Great Ocean Road – Teenage Dirtbags

After saying farewell to Luke and Lisa, we embarked upon our next roadtrip.  Will, Carolyn, Toby, Harriet, Katya, Anna, Laura, and I were to conquer the great ocean road.  The Great Ocean Road is a 243 km stretch of road along the south-eastern coast of Australia between the Victorian cities of Torquay and Warrnambool.  The road was constructed to provide work for returning soldiers and dedicated as a Memorial to those killed in the First World War. It is one of Australia’s great scenic coastline drives.

Starting from Melbourne we made tracks for the Princes Highway instead of the Great Ocean Road.  The plan was to save time and drive quickly to our last stop on the Great Ocean Road and work backwards.

First stop; Port Campbell.  The drive to Port Campbell from Melbourne on the Princes Highway was no different to any other drives we’ve done in Australia, lot’s of bush and open space, it saved us heaps of time.  We stayed at Port Campbell Holiday Park – again, we lied about how many campers we had and smuggled a few extras in.  The new recruits to the roadtrip weren’t experienced bums, so setting up camp was a struggle but we got there.. in the end!

Port Campbell was a very small town with a gorgeous small beach, very family orientated.  We were hassled a number of times by the campsite warden as to how many people we actually had on site.  There was no going back after the first time we lied, making an elaborate story up that two of the campers were visiting us from the nearby hostel, the girls weren’t too fond of the situation, apart from Carolyn who surprisingly made the story up!  At one point when the police came on site the girls were almost in tears thinking they’d come to collect us.  The campsite was starting to feel like a nazi concentration camp when I saw a sign on the toilets – “Please spend no more than 3 minutes in the shower or you will be asked to leave” – what the hell?!

We began our drive back east on the great ocean road, stopping at the designated view points.  It was very touristy and well setup, nice boardwalks and viewing decks.  We did exactly what every other tourist does there day in day out and we took exactly the same pictures as every other tourist, it was cool to see first hand but I’m always put off how natural beauty spots are turned in tourist traps.  The drive was immense, breathtaking coastline all along the way.

We decided to stop in Lorne – within 10 minutes Will and I had seen a wild Koala Bear in a tree and were on the beach doing our routine activities.  Everyone else did a great job of finding a free campsite.

The fist leg of the roadtrip had been very grown up and normal, surprising for Will and I.  It wasn’t long before we were back into our stupid antics.  Will, Toby, Chris (who we met up with on the trip), and I were relaxing by the beach  late evening with a footy.  A few of the local teenagers approached us, obviously intoxicated, and inquired to whether we would be interested in going trampolining with them.  Sure thing boys.. we will join you in breaking into the kids seaside trampoline park.  We scaled the fence acting like the 17 year old lads we were hangin with and proceeded in jumping around on the trampolines, it was actually great fun despite how childish it was.

The highlight came when the lookout shouted.. RANGER!!  Everyone shot back over the fence and disappeared into the darkness – all except one girl who couldn’t make it back over due to her intoxicated state.. we never found out what happened to her.  We re-grouped at the skatepark and played footy until the early hours with the teens.  It was great to re-live our teenage years.

Lorne was a relaxed holiday town, because of this it suited the Van life.  We stayed another night and upgraded from the free campsite and moved camp to the beach carpark where we had better amenities, showers and communal BBQs.  It was a great atmosphere on the evening with about 5 other vans in the carpark.  Obviously some of the other Vano’s had been living the lifestlye longer, some a bit too long.  We were entertained with traveling stories, magic tricks, bongo’s and poi.  That final evening in Lorne was pretty cramped in the van with four of us, poor Toby sleeping on the front seats over the handbreak and gear stick.

The final stop on the roadtrip was Cape Otway Light Station, which is the lighthouse featured in a TV program from when I was a kid; Round the twist.  It was also featured in Mad Max.  Australia’s most significant lighthouse, and the oldest surviving lighthouse in mainland Australia.  We were more fascinated with the fact it had been in Round the twist though.

We finished in Melbourne parking in our usual spot in St. Kilda, Addison Street.  Will and I heard that the Aussie Millions Poker Tournament was in town at the Crowne Casino.  Both fairly keen poker players we went to Crowne to see some of the action.  We were too late to register for the tournament but we did see some hands played and saw the odd celeb like Beppe Di Marco from Eastenders (Will’s spot).  Instead we played some cash games, the players there were very serious.  As we looked like travel bums people didn’t take us too seriously.. big mistake!  Over a few nights we cleaned up, enough to last us a good few weeks.