III. AUS - OA/VIC + SA 4; Mildu - GOR EN

Tu, 27.12. Mildura - Renmark/Monash
That day we had two border crossings:
- From NSW via Murray River to VIC
- From VIC via road to SA
-->In South Australia we had to leave our fresh fruits and this time were not even allowed to eat them at the border. The reason for that was that we could have been filmed by cameras and would have to pay a fine of roughly 300 AUD - incredibly, I lost 3 bananas :P
-->Oh and there was another time difference, half an hour back i.e. from 10 to 9:30 am.
After that we went to Monash Adventure Park where we spent almost 4hrs - veeery exhausting :D

We, 28.12. St Kilda - Adelaide - Coroong - Kingston
That night we had a really heavy storm with a lot of rain, the whole caravan was shaking and the next morning there were a lot of broken trees and flooded roads.
St Kilda Adventure Playground was also flooded so that we could not use everything. But it was still nice, especially because it was directly located on the beach with Adelaide in the background.
We drove through Adelaide and then via the Adelaide Hills and wine regions through heavy fog to a German town called Hahndorf. There were many German shops and restaurants as well as a typical Bavarian beer garden - but it was a little bit too touristy, too many Asian people around and the Aussie really believes that Hotdogs are made in Germany...
We then drove through German looking landscapes towards Coroong National Park and the salt lakes. Next to Meningie we then experienced a really horrible rotten fish smell - it smelled like someone had put some tuna cans in the bin and left there for several days :O
We then drove along the coast until Kingston SE where we directly camped free of charge along the Jetty, rode our bikes along the beach, visited a light house and then enjoyed a nice sunset.

Th, 29.12. Kingston SE - Beachport - Millicent
I got up very early the next morning to see the sunrise at 5:45 am and to have some free time - it was exactly 7 years that Mum died :(
After that we did another bike tour in the morning before we continued to Beachport - a really nice town where I spent 2,5hrs with Ester on the beach, building sand castles and mermaids.
We then continued to Millicent where we spent the afternoon on a man made lake.

Fr, 30.12. Millicent
By the way, it is not that hot in South Australia anymore - from 42* in the Outback we are now down to only 18* :P
From Millicent we went to Mount Gambier where we visited the Umpherston Sinkhole - the soil broke away creating a huge hole which has then been nicely decorated as a garden by the locals :)
Port MacDonnel is another small town directly on the ocean that already reminds a bit of the Great Ocean Road with all the rock formations - very beautiful landscapes.
We then camped at the Little Blue Like - a small lake where we even saw some people going for a swim :O

Sa, 31.12. Millicent - Mount Gambier
As it was pretty cold and windy in the morning we spontaneously decided to go to the cinema again. This time it was the movie Sing, was quite funny ;)
After another short stop at a playground we drove to Blue Lake - an enormous volcanic lake that has an incredibly beautiful dark blue colour.
In the late afternoon we already went to the park where most jumping castles, food stands and other attractions opened at 6pm. We had pizza and baked potatoes before watching the kids fireworks at 9 pm - with live music and super spectacular :)

Su, 01.01. Mount Gambier - Tyrendarra
Through the Mt Gambier Forest we drove from South Australia back again to Victoria - and thus another time difference adding half an hr, changing our times from 12:30 to 1:00 pm.
In Dartmoor we then saw some wooden sculptures before reaching our campground near Portland/Tyrendarra in the late evening.

Mo, 02.01. Tyrendarra - Port Fairy - Princetown (Great Ocean Road 1 = GOR)
From there we went to Port Fairy, a small town with nice buildings directly before the official start of the GOR. We had a small walk along the water, it is already pretty busy and touristy here.
Nullaware was the first small town on the GOR which is at the beginning pretty much inland and reminded me a lot of Germany with all the cows and farms.
Then we finally got there, on a beautiful drive along the ocean. We saw places such as Bay of Island Coastal Park, Bay of Martyr/Peterborough, Port Campbell and of course the 12 Apostles in Port Campbell NP - pretty awesome, but check out the pictures ;)Read more