A pretty good first day at the new job… Small company, about 10 people. From the looks of it, no inter-departmental rivalry, no office politics, no stupid and unchangeable company policies. All very friendly people. Everybody goes home at 5:30 - they lock the place up. Got a desk, a chair, PC and software the first day, was actually productive and coding. It’s in Brighton - Bay Street - quite nice, a few good lunch spots, a few cheap scummy ones too, local bank and PO, all conveniences. Good contract rate, interesting work. Commute is a 10 minute drive or 25 minute tram/train ride.

What, you may be wondering, is the bad side?

Two words: No e-mail.

I may need to start practising my powers of persuasion by doing some Internet Evangelism on the boss!

This morning, I had my first car accident.

Nothing serious, nobody hurt, though I did get a bit of a cut to my head, which still hurts.

It was in the motel carpark. I was packing the boot and hit my head on the lid.

(My sister nearly freaked when I was telling her that story.)

After packing up (how it is that the same amount of stuff you started with suddenly takes up more space?) and checking out, we headed back to Allansford and the wonders of Cheeseworld. Cheeseworld isn’t quite as impressive as the name suggests, but it’s not at all bad. At least that have some cheesey Cheeseworld memorabilia, as well as such delights as chocolate cheese.

We then took a quick detour back into Warrnambool to another McDonald’s for lunch - only because we’d noticed they had one of the most truly impressive McDonald’s playgrounds I’ve ever seen, and when travelling with a toddler it’s important to let him have a good chance of using up some of his boundless energy. Alas, the cool bit - the big sailing ship - was closed for repair. We also made sure to fill up with petrol (ugh, don’t get me started on country petrol prices) before heading back along the inland route - the Princes Highway - towards Melbourne.

The highway is a lot less challenging to drive along than the Great Ocean Road - but busier too. We stopped off in Camperdown where the very nice SES volunteers furnished us with free Kit Kats and coffee. The next stop after that was in Winchelsea, which curiously isn’t any where near the sea. But the tea rooms there do a stunning iced chocolate.

From there we headed straight back into Melbourne, getting off the freeway in South Melbourne just in time for rush hour, and a long traffic jam getting onto Kingsway. D’oh! Ah well, it was the first and only traffic jam of the trip. And we were home by about 6:30, by then more than ready to put our feet up and order in for a pizza.

Now let me tell you a little secret. The sunrise in Apollo Bay is spectacular. No, it’s S P E C T A C U L A R
. A brilliant red glow appears in the sky over the ocean, lighting up the beach and the mountains. Okay, so I don’t know if it’s like this every day, but this morning’s was, and that’s good enough for me. It’s worth staying overnight there just to get a glimpse.

After scoffing down some breakfast, we continued down the Great Ocean Road. At this point the road heads inland a bit, through dense forest. It’s no less twisty though - I presume it follows the contour of the mountains. It actually felt more challenging to drive along, because you’ve got no idea of what’s around the next corner. After a while it starts to feel like a video game, there are so many little tight turns and so on.

We spotted the turn off to detour into the Otway National Park and followed it, along a precariously narrow road, down to Cape Otway. It only looked like a short distance on the map, but seemed to go for ever, up and down and around hills, over cattle grids and among roaming cows; it was most entertaining. We finally got to the end, and discovered that the only way to get a look at the Lighthouse was to wait for a guided tour to begin. Rather than wait, Isaac and I trekked up to a lookout at the top of a mountain, and looked out across the Cape, the lighthouse, and the ocean, while trying not to let the strong wind blow us off the mountain.

Wa-a-a-a-ay further on down the road, we stopped for lunch. By this time it was pissing down rain, and something hot seemed like the best idea. I’m not sure what the town was, but looking at the map later I guessed it was Lavers Hill. In fact, more of a speck on the map than a town. Anyhow, wherever it was, the place did some very nice pies, and doubly-nice triple-chocolate muffins.

When we continued onwards, it was still raining. L and I were silently swearing at ourselves for being stupid enough to go on a three day trip without bringing coats or umbrellas, but out in the middle of nowhere there wasn’t much we could do about it, so we just hoped for some lucky breaks in the weather when we actually needed to get out of the car.

