31st March 2008

Got up and checked out, as we do. Then Claire and I trekked 7000 miles up St Kilda road to Europcar, where we got our little blue bundle of sunshine in the form of a Hyundi Getz, which we christened Felicity (Flick). We took quite an extended root back to Posso, as I was getitng used to the car and to Aussie rules driving. On our arrival we loaded up, rather crammed, and bust round to safeway to buy provisions, pasta, sauce, cake, sweets, veg and fruit later, we were off again. Our first port of call was Geelong, however, initially we got lost coming out of Melbourne, but sorted it quite quickly and entered Geelong, rather oddly, from the factory district. Where we saw vast quantities of chip wood places and other scary industrial lunatic schemes. Just before we got to the actual town of Geelong we stopped at a picnic spot, near the sea, and walked along a boardwalk that was lined with weird and crazy statues of bathers/sailors and the such like. Twas rather odd and a sign of Geelong things to come. In Geelong we parked upon the pier, and walked its length only to find that the cafe/restaurant didn't allow crazy thong/jandal wearing fools. So we went in a coffee shop in town, which was extermely strong, and we were all feeling awful. Next stop: Botanical Gardens, where we ate a lunch of fruit, bread, jam and peanut butter, using lollipop sticks that claire scammed off of a random merchant. We wandered through the gardens for a bit after I bought a Diet Coke from a woman who was vastly interested in our accents. Nice gardens, though one section that was designed to on water usage only did as there were basically no plants....

After leaving Geelong, we got excellently lost and wasted an hour getting back on track towards Torquay, a surfer town. We stormed into the tourist information office and a very helpful lady gave us half a tree of ocean road related leaflets. The 'surf town' that surrouned it was a bundle of surf shops by the big brands and a small hot chocolate shop that we vowed to entertain tomorrow. A few hundred metres down the road was a recommended hostel, which we booked into, surrounded by surf type folk. Our dinner plans required the attendance of some prawns, so we strolled to the supermarket in the late afternoon heat. Walk was longer than we though, but the beach was close so we wandered along it, until we found a bank we could lie on and gaze out to sea under the near setting sun. We traversed to the supermarket, grabbed prawns and bits, then hit up the Bottle-O for a 6 pack of beer and trekked home. Posso entered zen cooking mode and Claire and I attempted to flail wilding around the kitchen, well that was my ploy anyway. On completion, Louise had made the greatest home made Thai prawn noodles ever. And we had garlic bread. And lemon and honey to sooth our throats of death. Into the evening we watched a mix of poor brain melting American and Australian TV shows before hitting the sack.