Early start? Nope. It was still around 8:30 before I managed to leave the park… it’s coffee and muesli with the news on the phone that’s doing me in. Oh well…
Traffic was still fairly light, but there’s always one bugger who does half the posted speed limit and refuses to let others through. No wonder there’s road rage! Grrrr. It was still better than yesterday though.
The Great Ocean Road is great (duh). No need to go into details. Although, what I didn’t know is that the Otway National Park through which it passes is yet another rainforest. Before I left on the trip I thought we only had the Daintree. No wonder I sucked at geography.
The 1st bucket-list moment was of course visiting the Twelve Apostles – check.
There were many places to stop for photos – it could take forever if you stopped at all of them.
The 2nd bucket-list moment was to complete the Great Ocean Rd from start to finish – check.
Due to the lengthy stop it was now unlikely that I’d make the lunch in time. I wanted to drive into the Grampions from the south so following my stupid GPS I ended up on some roads that were reminiscent of the Karumba-Atherton route – 1 lane wide, broken edges, gravel everywhere, etc. Unfortunately, this also slowed me down a bit.
I had no idea just how big the Grampions are. They seem to stretch forever. Quite impressive.
In the end I arrive at Halls Gap about 45 mins after the scheduled start, but heading straight to the pub I was able to grab a meal with the crew anyway. Afterwards, I headed to one of the parks and shared a spot with another to split the cost.
I must admit that I had an idea that Halls Gap was just a typical small town in country Vic. Not at all – it seems to be quite the go-to town. Nestled against the foot of some amazing looking peaks, it’s clearly a destination for those into good long bushwalks or mountain biking.
The caravan park itself was like a zoo. Lots of kangaroos with joeys of various sizes, and an abundance of Sulphur-crested cockatoos. All wild but very friendly:
After a light meal (just soup coz of lunch) we sat in one of the cabins and just nattered away, downing some cheap plonk. I slept well!