So it has been over a month since I went to Fraser Island with Brendan and figured I better reflect on the journey for something to read in the future.

Wednesday

• Fly up to Brisbane from Newcastle
• Grab supplies from Woolies
• Crazy lady at Bunnings and $8 camping chairs

I flew up to Brisbane with Jetstar and ended up having a good chat to the guy next to me. He was heading to the Solomon Islands for a week, that explained why he boarded the plane in winter wearing shorts and a t-shirt. Brendan picked me up from the airport and we hit up Woolies to get stocked up on food for our trip. It became apparent that we needed some camping chairs so a quick stop at Bunnings had us sorted. We were greeted with this dear ole lass of a lady who seemed a bit over excited to tell us where the camping chairs were. We followed her directions and found the camping chairs. Although I have a dislike for Bunnings, I can’t complain about the chairs we picked up for $8 each… bargain.

Thursday

• Drive to Hervey Bay
• Get 4WD
• Maheno Shipwreck
• Setup camp
• Steak

An early start at 5:30am in order to drive up to Hervey Bay in time to organise our 4wd and catch the 12:30pm barge. Normally I would do my best to be sleeping at this hour but with the excitement of an adventure Brendan and I were packed and on the road after some oats for breaky. Surprisingly we almost ran over someone walking their dog in the early hours as we reversed out of the driveway. So Brisbane to Hervey Bay was an alright roadtrip of about 4hrs with some technology advanced road signs telling us we were tailgating. We passed an interesting looking pub and a giant Ned Kelly as we arrived into Hervey Bay. A quick lunch and we got the keys to our 4WD after watching a safety DVD. It was a Landrover Discovery with a 2.5L turbo diesel engine supplied with basic camping gear and a gas cooker.

Friday

• Knifeblade Sandblow
• Turrtles
• Didn’t quite make it to Champagne Pools
• Indian Head
• Backpackers

Brrrrrr…. It was a cold night. I didn’t sleep too good but today was our first full day on the island so after a few old man noises we were packed up and off to see some turtles in the wild at a freshwater lake. A quick stop at a lookout to see Knifeblade Sandblow offered a chance for a photo and some knowledge from the information board. Basically the island is made of sand, as the wind blows sand into the forests it kills anything in it’s path. These inland sandblows are created and are constantly moving throughout the island. As for the turtles, the guy we hired the 4WD from told us to “head out to this jetty and clap your hands, you’ll see a shitload of turtles thinkin you’re going to feed them!” Sure enough, there were about 20 turtles bopping their heads looking at what we had to offer them. It was a pretty cool sight.

We then headed back to the main beach and booted it north towards Champagne Pools. As we approached Indian Head there was a large group of 4wd’s that appeared to be getting bogged in the soft sand. It was time to test out the 4wd. Locked diffs, low range and plenty of momentum had us getting through the soft stuff without too much drama. On the other side of Indian Head we were stopped in our tracks as the high tide prevented us from going any further. We’d spent over an hour driving to get this far so we decided to get out and have a look around. Up the top of the headland the view was spectacular.

Nature put on a show for us as we were lucky enough to see a stingray from above and whales breaching out at sea. The quality of backpackers was also worth admiring. Cooking lunch on the beach is fairly relaxing when you consider it’s Friday and most people I know are usually working As we headed down south again we passed a plane parked on the beach on our way to another sandblow.

This place was surreal. A slight crust had formed on top of the sand as the sun had evaporated any moisture and there was plenty of underlying sandstone that crumbled easily. Strangely enough in the middle of what felt like a desert we stumbled across a small stream offering a chance to cool down a bit. The dunes were steep and we felt inclined to run up them for the sake of falling down them. It was worth it.

Another neat camping spot behind the dunes was found, complimented with a stunning sunset. We were in for another cold night so I upgraded to wearing two jumpers in my sleeping bag.

Saturday

• Airstrip
• Lake Wabby
• Lake Birrabeen
• Lake McKenzie
• Dingo Dinner

A few days without a shower and we started to smell pretty bad by this stage so the search for somewhere to swim began. Our first destination was Lake Wabby but there was a bunch of tourists so we powered on to find a disused grass airfield in the middle of the bush. There’s something pretty fun about driving on an airstrip, similar to an episode of Top Gear although it was only dirt and our 4wd’s 0-100km/h performance was nothing to rave about. As we battled the inland tracks Brendan managed to flip the esky upside down after hitting a few consecutive bumps in a row.

