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Published: March 16th 2013
I already figured that Internet Dating is not my cup of tea, and it proved itself yet again. And I also lost my faith in circus as being an happy positive environment, all at once. Well actually after a few 100k.
So after I rushed into quitting my job, deciding to go to Melbourne and arranging transport. I needed a travel buddy. Internet is obviously the place to fix that minor issue. After an add, a meet & greet follows and a lunch. The opposite party, post circus school guy half actor half social worker presented himself as being catchy, fun, positive, easy going, good driver, friendly...clown. I guess I need to give him credit for his acting; he was everything but what he presented. Not only was he negative, indecisive, serious, moaning person, he yelled at me and he turned out to be a retard with roadmaps. I held back so many times, the longer I think about him..well it doesn't make him come out better.
Anyhoo we were depending upon one another for the next 5000k. We travelled south from Perth towards
Margaret River. First night spend in a resting area(along highway) with no facilities. The second
day we visited M.R., some wineries, a chocolate & liquor factory and then off to
Hamelin Bay. This might be one of the or maybe
the highlight of my trip! Massive black stingrays, spotted eagle rays cruising around you, figuring out if your toes are edible, waiting for some free fish-bits coming from your hands. Such incredible and beautiful gracious creatures. I absolutely loved it! We stayed a night at a site where no one came to collect money. It was on a beautiful river and allowed us to have a cold shower. The next day we combined the beautiful Karri tree(Eucalyptus family) with some spectacular heights: climbing trees with pegs between 61 m(Gloucester tree) and (bicentennial tree) 73m high. We stepped by a family for my ex roomy Julie with organic avocado farm. Yup they provided us lunch and tons of free avocados. This region around
Pemberton/Denmark is beautiful. We were too late for treetop walk so we drove to Parry beach campsite for the night and checked out from there the
Green Pool and
Elephant Cove just before sunset. Which were actually kind of a natural bay and further down a rock formation which
So graceful
Hamelin Bay, WAseriously looked like elephants bum to bum in the water.
The next day we went to the famous treetop walk,
Valley of the Giants, which was seriously a disappointment; it's shorter than short. I pictured something like in Costa Rica, boy was I wrong. The trees however are incredible strong, as they suffer from fires, fungi and insects, they can continue growing even when there are hollow. We checked out just before
Albany the natural bridge, the gap and the blowholes; no luck with the last one, lacking power to actually splash the water out but we heard the sounds it created underneath.
For over one billion years Australia and Antarctica were actually joined together, the final separation between Antarctica and Australia happened around about 45 million years ago. The massive rock formations that you will see at the Natural Bridge and The Gap are what was left behind following the split.Interestingly, the rock formations on Australia's Southern Coast can still be matched to identical rocks off the Northern coast of Antarctica near Windmill Islands.
After this we were supposed to drive to
Esperance. The 100%!m(MISSING)an next to me has already shown he can't do road maps, not even in a girls way, just no way at all. Not the first time we drove wrong, but after double checking with him I just hoped he was right. After 100k he changed his mind; we were on the wrong road. WTF! After only one word, which was 'seriously..' he started yelling at me. After so many slow responses, being indecisive, scratching all over my food, moaning,
Impressive!
Hamelin Bay, WA sighing, serious reactions to jokes and not be able to read a god damn road map...he has all the right to yell at me; arse! Big fat retarded fake of a clown-arse! So the love was over you can imagine, but the day wasn't over yet. Or not: it started raining. Which wouldn't be a biggy; we're nice and dry in the van. But this excuse for a man thought it was good idea, to lighten up a bit, relax the tension by going on and on and on about what influences driving; amount of air in the tires, wind, height of van, weight of van, road, area around road, speed, age of van, other vehicles, other vehicles drivers, position of the sun. No joke. He lost all credibility when he added 'if a kangaroo jumps in front of the van now, don't brake but gear down'. We arrived safe in pouring rain and stayed at a Quaggi Beach Camp side. The fact that it was next to the beach was not very necessary due to the weather, but it was free again and had some facilities.
