"Campervaning" in South Australia
Trip Start
Jan 05, 2009
1
10
15
Trip End
Jun 30, 2009
Adelaide,
South Australia,
Australia
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Let's start with a bit of a summary. After Bolivia we flew to Sydney with a very complicated and long La Paz - Lima - Sanitago de Chile - Auckland - Sydney...in total a 3 days trip with only one night spent on land!
We started our journey in Australia, enjoying the come back to a country culturally similar to ours: no more negotiation for everything, no more checking what we were about to eat and/or drink and easy communication even though the aussie accent is sometimes more complicated to get than we thought.
The week in Sydney passed smoothly and it was really a relaxing time: we went to the opera ("Die Zuberflaute" - Mozart), surfing to the beach, we've been hanging around doing some shopping and caught up with some friends of Massimo's for two very nice evenings that made our stay just perfect.
As South America, Australia has its part of special events worth mentioning. The first one is that, according to the major australian newspapers, 2009 is considered "the year of the shark"! No kidding, the first time Massimo puts his feet on the land down under to enjoy its famous waves, the number of shark attacks triplicates after they don't know how many years. The weird thing is that it happened also in Galapagos, so the question is, is the same shark following us or they just passed the news over the Pacific Ocean?
The second news worth mentioning is that the whole South of Australia (and in particular the Victoria state where Melbourne and the Great Ocean Road are) has recently been devastated by bushfires, helped also by the hottest summer since many years. So we were expecting to suffer the heat during the second step of our Australian trip, but when the door of the plane opened...surprise...rain and 18 degrees! This was very good news for the bushfires, less so for our forecoming 21 days on a campervan along the coast!
We've been freezing for two days in Melbourne (ok not as much as we would have in Europe but still, it's a matter of expectations!) and then picked up our "Cheapa Campa" (we swear it is the name of the company where we rented our campervan!) to start our first time ever camping adventure along the Southern coast.
Massimo is the driver and Melanie the navigator...so far no accident and we didn't get lost so the team is working well. Sometimes Massimo gets on the wrong side of the road but no worries Melanie's always ready to scream in his ears "...l'autre cote'...l'autre cote'...l'autre coteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" and luckily it has always happened when nobody else was on the road.
We drove along the Great Ocean Road, a coastal road with beautiful sceneries, among which the famous 12 apostles (which are actually now only 6 as the others have lost faith...), we've been stopping by to observe Koalas and to surf the waves of a very cold ocean while Melanie, as she mentions, was waiting in the camper like a dog! (But no worries, Massimo left the windows open and some water in a bowl)
We normally spent our nights in equipped campings (our van doesn't have toilets nor shower...) but a couple of times we've been camping in National Parks in the middle of the forest or on the side of the beach with absolutely nobody around us...it's been a unique experience. One night we've also shared the place where we were parked with a "Wallaby" (a small kangaroo) which spent the whole night with us and honoured us with his presence during breakfast (see pictures).
We've been actually speeding a bit more than expected along the Victoria state because of the cold, looking for some warm wheather to be found the closer we were getting to Adelaide...we're in Adelaide today but still no sign of warm wheather...
A quick mention of the surf spots visited for Massimo's surf fan friends:
- first of all, the surprise is that you find shitty waves also in Australia!
- so far the best spot has been a place called Stony Rise, close to Robe in South Australia, even because it's been the only day with off-shore wind!
- Bondi beach has also been a very nice surf, unfortunately shared with a million other surfers (apparently Australians are not that scared of sharks and tourists are as unconscious as Massimo is!)
- the other spot surfed in the Sydney area has been Manly but on a small day...longboard session!
- then we have in order: Lorne and Skeenes Creek in Victoria - Middleton in South Australia. All beach breaks and a lot of "schiumone"!!
Anyway, Massimo's having a lot of fun and we still have three days waiting for us in the Yorke peninsula...let's hope for the wheather so Melanie can spend some time outside the van!!
Soon coming, M&M's in the Australian desert.
Comments
Cheapa Campa
Hey max, attento che lo squalo te lo porti fino in Feniglia, se mai tornerete a casa...
Vi guardo con occhio giallo paglierino e incarnato pallido post-inverno NewYorkese.
Non invidio Mel che deve sopportare il tuo alito al mattino dentro il Cheapa Campa, dev'essere un'esperienza belluina.
Fikissimo il kangaroo! Ma ha dormito con voi quella notte? Ho sempre saputo che sei un po' un pervert mio caro amico!
Oh, have some schiumone for me as well! And a schiaffazzi compilation, of course!
Take care and drive safe.
MdV