Lake Birrabeen was like an oasis. This place was purely awesome. The water was crystal clear with the white sand below. Whilst the temperature was a little chilly, we didn’t care as we frolicked around like it was the first time we’d seen water. I didn’t have my glasses on but I was certain I saw an eel so it was time for some photos and a quick chat to some German tourists. A few minutes drive down the track and we came across a vehicle that was stuck on a tree root. Our Landrover looked like a monster truck compared to this city slicker softroader. Brendan and I were able to give him a push to get unstuck as he scraped the undercarriage of his vehicle. It wasn’t long until we caught up to him as he was driving more cautiously and powered on to Lake McKenzie.

The water in Lake McKenzie had the same appeal as Lake Birrabeen but it was ruined with commercialisation. Whilst good for families with kids, disabled people or the elderly who need a dunny close by. The timber boarding, planted trees and walkways just didn’t do it for me. I felt like we almost had to pay for parking. A quick photo, a glimpse of any talent and we were out of there to visit Central Station as the sun was setting. Central Station is an old loggery village housed within the tall timbers of the rainforest. The scenery was different to the rest of the island with huge trees, ferns and vines. It was starting to get cold and we needed to find a campsite, off to the main beach to scout the dunes.

Our last night on the island. Dinner included a mix of everything that was left and surprisingly turned out really good. So good infact that the local Dingoes were onto us before we’d finished setting up the tent. At first it was a bit alarming… until I got my camera out of the car. The island is known for the Dingoes and it was quite a memorable way to spend our last night watching this guy forage around our campsite. As tempting as it is to feed them, it’s stricly prohibited and can lead to attacks. He seemed more intimidated by us as we moved closer to shut the door and left us alone. It was another cold night, I think I went to bed with 3 jumpers and 2 pairs of pants. I really need to invest in a sleeping bag for winter.

Sunday

• West Coast
• Mud crabs
• Rainforest Walk
• Barge
• Drive back to Brisbane

Brendan’s Dominos skills came in handy as he made Dampa with honey for breaky. Fantastic. A little tired but we had to make the most of our last day on the island so we hit the inland track to visit the east coast. We arrived at this old timber jetty and slipway for a boatshed. You can see that we were on an island from the sheer drop into the water! It was a nice sunny day to be out exploring. There was an abundance of mud crabs between our toes.

After some messing around we had a bit of time to walk the boardwalk through the rainforest at Central Station before boarding the barge to return to the mainland.

Overall it was an awesome trip.

3360 x 1050 Wallpapers

More photos in the gallery –>

Firstly… would you believe this photo was taken with my Samsung Galaxy S mobile phone! I thought that all of my weekly photos would be from my Pentax K-X but the camera in this phone is impressive and having it in my pocket all the time is handy to capture the moments. Lara did the the MS ride from Sydney to Wollongong. A 90km stretch to raise funds. I would have liked to do it but needed to be focused for an exam at uni. Anyway, we stayed in Wollongong and got some takeaway Thai food and found this bench near the Flagstaff Hill Lighthouse on sunset. The beach looked awesome, but there’s something not right about a giant polluting steel works on the waterfront at Port Kembla. Time to go down the South Coast where the landscape is untouched… hopefully the water isn’t too cold.

The rope on the front deck of the Rivercat taken with the nifty fifty.

Whilst back in the mountains for a break from uni I got some mates to come on a photography adventure into Sydney with the only real purpose to see the  Sydney Morning Heralds 1440 Photos exhibition at the State Library.

We were armed with:

• Pentax K100D Super + SMC Pentax-DAL 1:3.5-5.6 18-55mm AL
• Pentax K-X + SMC Pentax-A 1:2  50mm
• Canon 500D + Canon EF 50mm f1.8 II

To enhance the photography adventure we caught the Ferry from Parramatta. Although it was actually Rydalmere as the water level was too low for the ferry. It was about 50mins to Circular Quay with a better view than what Cityrail could offer.

Once off the ferry we blended in with our DSLR’s, a lot like ninjas. It didn’t feel as awkward to take random photos as about 80% of everyone else in the city was doing the same thing. I used the cloning technique that I had previously learned to create the skateboarding photo and also utilised some HDR techniques for the Centrepoint shot.

The exhibition was held at the State Library. The majority of photos were significant moments captured in time from around the world. A lot of the photos came across as being in the ‘right place at the right time’ but the text detailing each photo was both interesting and sometimes disturbing. As the city lights switched on and the day turned to night it led to some interesting night photos.

We couldn’t go into the city and avoid taking photos of the Harbour Bridge or the Opera House. The 50mm prime lenses came into the spotlight in the lower light conditions.

