GOR Road Trip!!

bloggy bloggy bloggy!!

OI!! OI!! OI!!

yo yo yo blog fans!! I'm about to bring you right up to date with our movements and situation. Let you know the 411 on this ting! In Adelaide right now. Sweating in our air-con dorm. I last wrote about our visit to Melbourne. We took a car from there to here on The Great Ocean Road. Amazing time. So I'll tell ya all about it!

The road trip started with a bang.... Literally. That was the sound of an old guy reversing his car into ours. Literally about 3hrs after picking the car up!! We didn't even hit our first camp site. We were about 3 seconds from the site, and I saw a car stopped in the middle of the road. I stopped - He reversed - I beeped - He kept reversing - I beeped - He banged into us. I kept beeping.... Was one of those "had to laugh" moments as we were just talking about bad luck with hire companies, car insurance, and all that other satanic shiz! The girls didn't see the funny side. But luckily me and Cat have plenty of experience in this situation. Anyway, we paid for the first camp site. Was a bit expensive. But the next day after stopping into some of the information sites, we got a list of cheap and free sites to stay on for our next few stops. The Great Ocean Road begun, and it was amazing. It's probably the best thing I've done in Australia so far. The views you got, the waterfalls, and the walks we did were beautiful. Camping was fun. We saw loads of wild life. Was just a really good experience. 

On one of our first stops: "Have you ever, ever felt like this...." YES! We saw the lighthouse from Around The Twist! That show was epic. Much better than Neighbours! Probs the best show to ever come out of Oz. Apart from Summer Heights High - naturally.

Calamity Nats pitched her tent on a nest of bull ants one night. She got bit on the foot. If you don't know Nats, she always injures her feet in some way. This makes it funny. Tradition. 

Most nights we stayed in dark free camp sites that looked like a rapist murderers dream. We drank goon, and cooked Kanga Bangas on disposable BBQs. The stars at night were amazing! So bright....... So tight...... One day after walking back from a BBQ in the evening, we were talking and a family of kangaroos hopped right past us. We just stood there in a shocked silenced. I'm pretty sure that was the first time we all saw wild (alive) kangaroos. We also saw our first wild Koalas on road. We stopped off at this recommended area, and we saw one, awake, eating, literally in touching distance by our heads. He didnt mind us. People were feeding him and touching him. Then 6,000 Asian tourists came off a bus with their cameras and it was game over. Super funky fresh though.

Towards the back end of the trip we stopped off at the "12 Apostles". These are like big rocks that stand out of the sea. They're like the "post card" image of the Great Ocean Road. They were really cool. Also, Loch Ard Gorge, and The Bay Of Islands were stop offs just after it. Had a beautiful beach, and great scenery from the cliffs you can walk around.

After the Great Ocean Road came to an end, we diverted up to The Grampians. Which is a national park made up of woods, mountains, and lots of wild life. It's kinda how you imagine Australia from back at home. Very dry and red, very Woof Creek. The Grampians are also my favourite thing ive done here, if you count it as a separate thing to the GOR. We hiked up to some really high cliff tops, and had awesome views. We also did a nature walk in the evening. Saw LOADS more kangaroos. And other animals. I got this sick photo of Natalie and Cat walking through a field, with a family of kangaroos hopping right past them. I'll be sure to put that on Facebook at some point. Other animals spotted includes: koalas, Lizards and Dragons, Snakes, Emu's, Seals, Penguins, Bats, Possums, Gidgee Stinks, Rabbits, Deer, Parrots, Echidna's and FLIES! Lots of bloody flies!! Arggh! We saw more or less every animal listed above in dead form too (mostly road kill) I'm pretty sure we saw a few dead Dingos. No alive ones though.

Eventually we arrived in Adelaide. We dropped off Silver Surfer (our car), to Thrifty and awaited the bad news. We basically had to pay the standard damage fee of $3466 - for a dented NUMBER PLATE..... Luckily we had insurance, but it was with an independent company, so we gotta wait for all the legal shiz, and the other driver might cover it, or I don't know. I just know I hate insurance and rental companies and they can all die in a fire....

