Spectacular road killed our van

Sorry for the lack of updates this week. Due to the Commonwealth games being on in Melbourne, everyone whacked their prices up so getting a room in the city was ridiculous. We changed our plans and decided to do the Great Ocean Road until the games were over.

The road is absolutely stunning, miles and miles of mid-speed bends. The van wasn't really the ideal vehicle for the task but she managed OK. We stopped in Torquay, then a lovely little hostel set in the woods in Lorne where we met up and got drunk with a couple of Americans, one of whom lives in Brisbane and offered us a bed when we get up that way.

The following day we headed off the GOR towards a treetop walk called the Otway Fly. It's a walkway built up in the trees, like on that I'm a Celebrity programme. However, we didn't make it that far. A steep uphill section, a 10km gravel road and then some more hills was a kilometre too far for matilda, and she decided to retire in the middle of nowhere with a plume of smoke. 3 hours later, the roadside people came and towed us to Colac, where we were stranded while the garage tries to find a new engine for us.

Rather than sit and wait, we hired a car and continued our journey, starting from where we left off. We're currently in Warrnambool but we'll head back to Colac tomorrow morning to wait for the car.

Despite all that, we're in good spirits and still having a cracking time. It's going to be a bloody expensive week and the money is running low so we'll be desparately looking for work when we get our wheels back.

Glad to see the comments are working! See you later in the year Jim!