The Great Ocean Road

We just put one feet on mainland Australia and we were planning our next roadtrip to Adelaide. But again the same problem, we didn’t found a campervan for the trip. Our Wicked camper is waiting in Adelaide at the 4th of April, we had to find a way to get there and we would rather see the Great Ocean Road by ourselves and not with an overpriced, get it done quickly tour stuffed with backpackers and tourist who have too much money (and we don’t). Or even worse, with public transportation. Nononooo, we had to live the Great Ocean Road. Stop when we want to, see what we want to… feel the ocean and all that melodramatic stuff only poets write about… little did we know the poets were right…

The Great Ocean Road
The Great Ocean Road is about 100 km’s of breathtaking views. The road starts at a place calles Torquay and ends at Warrnambool. The road brings you to all the famous places. Bell’s Beach where we were just 5 days too early for the annual Ripcurl Surfing Championship… that sucked. Lorne with some of the best seafood ever. And ofcourse all the amazing rockformations, the Twelve Apostles, Lord Ard Gorge, The Wreck, London Bridge (or is it Arch now?),… too many to speak of, be sure to watch all the pictures online pretty soon. The Twelve Apostles National Park is by far one of the most well kept, cleanest and most important, free national park I’ve been to up to date. After two days on the road I was proud to go to one of their toilets.

Our nights at the Great Ocean Road
It sounds incredibly romantic sleeping at the Great Ocean Road. We didn’t have enough money so we drove on the first carpark we encountered when it got dark, put the tent up and hoping that nobody would kick us out, or run us over. And let me tell you that sleeping with three guys in a small tent, without something against a hard and cold floor, just a sleeping bag, nobody took a shower during the roadtrip and personal hygiene wasn’t really something we took great care after… is that enough romance for everyone? The sights were great and breakfasts were amazing, but my back still hurts like hell when I think of the nights…

The first night sleeping on the ground in the tent (our backs still hurt like hell)

The night when I couldn’t open the tent (thanks to the goonbag)

The night with the delicious barbecue cooked rumsteaks with a inspirational red wine sauce

The night when we all where freezing because temperature dropped like by a zillion degrees

The night Guido decided to sleep in the car

Nights never to forget…

The Grampians
We where a bit disappointed that the Great Ocean Road ended and we still had to drive like 400 km’s to Adelaide. We still had the car for 3 days so we decided to go up north to the Grampians National Park. A huge area where the tourist maps are divided in a Northern and a Southern area. We put the tent up, didn’t pay a fee (hey, if it saves some money, we can eat again…), and enjoyed nature all around us. On the Northern map there was a hike of about 12.2 km’s that was described as ‘hard’ and more specifically for ‘energetic walkers’. woohoo… after Tasmania, what’s the worst that could happen right? Euhm… actually having to climb to the top of Mount Stapylton… The last few meters we had to climb our way to the top… dangerous stuff… but amazing view over the Grampians in the South and the plains in the North while we were eating some sandwiches and having fun on what at that time felt like the top of the world.

I wouldn’t want to miss anything of this… We spent the last few days with less and less money and we still feel richer than we used to…

“Ain’t seen nothin’ ’til you’re down and you’re rotten, oh yeah.
You ain’t got nothing until you hit rock bottom. Oh yeah.”
(Dandy Warhols)