Melbourne to Adelaide

Melbourne to Adelaide via the Great ocean road and the Grampians

From this moment I want to do my site in English because more people can understand my site. Just after that I did my last publication on my website three people came in the hostel and tried to sell their car. Because they had to leave the country that evening, they would sell the car for 350 dollars (210 Euro). Vanda thought directly that that should be something for us, because we will have way much more freedom with a car. After a few minutes she convinced me that we should buy the car. Now we are the proud owners of a Holden Commodore out 1981. The car looks really old but the tires, the engine and the brakes are still good. I think it was a good chose to buy this car because there isn’t a bus going from Melbourne to Adelaide in the route we wanted to do. Even that there are some things wrong, the km counter is stuck at 20800km and everybody can easily open the backdoor.

We started the next morning pretty early with the trip. We went to Geelong a small city that is around the 75km from Melbourne. We went that day to a park to plan our trip, because we bought the car we have more freedom and choices. We decided to go as slow as possible in the direction of Adelaide because we heard from a lot of people that Adelaide is a “hole”. We planed to do the Great Ocean road and the Grampians and if there is some time left also a national park extra or kangaroo Island what is next to Adelaide.

 

The next day we left to Torquay, which is a small village where the Great Ocean Road starts. We spent there two days in a hostel with a camping ground where we camped. Vanda had still a tent from a festival. We relaxed there a little and went to the beach. The Beach was very nice if I compare it with the Melbourne beaches.

After two days Torquay we finally started with the trip. I saw already the great ocean road ones but this time we had more time to stop and to relax. It was really great because we had a beautiful day and had a nice walk through the rain forest. Also we were very lucky to see a koala again this time it was very close, as you can see on the pictures.

Half way on the Great Ocean Rd was our next stop for the next two days, Apollo Bay. It is a very small village in a very beautiful bay. Our hostel there was very nice and small; the guy told us what there was to do around the village. There is a huge different between the big city hostels and that kind of hostels. We were very happy that they have a oven there so would could make a nice lasagne. After two days of Apollo bay we went in the direction of Warrnambool.

We spent the day on travelling and watching the nice spots along the Great Ocean Rd. I saw in this part way much more than I did the time before. I’m very happy with the car because we can decide when we want to stop. We stopped as well two days in Warrnambool were we saw a very nice sunset the second day after we had a Barbecue.

Before we went to the grampians we stoped in a small wildlife park, tower hill. It was a nice spot for a walk and a picnic/breakfast.

The next destination was the Grampians, we are there at the moment. We have already been on the highest mountain from the Grampians. (Mount William 1167m). We had a terrific view at the top, we could see how dry Australia is at the moment and also the damage from the bush fires last year in the Grampians. (Bushfires are normal in Australia, the bush needs it to ripe the seeds.) Also today we saw some “special” animals (a kangaroo, koalas and a echidna)

Adelaide (15-02-07)

Two days ago we arrived in Adelaide after a terrific trip. We were happy to sleep in a hostel again because the last three days we camped or slept in the car and then in the morning you feel totally broke.

The second day in the Grampians we made a walk from 3 hours in the mountains; it was very nice to see how rough the nature is there. We saw in the beginning of the walk a lot of kangaroos and after we came a little higher we saw a few lizards. (See the pictures)

The third day in the Grampians we went to the Mackenzie Waterfalls. On our way we past the little town Halls Gap there was at that moment a jazz festival. It was so funny to see the (very old) people playing music and dancing. The Mackenzie Waterfalls were very beautiful to view the only thing what is a pity that it is very touristy.

The next place was Horsham a little country town in the middle of nowhere. That was the first night that we slept in the car. In Australia it is very easy to sleep in a car because there are a lot of facilities in almost every town like free barbeques and public toilets. The only thing we missed was a shower but for one day that is not a problem.

The next morning we went to Little Desert National Park. The place was very beautiful and there are some walking tracks. Our hostel was in a big area in the park with places to camp and a few dorm rooms. We chose of course to camp because that is more exciting. There were also some desert animals in the park.

