CAMPSITE # 44 - Warrnambool by Matthew Davies

There aren’t many places in world when you can wake up, walk outside and see 40 plus Kangaroo’s in their own habitat, Princetown is one place where you can and I think this was one of the reasons we were drawn back to same site we camped at two years prior.

That said it was time to move on. We were now five friends camping having waved Thompson off the day before.

The next stop was Warrnambool; on the way though there was plenty to see, this stretch of the Great Ocean Road is probably the most famous for its sights.

So we set off team Toyota – Charlie Troop Charlie and Binko Tiger (I feel like a fag writing this but I can get away with it because its not my blog).

First stop the twelve apostles, the famous limestone rock stacks that have been isolated from the rugged coastline over the last 20 million years by the rough seas of the southern ocean.

Although there are only 7-8 Apostles remaining, they are still a spectacle and attract the crowds bigger than the most Halifax town football matches.

We took a few tourist photo’s and discussed who should jump the fence and head past the no access steep cliff faces and possible death sign but this once we were all too chicken.

The sign made us laugh ………  

And so we moved on to the next lookout London Bridge, although the beauty of the drive was not really appreciated by Binks and myself as we were too busy listening to English crucify Australia at Cricket… in the end the English went on to win the series 3 – 1.

London Bridge named for obvious reasons….

Arriving in Port Campbell we stopped for a beer and some nacho’s (which I was to regret later). Described to us by a local as having a good surf beach, I think the Brisbane River had more surf… so we decided to head on Warrnambool.

On the way to Warrnambool with Amy leading the pack, Tom and Christian little to the knowledge of Binks and I were tucking into a bottle of Oban Whiskey and regaling tales of on Kerrera where they did their mapping project at university. They also recorded a tribute to “Last plane out of Sydney” which when viewed supports the large consumption of alcohol during the vogage to Warrnambool.

 You can watch the view of Tommy Barnes here.

Meanwhile Binks and I had out shirts off a bit of Oasis… Standard! No pictures unfortunately but I am sure you get the idea.

Arriving in Warrnambool (Camp site 44 – Surf Side we were shocked at the amount of people camping here, the tents and caravans we packed in like sardines and they were still charging $47 a night… on the up side it was hot as hell and the beach was only 300m away.

That night we decided it would be nice to check out the bright lights of Warrnambool… it started off pretty dull to be honest but then we found this small place, The Whalers Pub, with a live band. After a defeat on the pool table we moved onto the dance floor and got amongst it… the photo’s tell the story.

The highlight of the evening was Christian behaving inappropriately with the Jimmy Bean girls, our only consolation prize some jimmy bean sunnies which I got given by one of the girls as an apology for her spilling my beer and hers over my jeans.

It wasn’t home time yet though, there was another bar over the road. Unlike English clubs where they radio other bars when you get kicked out, we walked straight in with shorts, flip flops etc…

The walk home was an interesting one too… by this point Tom, Binks and I had decided it was time to break out into song and with the Ashes series coming to a close earlier in the day (3-1 England) this was the obvious choice… Amy you are a very good sport by the way :)

Been the classy lad that I am, I was down to my undies in minutes and getting the attention of most passers by in the form of “WEEEHEYY or the sound of a car horn, needless to say I was quite drunk by this point. However in my defence I did manage to complete a kids maze on the park without a single wrong turn in under 30 seconds.

The songs continued all the way back to the camp site, however our singing was not taken kindly by a few of the patrons who ere uttering “ssssshhhhhh” from inside their tents and motor homes. 

The damage had already been done on the cricket field… so we respected their wishes and strolled home quietly.

 

The next morning we woke up fairly early to wave Binko off and book another night on our camp pitch so we could go to the rodeo. Apparently the site we had already was booked so we had to move to a new pitch a few hundred metres away. We decided to just de peg the tent and pick it up to move it, so I removed the pegs and Tom and Chris carried it to the new pitch dropped it off and went back to pack up the rest of the gear.  We had a few funny looks on the way and also on the way back (yes, we carried it back as well). While I was pegging the tent down the guys managed to secure another camp site for free, which was next door to the one we moved off. Pretty annoying but at least we saved our selves some beer money. In the end the guy who was kind enough to let us have the site for free, got several tent poles by Tom and Amy in exchange so we were winners all round really.

That evening we headed to a rodeo just out of town. It was a great laugh, and very interesting too!! You can watch a video from the rodeo here.