A long walk to Chinatown led us to an array of restaurants with plenty of Chinese girls trying desperately to coax us into their restaurant. It was slightly annoying getting a menu shoved in your face every 3 metres. The way to deal with them was to simply take a photo of them, they didn’t like this too much. After reviewing some of the menus we were still hesitant on where to go so we consulted to the 20c coin toss. She didn’t like that either, but it was her lucky day and we made our way up for the $16.50 per head banquet that consisted of:

Entree:

• Springs Rolls
• Dim Sims
• Chicken & Corn Soup

Main:

• Satay Chicken
• Mongolian Lamb
• Beef & BBQ

The only thing missing from Chinatown was dessert but we had that covered and took a walk to Darling Harbour to arrive at Pancakes on the Rocks just before closing time to finish the night off.

Actually, there was an old drunk on the train that provided us with Cityrail entertainment for a good half hour that finished the night.

David and I went and had a look at Supanova. I didn’t really know anything about it but figured it’d be an interesting day out that was guaranteed to get some interesting photos. We lined up for nearly 2hrs before getting inside. As you can see from the photos, the only thing interesting was the amount of people who had incredible costumes.

Once inside it was a bit underwhelming. Just a bunch of stalls selling crap you could buy on ebay. There didn’t seem to be any real “event” as such. There was some amateur wrestling going on in the centre.

Unfortunately we didn’t get to see any famous people, it would have meant waiting around for even longer and I just couldn’t be stuffed. It was a good day out though, saw some crazy costumes, plenty of hot chicks and people geekier than me.

More photos in the gallery –>

As Brendan was down from Queensland for a few days we ventured out into the wilderness on a geocaching adventure with Ben. The photo above is taken at Flat Rock near Wentworth Falls in the Blue Mountains. I didn’t have a tripod but set my camera to manual mode and did my best at getting a sequence of shots. It was later stitched together in Adobe Photoshop. I like how Ben and Brendan can be seen on the rocks as it gives a sense of scale to the mountains.

Glenrock_with_Noor_2010-03-25_18_06_24_

GPX Report (PDF)

Date of track: 25.3.2010
Start time: 18:07:32
End time: 19:20:43
Total track time: 1hr 13m 11s
Total flat distance: 9.5 km
Average speed: 9.8 km/h

Noor called in on his way back from Smiths Lake and we went for a ride out at Glenrock National Park on the coast near Newcastle.

We headed off around 6:30pm for another beach week, this time the destination was 4hrs south of Sydney. As my iPod’s hard drive has died, we hooked up the netbook for music. We had a quick stop in Bowral for LPG just as the servo was closing then onto Kangaroo Valley. Aside from getting stuck behind a few slow people and a truck doing 20km/h it was pretty smooth sailing until we were behind a diesel Patrol blowing black fumes our way. I saw him swerve for something and by the time I saw it, it had moved another 30cm and it was too late. It was an echidna walking slowly across the road. My right tyres gave it a double whack. Bugger. There was no damage to the car, just a dent in Australian wildlife. We did joke about whether I got spikes in my tyres but a quick check in Nowra showed no carnage.

In Nowra we experienced appalling service from Oporto. Attached is our rant.

We passed through Ulladulla and not much was happening until we came around a corner and spotted a possum on the road. Yet again, I wasn’t going to swerve and thought he’d move. He didn’t. We clipped his tail. Upon arriving at Durras I started to think that the likelihood of hitting a kangaroo next was pretty high so we took it easy through the bush. There were plenty of rabbits about and the amount of bugs we had already taken out would be in the vicinity of 500.

Noor and Ross were knackered after working so we called it a night early. Around 11pm.

Monday

We started the day off with a look at the beach only to find it was completely flat. No waves at all. We decided to make the first swim of the trip over at Cookies Beach hoping that there would be some more waves. It turned out to be pretty much the same, just with some more seaweed. The water temperature was surprisingly warm considering we were about 8hrs south from our last swim at Seal Rocks which was freezing. So as we frolicked in calm conditions there were some little schools of fish swimming around and the occasional wave that could be body surfed. Ross was feeling exhausted from a small bout of the sickness so he went to lay down for a bit, trying to reduce the spinning waves and clouds.

We headed into Batemans Bay for some lunch. Fish & Chips at Innes Boatshed was on the menu. Delicious fish as we sat out the back and overlooked the Clyde River with the usual flock of seagulls and pelicans awaiting for a dropped chip. We did the big woollies shop and got some essentials for dinner. Just as we were leaving Noor came up with a great idea to get some lilo’s. (Inflatable mattresses to relax on the water). Unfortunately we could only find one. The lady laughed at us.

