Great Ocean Road/Adelaide: 4.5 day Caravan Adventure

map of the whole trip

**Warning, many photos ahead
Day 1: Great Ocean Road

Jucy Lucy and Mikaela

This road trip has been on the top of my must-do list for Australia for a while now. You can do the Great Ocean drive in a day or two if you are moving quickly, but since we had a car rented anyways, we stretched the trip into a five day roadie to Adelaide and back.

We packed up our car (affectionately known as "Jucy Lucy", and/or "The Loser-Mobile"), which is quite the attention grabber. We were stopped a few times and asked if we needed directions/help. I guess this thing does look a bit like a cry for help.

Our first day consisted was from Melbourne to Port Campbell. This part of our road trip encompassed the whole of the Great Ocean Road. And let me tell you, this place lives up to the name! From Bells Beach down through Apollo Bay you're pretty much sandwiched between mountain and ocean, with stunning view after stunning view.

There were also a handful of little side beaches that we stopped off at to rest and take in the scenery. We did this so frequently that I'm not 100% sure where these pictures were actually taken. Although I think it was around Apollo Bay area.

This is when I experienced my first language barrier. I entered one of these lovely establishments, and asked for a coffee.

Barista: Okay, but what kind?

Me: Just a normal coffee

Barista: Okay, like a flat white? Cappuccino? Latte?

Me: No like a normal black coffee

Barista: Oh, okay, a Long black?
Me: Sure?

Turns out folks, brace yourselves. They don't have coffee in Australia!? This may be the deciding factor that I will one day return to Canada. Everything is just an espresso based drink. To which some of you (like Mikaela) may respond "well isn't that better?". No. I require my generic, run of the mill, Seattle's best coffee. Okay, end rant. I'm sure this is only a big deal to me, a hat tip to my caffeine addiction. Time for good ole cold turkey quitting!

The last stop of the day was twelve apostles. Each view before this had been breath taking and amazing, but this topped them all. And it just so happened we got there right at sunset. I could talk endlessly, but I think I'll let the photos speak for themselves

Here's a quick explanation of their formation. I'm sure with a bit more research you could find out lots more neat information about this natural wonder:

Click Here

Twelve Apostles

Twelve Apostles

Twelve Apostles

Day 2/3: Adelaide and the Wineries

Day 2 was mostly driving up the coast towards Adelaide. It gets absolutely pitch black at about 6pm so we weren't able to do too much.
We did have our first wildlife spotting while driving through a forested area! We noticed something awkwardly walking on all fours down the middle of the road, and low and behold it was a Koala!

After recovering from the Koala sighting, we continued to Southern Australia and into wine country!

Frank Potts Reserve-South Australia

Penfolds Winery

We had planned to visit a couple wineries on our way into Adelaide, but we quickly found that many of the wineries here are not actually open to the public. So, after a brief stop in at Penfold winery, we continued into Adelaide for a half day of museums.

Penfolds Winery

Southern Australia University

There are several free museums  in and around the university in Adelaide. We elected to visit South Australian Museum. Which was a natural history museum. It was excellent until we entered the ocean and sea section and they had a three story (not exaggerating) giant squid. (insert mini panic attack). For all those who aren't aware, giant squids are the one and only animal that can put Shannon in a fetal position. BLECK.

Hi Matt

After my near death experience with the squid, we moved onto the university's art gallery which was also free to enter. This museum had a collections of aboriginal, modern and various other styles of art. Featuring a particularly haunting doll painting (which I have already traumatized a one, Matt Dengate with), and some stunning, shall we call it abstract?
 This is why I shouldn't go to arsty places without Rachel....

Our last little photo-op of the day took place on the way back to the campsite where we stumbled upon this very photo-genic staircase (you go staircase!).

Port Noarlunga

Day 4/5: There and Back Again: A Shannon's Tale

So folks, picture this: Day 4 of no coffee (we don't count espresso drinks here), long car ride through outback, borderline lost, with gas just over 1/4 tank, and no gas station in sight, and a campsite that doesn't exist. This is a list of all my least favourite things, and all of which happened on our last day.

There is  a very handy app called Campsite, which up until this point had not steered us wrong. Unfortunately, not all these places are kept up to date on the app. The goal of this day of driving was to situate ourselves within an hour or so of Melbourne to make the car drop off as seamless as possible in the morning.

So with that in mind we loaded up the map for an inn north of Melbourne which promised a free overnight parking spot. "Great! That's settled, now we can just enjoy the drive and take our time!" (more on this later).

Dimboola, Victoria

Coming away from Adelaide we saw signs boasting a pink lake, so of course we adjusted our route and went to behold said lake. Up until this point, I had been under the impression that there was only one pink lake, and that was in Perth. After a quick google search, I learned that there are many many of them, even one just outside Melbourne! We opted for Dimboola, Victoria. Unfortunately, because of the time of year, our pink lake had all but dried up. It turned out to be quite the cool experience though, walking out onto the pink salt of the lake bottom. 

After that cool little pit stop, we continued on our long drive to the campsite. Now, as has happened with many road trips throughout history, our GPS decided the fastest route was through the middle of nowhere. About 80% of this drive we had no, or spotty service and were just kinda hoping that it was the right way. Our only companions were the thousands and thousands of cattle and sheep grazing in the hundreds of farms. I don't think I've ever seen so many sheep!

After a long day of driving we arrived at the stay over, after a dark and twisty drive with many kangaroo xing signs, we at last made it to the inn. Completely exhausted and ready for bed.... only to be told the owner had stopped letting people stay there on account of general messiness of prior patrons. After a couple deep breaths, we got back into the car and strained our phones to pick up a signal, and tracked down a campsite nearby. Thank you thank you thank you to the lady at Macedon Caravan Park who picked up the phone after the office was closed, and allowed us to park there! 

Needless to say we both passed out at 7:30 on the dot.

A little silver lining to the stress, was our little visitor on the way into the camping park (see video)

A road trip is not a road trip without a little adversity and ups and downs. Overall, the gorgeous landscape more than made up for a few hours of stress. We dropped Lucy back at the rental car place this morning, and are getting ready for a week together in Melbourne before Mikaela moves on to bigger and better things!

Lucy looking out over SA