We've only been in Adelaide a few days. And we're leaving now coz we've organised FARM WORK!! :D We're flying to Cairns to do 3 months in Tully to get our 2nd year visa and some cold hard cash! Natalie is going to Port Lincoln to do her shark dive. Then traveling down the east coast. Hopefully we'll see her in Cairns again on the weekend....... And then there was 2 I guess......

Whilst here though, we celebrated Australia Day. Saw Tim-O-Matic live (probably the campest rnb singer you'll ever see). Drank lots goon - naturally. Calamity Nats went to see a doctor about her ear. The doctor felt it was necessary to take her heart beat in her bra for it :p So he's been dubbed Andy McGrab. She loved it - naturally. We went to a museum, learned about the Red Titi and Hairy Saki monkies (amongst other cultural things) :p Smoked shisha, had dinner, and came home....

SO..... Next time you hear from me, I'll be in Queensland. 4th state within a month. Fingers crossed for the farm work. We'll let you know how that goes.

Until then....

  Keep your shorts tiiight!!

Zooooooooop!!! x

A Little Bit Of Melbourne

Well well well you cheeky little bloggers. Back for some more are ya??

I am currently writing this from the bottom of planet earth. Great Ocean Road, Victoria, Australia... In a tent, under 54 billion blistering stars. But if you've been keeping on the ball, you would know we visited Melbourne before we found ourselves here. So I'll just teeaaassseee you with the Great Ocean Road blog to come soon, and write about our time in good ol Melbs first.

Originally, when we booked our flight to Melbourne, we intended to stay at a hostel called The Pint On Punt. But our friends Rob and Nancy kindly offered to put us up for 5 days. Then we stayed at another friends, Brookers for the remaining 5. Cool beans right? Nancys and Robs place was a niiicee surprise. The building was very modern, and they had a nice little apartment. But the best thing was, they had a BBQ and seating area on their ROOF! Was amazing. Had great views and sunsets from up there. Could see all of St Kilda, the city, beach and the rollercoasters of Luna Park. So we BBQed there a lot -Naturally. We were also lucky enough to time our trip to bump into other friends like Diana, Jess, and Nick McEvoy in Melbs. We had another reunion with a Aussie friend we made in South America, called Andy. This is madness how this happened though. Andy basically saw through Facebook that I was coming to melbourne, and he told me he lived there, so we exchanged numbers. So when we arranged a day to meet he said "I'm free the next few days, where are you now?" I said I was on Brunswick St. "OK, well I'm in St Kilda at the moment. Maybe I'll see you in town later." I said ok, but we are staying in St Kilda any way. So maybe we'll meet him there. "where do you stay?" "Centre of St Kilda" "I live there too" "Where abouts? We're staying near the national theatre." "I live like 4 doors away from that dude" "No way! Have you heard of the so-and-so apartments" "yep.... I live there" ......Holy sweet potatoes blog fans!! can you imagine that!? We met on the boarder of Bolivia, and now he was sleeping one floor right above us every night. Fenton.

ANYWAY, we met up with Andy and everyone else too - naturally.......

But let's talk about the city! I LOVE Melbourne. I thought I would, and my predictions were confirmed. People always make the natural comparison to Sydney. Most people say they prefer Melbourne, and I see why. Sydney is a bit soulless compared to Melbourne. The people seemed more relaxed, friendly, social and cultured - So did the city. Melbourne kind of reminded me of some small areas in London I like, mixed with a small European city. Everyone says it, ut it is a great place for chilling in bars and cafes, live music, funky streets, shops, and parks. Apparently Melbourne was voted the best city in the world to live in 3 years in a row. And I think you just have to be thhere to see why..... Me, Cat, Nats, Rob, Nancy and Brooker all hired a bike and rode it down the beach front one day. That was one of many highlights. A few other things we done was penguin watching, outdoor cinema, night markets, drinking, and the Neighbours tour. I don't watch soaps. Barely watch tv period. But I went along like any good tourist should. I just smiled and took photos..... I fitted right in.