The road got back to following the ocean, and it’s at this point that a whole bunch of landmarks appear on the coastline. And they, like an Apollo Bay sunrise, are spectacular. We got out of the car at the Twelve Apostles, walked down to the viewing platform and … gasp … there they were. Incredible. The only thing I can compare it to is the Grand Canyon. You see pictures of these things, and you think "oh yeah", but when you’re actually there, looking at them, it’s clear that all the pictures in the world can’t do justice. They’re just too impressive and big for pictures to adequately capture them. Not that it stops me taking pictures of them, of course.

The weather by this point wasn’t wet, but it was cold, so while awed by the sights along this stretch of the road, we didn’t stay at any one for too long. We stopped at Loch Ard Gorge, Sentinel Rock, The Arch, and what’s left of London Bridge (half of it fell down in 1990). Each was kind of equally impressive. Thank God for soil erosion, that’s all I can say. Without it, these brilliant landmarks wouldn’t exist.

Just after Sentinel Rock, going through a town called Port Campbell (which looks tiny until you go over a hill and the rest of it appears) the road appeared to go off inland again. After about 10Ks I had a sneaking suspicion we were heading in the wrong direction. We headed back, and sure enough found the turnoff we’d missed - along with the huge sign pointing to it.

We stopped again in a tiny town called Peterborough, which seems to consist of bugger all. There’s a sign pointing to the town centre, which we followed, but all we found was two shops and a petrol pump. I think that was the town centre. But no matter, they had a good range of afternoon-snack food, which we gobbled up continuing on..

After Peterborough and another stop-off for the very spectacular Bay Of Islands, the road goes off inland towards Warrnambool, but by this point we were into farming land, and the road was (more or less) straight for miles at a time. At a place called Allansford, just outside Warrnambool, we passed a big place called Cheeseworld, which we made a note to visit on the way back.

We reached Warrnambool late in the afternoon and found our motel, before taking a walk around the town. Having been there twice before, we were a bit more familiar with where things were, and the perils of crossing at the town’s many roundabouts. No cable in this motel, but we settled down to another quiet evening of rest from a busy day’s travelling.

As planned, after some exhaustive packing (I think we managed to fit most of the house inside the boot) we set out this morning for our first big trip in the new (secondhand) car. We headed over the Westgate Bridge and down the Princes Highway towards Geelong. This time we gave the rest stop near Little River a miss - last time I was kind of disappointed by it compared to the rather more elaborate rest stop we encountered in Arizona a couple of years ago. On the other hand, here they don’t feel the need to include a notice telling you to leave your firearms in the vehicle…

We finally stopped in Geelong about lunchtime, after wandering around looking for somewhere enticing to eat. Nothing too ambitious or exciting - we were really just looking for a Hungry Jack’s - not necessarily because the burgers are better (even if they are) but because we had some coupons, which would have almost got us away with eating their food and them owing us money.

As it was, we hadn’t determined the location of Geelong’s Hungry Jackses before we set out, and by the time we passed what seemed to be the fourth or fifth McDonald’s, we decided that our appetites needed desperate attention, and that Jack was out of luck - our cash would be going to their arch nemesis. But hey, McDonald’s food may be predictable, but at least it’s predictable.

After eating and a quick consultation with the Melways, we found the Surf Coast Highway, which would lead us south to Torquay and our target: The Great Ocean Road. Actually, we needn’t have checked the Melways, because there were big signs posted all over the place saying "To the Great Ocean Road". At Torquay, the Road actually began.

Just beyond Torquay is Bell’s Beach, home to some famous surfing carnival. We saw the turn-off and decided to have a look, before discovering that the surfing carnival was actually happening. The result? Lots of driving around carparks that despite being in the middle of nowhere, miles from civilisation, were jam packed with cars and loads of surfie types moseying around in their wetsuits and extremely cool sunglasses. After many minutes of trying in vain to find a spot to park, we gave up and went on a few hundred metres, where there was a spot to park, and an accompanying spot to look over the famous beach, and admire the surf from afar.

We continued down the Great Ocean Road, and shortly after leaving Bell’s Beach we rolled into Anglesea, keen for a bit of a break from the car. Anglesea has a charming little shopping strip, very nice, very tidy, and so quiet that you can only hope it gets busier at the weekends, because if it’s this quiet all the time then all the shops will very soon go bust. Since it was a reasonably warm day, we partook of some of the local icecream treats, before getting back in the car and onto The Great Ocean Road proper.