The next day the big crossing started known as the
Nullarbor, which
Feeding my friend
Means more than half your arm underneath it to find its mouth!
Hamelin Bay, WA is actually the part in South Australia. So we had to go up 200k up to
Norseman and then 1200k across with a stop at
Eucla, which we almost made it to the first day. That means we did more than 900k. There was not much to see in this stretch, besides the tin camels in Norseman. And road kill after road kill. So many dead kangaroos, a few eagles, one dingo but all the others were kangaroos in all sizes. Also we had our first encounters with Road trains. These can have a length up to 36.5 meters. All have the known bull bars, which is not just a massive metal construction in front of the truck but it goes all the way up in front of their windows. Just because of the amount of hits they have, mostly during dusk and dawn, with as already said, kangaroos. They just bounce them of the road more or less. And apparently that's what it does, and they don't have to pick out pieces of kangaroo out of their grill later. Yes, I checked this with a trucker who has been driving for almost 50 years. He looked at me as
if I was stupid. I returned that look when his stories became more imaginative by the second. It started of with 33 kangaroos hit in one night ended in a massive eagle flying through the front window, landing on the passenger seat, staring the trucker down and finally flying away..
These eagles btw are Wedge Tailed Eagles, absolutely stunning and can get a wingspan up to 2,5 meter
We stayed at a roadhouse with power and warm showers. I could lighten up a bit after this and my camera started charging again. And just having the chance to talk to the trucker and the crazy bar lady (understandable, she lives in the middle of freaking nowhere) which created, of course, another annoying moment when he refused to speak English. Next day was again a massive one, luckily with some magnificent views though; the great Australian
Bight is surrounded by cliffs, the ones we have seen from different views were the
Bunda cliffs. Seriously beautiful and crowded with flies sadly as well. Which upgraded the amount of sighing again by my 'significant other' what increased for me the urge of pushing someone over the edge.. As said it is absolutely gorgeous the massive drop offs and the turquoise water banging against it. In whale season the can
see the whales very well from here. Even though it was not even near the season I secretly hoped for a whale-tale, but no luck.
We crossed the border today from Western Australia (WA) into South Australia( SA) already earlier, but our van got checked just before
Ceduna. And we had to sadly chuck out almost everything. But oh well, everything to keep fruit flies from trespassing and we didn't get fined. We slept again on a resting area next to the highway. Where we met some slightly drunk happy bowlers, who lost but they seemed to think it was funny. And we for sure met some more flies. After that the aim was to drive past
Port Augusta and
Adelaide. In Port Augusta we needed to fill our esky (cool box) again after our loss. I asked my travel buddy what he wanted to eat tonight and got the same response, what I got on more or less very question I asked him: 'oh...well.. ehmm.. (shrugging)..don't know..' When I replied I cannot buy that in the supermarket, he told me he wanted to stay in Adelaide; he felt a tension, if I felt it as well? My inner-me
Count the pegs
Bicentennial tree, Pemberton, WA had a mix of doing a thousand happy dances and high fives. I replied that I haven't been able to be myself at all. So all set: I did shopping just for me, he drove himself towards Adelaide, where I copied all his photos, got in touch with Ruby and Anna and left him. I drove to the girls. It was such a relief, unbelievable. Even though it's not cool to drive by yourself which also means more costs for me, but I smiled and that smile stayed there for quite a while.
Maslin is where I re-met Anna and Ruby my Vans colleagues. Stayed over in front of their house, had delicious curry made by Anna's mom, a welcome hot shower with organic tea tree soap and sunset beers on the beach. This beach is actually famous for being a nude beach and there's a movie about it 'Maslin Beach' (1997). It was great to see them again and have a laugh instead of a grump. The day after I drove the scenic route, through SA wineries, towards
The Coorong. Which is a national park known for its bird life and pretty nature. It's a long stretch of
fresh water just behind sea water. I haven't seen a lot of birds but it was certainly a pleasant drive. I ended up in the tiniest town called
Southend to have a beach moment, a beach shower including Jackson' a water biting Stafford and a barbecue with some free kangaroo bangers, from a lovely couple, and owners of Jackson. Slept on the way to
Mount Gambier again at a resting area.