Some people say a downfall to Melbs is the weather. But we experienced some shit, let me tell you. Some people say "Oh it's cold and rainy in Melbourne." So we arrive, and it's 40+ degrees nearly every day for 10 days!! It was not fun riding packed trams in that, let me tell you! One day we decided to go to a swimming pool that was partly indoors, partly out. But even in the shade, the air was just HOT! Rob got sent home early from work every day for health and safety reasons. Ice lollies melted, baby's cried, and souls got raped to hell.

So..... That's my quick summary of our 10 days in Melbs. I cant write about EVERYTHING in detail. That was then, and this is now. But this was then, because im summitting this late. But now, will be then. When? Exactly....

But until then......

Keep them shorts tight.

Through the Window.

Zoop.

X

Leaving Sydney

Is it a bird!?

Is it a plane!?

......Well, yeah, it is a plane actually. Because we are at Sydney airport!

G'day blog fans. This is Robbie G6 reporting from Sydney airport, waiting for our flight to Melbourne. Turns out, we were kinda lucky to have a flight today. We got a text this morning saying "your flight has been cancelled". Not the best start. We got a bus to the airport anyway, and managed to get another flight. Just gotta wait AGES!!

Anyway, let's go back a bit. Last time I wrote, it was just before Christmas. Since then it's been an eventful, jam packed, bonza time we've been having. We visited our friend Felicity (who we met on our peru tour) twice. She's been the most amazing hospitable host. She cooked for us, we had pic-nics and bbqs, (kangaroo sausages and steaks) visited beaches, and kayaked down creeks. Was really nice to see her, and was really nice to get out the city for a while and do other things. We bought her some fine wine for her troubles, but we know she would much rather prefer a bottle of Passion Pop :)

Just before Christmas was upon us, we all took a day trip to Palm Beach (where Home & Away is filmed). Had a few drinks in the sun, with our Santa hats on, listening to Christmas songs :p Was a bit surreal, but so super smashing. Christmas eve we just got really drunk. We went to an Irish bar, took clothes pegs out and pegged people, and had a decent but strange night out - Christmas day we had bad weather. Rained more or less all day. But it was nice as we were hungover, and we all got to exchange presents, eat lots of food (Aussie Christmas style) and watch classic Christmas films.

A story that made everyone laugh, that I promised I'd write about - was when I almost crapped myself. I had diahhrea one night, conveniently when we had no toilet roll in the house..... (good start to any story) I ran to Cats room with my shorts down shouting "wheres the face wipes, where's the face wipes!" Cat was asleep and wouldn't wake up FOR SHIT! Literally!! I was bouncing her off the bed, punching her arse, shouting and screaming, and the only response i got was "I didnt take a photo" ..... "What!??" This really pissed me off. At the time, it was not funny, I promise you. Luckily, eventually, I found some novelty pound note tissues on the living room floor. But if I had to wait and scream any longer, I swear, I was gonna squat over Cats face!.....

On a lighter note.... NYE was nice! We went out in a big group of us. Nancy, Rob, and Brooker stayed at ours. We met a load of other friends up there. We went to a park, that was elevated on a hill, that over-looked the Opera House and Harbour Bridge. So we could all see the fireworks there. It was a bit crowded, but still cool. Cat actually got too drunk and went home before it even hit midnight. So.... karma?

The morning after, we got up and dragged ourselves out for the Field Day festival. My first ever proper outdoor festival surprisingly. Was really good! We had a lil playlist downloaded a while back, so we could recognise songs. Some of us were really hungover. But we soldiered through it. 

The last week we had was pretty lazy in general. Me, Cat and Calamity Nats did a 4hr walk around Manly. Had amazing views there, but the weather wasn't best. We went on our last night out in Sydney on Monday night. Drank all the Christmas vodka Natalie got me for Christmas. The best part was the kebab and chips I had. OMG. Haven't done that in over a YEAR. we went on a walk on the beach til about 5:30am. Fitting ending to our Sydney chapter. 

So... Cat, Calamity Nats and I are about to board the plane now. We've left behind our Bondi family and friends. But it's time to move on. By the time this is actually posted we're probably already living it up in Melbs. Voted the number ONE best place to live in the world apparently. Challenge accepted. This thing is number one!

Have a super smashing time blog fans! Keep your shorts tight.... So tight. And if I don't see you through the week, I'll see you trough the windoooww....

Zoooooooooooopa! x