The afternoon swim was at Durras Beach just across the road from the caravan. The beach was still flat but we took the boards over and attempted some surfing. Although we suck, Ross and I were able to get up a few times. We figure that by the end of the week we should be able to “surf”. We went for a walk to the lakes boat ramp and were surprised how full of water it is. The depth gauge was almost underwater indicating about 1m difference from when I was last down here. It doesn’t seem to be open to the ocean at the moment but we’ll go for a walk and suss that out later.

Back at the van we got a fire BBQ started and cooked up some thick cut steaks with pepper seasoning to perfection.

Tuesday

We woke up a little later than we had anticipated we would today. The usually scorching heat making it impossible to sleep in later than 9am didn’t arrive until nearly 10. After a home cooked meal of bacon, eggs combined into a bacon and egg “Mc Yummy” on toasted English muffins, we cruised over to check out the beach for an early morning surf. Conditions proved to be inadequate with the ocean accurately reflecting a washing machine during its wash cycle, or “choppy” for those of you needing more mediocre and simple analogies because of your inapt creativity.

Instead Noor and Pete went for a float in the lake on the lilo and surfboard to waste away part of the morning while I hung on the shore chilling to music. My logic was if there were no waves to surf, what was the point in floating in dirty water doing nothing?

Anyway, its the heat of the day at lunch time now. We’re about to go on another road trip into Batemans and pick up some Bait for our fishing adventure tonight. Will get back to you shortly…

Chicken stirfry, forgot the chicken. Trip into Batemans Bay.

Wednesday

Woke up at 8am, Pete & Ross went body boarding in huge surf.

Noor and Peter went for another float in the lake. This time we took sunnies and did it in more style.

As part of the local scenic attractions at Durras is the caves on the beach located North of Durras Lake. The cave is pretty awesome in that to get inside you have to do a commando style army crawl for about 10m until it opens up into a cavity that you can actually stand up in. Noor had his little torch to light the way for us. Once inside it became apparent that we weren’t the only ones inside the cave. A high pitch noise and flapping was the sound of a bat telling us to leave his domain. So we did, crawled out of the top of the cave and sat down for a scenic view of the beach and cracked open some ginger beers.

Fishing on sunset on Durras Lake.

Ross: 1x 43cm Flathead 2x  Small Bream

Noor: 1x Small Flathead

Peter: 1x 38cm Flathead 2x Small Bream

Another fire BBQ cookup.

Thursday

Fishing off the beach sucked. Went to Emily Miller Beach, tried fishing off the rocks but got hooked on rocks and lost hooks. Peter got talking to a local dude and he gave us 2 fresh lobsters.

Went swimming at Durras beach. Had some decent waves. Ross was dominating the ocean on his surfboard and Peter had a crack at a few on the body board. We were later amused by the amount of fish swimming around the rocks and Pete thought it was a great time to test out his snorkel.

Seafood cookup for dinner. Everyone fell asleep with the telly still on.

Friday

Went for a swim in the morning but the surf was pretty spastic. Waves were going everywhere.

We left around 1:30 eager to be at Kangaroo Valley Bakehouse before closing time (4:00pm).

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We left the rain and headed north on Sunday night stopping at Newcastle to sort out Pete’s lease and get some essentials from woolies. Another stop for Maccas then onwards to Smiths Lake. The drive was was good with minimal traffic. We arrived around 11pm and setup the WDTV for some comedy entertainment of The IT Crowd and South Park to relax after the drive.

Monday

More South Park then a trip into Forster for a big mammoth grocery shop to last the week then off to the beach and a spot of fishing to take us to dinner time, making the best of the weather and sunshine!

The beach turned out to be psycho with a massive swell. We had to stick with knee deep frolicking but even that didn’t last long as the seaweed was getting churned up and we were out of there to organise a bbq. Our bbq was a solid cookup with steak, spuds & salad although we were bombarded with kookaburras and funny turkey looking things.

Ross is making a delicious home made chocolate pudding for dessert to get us started with super desserts.

Tuesday

We woke up about 9am to another gorgeous, sunny day. Checked the surf report online while we watched a selection of music videos. Pete strolled in last and we decided to make pancakes for breakfast. Ross whipped up the mix and Noor took over with the spatula to cook the little suckers up. Some lemon, sugar, bananas and a copious amount of maple syrup later we were all ready to hit the beach.

We thought we’d better take advantage of the good weather so we headed out to Seal Rocks. We brought along our collection of high priced cameras and took some photos of the Sugarloaf Point lighthouse.

