Monday was day nine of our road trip. After camping in our beautiful spot near Wangaratta, we set about driving the three hundred kilometres along the Great Pacific Road. The first part of the drive is from Wangaratta to Bright and consists of a flat road that winds through quaint towns, greenery and vineyards.As you continue up the Ovens River Valley, the mountains start to come into view. Being that the ski season ended in October, there wasn’t much snow around.Once you pass the town of Harrietville, the climb up into the Australian Alps begins. The road is treacherous. Tight bends, steep inclines, right on the ridge of the mountains. Nathan loved it. He channeled Colin McRae as I was holding on for dear life, using my stomach to try and steer the car (not literally!!) My abs got an insane workout that day!As we climbed we passed markers showing how high up we were and there are pull in points along the way. Quite a few of them are obscured by the trees jutting out of the mountain sides. The mountain ash trees are a spectacle in themselves!Eventually we reach the highest point, Mount Hotham and the views are amazing. Not only are they amazing but there is even a bit of snow still on the hillside! The cross at the peak represents the highest point on the year round accessible road.Once you’re over the top of the peak, the ski village comes into view which also has a lot of walking tracks if weather permits. Having skied at the bottom of the world in Ushuaia, we’re keen to come back to Australia during ski season and try out these slopes!Then comes the descent down into Dinner Plains and winding our way down towards the sea.

As we descended we pulled into Kosciuszko Lookout for lunch. From here you can see the two highest points in Australia, Mount Kosciuszko and Mount Townsend, which are in the Snowy Mountains across in New South Wales.It was a beautiful Lookout with views for miles and miles. We probably couldn’t have picked a better spot to make our beans on toast for lunch. Relaxing in the heat of this glorious day, we ate, we chilled then we continued down to Omeo.Omeo was a beautifully old, historic town. The buildings were what I’d imagine in a Western film and the people were incredibly friendly. The only downside was the price of fuel!

Whilst there probably wasn’t as much to see along the Great Alpine Road as say the Great Ocean Road, it is still worth the beautiful drive. We had picturesque greenery with a dash of snow at the peak so I can only imagine how stunning it looks with full snow capped mountains.

Our plan for day 10 was to visit Canberra so we opted for a campsite, in the middle of nowhere about two hours away from the capital. Nunnocks campsite was to be our home for the night and we shared it with two guys from Europe. We sat down to enjoy our evening when we realised that our cool bag doesn’t actually contain any cooling products at all. Sooo we went to eat our scrummy chocolate bar that we had been looking forward to, only to find it pretty much liquid. What better way to enjoy melted chocolate than in a bowl of porridge? Nathan’s ingenious idea! Me? I stuck with a cup of tea until we were joined by a huge grasshopper type thing jumping around on the bonnet and the most horrific bull ants!!

I let out a yelp as one bit me on the toe with its bloody big pincer things. Honest to god how can one animal so small inflict pain that feels like a red hot needles piercing your skin going right down under your toenail.

On that note…