Last weekend I arrived in Adelaide after a quick dash across Australia, north to south. We were lucky to find a cool place to stay in Adelaide for a few days. Ryan, who I travelled from Carnarvon to Broome with, was still in Broome as I was arriving in Adelaide. He had met a couple who were from Adelaide, so he asked them if they could recommend a place. They suggested that we went to stay in their house because all the housemates were in the process of moving out. We stayed with the remaining housemate, Mazair, an architecture student from Iran, and had frequent visits from Mark who was moving the last of his stuff out and let us stay in his room. We spent the days exploring the city and visiting the beach, then on Friday we picked up our next relocation vehicle.
Our new car was a 2 wheel drive camper-van, we headed out towards Melbourne, along the coast, so that we could check out The ‘Great’ Ocean Road. I didn’t think it was all that great, but the Australian department of tourism had definitely invested a lot of money in creating a view point every 300 meters along the road. It is a beautiful place, but after hearing so much about this stretch of coastline, I was expecting it to be amazing. The main attraction along the road, is a place called The ‘Twelve’ Apostles. As strange as it may seem that these stacks are so popular, the strangest thing is that there isn’t, and never has been, twelve of them. This is because the tourism board started calling them ‘The Apostles’ but people just started calling them ‘The Twelve Apostles. I would say that the coastal road is worth visiting, it has some really beautiful spots, but try not to get too excited about it before you arrive.
I thought that the best part of the road was the last section (coming west to east). The road actually moved away from the coast, and instead took us through some beautiful hills and farmland with lots of cows and forested areas. This part of the road reminded me of places in the UK and Europe. We stopped off at a few rest areas in the forests and saw my first wild Koala. I arrived in Melbourne this afternoon and I’m staying with a friend of the girl who gave me a place to stay in Carnarvon. I will explore the city tomorrow and try to get an impression of the place, as I might be living and working here for the next 3 months (after I get back from Tasmania) to prepare for Asia.
