Melbourne to Adelaide via GOR - Day 1

To be accurate, we have less than 3.5 traveling hours in Day 1. We overspent an hour in Queen Victoria Market, and another 1.5 hours in Apollo Camperevan Rental learning to operate the mobile home.

By the time we finally get off the road, my 2 passengers at the back got throwing around when they tried their very best to safe all the stuff that we 'forgot' to keep properly in the cabinets. We had to take another 30 minutes rest at a petrol station to reorganize and let the dizzy one recollect herself. Though my original plan was to camping at The Port Campbell National Park, or at least at Johanna Beach, by the time we finally really hit the road, I started to worry if I can even reach Apollo Bay...

Anyway, this small hiccup didn't stop me from enjoying the drive (Innocence is bliss. The other 3 didn't even know where we were, where we were heading, so none of them worried a bit!)

From Melbourne, we drove through fields and farms before we turned into the Princess Freeway. We didn't have time for the beaches, and none of us are surfers so we basically didn't turn into any beaches or scenic lookouts until Anglesea. (Tips: for those that only want to see the scenic coastal drive, forget about Torquay. Look for road sign for Anglesea instead of Torquay.)

Lovely scene at Anglesea River

We got super excited when we finally saw the Great Ocean!

Just have to take photos with the lovely ocean!

By the time we reached Anglesea, I am still thinking of staying at Apollo Bay for our first night. However, after a few scenic stops, I decided that we should stay at Kenneth River (I didn't want to miss the chance to see wild koalas) so that we can stop as frequent as we wish. This, is one of the best decision I made during this trip!

Kenneth River is a very small seaside town, half way between Lorne and Apollo Bay. It is popular mainly because it is one of the best places to spot koalas in the wild. When we see the road sign of "Kenneth River", we turned in and found a convenient shop cum cafe so we went to ask about accommodation. Apparently Kenneth River Holiday Park is at the same junction, immediately turn left after turning right from the Great Ocean Road.

This holiday park have a variety of accommodation, including cabins, powered and unpowered sites. While check in, I asked the owner about koalas spotting. He pointed out a few spots on the map (inside the holiday park!!), or along the Grey River Road just outside of the holiday park.

Apparently, this holiday park is a native animals heaven! After we parked our mobile home, before we started to get ready for the night, we spotted kookaburra sit on a branch near us. We got excited, forgot about setting up the mobilehome, and immediately start exploring the park.

Minutes later, we attracted by strange animal roar and followed the sound. To our delight, 2 koalas fighting (just roaring, no action). We took tons of koalas photos until dusk.

We were busy.

This is our first night in a mobilehome. We have to set up the bed, we have to learn how to hook the pipe to the water supplier (at the end, we need to get help from our 'neighbour' camper), how to operate all the switches, how to check the water level, how to turn on the gas, how to operate the gas stoves (yes, this one really tricky!), etc.

It was fun though, trying to figure out things, and how we "dance around" during food preparation and cooking, and still managed to cook up a feast.

This is the most expensive holiday park that we have stayed during this trip. It cost us AUD61.50 (10% discount for Apollo Rental). There's nothing to shout about its facility. However, the fact that we could sleep to the sound of the waves, and had various native animals visiting us by our mobilehome (some even attempted to come inside!), this holiday park worth every cents of it!

Please refer to my post about "Melbourne to Adelaide via GOR on a Mobilehome for 5 Days 4 Nights" for the driving route