Spaceship Blog 3
- by chrismoore
The Great Ocean Road
We drove into the surf town of Torquay in the late morning, and on either side of the road there was a plethora of surf shops. This was the beginning of the Great Ocean Road. We stopped in the information centre and found out about all the things that we will see and decided on places to stop and surf, relax on the beach, cook and sleep! We strolled around the town and checked out a few of the surf shops, each coming out with a new pair of boardies from the bargain bucket!
After a little stroll on the beach we drove on to Bells Beach. I am a massive fan of the film Point Break starring Keanu Reeves and Patrick Schwayze. The beach is featured at the end of the movie so I pencilled in a stop there, long before coming to Australia. We pulled into the car park, hopped out and got quickly dressed in our shorts and rash vests. I was buzzing with excitement and I pulled one of the boards out of the van and ran to the entrance to the beach. I gazed out onto the sea to realise that there was no surf whatsoever! The only surf was a point break and it was breaking on rocks. I being an intermediate surfer at best did not have the confidence or the skills to pull that off so we were forced to get back into the van, as demoralizing as it was, and drive back to the beach previous: Jan Juc.
We got to Jan Juc and were pleased to see a nice open beach full of surfers. We only have two boards so we took it in turns to go and surf. There is surf hire available but sharing two boards between three of us works out pretty well. When the two boys were surfing I would be out there with my under water camera trying to snap a moment of glory. However, such is the poor quality of our surfing, the moments of us up on the board are extremely brief and somewhat rare, so taking the photos was quite difficult.
After about an hour of surfing we were pretty shattered so we retired back onto the beach for a snooze on our towels. I thought to myself: “Hard Life”, chuckled to myself and dozed off. We woke up and eager to see some more of the coastline, we got back into the van and drove on. The van is a very smooth drive. It’s an automatic and for a large vehicle it handles surprisingly well. Being in the passenger seat of the van was an absolute pleasure. You were so close to the coastline and with some breathtaking views your eyes were constantly glued out of the window.
After our hard morning of surfing, we began to feel a little peckish so we stopped for some food on one of the lay bys right next to the coast. A nice and easily made tuna sandwich and a perfectly chilled lemonade from our fridge! We then drove on, again at a leisurely pace, taking in the amazing views and enjoying the ride!
The day grew on and we decided to stop driving at a lovely little town called Lorne. We hit a nice café for a hot chocolate and did a spot of Internet admin in a café and then made our way to a rest stop where there were toilets benches and a wonderful view overlooking the entire beach and town front. We cooked our evening meal there; Spaghetti Bolognese. It was a great meal and really efficiently done. I was in charge of preparation, Max handled the cooking and James took care of the clean up. The meal was great and we sat there and enjoyed the sunset. We then drove on to a convenient place to stay.
We decided to make the night our first DVD night. After seeing Bells Beach we had to watch Point Break. After watching the movie I could hardly sleep. All I wanted to do was get back to the beach and surf. I was determined to wake up early the following morning and surf at first light.
That night we decided to test out a new sleeping arrangement. James lent the front passenger seat all the way back leaving Max and I sharing the double bed in the back. The situation was brilliant for Max and I. We had plenty of room but it was a question of whether James would be comfortable. To everyone’s delight, he found it really comfortable and so we had found our solution to the sleeping problem. From here on in we should only have good night sleeps in the van.
Check out the video of us driving our spaceship on the Great Ocean Road!!
Check out the next installment of our spaceship adventure by clicking here!
If you are thinking of doing a similar trip then do please check out the Spaceship Website by clicking HERE!!
March 18th, 2009 at 3:03 am
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August 3rd, 2009 at 12:41 pm
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