Melbourne to Torquay and back

We were blown away by Torquay, no like literally - it was so windy. The dramatic lean on the coastal trees suggest this is not uncommon.  The sea was so wild but still the odd person braved the water, mostly kite surfing. Maybe we will be lucky enough to see Torquay again soon, on a calmer day, as we’ve had our second hiccup. The first of course being the debacle at the airport on day one which had me waking Ben in Melbourne at 3:30am to let him know we would not be landing in Melbourne that day.

Here we are enjoying a layover in Mangere.


We are successful the following day and Alila, April and I land in Melbourne at 10:40am and Ben parks the camper up outside a short time later to welcome us. There's some delay getting the bags and Ben has been smart enough to park in the rideshare zone so the parking wardens leave him be while he waits 45min for us to get the carseats and clear customs. Then after a quick RAT test it's off to Torquay to start begin our journey on the Great Ocean Road.



On our arrival in Torquay we had a wee spot of bother getting a park long enough or treeless enough to fit on. We settled into spot 31 next to a large gaggle of preteens on their annual school camp. Handbrake on, engine off, jacks dow… hang on… oh shit - pink hydraulic fluid spewing out all over the white gravel beneath the back jacks. So we decide - it’s 3pm in the afternoon so there’s nothing that can be done this late in the day. Yes! Seriously!  Everyone’s gone home for the day here in this part of Australia. Bens come across this strange phenomenon several times already. We spend the night in spot 31, actually to be quite honest we’re in a short access way which we’ve mistaken for spot 31, our vans pood itself and we’re asleep at 7:30pm - so tomorrow’s another day. 




Day breaks at 3:48am, well no, but we’re up regardless. School starts early and Alila has a great zoom tutorial with her teacher who is currently flying solo as all her colleagues are out of the office with covid.  We have improved our spelling and literacy skills, learnt some important information about Australian animals, discussed longitude and latitude and have made the decision to travel back to Melbourne to have them fix the van. Not our favourite option this going backwards business but it proves to be the correct one as the god of motor vehicles has bestowed on us a sensor malfunction which also needs to be exorcised.  Ben makes some phone calls and I make lunch all whilst we're parked up on the motorway off ramp  



So here we find ourselves on a massive bridge with Melbourne CBD in the near distance, Billy Joel’s piano man on the stereo  and the possibility of a few days without the van. 2022 is testing us. 







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