Hi guys,
While I’m writing this blog post, we’re sitting under a few trees in the shadow with unbelievable burning hot 40 degrees.
Even if it was over a week ago since we arrived in Adelaide, we don’t want to keep our impressions of the world-famous Great Ocean Road from you.
We spend a very comfortable time in Melbourne – with a bed, a bathroom, and a kitchen – before we started the road trip on the Great Ocean Road. But first, we had to drive straight through the centre of Melbourne with all the traffic. We thought it would be as tough as in Sydney, but surprisingly it wasn’t that hard. The stop for our first night was Bleamlea, where we made the experience of what it means to stop at the locations without any tourists (we couldn’t believe they exist beside the touristic Great Ocean Road!). We were welcomed, and the owner of the Caravan Park was so happy about us, coming from so far – she called us her “special international guests” – she even gave us a few sweets as a welcome gift. This kind of experience happens only without hundreds of tourists passing by every day.
The next day, we by driving through the Great Ocean Road gate to Lorne we officially started this part of the road trip. But we weren’t the only ones, as before Christmas it’s peak season in Australia, everyone is travelling during their summer holidays – at the caravan park in Lorne we got the last spot and it’s busy everywhere. We even found Santa and a Koala in a firefighter outfit throwing sweets down from the vehicle (nearly like the carnival in Germany).
The Great Ocean Road itself was really impressive – as expected. Some parts of the street are winding through the cliff coast, directly above the breaking waves. Winding up, descending to the sea – for one moment you get the feeling of driving straight into the ocean. Especially by driving from east to west, you get the best views without any cars or trucks between you and the endless ocean.
We spend Christmas beside the Twelve Apostles at a lonely beach – just the two of us. The next day we visited the famous Twelve Apostles (even if only seven are still there), but we came in the early morning to see the Apostles without the crowds of tourists, coming there every day. The early morning of the 25th of December was the perfect time for quiet time there.
After our road trip along the famous route, our next stop was South Australia. But we had to stop at the border. Fruits and vegetables, honey and seeds – it’s forbidden to import them into South Australia. And because we didn’t know that before the sign came up at the border, we had stocked up our provisions an hour ago. So, we turned around and went back to the last Caravan Park in Victoria to consume all the fresh things (due to one kilo of apples we just bought, Fiana made us an incredible tasty Kaiserschmarrn – an Austrian dessert, similar to pancakes – with self-made apple sauce), before we entered South Australia the next day.
Over there it got very lonely before we arrived in Victor Harbor after a few free overnight spots at the beach. We expected a parcel from Germany in Victor Harbor – Christmas presents! And although we had a terrible experience with the Australia Post, the parcel was there. We got two books, one was a Road trip cookbook with recipes adapted to the gas stove.
We spend two nights in Victor Harbor, a little seaside town which we liked a lot. Little espresso bars, beautiful old Victorian houses, and an old steam loco which is driving through the town – even better the carriage on rails, drawn by horses, the trademark of the town and still operating.
Enjoyed the breeze of the sea, we stayed at the coast and drove to Adelaide. Even though a few weeks ago we planned to spend New Year’s Eve there, we decided to stay just for one night and continue our trip after a long forenoon walking through the city, which is quite laid back regarding that Adelaide is a large megacity.
We wanted to spend New Year’s Eve on the road – at a lonely beach, only the two of us, our van, and really good food – that’s us.
But you knew it – the details of that story will come the next time 😉
See y´a
Felix
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Did you already see our other blog post on our time in Australia?