Betsy and the Great Ocean Road


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Oceania » Australia » Victoria » Melbourne
March 16th 2007
Published: March 16th 2007
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We’ve mixed this entry up a bit with each of us writing a bit…I hope it doesn’t get confusing!

Leaving Alice


March 5th : (Caro) Our final day in Alice was a good one! Andy and the house mates decided to throw a BBQ, and for once almost all of the house occupants were there in the house together! We had lamb chops, snags, potatoes, salads, and ate a lot more than we should have! We had some good chats and alcohol was consumed by some. A big thanks to Andy, Nat, and the rest of the house for a week of good times!

March 6th : Back on the road. We got up before the sun, and surprisingly the air was a cooler temperature! We started the 700km to Coober Pedy…. more straight roads with not too much changing in the scrub filled country side. So much red rock and dust…. JP, one of the tour guides living in the house gave us a bit of entertainment on the way when he passed Betsy in his big tour bus! I’m sure his sleeping customers didn’t appreciate us honking our horn to say hi!
The drive today wasn’t too bad, other than being really flat, the temperature was bearable and we were able to make relatively good time. Coober Pedy was a bit of excitement because it’s an opal mining town, and the desert is filled with thousands of piles of white dirt to break up the flat red dirt landscape we’d seen for kilometers! We’d planned to stay in Coober Pedy, but since the weather was good, and it was still mid-afternoon, we decided to drive another 250km to Glendambo and stay at the Roadhouse there. We still had plenty of hours of sunlight there to make dinner. The stars were fabulous in the middle of nowhere, so quiet!

Arriving in Adelaide


March 7th: We were up early to drive the 700km to Adelaide. Early on in our trip we saw the hugest kangaroo standing on the side of the road. It was enormous! We were just glad he wasn’t on the move in front of the van! We made it back to civilization before noon, and stopped at a small sea-side town to eat lunch. We walked the 1.5km of the longest wooden pier in Australia, then continued on the hwy to Adelaide. Driving through Adelaide
Linsday Street barbieLinsday Street barbieLinsday Street barbie

Andy from home and most of his roommies on our last night in Alice
to try to find the one caravan park listed in all our books/maps was not fun. We arrived at rush hour, and Betsy took this as a sign that it’d also be fun to act up again. We spent a good 45 mins jerking through traffic as the engine surged. We finally made it to the park by the beach and made ourselves at home there. We biked up to the grocery store to get dinner food, then relaxed in the much cooler temperatures while we ate dinner. The temperature change for us in less than 48hrs and 1500km was remarkable - we went from low 40C in Alice to low 20C in Adelaide! Much more comfortable, we had to pull out our fleece blankets!
We decided to enjoy sunset sitting at the beach, so we walked out after dinner with a glass of wine each. We were a bit late to see the sun setting, but the skyline was still beautiful!

March 8th: After a relaxing morning, being able to sleep in past 7:30 because the van didn’t turn into a sauna, we set off on our bikes into town. It was about 10km into town, but the ride was pretty easy. We stopped at Victoria Square, and then found a place where we could check our email for free! Afterwards we went to the Central markets. I missed seeing so much fresh fruit in the desert! I could have walked around there for hours! We bought some pepperoni sticks and some fruit for lunch, and then went back to the square to eat. We decided to check out the free museum, and spent a few hours browsing before heading back to the caravan park. On the way we stopped at Big W (same as Walmart) to find a few things.
We enjoyed another ocean sunset - this time making sure we were at the beach before the sunset, and with plenty of wine! We didn’t stay as late because it actually got too cold for us with the wind!

Great Ocean Road here we come!


March 9th: We left Adelaide a bit later in the morning to avoid rush hour traffic. Joe fiddled with Betsy a bit, and seemed to stop the surging problem. We drove about 400km to Mt. Gambier that day, stopping a few times. In Mt. Gambier we drove out to the Blue
Coober Pedy Opal minesCoober Pedy Opal minesCoober Pedy Opal mines

The horizon was full of these white piles!
Lake - a lake that has formed in a volcanic crater. Each summer it turns a vibrant shade of blue, while in the winter it is grey. They haven’t quite figured out why the colour changes, but we were there to see it blue. We made dinner there, then went for a little drive to another crater lake, and took a very steep walk up to a look out before heading out of town. It was about 7:30 or 8, and we planned to drive the 15km to the South Australia - Victoria boarder and sleep at one of the free rest stops there. On the way we passed a race track with a race going on, so on a whim, we decided to stop. We were a bit late, so the guy at the gate let us in for ½ price! We brought in our chairs and enjoyed some racing! By the end of the night we were both frozen, brrr! The races were fun, on a relatively short dirt track. The cars would go around the corners sideways!

