I love love love road trips!!!!!! (well, I love them as long as they don't involve screaming children)

My plan for this road trip was to drive from Melbourne all the way through the outback and finish in Alice Springs. I had everything planned and when I was ready to book the car rental I saw the little star next to the price that said "2500AUD surcharge for one-way drop-off"... What?!?! Really?!?! 2500?!?! That's like my budget for 25 days!!!

I decided to keep looking at all my options and since I love driving so much I made the decision to drive from Melbourne to Adelaide and then take a tour of the outback that would get me back on time for my booked flight to Perth!

So here I am in a little Suzuki driving on the other side of the road and watching out for Kangaroos! I made sure to get acquainted with the car before I started to drive to avoid any accidents on the road. I made sure I knew where the lights were, double checked that my car was automatic, and calmed myself down! Even though I have driven on the left side it has been quite a while and was a little afraid my brain would not adjust but I'm happy to say that I've done exceptionally good (except for the windshield wipers, I turn them on 95% of time instead of the blinkers! haha)

The first day of the drive I drove from Melbourne (pronounced "MELB'N" btw) all the way to Port Campbell (If you ask me, I would say to stay at Apollo Bay instead.)

My first stop was the town of Torquay, a well known beachy area where Bells beach is. Apparently Bells Beach is a super popular place for surfers and even now in winter there were a lot of surfers in the water.

Then I kept going and saw the Great Ocean Road Memorial Arch. 

Here is the one not so good thing about traveling on your own... not being able to have pictures of yourself! 

I am not a big fan of posing for pictures but 1. my mom always asks to see me in the pictures, 2. you sometimes do want to have 1-2 with your face on them! Time after time I am disappointed with the pictures other people take; I really do not understand how somebody can miss the "big thing" in the picture. 

So, at the arch I asked a lady to take a picture of me... 

Take 1: I am in the picture, but not the arch.

Take 2: I am still in the picture, ½ the arch

Take 3. I am still in the picture, and now my legs are in the picture, ½ the arch is still missing!

Really?!?! I smiled, said thank you...  waited for another person.

Take 1, 2, and 3... part of the arch... most of me... Good enough!

Then I stopped by the Erskine Falls and had to do a mini hike down to the bottom.

Stopped by Teddys lookout which overlooks the windy Great Ocean Road and saw many birds.

Kept driving through Lorne and then I stopped by the side of the road at Kennett River to look for Koalas. It was actually really funny looking at all the grown ups (myself included) trying to find koalas up the Eucalyptus trees. As a comparison... think of all the grown ups you have seen lately on the streets looking for Pokemons, it was sort of like that, but we didn't look all that silly!

I just adored the koalas... my heart melted every time we found one... so, 3 times to be exact!

Right before Apollo Bay I decided to go to a lookout that one of the brochures said the view was "spectacular." Had to hike up to the viewpoint but it was so worth it! The view of Apollo bay with the  purpleish pink sky was so breathtakingly beautiful. I stayed there for quite a while just relaxing and thinking how lucky I am to be able to be in this journey!

Day two was the most exciting one mainly because it was the 12 apostles day with beyond gorgeous views of the coast line and the rock formations.

The National Park with ocean views goes for about 30 km and one can stop at different view points and hike to the beach or different trails around the viewpoints.

Being my crazy self, I of course woke up super early and was ready to go by 8am to get some pictures without many tourist. This time I took my tripod and my GoPro with a selfie stick.

The view of the coast is simply amazing! These pictures do not show how breathtakingly beautiful the sights were.

... I like these kind of pictures better:

Between the cities of Warrnambool and Port Fairy I stopped at Tower Hill where I got to see more Koalas!!!!

After Port Campbell the Great Ocean Road pretty much ends and is now filled with miles upon miles of green pastures filled with cows and sheep all around... I think Happy cows come from Australia, not California!