From Adelaide to Melbourne.. back in the cities!

Hello everybody,

After the BIG road we arrived safe and sound in Adelaide! It was very difficult to be in the winter after almost 9 months under the sun...
Fortunately in Adelaide, we planned to visit Rob and Michael, Nico's colleagues from his first job in Albany. They both live in Adelaide with their families.
So we stayed at Rob place, in a warm and nice big house.. oh dear, it fell so good to be back in a house, with heater and a big kitchen! We cooked crepes and quiches ;)
The first evening we arrived Rob prepared a bbie and we spent the evening with all Rob's and Michael's families.. very cool!
We also went to visit Michael, he lives up to the hill and took us to see wild koalas. Awesome!
He also wanted to show us the Mont Lofty, a big hill, where you can have a good view on all the city, but unfortunately, the weather was not with us and it was so froggy that we saw... nothing!
But we had hand made pizzas, thanks Michael!

For our last evening, Rob and his wife Christine took us to Adelaide waterfront.. ice place but once again we were not lucky as it was suoer windy and freezing..

After some days in Adelaide, where we also enjoyed the space to do a last big cleaning on the car and prepare the ad to sell it :
http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/sydney-city/campervan/toyota-hiace-long-van-pop-top-campervan/1026198202

Back on the road to Mont Gambier, a nice city between Adelaide and Melbourne just before the great ocean road.
It was rainy and still cold so we tried one more the website 'couch surfing' to see if anyone was willing to host us.. and banco!
We met David (australian) and his girlfriend Susanne (german) in a bar, after they drove us to Mont Gambier 'sink holes' by night to look for the opossums (like big rats). We found some and feed them with bananas.

After a good sleep at David's place in a good bed (such a good night), we head to THE GRAMPIANS National Park, to do a small hiking to Mt Abrupt suggested by David and Susanne.
Well it was an amazing view.. not a cloud in the sky as you can see!


Anyway.. now time for
THE GREAT OCEAN ROAD

1st stop to watch the whales, and yes we saw them! I know the picture is not exceptional but trust us, the dark stain is a whale ;)


Further on the road, it was a sets of rocks, settled in specifics shapes after millions of years.

The best spot is THE TWELVE APOSTLES


On the Great Ocean Road we entered in a rainforest, one of the most rainy and windy part of australia..
yes we confirm!

But it doesn't put us down, we did the walks anyway! And the good thing when the weather is horrible : no tourists! You can enjoy all the nature for yourself ;)



Last interesting spot of the Great Ocean Road (yeah, beacuse we did at least twenty stops in less than 200 kms..) is Kennet River.

Good place to see Koalas and Parrots, and with some granolas, the parrots became your new best friends ;)









Et Voila! End of the Great Ocean Road, no regrets, even in Winter it's fantastic!



Just before Melbourne, we stopped at Torquay the capital city of SURF! For the second time, people replied on Couch Surfing, and once again it was a very good stay.
We slept in a sharehouse, one of the housemate was french and free, and he suggest us to go surfing with him: hell yes!  A good fun but a quick one as water was only 12 degres (he sais 14, but we think 10...)
Anyway, it's done, we surfed in Australia! Ah ah, Nicolas succeded to stand up on a wave for at least 10sec! Good start, we both want to try again but in summer ;)



..

We are now in Melbourne where we found a perfect spot to park the van and sleep and also free hot showers at 5 minutes walk.. the backpackers dream!

We both like the city, weather is 'ok', there are free public transports and it's easy to get everywhere.
So far we went to Abbortdorf, a suburb were you can walk along the Yakka River, Victoria Market (where we bought duck pate! Yummy), Brunswick, the Docklands, Federation square...

The city is waiting for us! Keep in touch!

xoxo

Helene and Nico

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TATIJO dit :

01/9/2013 à 12h 12min

I AM SO HAPPY BECAUSE EVERYTHING IS WRITTEN IN ENGLISH....WELL DONE! GOOD JOB! AND VERY BIG BISOUS

Nana dit :

31/8/2013 à 12h 12min

Très belles photos comme d'hab! Plein de gros bisous mes chéris