March 10th: We drove out to Portland, and decided to go off the main hwy a bit to Cape
Back to the ocean!!!Back to the ocean!!!Back to the ocean!!!

We enjoyed our lunch, then a walk along the longest wooden pier in OZ. Much needed enjoyment of the ocean after so long in the Outback!
Bridgewater. There is a petrified forest that Charles Darwin apparently visited. He figured the rocks had hardened around trees, but I think now they’ve determined that wasn’t the case.
We decided to stop at the beach and test out our boogie boards again. My it had been way too long since we’ve been out playing in the waves of the ocean! We enjoyed lunch in the sun at the beach then continued on our way.
We stopped at the Folk Music Festival in the small town of Port Fairy, but spent most of our time there watching a busker juggle on a bike, atop a pole… strange.
We drove through Warrnambool, the official start of the Great Ocean Road because we’re too cheap/poor to pay to go into special exhibits! We stopped to admire the cliffs and limestone out-croppings in the Bay of Islands Costal Park before finding a place to stay in Peterborough.
We’d decided to drive back a few kilometers and make dinner at one of the Lookouts during sunset - I think we got a bit obsessed with the sunsets! It was just so nice to be back by the water again really!

March 11th: We spent the day stopping at a dozen sites along the GOR. All are very similar, but have their own individual characteristics. The cliffs are made of limestone, and are hit constantly with wind, waves and rain, which have eroded the rock into interesting shapes, caves and arches. We stopped at: The Grotto, London Bridge (part of which actually fell in 1990), The Arch, The Razorback, Loch Ard cemetery, The Blowhole, Thunder Cave, Loch Ard Gorge and The Twelve Apostles. We did a lot of walking and picture taking interspersed with a bit of driving between the turn-offs!
We ventured off the main hwy to Cape Otway to see a lighthouse, but turned back when you had to pay $12.50 each just to walk out to it! Ridiculous! The drive out was worth it though because we got to see a bunch of koalas in the wild in the trees over the road. They would be pretty hard to spot if not for the other tourists stopped on the side of the road with their cameras pointed up in the trees…
We slept in Apollo Bay that night and had an early night because I wasn’t feeling that great.

March
Victoria SquareVictoria SquareVictoria Square

I think that is what it's called!
12 : (Joe) Woke up in Apollo Bay . The caravan park here was extremely busy, but at least did not charge us $27 for a piece of grass to park the van on like the night before! So many tourists through here right now - doesn’t help that it is a long weekend for Victorians! We continued along the Great Ocean Rd , but there was mostly only the rolling coastline to observe, which was easy enough from the Van. Betsy starting chugging again on us - think we need to replace the entire carburetor to fix this one, but figured we had might as well wait until we get to Melbourne and start making some money. We chugged up to Belle’s Beach, a surf beach famous for its monster waves! We walked down and watched a few surfers attempting to stay on top of the 3m waves rolling in! Some good spills….

Melbourne


We got back on the road and headed on to Geelong , a city of 200k+. We stopped and went for a stroll along the waterfront area. There was an old restored carousal, and a large ferris wheel, and a nice boardwalk along the
Adelaide ocean sunset #2Adelaide ocean sunset #2Adelaide ocean sunset #2

We spent our two nights at the caravan park in Adelaide watching the sunset over the ocean with a couple glasses of wine... how nice!
water. From here we headed towards Melbourne , but got mired in the long weekend horde return to the city. The 60km took us about 90 mins to complete! It was hard to believe that we had finally made it to the city of Melbourne . It had been a destination that had almost started to feel unreachable, after the countless kilometers traveling through the remote outback.

Perri and Maggie that we had worked on the farm with in Stanthorpe, and did a Whitsunday cruise with in Arlie Beach , were still in Melbourne , leaving the coming Saturday for Thailand . They invited us over for dinner, so we navigated our way through the city center in the van, until finally reaching their house in the St. Kilda area. It was great having a destination in the city, rather than just trying to find a place to begin. They cooked us a fabulous dinner, and we recounted each others adventures since we had last seen each other over a 1.4L tub of frozen yogurt! Mmmmmm…… We left around 11pm and parked the van around the corner from there house on a quiet street and went to sleep. Once
What a way to relax after dinner!What a way to relax after dinner!What a way to relax after dinner!

The temperature change here from Alice was incredible! Had to pull the sweaters out of storage!
you pull the curtains, nobody can tell if there is someone inside!