I say "proper" because it’s at Anglesea that the road actually hits the ocean. And sticks to it. The road goes for a couple of hundred kilometres total, and most of it weaves its way along the mountainside right next to the sea. It makes for spectacular views, and necessitates some very very very careful driving. The road is clearly marked, but if you weren’t paying attention for a few seconds, you could very easily go over the side into the sea. In fact, the weekend before we went, someone had done exactly that. It’s a bit of a challenge - they should make car stickers that say something like "I negotiated the Great Ocean Road and lived to tell the tale", or at the very least give you some Good Driver Points for managing it. In fact a little certificate, a handshake and a rebate on the car insurance premium wouldn’t go astray either.

So, keeping my eyes glued to the road, we headed down the road, and began to dig into the stack of cassettes in the glove box, since the radio stations had all faded from view. Every so often slower speed limit signs would appear and we’d go through some little town that you can presume survives mostly by tourism from the road itself. We didn’t stop, but tried to keep moving as the afternoon was wearing on, and our motel room in Apollo Bay was waiting for us.

Where we did stop was at a few scenic lookouts, to get out and gawp at some of the amazing scenery. Who would believe that the simple combination of ocean, beach or cliff face, road and mountain could be so picturesque? We’d take some snapshots, breathe the fantastically fresh air, and continue down the seemingly increasingly windy (and I mean with lots of winding, not lots of wind) road.

Just a few kilometres from Apollo Bay, something far more spectacular than any scenery appeared. Isaac, who was being very well behaved in the car considering the long distance we’d covered, called out to us from his seat. It was a precursor, a warning, because just seconds later, the most spectacular puke erupted from his little mouth.

The icecream from Anglesea, the cheeseburger from McDonald’s, and every other little snack he’d nibbled on that afternoon, all flew out of his mouth and onto the (thankfully vinyl) back of the seat in front of him. As soon as possible I found a safe spot and we made a Vomit Clearup stop. Isaac was surprisingly cheerful about it, at least once we’d wiped him down. We got the worst out of the car too, and thanked whoever might be listening that it was a nice day and that we could continue on with the windows down.

Soon afterwards we reached Apollo Bay, our first scheduled overnight stop. We booked into the motel, got our stuff unpacked, and proceeded to explore, first having a play on the very picturesque beach, then letting Isaac romp around in the playground. Then we walked up and down the main street, trying to work out where the best place to eat would be. As it happens we took the easy "with two kids" way out and got takeaway fish’n'chips to eat back in the room. We lazed around that evening watching the Discovery Channel on cable, and rested in readiness for the next day.

Considering that I’m off work for another week and a half, we’ve decided to beat the big "quick, let’s get away on holiday to the country somewhere to avoid having to do a family get-together over Easter" rush that occurs every year, and go away on holiday to the country somewhere in the days before Easter instead.

This means hopefully we can avoid the big traffic snarls that seem to develop around Thursday arvo and Good Friday morning as every man and his dog and his wife and kids pile into the car in an attempt to see just how many vehicles can be squeezed onto the highways out of the city.

So where are we going? We’re heading down the Great Ocean Road, to see all the cool stuff down on the coast. The glory of the Twelve Apostles, and wonder of London Bridge, and the amazingly awe-inspiring incredibleness of those other jaggy rock formations the names of which I forget right at the moment.

Whatever, it’ll be good. We’ve only been down there one other time, several years ago, and on that occasion, it was only for the day, and we had to turn back before seeing all the cool stuff. This time, we’re going over three days, and taking plenty of time for stop-offs and rest breaks, which is really the only way to do it when you’ve got two kids in the back of the car - unless their section is soundproofed.

We’ll set out on Tuesday morning, and head down through Geelong onto the Great Ocean Road (I promise to be super careful and not drive over any cliffs like that bloke did a few days ago). We’ll spend Tuesday night in Apollo Bay, and continue our travels on Wednesday, past all the aforementioned cool stuff, to sunny Warrnambool, where we’ll once again partake of their massively brilliant adventure playground. And on Thursday we’ll head inland, and back to Melbourne.

At least, that’s the plan. The motels are booked, the car’s in fine shape, and provided I remember to fill it full of petrol before we set out, everything should go swimmingly!