Road Trip

Roadtrip!

Sunday November 15th, Marie from France, Murph (Jon Murphy) from Ireland and I, headed out to pick up our van and drive across the southern coast of Australia from Perth to Melbourne. (see map)

The van that we affectionately named Bruce (like the Shark from 'Finding Nemo') cost us $5 /day because we did it as a relocation, a favour to the rental company. It was a tight fit for 3 people, I think it was intended for 2 adults and 1 child, but we made it work. The back had a sink, fridge and all the necessary cooking equipment, and 2 beds that fold out.

We camped mostly at free camp areas along side the road with nothing more than a few trees and a toilet. Once in a while we treated ourselves to a caravan site with showers and electricity to recharge the ipods and what not.

For my birthday (day 2) we where right on the Nullarbor, the desert that covers the middle of the country. We celebrated with beer and cookies.

There are so few other cars on the roads that you know just about everyone you end up camping next to and everyone you pass waves, like we were all part of an elite club. We saw heaps of signs telling us to watch out for kangaroos on the road, and we did see plenty, but none that were alive. I’m pretty sure we are the only people to cross the Nullarbor without seeing a single (live) Kangaroo! We did see an emu family, some lizards and lots of eagles.

We passed through lots of nothingness, including the longest stretch of straight road in Australia (146km) but there were a few interesting towns. Balladonia, for example, where the American satellite ‘skylab’ crashed into the desert, the Western Australia/Southern Australia border and Port Augusta which was a balmy 45 degrees! One night we found a campsite actually in the centre of a small town called Mallala. We were camped at the sports ground and were woken up early by bright pink, very noisy birds called Gallahs.

We arrived in Adelaide on day 5, but since it was soooo stinkin’ hot we decided to head down to Victor Harbour just south of there to play on the beach. We went for a swim in the southern ocean and asked the people next to us if there were sharks. They said there are, even some sightings that week, and big ones too, like tiger sharks. But what are you gonna do, not go in the water when it’s nearing 50 degrees outside? So we stayed in the very shallow parks and made sure there were always people further out than us. There is a loud alarm that goes off if the patrol sees any danger. Everyone survived.
Then we went and saw penguins in the middle of an awesome sunset thunder storm!

The next day we dropped off Murph in Adelaide, and found a German guy who wanted to get to Melbourne. The next car, Igor, was much more spacious for the driving but much slower and a little fussy. It had one tent on top of the roof and one regular one to set up on the ground. The drive to Melbourne was so much different than the first part of the trip. There were towns everywhere, we never had to use the second gas tank and it was much greener.

The great ocean road is very deserving of it’s name. We weren’t sure what all the fuss was about at first, but then we turned a corner and saw the ocean, and the cliffs, and the 12 apostles, an it was magnificent. We camped at Mt Gambier, on an old volcano that now has 3 craters, one called blue lake (check out the photos). Later that day we pulled over to take a walk to see Pelicans, but right on the footpath we ran into a Kangaroo! He was quiet but definitely alive!

The second part of the great ocean road was windy and right close to the water and passed through heaps of little surfing and vacation towns build right into the green rolling mountains. And we saw a Koala in a tree!

Driving on the left isn’t so bad, and my standard driving went very well in fact. The last part of the trip had lots of fun hills and corners and more towns so I got lots of good practice in then. I still wouldn’t drive a manual in a city like Melbourne but I feel very accomplished having learned an important life skill. I still prefer being the navigator and being in charge of the maps!