Follow the yellow brick road

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The lonely planet has been our guide in planning this trip. Our route is Melbourne-Cairns over 6 weeks.

Our van has a manual transmission, so Josh has done all of the driving (this way there are no blonde moments). I can handle a manual transmission on side streets, but driving up and down the windy road with massive “truck trains” flying by at 120 km/hr makes me a little uneasy.

It turns out that driving on the left side of the road isn’t so weird after all- you just follow all of the other cars. It does take a bit of concentration in the round-abouts, and a LOT of concentration in the pouring rain

Our drive started along the “Great Ocean Road”. It’s a scenic road along the coast from Torquay to Warrnambool. There were stops along the way with random rock formations and spots to pullover and take in the panoramic view. We took a few pictures, but they don’t really capture the majesty of it all- towering cliffs, lush greenery, sandy beaches, and calm waves rolling in. We stopped at the “12 apostles” (but now there are only 6 due to erosion). It’s pretty interesting how they were formed - small currents worked away at a section of the rock created a small tunnel. Over the years that tunnel grew higher and higher until it eventually separated the piece of rock from the mainland. There was a rock formation that resembled London Bridge, but it fell down a few years back (seriously- no pun intended!).

Our path then took us up through the central part of Victoria following Hume Highway. There’s probably a reason why the area isn’t very populated. The region is suffering a drought, so most of the grass was a burnt yellow color. Kind of sad actually. The landscape slightly resembled Nebraska- big open plains with a few rolling hills. They had livestock, but the cows were sooo skinny. Most ranchers don’t use additives in their feed, so the cows have to fend for themselves - and there wasn’t much grass to go around.

We followed the New England Highway inland (yes, lots of pictures of road signs!), then headed back out towards the coast on a very windy road. We had to make a couple of stops to let the car sickness subside 😞. Once we were back on the main highway (A1), we followed it up north the whole way.

We encountered a fair bit of flooding in Queensland. It was crazy to see how much damage had been done by all the rain. Luckily we stayed ahead of the second and third storms. A lot of cars are modified with the muffler running up the windshield so that they can handle deep water (needless to say our van had no such equipment). Josh was able to keep us safe and sound on the way to our next destination.

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Photos

off the beaten path
Heading up the "unsealed" road to Nightcap National Park

ooo, I see a short cut....
Turns out this wasn't much of a short cut, but we got there never-the-less

Where to go
With about 3 maps and a plethera of pamphlets, we were well prepared to find the way

windy road ahead
They aren't joking with this sign

lots of rolling hills
Somewhere between Tamworth and the coast

flooding near Rockhampton
This was the first flooding we came across, and it got worse the farther north we traveled

Scenic Drive
Views from the Great Ocean Road

12 apostles
These are what remain of the 12 Apostles rock formation- still pretty cool

Australian countryside
wow- looks quite a lot like Nebraska

The Albion Hotel
This one's for you, Amber!

Comments

[Amber McLaughlin]

Thanks for the shout-out! Thanks for keeping us updated on your trip!

[Alex and Vlad]

It is so beautiful there!!!! Your updates are like a great book. Missing you!! Alex and Vlad