The water looked gorgeous from high above the beach and it was. We spent a good hour body surfing and another on the beach soaking up the sun before we decided to head home for some nachos.

Nachos was a really late lunch / dinner at about 5:30pm. We ran out of time to get bait and go fishing so we opted for a tourist walk around Forster to get some photos on sunset. We walked out to the end of the breakwall and snapped a few night photos then on the way back we found a small geocache hidden in a gazebo type of thing. It was only a small one so no treasure was found.

We headed back to the house and watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall followed by season 2 of The Inbetweeners.

Wednesday

Woke up and had breakfast whilst watching Bad Boys 2. The morning dissappeared and we lost a few more hours cooking fajitas for lunch. We had to do a quick trip ino Forster to refuel the car and pickup some bait for an attempt at fishing. Once back at the house we loaded up with rods and headed out to Sandbar for a fishing adventure that lasted about 2 casts. The beach was pulling strongly to the right and the wind wasn’t helping our casting. Within a few minutes our sinkers were getting washed up onto the sand. Dissappointed but still keen we turned around and threw a line into Smiths Lake. A can of pepsi helped us contemplate our next move which was to reel in the lines and jump in the water. We couldn’t find a channel that went more than waist deep, even though we walked/crawled/swam over 200m towards the centre of the lake. As it was so shallow, the water temperature was beautiful. We stayed there till the sunset and managed to snap these photos with the little Samsung U10.

Back at the house we cooked up another epic meal being a korma curry.

Thursday

We got ourselves up out of bed a little earlier and were organised to go swimming by about 11. We took a drive out to Seal Rocks as we knew the beach was pretty well protected from the big swells. The water was incredibly nice, there were no rips, currents, seaweed or giant waves to deter us from the water. It was a very leisurely swim with good waves for body surfing and it wasn’t long till we had to observe 5 bikinis being paraded on the sand. As we were floating around in the crystal clear waters, a massive ray came within 10m of us and headed towards Ross. A few girly screams later and we managed to avoid any major carnage. The fish life was incredible, birds were divebombing little baitfish whilst a pack of dolphins swam by and no doubt took their share of fish. There were also larger fish, perhaps whiting that were visible in the waves and at one point an entire school swam beneath our feet, literally hundreds heading in a tight pack towards the rocks. I felt like I was swimming in an aquarium but there were no signs of sharks

I also had the action cam which can go underwater, so we did a bit of exploring around the rocks to see what lived beneath the surface. Unfortunately I didn’t really see anything other than seaweed. Noor and I scrambled up on the rocks and enjoyed the view whilst Ross went to explore some photo locations with the possibility of bumping into some bikinis. Back on the beach we cooled our oranges in the surf by playing catch. Oranges float really well so you can chuck them out to sea and they come back. This entertained us for long enough for the oranges to cool after sitting in the sun. They were good oranges as well, no seeds but juicy. This was later washed down with some ginger beer. Something about salt water, citrus and ginger that tastes great. Noors feet got roasted by the sun.

Once the bikinis left we decided to hit the road as the scenery diminished. On the way back to the house we stopped by the local butcher and picked up some snags for a late bbq lunch. We cooked down at the Smiths Lake boatramp and observed the sunset. A secondary stop at the butcher on the way back to the house was needed for some chicken breasts which would later be turned into chicken pajamas with a little handywork from masterchef Ross. Whilst preparing dinner we watched a few music videos then fired up The Girl Next Door. We all agreed that Elisha Cuthbert should be in more movies.

PROBLEM

We ran out of ice cream! It was an emergency trip into Forster with a few photos along the way.

After an act of cold cock humour on the fridge door we had to settle with Connoisseur Caramel Honey Macadamia Ice Cream that also happens to hold the title of best ice cream of 2008-2009. Zoom, back to the house to cookup the chicken. We added breadcrumbs, pasta sauce, ham & grated cheese on top. 40mins in the oven and it was cooked to perfection. Once we got our protein overload it was time for one last epic super dessert. This one included chocolate pancakes, ice cream, sprinkles, honeycomb, banana and maple syrup. Ross’s recipe is up there competing with Pancakes on the Rocks.

As we only got 3/4 through The Girl Next Door we watched the ending then finished the night watching Fight Club.

