Our early arrival aboard the Spirit of Tasmania ferry meant that we pitched up at the Britz office early. Yet another miscalculation made hiring a camper van a very expensive way to experience the Great Ocean Road but we felt we needed a change from the hire cars and guesthouses anyway!
After a brief introduction to our van we hit the road, nervously at first, heading for Geelong. Riding high in the cab gave us a real 'King of the Road' feeling though and, after the economy compacts we were used to, the van was huge, especially the cavernous living quarters which seemed to stretch back forever.
Geelong soon came and went as we sped along to our first stop - Torquay, famous for its south coast surf community and being the home of Ripcurl and Quiksilver. We found the campground nearest the beach and then had a look around the local shops. Basically, if you're more Marks and Spencer than Mambo it's really not your kind of town - virtually everyone we saw was surfwear'd up - dude!
Fortunately, we'd developed quite an interest in all things surf related by now and a visit to the excellent surf museum made us determined to hike down to Bells Beach, the spiritual home of Australian surfing.
The walk to Bells from Surf Beach where we were staying took us along a winding track which cut through scrubland and occasionally led us down onto various sandy beaches along the way. The entrance to Bells was marked by a large concrete 'Welcome' sign. As we got near, we could see a small creature moving around. We crept closer and found, to our delight, it was an echidna, snuffling its long snout into the loose earth at the base of the sign as it searched out ants.
When we reached the beach there were a dozen or so surfers in the line-up - a marked contrast to the crowds that would amass in a month or so when the world's top surfers rolled into town for the Bells Beach Pro.
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