bit of a dump. I say that in reaction to what we had witnessed so far along the road it was in fact probably quite nice but just not up to par with the rest of the road. They also ripped us off for internet and had no phone signal which caused a minor stress in that we were trying to sort out the next stage of our travels, which meant getting in touch with Anna's friend Sam in Melbourne, re booking the hostel in Torquay which again (under instruction) I had managed to booked for the wrong dates. This was probably where we got massively confused about our hire of the car and decided to drop it back a day early...(on purpose of course) and spend Aus Day in Torquay! Smooooth

Noo My Nemesis...Stairs!

Shipwreck Coast

Add caption

Undeterred from our rising confusion we set off back along the road to the 12 Apostles where we were instantly getting Deja Vu due to the hordes of Asian tourists meandering around trying to get stood on. The Apostles were stunning and the view point built out on thin (slightly worryingly eroded) headland gave fantastic views up and down the coast. There were defiantly worth all the elbow digs around the knees while trying to get in the prime spot for a photo with the dying camera battery AGAIN.

The Great Ocean Road.

Hired a car from Rent a Wreck...It was pretty posh compared to the Berlingo, but still a wreck and headed out west, after a quick surf and a drive by visit to the flat Bells Beach (just realised ive been spelling beAch wrong Woopse, :-( turns out i cant spell board/bored either, Im glad my only weakness is in spelling). After stopping in at Lorne (because its my middle name) and finding it had a class wee point break perfect for getting used to the new board. We set about looking for the 'free' camping it turned out to be in the bush-like properly in a bush! On walking/hiking into the camp on the first night we saw in the late afternoon sunshine a real life wild koala, ON THE GROUND. The facts are wrong people, they do come down to drink! but (due to our/my amazing memory skills) had managed to forget to charge the camera. Arrggh AGAIN

First Surf Nerves 

Bells Beach

Proof that its Bells!

We spent the next couple of days surfing, eating pizza and drinking Fat Yack. Life was good (well for me, I had a board! HaHa). Mairi was playing her part as a S.W.A.G. (surfer's, wife and girl friend) well, but was kept entertained by the freakishly small but talented kids who made me feel like a stiff old man in the surf, and possibly the biggest/best ice cream in the world. FACT. We also saw some wild kangaroos in the bush and experienced every night what can only be described as a koala orgie, which was less disturbing than the human neighbours! There was also some fancy birds ;-)

Lorne Right Point Break

Looking Peelywally with our beast of a car and its dodgie clutch!

Free BBQ

The result

The SNAKE at the Erskin Falls, which resembled a water fall far more than the 'phantom falls'

Mairi having a Lara Croft moment.

Couple of hotties

Pretty wee, but still surfable with the aid of jazz hands
Believe it or now this was actually a good wave...

The Great Ocean. (Torquay)

After the heat and confusion of Melbourne we decided to get back to what we did best-cruising about like a pair of gypsies looking for surf and free places to kip. So after consulting a map of sorts we headed on down to Torquay on the internet's assurances it was the best place for surf bargains and hopefully cheap boards. On Arriving we got our selves into the misleadingly named bells beech hostel...bells beech was like 7k away, but being the only hostel we weren't really in a position to argue!? And the search, negotiating and pondering began on what board, where to get it, how much, what conditions were we going to get etc etc

As a brake from the seemingly endless questions and options we went for inspiration (and some time in the air-conditioning) to the surf museum. Was pretty comprehensive when it came to the history of surfboard development, and the history of competitions at Bells Beech.

After a chat with possibly the most humble shaper we came across Wee Jimmy was welcomed into the family. At  5'11", 20 1/2", 2 3/4" rocket with thruster 2+1 fin set up and a big Jimmy Hendrix custom art graphic on the nose.

Jimmy Hendrix

2+1 fins :-S

   

Melbourne!

Hotel discovery! So much going on, so many people- a bit like HK all over again only more dreadlocks and sweatier! It turns out the art of map making hasn't quite filtered through to good people of Melbourne, NORTH is meant towards the top of the page...this is my excuse for getting hopelessly lost in our first excursion in search of food in the rudely hot and humid conditions. It ended up in resorting to basic navigation skills- head down hill and hope to find the sea. Eventually we found the coast and managed to cool off before meandering our way along to St Kilda and the blissful sea breeze! 

Day 2. So after our 'experience' yesterday a helpful staff member was enlisted to draw the route to the tennis on the map and we ventured out again this time more prepared with water snacks and sun-cream to the Melbourne Open. Although I (ewan) have really no idea how tennis works I got completely caught up in the excitement of the day. Our first match we kinda dawndered into just before the players came out, not really knowing who was playing. It turned out to be a really close and exciting match between Mardy Fish and Alenjandro Falla. Some loud mouthed americans infornt of us were giving Fish alot of support and being the favorite naturally we supported Falla-who went on to win, all from our support. After wilting in the evil hot sun and falling victim to the $10 kebab we headed off to watch some girls make some weird noises and dance about in short skirts, kidding! They were very talented, if not slightly scary! The night market apparently finishes at 10pm, so arriving at 9.55 was probably a bit of a mistake, but it looked like it was a lot of fun!

Falla

Fish

Fish getting grumpy

Pretty

Street Dancers on the way home. (Katie you and Shona would have loved these guys)

 

Sydney!

So after braving the formidable public transport in HK with our bags we made it to the airport onto to Sydney. Being picked up AGAIN from the airport by Liz-Anne (my auntie) and enjoying a trendy breakfast on Potts Point and settled into our swanky lodgings (courtesy of Liz-Anne again!). 

Mairi at Bondi...can your hear the sizzling from the burning pale back packer flesh?

Add caption

Botanic Gardens

Pre Birthday Celebrations!

Next adventure?