Friday

After the success of Thursdays swim at Seal Rocks we wasted no time in getting back out there to frolick in the water. There was a lack of bikinis this time and the water dropped about 4 degrees overnight. It was cold.. to the point where you could cut glass on Noors nipples. It wasn’t that nice no matter how clear the water was. The lack of waves meant we were standing around a lot more which kinda sucked. We opted to scavenge the rocks whilst Ross took photos at the previously scouted locations. It wasn’t long till we spotted some crabs and after annoying them for a bit they decided to walk across the sand to the other rocks. I couldn’t help myself and had to pick them up. I felt like Bear Grylls in a Man vs Wild stunt, although the crabs were hardly a meal as you can see from this photo.

As always, the last day of roadtrips suck. We had to pack up and clean up the house. Load everything back into the car then make our way back towards Sydney. After a 5 day sunny stretch we travelled about 50 kilometres to what seemed like a backlog of 5 years of moisture in the atmosphere. The clouds had explosive diarrhea that concentrated on the car. I always thought that the number 2 wiper setting was a little excessive however in this downpour I needed an extra notch to crank it up to 3. As we passed spun out cars, people with hazard lights on, cars pulled over, zero visibility of lanes and had the occasional aqua plane we stopped at Maccas & the servo to refuel ourselves and the car.

After about 20 minutes we thought the rain had eased only to find that a further 10 minutes of driving, we were back into it like the world was against us. At one point we were down to 60km/h on a three lane 110km/h freeway. Hectic and epic at the same time. Amongst all of this mayhem there were still people driving like they had seen The Fast and the Furious for the first time attempting to get infront of the clouds (that stretched from Queensland to Victoria) like a P-plater in a shitbox car with a milo tin exhaust. Just as the clouds ran out of liquid and the full force of the storm eased off a little and we were off the freeway, hooray we made it. It wasn’t long till we had a typical Camry driver try and run into us by pulling out infront of us. I should have seen it coming, I need to automate my reactions to something like this…

IF { visibility == Toyota Camry }
THEN hit the brakes
ELSE yell abuse

Yes, I do have a thing against Camry drivers.

We did make it home safe, although it was one of the most memorable drives I’ve ever done. We have to look back at how lucky we were to have left in a psycho storm and return in a mammoth storm and enjoy the inbetween bit which was perfect.

FULL PHOTO GALLERY HERE –>

My brother and I were expecting to last about 30mins and give up after multiple bruises… however, I was able to ice skate with reasonable confidence! I couldn’t believe it as I whizzed around lap after lap I was in amazement that I hadn’t fallen down. Being 6’6″ the long legs were able to get me going with some decent speed. As usual, the youngest (my cousin) was way better than us and blended in with the groups going around. David managed a fair few laps before he ended up with blisters on his feet. The only problem I had was coming to a stop, although the walls worked pretty well. They ran a limbo & dance contest, I had no chance competing against kids that were up to the height of my knees at limbo so I opted for the sit down and hot chips then back on the ice for a few more laps. There were a couple of girls practicing some dance moves on the ice that provided light entertainment.

What we thought was going to be a painful experience turned out to be an awesome day with the hours flying by.

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Download the high quality version here – 877×480 H.264 MP4 – 233MB

Finally a sleep in! We arose to the heat of a 40 degree day around 10am. It was too hot for a walk to the cave and the water was too cold for a swim. Instead we had a look at the sites that South Durras had to offer. The wind had kicked up making the ocean quite choppy. Not the best for photos but it definitely cooled us down.

The highlight of today was supposed to be Kangaroo Valley Bakery. After cleaning and packing everything we didn’t get moving till 2:30pm. This led us to Kangaroo Valley at about 4:30pm to find that they had closed

Final Thoughts

The Great Ocean Roadtrip has come to an end. Although we didn’t complete the entire Great Ocean Road we still managed to see plenty of what Australia has to offer.

The highlights of the trip include:

• The Big Ram – Goulburn
• The Big Bridge – Gundagai
• The City of Melbourne and Taco Bill
• Pancakes @ Torquay
• The Big Jetty – Lorne
• Split Point Lighthouse – Aireys Inlet
• Koalas in the Wild – Cape Otway
• 12 Apostles – Port Campbell
• Loch & Gorge – Port Campbell
• The Cold Night of Camping – Port Campbell
• The Lookout – Lakes Entrance
• The Wildlife – Durras
• The best company you can ask for with the most awesome mates.

The size of Australia became a shock to all of us, even after talking to people and reading the maps, it was only until we attempted to drive a portion of it that it became apparent how big this country really is. The Commodore clocked up 2625 kilometres over 5.5 days, that is basically driving around Tasmania twice.

A total spend of $208 on fuel, with about 90% of the trip running LPG. It was frustrating seeing the cost of LPG vary from 44.9c to 80c per litre. This is something that gets on Petes nerves. We were travelling on major highways and if there was a 46% difference in the cost of petrol there would be a war.