Mt. Gambier has a blue crater lake, which was nice to see and also a lower green lake with really lush green vegetation. This already was making me so happy while driving; trees, grass finally growing and being. I was searching for a place I've seen on photos. A lady in the local library told me the name and where it was;
The Umpherston Sinkhole is more widely known as The Sunken Garden. It was also conveniently on the way to the
Gramphians, thrilled to go here. I took off after a lazy lunch with information centre material spread around me in
Hamilton.
The Grampians National Park is a national park in Victoria, Australia. The Park is listed on the Australian National Heritage for its outstanding natural beauty and being one of the richest indigenous rock art sites in south-eastern Australia. The Grampians feature a striking series of sandstone mountain range
The landscape is majestic, all flat and there it is; the Gramphians rising up, so impressive. When I was getting closer the roads started
to become winding roads. My first hike was after some recommendation from Ozzies. The hike is called '
the Pinnacle' which is not a real path but goes over rocks and you find your way by little arrows painted on them. It goes through the 'grand canyon' and the 'silent street'. It was just 2,1k but intense. The views are stunning at the top at I had awkwardly phone reception again. The other viewing point
'The Balcony' is well known from photo's. Its former name is 'the jaws of death'. It was beautiful and there were two colourful parrots eating in the trees next to it. I drove south again on the west side of the Gramphians to get more hours of daylight. There I've seen some burned parts as well. Normally the smell of bonfire makes me happy but now with the sight of black surroundings it didn't. Luckily it wasn't a big part where I had to drive through. I've seen so many parrots, colourful ones, white ones, small groups, mixed groups, massive groups. The only thing was that I was too slow to take pictures every single time.
I stayed over in the middle of nowhere in
Cavendish, but the money collector was adorable. He has been traveling in South America as well, but on his motorcycle. So we had some things to talk about. There was a pleasant hot shower and a bbq so nice. And just for $6.
The day after
The Great Ocean Road starts. That means so many viewing points working my way up to the twelve apostles. Views were stunning, I almost stepped on a snake, I had to hike a little here and there. After the twelve apostles I saw a sign for a wild life sanctuary. Taking that turn was a good decision. A very nice place, nice owners and funky animals. I found out that Emus actually make a sound like a starting growl of lion and the are hilarious with there little plucks of hair here and there. And I've finally met my wombat, which is actually a kind of boring animal. I drove towards a lighthouse, because the road is known for koalas! And yes I've seen them up close and personal, they're cute furry creatures. I had to spend the night in a paid caravan park, because the road were winding along the coast and
Monkey business
Rainbow Coast, Elephant Cove, WA I couldn't really find a hiding place to park the obvious van. And the sun was setting. This was the shittiest overnight place. Not because of the location; at the beach, koalas in trees around the wash house, warm water and even different parrots. All had to do with the mosquitos; I seriously created a cemetery on my sheets. While having this row repeatedly with these insects I heard male Koalas scurrying around and calling for the furry opposite sex. I actually had to ask the next day what that sound was, I can't really describe it, but it is loud. The last day was the last bit of driving, some beach bumming in between and I stayed over on a parking of BP service station. Where some more people decided to stay. Very convenient; hot showers, everything you need, you're direct on the highway. I washed my van by hand there to save some money, which turned out to be a good workout. The day after I had to drive into Melbourne, I was was a bit nervous about this. I performed a hook turn; renown in Melbourne and dropped my stuff at my friends place and handed in
the van.
End score:
5356k ...felt it for days...
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