Great Ocean Road & Grampians

On Monday morning, we got up to hire a car so that we could start our little adventure! We got to the rental place nice and early and loaded our belongings and selves into the car. I turn the car on and I was about to throw it into drive when I realized we had gotten a STANDARD car! We went back in to ask for a automatic car, but the last one just drove off with other excited adventure seekers. Well, now was the time to put all my standard driving lessons to the test. I didn't feel overly confident, but I knew it was something I could do. Embarrassingly enough, I didn't realize the emergency break was on while becoming frustrated that I couldn't even get the car into first in a parking lot. Once I realized that that was the problem, we were off. But not for long. The stop and go traffic, combined with my sisters inability to give directions left us stalling at green lights and creating some sort of traffic drama. 

I got her all figured out on our way to the Great Ocean Road. Not the easiest thing to on my first time driving standard, but I did well on the first day. I got some old man towing a camper really revved up when I accidentally stalled going up a hill. He knocked on our window (the one that didn't roll down) and tried to be angry at us. That's the funny thing about people. They often waste too much of their energy being angry at little things instead of choosing to avoid it and be happy instead.

Getting some pictures near Angelsea Lighthouse!

I was able to show my sister many sights along the way. We stopped at Torquay Beach, Erskine Falls, Angelsea, Lorne and spotted some cute koalas along the way! Johanna Beach was our last stop of the day which is where we set up camp for the night. It was easy enough to just pull the ladder of our tent down and it just pops up on top of the car roof. It's rather silly looking but mega easy to set up and take down. We watched the sunset on the beach. It was spectacular! 

Our little Wicked Campervan set up in Johanna Beach.

Johanna Beach sunset!

After a long night of not sleeping, but shivering instead, we cranked the heat in the car and drove off making stops at the Twelve Apostles and walking the trails of Loch Ard Gorge and Thunder Cave!

The Twelve Apostles!

We got to Warrnambool around noon and hadn't eaten yet as we needed propane for our camp stove. We found a K-Mart and stocked up on some propane and a proper blanket for the following nights. We cooked our brekky sandwiches right in the parking lot and stole the nearby Hungry Jack's WiFi to Facetime! 

We decided to head up to the Grampians next. We had seen a lot of coast and were looking forward to get into the "mountians." Which, in Australia, the mountains are no Rockies and in comparison, quite small. Beautiful nonetheless. 

Once again, my navigator had gotten us lost, but it was all about the adventure! Siri lead us back to the main road after we ventured off onto a few farm roads with gravel as orange as, well, an orange! 

Heading into the Grampians, we got some awesome views of mountains and it was nice being one of the very few people travelling along the road! 

We made our way through the bottom half of the Grampians swerving to avoid Kangaroos, Emus, Possums and other miscellaneous wildlife along the road. When we arrived at a campsite called Jimmy's Creek, we decided we would set up our little tent there for the night. After the two minute set up, we took off on an adventure walk, which basically ended up being an unmarked path to no where - but it was 2km straight up hill in the 32 degree heat! Some killer views though! When we got to the other side of the path, we were completely lost since all the landmarks we noticed were not on the map! So, we just started walking - eventually finding a 4x4 track and making our way back. We returned to find a few guests in our campsite! To take a shower, we filled up an old metal pail that had a shower head on it, filled it up with river water and hoisted it up on the chain for it to pour down. It was funny but made me realize how much water only a quick shower uses. 

One of our camp site visitors!

Up early the next day to explore more of the Grampians! We really wanted to see the falls that were near by, which by how the map had it laid out meant it was only a short drive on an unsealed (gravel) road. Well, the gravel road ended and turned to sticks and stones. After twenty minutes of driving on that, we decided to turn around and forget those falls. Luckily, we found some others. I like to climb rocks and anything that looks remotely climbable. In no time I was up on top of the Silverhead Falls with my sister on my should saying "get down now!" No thank you. 

From there, we ventured on to Halls Gap and many popular lookout places such as Boroka Lookout and The Balconies. Unfortunately, we weren't able to see Mackenzie Falls (although we tried) as they had it completely blocked off since a fire recently wiped through the area causing a lot of damage. At all the lookouts, they had fences that acted as safety boundaries and although my safety guru sister yelled at me, I like to think of them more as suggestions. It's really a lot nicer if you just step a smidgen outside the fence and take a look at a view that everyone else is missing from standing inside the boundary. You can't dangle your feet off a cliff from a walking path! 

Views from Boroka Lookout!

We ended up hiking to the top of another mountain later on in the evening after trying to find a place to camp out, but failing and going through another series of dirt roads and getting the car awfully dirty! All the views were 10/10 and completely and totally awesome! I hope I will get another chance to visit the Grampains again before my time in the area expires!

We ended up camping back at Jimmy's Creek again and our guest came back just as we sat down for some dinner. Perfect timing dude!

The entire trip was quite the adventure and provided some great sister time! This morning as we drove back down a quiet highway, we past about five small "one-horse towns" - all without gas stations. We rode on the fuel light for a good half an hour. I was starting to get slightly worried as my phone had little service and I wasn't exactly sure of our location. Luckily, we found a fuel station and filled her up. The whole time we were riding with little fuel, I just knew we would find a "servo" because I didn't feel like having bad luck today. Ha Ha! Always think happy thoughts!!

Thanks for following along on my adventure. In a few days we are headed up to Sydney to meet with the rest of my family!