I’m absolutely kicking myself after looking at trackme seeing how close we were to Bells Beach but turned around thinking we were on the wrong road.

We missed a few things along the way, but there are no regrets. We set out to see the 12 Apostles and at that we succeeded. There were so many sights along the way that added to this spectacular journey where in the end, we just ran out of time to see them all. It was just a matter of compromise where those other things will just have to be left “till next time”. It was a fantastic roadtrip and a great way to start the holiday season.

Reasonably easy drive today compared to yesterday. We were fortunate enough to have a good nights sleep at the Hostel at Lakes Entrance, so the drive to Durras was no where near as tiresome as the drive from Port Campbell to Lakes Entrance yesterday.

We left at a good hour of the morning, around 9.30 we were on the road after a quick stop to get some supplies from the local Safeway, and pose for our boy band photo at the lookout overlooking Lakes Entrance. It was an overcast morning but still with a lot of heat coming through. We discovered yesterday that our inverter that we used to power the laptop finally died on us. So, the laptop music was out of action for the day, instead we relied on the 2 MP3 players and CD collection to get us through to Durras.

The trip today was quite uneventful. But breathed a sigh of relief when we finally crossed over into the NSW border.

We stopped for Lunch at the quiet town of Eden, each having a pie and Caramel Slice (Pete and Ross) or Vanilla slice (if you were Noor). After this it was back on the road again for the final leg of the Journey. We passed through Bega seeing the cheese factory and plenty of cows.

We stopped in Batemans Bay for more supplies then a quick detour to Big Bit Lookout to get our bearings. It was very hazy but made the mountains look interesting. Snapped a few photos, then it was back in the car to Pete’s caravan in South Durras.

Once there, it was a home away from home. We got setup relatively quickly and spent a good portion of the afternoon relaxing after such a busy week. A quick walk over to the beach and up to where the lake meets the sea was required to lift the spirits. It wasn’t long till it felt like we were part of a Man vs Wild episode as we were bombarded with nature. Plenty of roos, rabbits and birds around to raise the killer instinct, however we had already settled on some prime rump steak.

Unfortunately there was a total fire ban so the firebecue was out of action for our 500g thick cut slabs of tender beef. We cracked out the electric bbq and frypan as an alternative to a proper bbq whilst Ross made up a fantastic seasoning out of Pete’s Dads extensive spice collection. Using the electric bbq made things interesting as we quickly learned that the caravan was limited to how much power could be drawn upon… after tripping the safety switch a few times.

Once we had finished eating like kings, the possums came out to clean the plates and we spent some time trying to get a good photo. It was nice not to be rushing dinner and sleep. Many episodes of Arrested Development were watched till we decided to have a look at the beach at night after hearing the crashing of the waves get louder. The clouds had begun to clear and the stars were shining bright enough to see the band of the Milky Way. The whitewash of the waves was lighting up from the phosphorescent in the water and kicking the sand would make it sparkle.

Alright, day 4. Where do we begin!

Last night we had a great dinner and chat over coffee, chilling out discussing the highlights of the day and our next morning’s move before bed. Our sleep after this was… not so good. It was freezing and the vast layers of clothing to keep us warm barely made an impact on the 5degree ambient temperature of the night outside. Noor and Ross were regretting bringing only a summer sleeping bag (based on last weeks 40 degree temperatures in the mountains and Adelaide) and warmer clothing. However, the new day brought warmer temperatures of 30 degrees and with windows down and music cranked, made for some good road trippin.

We decided that we were pressed for time. Instead of travelling all the way along the great ocean road like we had planned, we turned around at Port Campbell and started our departure back along the way we had came checking out all the things we had missed on the way.

In our first sight seeing endeavor we stopped to see a blow hole and the thunder cave. Whilst walking along the “Shipwreck Coast” along the paved paths we saw plenty of sings warning us that the area was unstable. It wasn’t till we got to the lookout that we realised we had been walking on top of a massive cave that had been eroded underneath the surface 100m inland from the sea by the battering of the water. It was an amazing site, a deep hollow that dropped 40m to the sea level that was hidden amongst the scrubs. It only became visible once standing on the viewing platforms and some restricted areas .

The cliffs were spectacular, shear drops to the ocean below carved by years of erosion.

