Southwest Australia with a Campervan [EN]

Route

Click on the photo’s to see a detailed description of the pictures / a nice storyline!

Day 1: Brisbane – Fernmount

So we didn’t really plan much for this trip and due to our slackness the prices of hiring campervans and cars were going up every day. Then we read something about ‘relocations’ on the internet. Basically: big campervan-companies that let you drive their campervan from A to B for $1 a day instead of hiring a driver to relocate the van for them. Perfect! So we managed to get a relocation for this little campervan from Brisbane to Sydney!

First things first! Look at me, doing groceries and stuff..

Our first lunch stop! The first time it hit me that having your own transport is so nice. No timetables, no missing-trains-just-as-you-walk-onto-the-platform, no long-term-bus stops in the middle of nowhere with only toilets and souvenir-shops. You can stop everywhere, anytime and it gives a nice feeling of freedom.

Hit the road Jack, why don’t you come back.. lalala!! Yes, so in 5 days we had to park this shiny campervan in the depot in Sydney..

So yeah, I was pretty psyched with our nice little campervan. Nothing special though. Two benches and a table that could be transformed into a two-person bed and in the back we had a handpump and a sink (never used) a little gas-cooker and a refrigorator that lasted for one day only.

Near Coff’s Harbour, we saw a nice lookout point called Sealy Lookout.

Best advice I can give people going to Australia and being low-budget and all: WikiCamps app! Thousand times better than Lonely Planet and that kind of crap. This application tells you were all the nice free campsites are! Australia has a lot of well-sustained free campsites and more people are finding their way there. So it”s free, there are other campers so you”re not alone, its nice, and did I mentioned its free? So this was our first night, we did some cooking and we slept like a charm!

Having your own transport is so nice. No timetables, no missing-trains-just-as-you-walk-onto-the-platform, no long-term-buses stopping in the middle of nowhere with only toilets and souvenir-shops. You can just stop anywhere, anytime and it gives a nice feeling of freedom.

By the way. Best advice I can give people going to Australia and being low-budget and all: WikiCamps app! Thousand times better than Lonely Planet and that kind of crap. This application tells you were all the nice free campsites are! Australia has a lot of well-sustained free campsites and more people are finding their way there. So it’s free, there are other campers so you’re not alone, its nice, and did I mentioned its free?

Day 2: Fernmount – Warnervale

Goodmorning! Early breakfast and we were really enthusiast to get going again. Somewhere I read about a so-called ‘Waterfall Way’ which is the road from Coffs Harbour to Armidale which passes some spectacular nationional parks with, you don’t say, a bunch of waterfalls. This meant we had to do a big detour from the coastal road, but we had the time.

Not only waterfalls down this way.. Also beautiful lookouts like this Griffiths Mountain Top Lookout.

Live footage from inside the campervan.

If you’re the co-driver, you’d better not sleep! Otherwise you would miss too much of the stunning scenery..

Okay, so this is why they called it the Waterfall Way.. These are the Ebor (upper) falls. Oh by the way: that’s me, right next to it.

Okay, so this is why they called it the Waterfall Way.. These are the Ebor (lower) falls.

Unfortunately, due to the drought, not every waterfall we passed made its best impression! The Wollomombi falls definitely needed some more water and also these, the Apsley Falls, could use some rain.

Almost no passing cars, blue skies, nice scenery, good company: little or nothing to complain about. So we were actually planning on taking the road from Wollomombi to Kempsey, but we were running low on petrol and down that road there were no gas stations. Thus we had to continue our way to Armidale, fill up the van, and from there go to Port Macquarie.

We arrived in Port Macquarie in the afternoon and visited the Lighthouse.

Beautiful typical Ozzie beach near the lighthouse.

rom Glenthornewe took the ‘Lakes Way’, which looked very spectacular on Google maps, passing the Tasmanian sea on the left and Wallis Lake on the right. However, one thing we learned that day was that some roads that look spectacular on the map, don’t necessarily need to be spectacular in real life. We thought to go over some stunning bridges, passing cliffs etcetera, but we didn’t see much of the ocean and lake.

We stopped by Seals Rock and went to go for a little hike to the lighthouse. From there we saw a nice sunset and made our way back to the car. We didn’t find a nice campsite that night, so we just stopped by a Caltex pump station and slept in between the big trucks.

Goodmorning! We had an early breakfast and we were really enthusiast to get going again. Somewhere I read about a so-called ‘Waterfall Way’ which is the road from Coffs Harbour to Armidale which passes some spectacular nationional parks with, you don’t say, a bunch of waterfalls. This meant we had to do a big detour from the coastal road, but we had the time.

