The Great Ocean Road Trip
The famous blogger Nomadic Matt once said that “American’s have an on going love affair with the
car and great open road.”
Apparently this affair is a
global one, and so it was that earlier this month I found myself on the Great
Ocean Road with an American at the wheel. He had convinced myself and a Dutch
boy that a road trip would be fun…
Day 1:
After picking up the car
from Wicked– a company that seemed to have a thing for naked people– we headed
towards Lorne for lunch.
Our plans to camp there for
the night and head onto Apollo Bay the following day were foiled when we
discovered that the Great Ocean Road was going to be closed. So, with the sun
setting faster than it should, we carried on, stopping to run to a waterfall
through a field that looked to be hiding something.
After realizing that the
free camping site’s we’d been led to believe were plentiful in Australia were
being closed down and thus few and far between, we ended up settling for a camp
site on the outskirts of Apollo Bay. We quickly discovered that the camp stove
we’d been given was in disrepair, but our combined determination to eat finally
got the thing working and we were set.
Day 2:
One can’t say they’ve done
the Great Ocean Road without a visit to the Twelve Apostles, so we headed up to
the Twelve Apostles Visitor Facility where I insisted we stick around until
sunset. With a few hours to kill, we ended up chilling on the roof of the car with cheese, crackers, and cards.
Our search for free camping
was once again thwarted, so we headed to the cheapest place we could find– Princetown Recreation Reserve and Camping– where yet another
battle with the camping stove ensued.
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| Photo creds to the American |
Day 3:
Opening the tent in the
morning we found we had company. After packing up, with a dozen or so roos
looking on, we headed to London Bridge. There we whiled away the day with
various drinks and fruit accompanied by stories.
As evening came, our search for free camping, as usual, resulted in failure.
Day 4:
Continuing west, we stopped
at the Petrified Forrest. It was somewhat more diminutive than expected, so we
carried on to a Lake which, as can be seen by the lack of a photo, did not live
up to expectations either. After our camp stove caught on fire– and not in the
way it was intended to– we gave up on it and headed north in search of free
camping.
We eventually found a site,
tucked away next to a graveyard. We lit the infernal camp stove once more and attempted
to make s’mores. Unfortunately Australia has yet to discover the graham cracker, and our attempts yielded less than stellar results. Neither of the North
Americans were impressed, and the Dutchman preferred to eat squirms.
Day 5:
The majority of the day was
spent driving. With nowhere noted to stop at on the way, we turned off the road
at anything that sounded interesting. The majority of these sights were
waterfalls.
Giving up completely on
free camping, we ended up staying at a caravan park where, after the previous
night, countless showers were in order.
Day 6:
An early start to the day
gave us plenty of time to explore the Grampians, or, as things turned out, get
lost in the Grampians. Once we’d collected ourselves we headed back to
Melbourne.
Finally, throughout the trip I amassed
a collection of quotes so, here for your amusement, are a few of the appropriate ones:
“Shoot
for the stars because if you miss you… no wait, wrong one” – Emma
“Shoot
for the stars because if you miss you’ll be lost forever in space.” –Cain
“So
we’ll just go really slow and hope nothing hits us from behind” –Emma
“Or
that a kangaroo doesn’t T-bone us” –Cain
“I know
where the Netherlands is, it’s like on top of shit” –Cain
After
the camp stove caught fire:
“You
know, they use these things all over Vietnam, and there they’ve banned them
because they’re too dangerous. And that’s Vietnam!” –Ruben
“We
could set up our camp stove in the fire brigade training area. That would be
very appropriate” –Cain
“Hey
Ruben, do you know where we’re staying tonight?” –Cain
“Yeah”
–Ruben
“Where
are we staying?” –Cain
“I
don’t know” –Ruben
Thats all for now. Expect another road trip post soon.
xoxo -EmmaSkye
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