March 13th : We stopped in a garage and lined up an appointment to get a road-worthy test done the next day. We require this to be able to get the ownership transferred over upon selling it. We picked up a few newspapers and started looking for a place to live! We had heard from Perri and Maggie that we didn’t want to live on the west side of the city as it is the most run down, but other than that, anything was a go. We decided to check into a caravan park for a couple days while we found a place, which was on the north west side of the city. After dinner, we got to find out how big Melbourne is when looking at a place in Oakleigh, one of the eastern suburbs. We decided that we wanted to live a little closer to the city center, so kept looking, making loads of phone calls. On the way back to the park, fuel vapours were getting stronger and stronger, and almost to the point of being unbearable in the van. Something that is going to have to be looked into. At first I thought that the engine was just running rich because I was running with a bit of choke as it allowed the engine to idle a little smoother. Proved to be not the case.


March 14th: (Caro) We’d made an appointment to get Betsy inspected for “Roadworthiness” before we sell her. It ended up being across town from the caravan park we were staying at, so we had to leave at 7:30. While we waited for the van, we sat in a park reading the paper and looking for apartments/rooms to rent. It is pretty good here because you can rent rooms by the week, so you don’t have to sign a lease. Rent is pretty normal I guess for a city, but it’s cheaper than staying at the caravan park! We called a few places and made some appointments.
We went to pick up Betsy around 11:30 and received some bad news - the mechanic deemed her unroadworthy… (This was when I just saw dollar signs float out the door) Her body is getting a bit rusty, and he said he couldn’t certify her. All hope was not lost because if we take her up to New South Wales, they are less strict. We could try to clean her up and take her somewhere else. He said otherwise it was a good van, and we should have no trouble getting good money. (phewf!) We began our trek to the north end of Melbourne to check out a 2nd room, and to meet up with a friend we’d met on our Fraser Island tour. We saw the room and decided to take it, at least temporarily. The girl moving out still hadn’t moved and the room quite honestly looked disgusting! Three Irish girls were going to be moving into another room temporarily as well - the Grand Prix is on in Melbourne this weekend and their hostel dorm rooms were up to $40/night!
After taking the room we went to see Julien - his place is so nice! It was fun to catch up with him and to hear what he’s been doing the past 3 months. Joe looked into the engine bay as we were leaving and noticed that petrol was spraying out of a cracked fuel line - that explains the petrol fumes that have been getting us high the last couple days! Luckily he found some quick steel compound in the tool box that patched it right up in 5 minutes!
Once back at the caravan park, Joe spent the evening sanding down the rust spots on Betsy while I made dinner and tidied the inside of the van.

March 15th: We packed up and moved into our new place. The room was much better empty, but still needs a good vacuum (of course the one at the house doesn’t work...) We’re living with 7 others, 5 Irish, 1 Pole and 1 unknown. Should be alright for a little while.
I called about a job in the paper and had a meeting that afternoon, so I biked the 35mins into town while Joe continued to work on the van and move our stuff into the house. To make a long story short, I got a job, but it doesn’t start until next Wed, and all the details aren’t 100% worked out. It will be a mixture of data entry and calling customers to sign them up for a VIP program at this fancy oyster bar. I’ve also got an interview Tuesday for the Tourism Board for telemarketing stuff (I knew all those years at World Vision and Tennis Canada would come in handy!) I think the 2nd job possibility will pay better, so I may take that if I get it. After biking back, against the wind, I was beat, and sweaty because the weather warmed up a lot! Joe continued cleaning the van while I unpacked and set up our room.
Around 5:30 we took our first trip on the tram in Melbourne across town to a BBQ at Maggie & Perri’s place. They leave Saturday, so it was their farewell dinner with their housemates. The BBQ was great fun, but saying bye (again) to Maggie & Perri was strange. Hopefully we will meet again either in Canada or in Sweden perhaps! I guess we had too much fun at the party because we ended up missing the last tram back into the city. We took a cab up to one of the main stops, then took forever trying to figure out which tram would get us across the city to our place… After getting off the right tram, we made it to the north end of the city. Unfortunately, the tram line was still about a 20 minute walk to our place. Oh well, at least we didn’t have to pay a fortune taking a cab all the way home!

March 16th: Today we’ve come into the city to look for a job for Joe. We will keep you updated on our job search, but I don’t think our blog updates will be very exciting for a bit - it’s time for us to start making some money again!



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Gentlemen start your engines!Gentlemen start your engines!
Gentlemen start your engines!

The other pictures I took of the actual race are just blurs of cars going around the track!


16th March 2007

I been workin' on the rail-road
Hey Joe, good luck with the job seach - I'd hire you, if you didn't look so damn shifty!
16th March 2007

Sounds like fun!
Your drive down the Melbourne sounds great and I'm glad to see the ocean again too - what beautiful sunsets and beaches! It looks like you guys were back enjoying the tourist life again for a bit which was nice, and congrats on the job - that will be nice to earn some money!
3rd April 2007

Travel Updates
Hi guys - we have loved keeping up with your trip since leaving NZ. The adventures continue. Sam loved the postcard you sent - thanks so much!!

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