We decided to leave the next day because the place was not that big and there were no cooking possibilities. Murray Bridge the next destination was far a way (290km) but there was almost nothing to do between it. The only thing what was between it were wineries and we are both not interested in that.

In Murray Bridge we did the same as in Horsham we slept in the car and made a BBQ. The next morning we left early in the direction of Adelaide. One hour later we arrived in the beautiful city of museums and churches.

We are now in a very nice hostel: pretty small, nice people and every day free hot apple pie with vanilla ice cream. They have also some board games and we played every evening risk. We will stay here one/one and a half week more and try to sell the car and then Vanda has to go home . And I have to look for a job again. I will enjoy the next few days in Adelaide and then the hard working period starts again. We want to sell the car as well because I want to go to New Zealand after the working period and she is going home. It is a shame because the car was still good and it is way much more fun to travel by car than by bus or plane. I think I will never find a car like this again. Hopefully we can make some profit from selling the car.

Yesterday we went to the beach and relaxed there and today we played some volleyball and went to a chocolate factory. I liked the chocolate and even the Swiss verdict was positive.

 

Adelaide (27-2-07)

I`m still in Adelaide looking for a job at the moment. It is not that easy I’ve heard from some people. But I’m also doubting if i want to work in Adelaide because it is not that nice and pretty small.

Vanda left me the 24th because she has to go home. That was pretty sad because I had a very good time with her. We went the last few days to the beach ect and we did some night pictures. While we were taking the night pictures a aboriginal attack us because she was drunk and thought that we took a picture of her but that wasn`t. Luckily enough nothing happened, but it is pretty sad to see how much Abo`s are totally not integrated in the society. The weather was very nice so everything was good for the beach weather. Also i`ve got already my first birthday present from Vanda, some sweets and food that I never should buy because I think that’s to expensive or not needed. We sold also the car with a little profit. So the travel from Melbourne To Adelaide was very cheap and nice!

I will decide what I will do the next weeks. I`m also thinking to go to Sydney look there for a job and then go to New Zealand. Because in Sydney there are a lot of jobs almost all the time of the year and I think if you look for the right places I can find also a good market and supermarkets like in Melbourne.

 

Kangaroo island and the last days Adelaide (3-3-07)

Just the day that I updated my site somebody (Bram, 27, Brabander) Asked around if there were some people to join him to go to Kangaroo Island (K.I.). That sounded as a good Idea because I was not really in searching for work mood in Adelaide and this was the only thing I still had to do to make Adelaide complete. Because we did the tour our self we saved a lot of money and I knew that it is more fun to do it by car.

It was a great tour Kangaroo Island was very cool the first day I traveled to some nice beaches and a half dried out lake. We did also a pelican lagoon walk but we saw only one pelican from pretty far a away. In the evening we played a game and we slept in the car (on the front seats).

The second day we went to see the seals they were very cool to see, they are very lazy on the beach because they swim and eat for 2-3 days and then they go to the beach to rest out.

After that we did some sand boarding, that was cool but pretty exhausting because it was very hot and there is no ski lift of course.

We did also that day a koala walk but that one was not that special because the koala`s were very high in the trees. After that we went to some special stones (remarkable rocks) on the island they were very beautiful but it was a pity that it was cloudy in that part of the island there were also again some seals in that area, an other kind (that kind was more protected and we were not allowed to come close to them).

After that we did a platypus walk but we were unlucky and didn`t see one. It is very special if you see one because they are very shy and sensitive for noises. We slept again in the car because it slept pretty good that night before.
In the morning we were early a wake to do a walk to a rough bay and a snake lagoon. We met there some people from the hostel how were doing a tour. That was funny because we saw them a few times on the island. We walked with them the way trough the bay it was very rough and beautiful. We did alone the way back because there was one more chance to see a platypus and if you are with two people you don`t make that much noise. We were lucky this time.. we saw one after 10 minutes of patience. (the pictures are not that good but that is almost impossible to make a good one).

After that we walked back to the car and saw a koala sitting on the ground, he was waiting to get some energy to climb in the tree. After that we went in the direction of the ferry, did a picnic there and went back to the hostel.