Great Ocean Road
February 14, 2024
The first chunk of my road trip, heading from Melbourne to the Sunshine Coast, with a Great Ocean Road detour first.
Lets see what I think of when I think of my drive on the Great Ocean Road.
Woke up my first morning in Apollo Bay, the anxiety and restlessness of stealth camping was proven unnecessary, but I still feel like it was valid, not having done it before. Sure everyone says Australia is safe for sleeping in cars, relative to other countries, but I was even considering potential fines if caught, money i don’t have and don’t want to spend. Regardless it all worked out and I would feel more comfortable (at least I hope so) going forward if its the last option I have. Rambled way to long regarding my anxiety around stealth camping lol.
So yeah started in Apollo Bay, looks like a quaint town. To be honest, I don’t always have the patience or interest (as of now) to spend 1–2 days in every single town I drive through. I feel like you can understand or observe some from a far and go ‘uh cool’. I was also still a little restless to start my road trip and see things. I still kept a few thoughts at the back of my mind, mainly budget, and therefore timelines.
First off I came to realize a week prior to leaving that maybe I hadn’t saved enough to travel for a few weeks and look for work after, Australia is expensive and that budget would’ve last me months in South East Asia, but not so long here. Although it was enough for me, and I believe I will made it work. I’ve never been the most lavish traveller, at least not once I started being serious about budgets. I also don’t need to do all the expensive tours. Sometimes I do think I may be missing out on some of the experiences, but I am also happy to explore them on my own at my own pace. I think at some point I will still see all the things I would have spent on large public tours. (but surf camp was cool and necessary okay…) I also have the belief that I will find work in a fairly quick turnaround, it happened in Melbourne it can happen again, and that’s not me being naive to the difficulties it can be to find work its more of a hopefully thing. Good energies babes. I am trying to be more thoughtful and appreciate small little things in my day, and so far I am enjoying the process :D
Whoops anywho, Apollo bay! Pretty cool and quaint, but just the starting point for the beginning of this road trip adventure. First breakfast in the park, super cute for me. My cooking gear isn’t the best, it’s cheap Kmart pots and pans, so cooking my eggs was a blaaaast :/. I also don’t have a pan large enough to fry/toast my english muffin to give it a crunch, so I decided to eat it untoasted, raw, fresh you could say, and that was definitely not my favourite thing and texture to eat. Not of fan of the mouth feel dryness of the english muffin. Toasted is much better. After breakfast I decided I would take a quick walk to the beach, and then look up my next stops along the great ocean road for the day, as well as multiple options for sleeping depending on how far I decide to drive so that I’m not trying to do it super late at night at the last minute and I happen to not be near anything. So some minimal daily planning.
This is where things get exciting, right as I went to exit my car and go to the beach I locked my keys in the car… it’s like 9am on a Wednesday morning in Apollo, still super quiet out and only a few people walking around after the gloomy morning. EVERYTHING is inside my car, my phone is on 33% with a battery so bad my phone even tells me it needs to be serviced. I walk to the AusPost shop that’s open and ask if there is a locksmith or anyone that I can call. They suggest RACV, roadside assistance of sorts, so I do. In order to access their services I would need to sign up for a membership (in the grand scheme of things I should have when I bought the car, its the same as the BCAA coverage I had back home) but I found the $219 or whatever it was to be steep, and that was without a guaranteed that the agent in the area would be able to successfully unlock my car. Before deciding I called a locksmith a town owner I found on Google Maps and they quoted me over $450 hahahahah hell no. So I called RACV back and chatted with the rep kinda trying to see if she could give me her honest opinion of the probability of success as spending 219 is better than 450 but not if it doesn’t work and I would still end up spending 450 more. But in the end I took the gamble even though i was basically crying on the phone. An unnecessary charge I cost myself for my silly adhd brain forgetting where I put things. I forgot how many features my Toyato Venza had in it, like not being able to lock the keys in car, definitely saved me a few times. Regardless at the end of the day I now have roadside assistance, they took about an hour to get there and he successfully opened my car door and got my keys back. A hiccup in my day, a mini bump and extra tank of petrol worth of money gone, but we back on track.
The rest of the morning consisted of driving up to a lookout in Apollo Bay, which had the tightest parking lot and people just standing in the middle of the road, which was super annoying, begin a trend for the rest of the day. The lookout was neat, gave a good view of the Apollo Bay area. Then I drove and parked next to the beach, reorganized my car to some extent to help me access things to some extent. It made sense at the time. Made a sandwich and ate lunch at the beach before starting my drive along the Great Ocean Road.
In all honesty I was expecting to see more of the ocean while driving, like Sea to Sky esc but the further along it felt like the further away from the cliffs, so it would force you to stop more to see stuff. Many busy parking lots and increasing tourist traffic. I didn’t have many or any stops before the Gibsons Steps/12 Apostles, but there was at one point I was gonna turn to a lighthouse area, which afterwards looked like everything was paid, but when I went to turn down the road there was someone in front of me who turned and then immediately stopped and I came to close to rear ending them, because who stops for no reason after completing a turn in the middle of the road. My guess is that they didn’t realize there was someone behind them turning but still so fucking sketch. Anyways didn’t go to that lighthouse, went to 12 Apostles instead. Parked a little up the road to a slightly hidden parking area. Only caveat is having to walk like 1.5km to the steps / apostles. Hell yeah I’ll do that and not be in the tight parking lot. Lets stretch the legs and walk in da country. There was a sign that said venomous snakes in area, but nah I’ll be fine, right?. It was a nice walk along the cliffside, I probably enjoyed that more than the steps and cliffs. The water was beautiful and I was happy to touch it, and although the cliffs were gorgeous they didn’t take my breath away. And that’s okay, we all have different favourite things that make us feel like that. But on the walk back to the car I did spot a yellow and blacked stripped tail slither into the bush… okay yeah so maybe some venomous snakes after all lol.
The rest of the afternoon I just kept driving and stopping at spot along the road, most of names I don’t remember. Most with lots of tourist. It was cool, but not my fave. I often lose my patience if there are too many people and tourists that just stop in the middle of the sidewalk making it hard to walk by or see the views. Then I eventually decided to drive up towards Grampiens National Park and sleep there for the night with the plan to do some hikes the next day. So just a chill hour and a half to two hours of driving on highways and old farm highways, to arrive near the park and my first glimpse of mountains of sorts in Australia. I was looking forward to it and found a free camp area with a pit toilet just a few minutes outside of the nearest town. I camped there for the night, not having to think or worry about stealth camping. I watched the sunset over the lake / swamp with my instant noodle meal and my new Star Wars book in hand. Twas quite nice way to end the day. Still have the very fresh feeling of sleeping in the car, but so far so good. Its not perfect, it works, everything is going to be okay.
