Great Ocean Road

Kate, Nicky and I decided to take a quick trip before my brother and dad would arrive in Australia at the end of April. None of us had seen the great ocean road yet and we really wanted to go to Melbourne, so when we heard about a Dutch Kings day party that hundreds of people planned to go to, we were sold on the date and destination. Before you reach the actual Great Ocean Road, you have to drive for quite some time: from Sydney past Melbourne would be around 12 hours of non-stop driving, so we had some stops along the way. We hadn't really booked any overnight stays in advance, lived from day to day and figured out where to drive to while we were on the road. We had bought some camping necessities beforehand: a tent, a stove, the basics to survive... or so we thought.

After the first night we'd figured that we still had a lot of shopping to do if we wanted to get through the week. The tent was too small for the three of us, we didn't have good cutlery, the stove didn't work without a lighter, etc. We bought everything at a Target we drove past, along with some kangaroo-burgers and sushi, and we were back on the road. The secluded camping spots were beautiful. The sky, the milkyway that was so different from the one we saw back home, was breathtaking. We didn't have high expectations, but a toilet every now and then would be nice, that's what we looked for.

We had no actual plan for the rest of the trip, except that we wanted to see the twelve apostles, some waterfalls, the most southern place of Australia's main land and other scenic things along the way. One of our first stops was Hyams beach, a little south of Wollongong, and I swear this must've been the bluest and brightest water I've seen this trip, by far. We spent maybe an hour on this beach being cold but enjoying the calmness of our surroundings, before hopping back into our car for the next few 100 kilometers.

At the start of the Great Ocean Road there's this arch which reads Great Ocean Road, and has a bit of a scouting-feel to it, but it's actually a memorial built by soldiers returning home from World War I. We, being tourists, had to park our car here for some photos, together with the 40 something Chinese people that arrived simultaneously. After acting ridiculously and taking some photos for other people as well, we felt it was time to start our actual journey on the Great Ocean Road.

We went to Kennett river first, because we'd heard that the forest next to the river would be filled with koalas. Too bad we couldn't find the river in the first place, so we had no idea where to go. The first time we were there we hadn't had breakfast and we'd slept in the car the night before, we had no clue what we were looking for, we couldn't find our way, but we did find a dog. Now... I'd missed my dog for the past two months, so every friendly dog was like a breath of fresh air and a new friend made. Nicky and Kate thought the same thing, and we were very excited when he brought us his stick to play fetch. It feels great when a dog trusts you enough to have you play with him, so while we were eating breakfast we kept giving the dog our attention. We got so attached to him in that hour and a half we were sad to leave him when we accepted that we wouldn't find the right way to the koalas. We did return on the way back: we tried to go to Kennett river one more time and after asking around for a while we found the road uphill we were supposed to take all along, but we didn't reunite with our little black and white friend.