THOR

As soon as we saw him - we knew.
The gleaming (or at least semi-clean) camper van was ready to take our tired gang into the great beyond.
Over, sideways, and under...
On a journey we would never forget.

The days were both ordinary, and exactly the opposite.
3 Canadians sat side by side, in a country so vast and dry even WE couldn't comprehend it.

We toiled.
We sang.
We drooped.
Temperatures soared to degrees, and settled onto our shoulders; those of which had never before been burnt by the brunt of something so hot.
We sat in it, and soaked it up - as it dripped off our faces.

The sun shone off the ocean, the sand, the rocks, the highway...
If the sights hadn't been so magnificent - it would have been hard to keep our eyes open.

The wind blew - warm.
An oven trapped open in the vacume of our camper van.
If you thought the night would bring relief, you would be wrong.
The flies couldn't even stir up enough of a breeze with all their frenzied action.
Piss OFF Flies!
They liked Aussie sausages more than we did.
A sauna of hurried digesting and compulsive obscenities was all we could stomache before escaping into a relatively cool +38C.

The waves lapped up our hot, dehydrated bodies, and replaced them with new, vigourous ones.
It's amazing what salt and water can do for ones spirits.
We held ours high as we continued to explore the open highway - stopping to gawk at the miracles left for us on the coast.


In between campsite decisions, gas stations, and awkward information centres - our gang formed a bond.
Some little thing where we grew from travel accessories, into friends.
Questions, facts, behaviors.
Trials, jokes, insults.
We were all there...
Singing the tunes to the Tall Trees, deflecting the awkward conversations of overzealous strangers, refusing (or indulging in) the boxed wine, and ALWAYS anticipating the next stop for cool drinks.

It wasn't easy (4 hopeless hours in a rental shop had initially slowed our progress, our sand consumption was through the roof, and with all the sweat from our bodies, we could have filled the Dead Sea)

But together - we managed to prove ourselves worthy of that Great Ocean Road.

We did it guys...
We really did it.