Melbourne & Philip Island
In the morning we arrived in Melbourne, the next metropole of Australia. This more European style city has a lot of culturally things to offer and there are bikes to hire for not more than 2 Euros a day. It is the more quite pace of the Melbourners and the public transportation sytem the city is blessed with. Metropolitan trains, trams and buses bring you to every spot. We made a day trip to Williamstown. In the area are very nice coastal hikes making it a good place to see birds like darters, sea gulls, comorants, seals, dolphins, and pinguins. I find it amazing how easy it is to spot abundant wildlife in any place, at any time, with so less effort. This was even more teaming on Philip Island. Famous for its pelicans, stingrays, puffer fish, sea horses, koalas and wallabies. Thanks to conservation effort I was able to see all this wildlife, which would have been dissapeared from the island without.
Also in Melbourne there is a lot to do. Personally I like this city more for its European style (transportation is tram and bisylcle and buildings are Victorian) and slower pace compared to Sydney. The skyline is good to see and visiting the Queen Victoria Market was delightful. The Melbourne Museum has a great natural history section which was awesome. Again… such a big museum and so little time. Time flew and it was already time to take the camper van from Melbourne to Adelaide. The start of the Great Ocean Road (GOR).
Great Ocean Road
Starting in Melbourne and finisshing in Adelaide within 7 days, over 1200 km of roads, visiting 6 national parks and some of the famous sights of Australia. This was the most beautful road trip I have undertaken so far and me driving all of it. It wasn’t that hard in the end and I learned driving on steep winding roads, gravel roads, and long stretches of (straiaght) highway. Here is the GOR in highlights.
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Cape Otway: Rugged coastline with beatiful coastal walks and beaches. The area is especially great for a litlle piece of rainforest near the coast (nature on its eirdest to say).
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Twelve Apostles and marine park: Taking nice photos is nowhere that easy as here. Blue water, impressive rock formations and a rough sea made this a surprising stop. Never thought is was that impressive.
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Grampians NP: The place where I saw most of my wildlife in Oz. Plenty of kangaroos, wallabies, emus, possums, and other animals live here. Here I hiked to a spectacular view point overlooking the park.
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Coorong NP: Most travellers don’t even pass by here, but we stopped in this wetland. A good choice, since I saw for the first time pink algae in a salt lake! Besides this, I saw countless of birds.
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Milang: Quiet little lake side place off the beaten track and nice for bid watching and chilling around.
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Warrawang NP: Nobody has ever heard of it, but I spotted a platypus here in the wild 🙂