As we realised how much we were struggling for time it was time to push on. We stopped a couple of times for a quick photo and to relieve some of the car sickness that Pete and Noor were dealing with (checking out a few waterfalls and a grave yard in the mean time) as we made our way back to the start of the Great Ocean Road. It wasn’t long till we hit Torquay again for some lunch. This was a disappointment, the burgers & chips were hardly worth remembering or eating for that matter, but when you’re really hungry…

That was about it in terms of excitement of the day, except that our inverter died and blew  a fuse for the 12volt cigarette lighter in the car. We fixed that, but found that we can’t use the inverter anymore, therefore our source of Laptop Music is restricted to the life of the battery, which is reaching the end of its usable life also. The rest was driving. We were privy to a Melbourne traffic jam at around 5.30 which slowed our progress dramatically. During this time, we lost our tracker for about an hour because of the Melbourne tunnel.

Tomorrow we are doing the same basic thing as today, driving to Durras to have some relaxation from all the traveling before a casual drive back to the mountains. With this in mind we decided to spend the night in a YHA-Lakes Entrance for a good nights sleep rather than risk another cold nights sleep where the recorded temperatures were colder than we got at Port Campbell.

So thats us for tonight. About to have another coffee and chillout.

Looking forward to seeing you all in a day or so.

Day 3 of the journey, today we should see the coast. Just about to leave the Hotel and get the car.

After negotiating the city with its “Turn right to turn left” retardedness, we arrived on the express way headed to our breakfast destination of Torquay.  One thing that we have found whilst driving is that with all this technology, you still can’t rely on it. Nothing beats a man’s intuition and sense of direction. According to GPS we were heading in the correct direction until it started giving us turns that didn’t exist. So second consultation on “Trackme” identified that we were on a highway that hadn’t been built yet. this screen shot shows we are in the middle of a vacant paddock, next to a suburban estate. Anyway, after a bit of negotiating, we found our way back to Torquay.

After arriving, we setup a late brunch at 12pm, consisting of Pancakes overlooking the beautiful Torquay bay. During this time we embarked on some “Hard Core Parkour” on the kids play equipment. Stay tuned for uploaded footage later. We are now on the great ocean road embarking on the rest of the journey. Current destination: Anglesea.

A little further on we came across the Split Point Lighthouse which is known for the filming of Round the Twist. A few photos and the trip continued along the southerly coast of Australia. We passed Apollo Bay where we picked up some essential supplies from IGA and the local independent butcher. We grabbed some marinated lamb chops and a few snags. A bit further down the road we took the turn off to Otway Lighthouse only to be denied entry even though we arrived 15minutes before closing time, bastards.

We chucked a uturn and headed back to the main road only to be stopped by giant drop bears. We stopped and took some photos of real live Koalas, living in their wild habitat which was actually pretty cool. There were a few of them kicking around in the trees. From here we made our way to the 12 apostles.

However… we got stuck behind a campervan doing 30-40km/h in a 100km/h zone with blatant disregard to the signposted “Slow drivers pull off here” and “Be courteous to following drivers”. This went on for approximately 20mins and was driving us nuts. Also being on the Great Ocean Road, there’s not a lot of straight road for overtaking, but when we did get a chance it was time to open up the LPG powered commodore with fresh tyres. The fun lasted for approximately 20mins till we realised we had to switch to petrol as the “Distance Till Empty” got as low as 7kms.

We ventured on and found the signs for the 12 apostles. As you can imagine, it’s a popular destination so we weren’t the only ones there with our cameras. There was a carpark and some decent amenities so we parked the car and grabbed our camera gear.

I have to say, the 12 Apostles are a pretty special sight. As you walk over the hill, towards the red cliffs you can really see what all the fuss is about. Arriving at around 6pm as we did, the sun was about to go down so we had just enough time to take a few practice snaps and get the cameras set for the “golden hour”, that time when the sun is just setting and the light is perfect for capturing the focal point of the trip. It was a bit of a clamber to secure a good vantage spot for snapping the sunset but we managed to claim a raised platform to set the tripod on.

Once the sun had set it was time to find a camp site. A 10 minute drive into Port Campbell we came across a caravan park and camp ground. The old bloke who runs the place didn’t want to let us in because he was cranky that his dinner was interrupted by our arrival, however with some gentle persuasion the forces of capitalism overcame his objections and he saw fit to assign us a campsite. With tents set up and after changing into some warm clothes (its freezing down here) we walked up to the ‘camp kitchen’ to cook up the steaks ‘n’ snags we purchased in Apollo Bay.

So day #3 is coming to a close. We’re gonna spend the rest of it with a coffee and a chat before we hit the hay. We’ve got a bit of driving to do tomorrow so we are planning for an early exit.

Until then…