Roadtrip!

Our roadtrip from Melbourne to Adelaide was phenomenal! The day before we began our trip we met up with our new travel mates. Morgan was the Brit we found on gumtree and had done most of planning for our journey. He was like our tour guide! He has a year off before he starts his law career and had been traveling Australia and New Zealand for over four months and after this trip he is headed to Southeast Asia for six months of traveling. Morgan met two Brit girls in his hostel who accompanied us on the trip, Sarah and Kelly. Sarah has been quite the traveler herself. She has spent the last four months traveling Southeast Asia before heading to Australia. Kelly met her in Bangkok and then they began their journey in the land of OZ.

We rented a badass land cruiser that included all of our camping gear and headed to the Great Ocean Road. Of course to get to the rental place we had to take the public bus.. with all of our bags. I think the bus driver got a good kick out of it. Especially when he slammed on the brakes and sent me tumbling on to a 90 year old woman. Poor lady got me on top of her and all three bags I was carrying! Anyway, we drove for a couple hours before we found a campsite to stay in. They have tons of free campsites all over Australia, they are very basic, but free so we intended doing most of our camping in these. When we pulled in Sarah spotted a KOALA BEAR... holla! This is very exciting. We immediately halted the cruiser and ran to take some pictures of these beauties. We continued on to our campsite in a nice wooded area atop a hill overlooking the ocean. Not a bad place to sleep! Our first night of camping was a success and in the morning we walked down to the ocean. There were giant boulders on the shoreline of the cove. It was neat-o! We walked around for a bit before continuing our drive down the Great Ocean Road. We had a short drive until our next campsite which was at the beach! We spent the afternoon at the beach before settling in and making dinner. We met a Canadian family that was living in Australia for six months. They did a house exchange with an Australian family. HOW COOL IS THAT!? Officially has been added to my bucket list… when I have a home... someday.

The following day we saw the “highlight” of the Great Ocean Road, the 12 apostles. Well when we got there a mini hurricane was taking place, we could barely take a few pictures without being battered by the wind and rain.  None the less, pretty sweet place. We continued on to the Grampians National Park. We decided it was time for a real campsite, like with running water. We hit the jackpot of campgrounds. It had a pool, wifi, awesome pavilion, and heaps of groovy elderly people! There happened to be an annual jazz festival over the weekend and some of the musicians were staying at the campground. The musicians put an impromptu show on in the pavilion for anyone staying at the campsite. There was quite a bit of elderly people staying there as they come every year to this festival and meet up with friends and live it up. The wine was flowing and of course we were not going to miss out on this YOLO experience. We were the youngest ones there by forty years, at least. But, let me tell you these people could get down. They could put any club in Vegas to shame with their dancing and singing. These are the experiences that make traveling the best, the sites are always phenomenal wherever you go, but finding yourself dancing at a campground in the middle of a national park with people that could be your grandparents is just AMAZING. Benefit of this party, by eleven pm everyone is fast asleep in their campers. Party hard, but still go to bed early... I like this thinking. I should also mention, in the field next to our campground was a court (group) of KANGAROOS! In fact at night when we were in the tent we could hear them hoping around right outside the door. It was unbelievable!

The next day Mark persuaded me into doing a ten mile hike. I must admit I didn’t immediately jump at this opportunity, but it was incredible. We climbed up and down mountains and saw spectacular views of the park. The rest of the gang opted for a much shorter hike and spent the day kicking it at the pool, not a bad option as well! We were super exhausted at the end of the hike and found ourselves at the foot of the door to the ice cream shop. How convenient, a hiking trail that ends at the ice cream shop. Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone… take note of this! We did a small walk that night to watch the sunset over the mountains. A great day!

The next day we had to head towards Adelaide. The day has come to return the vehicle and begin our next journey. I decide it's time to get some driving in before we go. Of course, in my first two hours of driving in this country I get pulled over. Really? I'm halfway around the world and I get caught speeding. A warning, no ticket, one hell of a souvenir. The roadtrip was magical: full of wildlife and amazing scenery! I am not sure what Adelaide has in store for us, but I am looking forward to it.