Canberra to Melbourne

Today was a big driving day. We got up early, finished packing the last little things, had some breakfast and got on the road.

The first stop was the Canberra Airport to drop off the car that I'd picked up a couple days ago. It was. A quick drop off and we were on the road again to Melbourne. It was highway most of the way and pretty uneventful. I did some admin while Allan drove the 7 hours. We also talked to Hannah which broke up the journey.

Our first stop was the campervan company, Calypso, to pick up the camper. Public transport between here and the airport was almost two hours so we decided to get the camper and both drive to the airport so I could get Allan after dropping off his car. We got to the camper place and did the damage inspection, Allan then left to bring his car to the airport (an hour drive away) and I had a walk through of the car. This camper is much older than our other one, and is about 20 years old. This thing has seen better days...

I was nervous about driving without Allan in a new car, even more so when I discovered there was no way to hold up a phone to see Google maps and it's a manual transmission (and a very difficult one). My drive to the airport was hard; the stuff clutch, tricky gear stick and winding directions with tradfic really tested me. I was glad when I made it to him with no incidents.

We drove a bit away from the airport and stopped at a McDonald's for a while. We had coffee and some dinner here while charging the phones (0 way to charge in the car...for the next few days...). It was unfortunately dark by the time we left to get to our campsite in the forest. The drive took about an hour and a half and was mostly highway, a nice change after all the town driving and traffic on the way to the airport.

The campsite was off the main road nestled in the forest. It was quiet which was also nice. We made the bed and for our sleeping bags out. Thankfully, this van was staying bug free. Tomorrow we begin the Great Ocean Road!Read more