5th – 7th December

Here We Go Again!

Picked up by Joseph again the next morning, the now 5 of us road trippers squished into his car (it’s a huge car, but we had all ours bags plus all the camping gear in there!). I sat in the back with Alexa & James, from Germany and China respectively. Both lovely people. We all chatted and go to know each other. We stopped for the guys to have lunch about 10 mins into the journey again, then did a food shop. As Alexa & I are both eating veggie diets atm we shopped together.

Our first stop was Geelong, a cute seaside town just before the start of the Great Ocean Road. The weather was great and we just had a wander up and down the beach. We then stopped at Torquay on my request, I’d been recommended to stop here and wanted to have a look. It was already getting well into the afternoon by this point, we had a late lunch and then some decided that it was too late to look around and there probably wasn’t much there anyway, so we didn’t actually see anything of the town itself ….

The drive along the beginning of the GOR was incredible! Hellishy scenic, the road snaked round amazing cliffs on one side with stunning beaches and rock formations on the other. We stopped at a few view points to get pics. It was really good, but as I mentioned 5 strangers do come with their different opinions and personalities, and let’s just say there was a bit of bickering about where we should go and different views on a lot of topics of conversation……… 🙄

A Nearly Sunset & Camping Night

We wanted to find somewhere facing west to watch the sunset, so raced to a lighthouse that jutted out on a peninsula south of the country……. only to find the lighthouse closed and no easy beach access 😂. We walked around for a long time, ever losing light, and watched a mediocre sunset facing south, but the sand dune cliffs were rather dramatic and we swore we saw a whale! (Although now I’m not convinced it wasn’t just big sea swells). We opened a beer and watched the beautiful colours change across the sky. Karl walked on a little and actually did manage to catch the end!

We found a quiet place to camp on a road side just outside a National Park (not really allowed again). The place was next to a lot of cattle fields and we had a solid bovine audience of around 30 individuals pretty much all night and all morning 😂. We helped make a fire and put the rents up, then cooked some food (ending up eating reeeeeeeeally late) and had a sit round the camp fire before bed. It was freezing! Alexa & I were sleeping in the back of the car this time on a very questionable mattress (luckily had my own sleeping bag and pillow from Mark), it was pretty chilly in the night, wasn’t the best nights sleep.

It took a bit of a while to get up and moving again in the morning, but when we did head off it was a lush day again and I was ready to see the iconic sites of the GOR, which were predominantly at this farther end. We stopped at one of the many beaches to have a quick swim in the sea and a sunbathe, I could have stayed for hours it was so beautiful, but once again we were ushered on quickly as there wasn’t enough time 😒.

The Main Event

The next site was the Gibson Steps, a beach with a really cool rock formation in the sea that was once attached to the land mass. As many of the formations we saw, the water had eroded away the rock from underneath until it was eventually isolated from the mainland. The beach here was also beautiful! We made a few stops for some incredible views, but the most famous was the ‘12 apostles’, which are now only 5 or so apostles (once again the rock has eroded away over time) and London Bridge (which was now no longer a bridge that connected to the mainly, this had happened in the last couple of years!). I was totally wowed, the whole experience was amazing! I only wish I’d had longer & taken my time doing the road to soak it in and visit a few more stops. Plus I wish everyone got on a wee bit better from our party, the atmosphere wasn’t always that great.

After rushing to try and fit things in we decided to go to the pub to get a beer, food & chill in the sun for a little bit. Princetown felt like a small town somewhere in the middle of nowhere where everyone who lives there was born and will remain there their whole lives. Biker dudes at the pub were quite obnoxious and thought this place was the centre of the earth….. small town folk!

One More Night In The Sticks

Afterwards, on we pushed to try and get some miles in on the way to Adelaide before it got too dark (Roos on the road are difficult to spot at night). We eventually found a place to settle again, this time it was a real free campsite! It had a (very basic) toilet, water access and a fire pit! It was late again so we had a quick dinner before bed. I was keen to get to Adelaide at a reasonable time the following day, but unfortunately it didn’t happen…… that’s another story 😬.

After an unnecessarily long lie in and breakfast the next morning, we made our way to Adelaide, stopping on the way for food. I was soooooooo glad to reach Sam’s house!