Day 3: Warnervale – Evans Lookout (Blackheath, Blue Mts. NP)

Good morning! Woken up by the sound of hydraulic compression brakes and leaving trucks it was time to hit the road again. There were a bunch of roadside restaurant on this spot, so we had a McDonalds breakfast, and yes I’m a bit ashamed of this… Also, we saw this trucker-restaurant with which seemed like a bunch of showers. So we asked for it and it was no problem for us to use them, so we finally had a proper shower again, woehoe!

So yesterday we killed a bunch of animals. Fortunately no kangaroes or anything, just a lot of insects that were attracted to our headlights and shiny white van in the dark. We called our camper ‘the insect graveyard’ for a bit.

Before going to Sydney we really wanted to visit the Blue Mountains National Park. One of the most famous national parks of Australia, and it’s easy to see why. From Richmond we took the ‘Bells Line of Road’, which I would definitely reccomend. This was a nice little hike to the Walls Lookout, near Mount Tomah.

It was freaking hot, so we had to find some shelter..

Yep, the campervan was freaking hot as well and, I don’t know why anymore, but we really had the idea that we deserved an icecream so..

This one was called the Pulpit Rock. Too bad you can never really capture the stunning views and the depth that you see with your own eyes. Especially not with an iPhone camera..

This was definitely our favourite lookout-point. Evans lookout. You could see miles away.

The perks of having your own transport/accomodation/kitchen-on-wheels is that you can sleep and cook wherever you want! So we decided to have dinner near Evans Lookout, you can still see the magestic walls in the background. No restaurant-with-a-view could beat our pasta-eaten-on-a-bench-nea r-the-lookout-point with this fantastic view.

Good morning! Woken up by the sound of hydraulic compression brakes and leaving trucks it was time to hit the road again. There were a bunch of roadside restaurant on this spot, so we had a McDonalds breakfast, and yes I’m a bit ashamed of this…
Also, we saw this trucker-restaurant with which seemed like a bunch of showers. So we asked for it and it was no problem for us to use them, so we finally had a proper shower again, woehoe!

Before going to Sydney we really wanted to visit the Blue Mountains National Park. One of the most famous national parks of Australia, and it’s easy to see why.
From Richmond we took the ‘Bells Line of Road’, which I would definitely reccomend.

Day 4: Blue Mountains National Park

So we slept in a great free campsite near Evans Lookout. We started to get used to brushing our teeth and flushing with a bottle of water, peeing in the bushes and hunting for mosquitos in the van. We read in the WikiCamps app that the sunrise from Evans Lookout was amazing, so we went for an early nap and I put my alarm for 5am. Unfortunately my snoozing-habit got in the way and we were a bit too late for actually seeing the sun rise, but it was still very beautiful.

Time for some pancakes! Yes you see that correctly, we had pancakes with chocolate melted on top of it. Yummy!

Going more and more south, stuff started to get more touristy. This rock formation is called ‘the Three Sisters’. People say that its an Aboriginal legend which tells the story of three sisters falling in love with three man from another tribe and some wise man turned them into stone. But I also heard its a bullshit story to attract tourists..

We waited until the sun was not as severe anymore to do our highlight of this national park. A 4 hour hike descending to the Wentworth Falls and going back up again near the Empress falls.

A beautiful hike with stunning views.

The Wentworth Falls which were definitely as stunning as the lady posing in front of it.

Of course, when you do a hike in Ozzie, you’re going to see a bunch of wildlife at one point. Luckily for us, this lizard-like creature let us pass.

As I said… amazing scenery.

Beautiful views.

Apple-break!!

It was very hot, so luckily the massive overhanging rocks sometimes give us some nice shade.

Wentworth Falls hike. Erosion is a magical thing.

Almost at the end of our 4h hike, I think these were the Empress falls.

Last shot of the Empress falls.

So we slept in a great free campsite near Evans Lookout. We started to get used to brushing our teeth and flushing with a bottle of water, peeing in the bushes and hunting for mosquitos in the van.
We read in the WikiCamps app that the sunrise from Evans Lookout was amazing, so we went for an early nap and I put my alarm for 5am. Unfortunately my snoozing-habit got in the way and we were a bit too late for actually seeing the sun rise, but it was still very beautiful.

In the afternoon, we waited until the sun was not as severe anymore to do a 4 hour hike descending to the Wentworth Falls and going back up again near the Empress falls.

Day 5: Blue Mts. NP – Sydney

Hello Sydney!! We really liked the campsite of the night before so we drove a little bit back to camp there again. Next day we drove to Sydney, to hand in the camper.

Calling home. We had one day in Sydney. It was raining and cold, so we didn’t really get the best impression of Sydney. Of course we did all the touristy stuff like visiting the Opera House.

Jup, that’s Sydney.

Well deserved burger and pint!

Walking home we bumped into this super nice light show beamed onto the St. Mary’s Church.

We had one day in Sydney. It was raining and cold, so we didn’t really get the best impression of Sydney. Of course we did all the touristy stuff like visiting the Opera House.

Day 6: Sydney – Bodella

Alright, after a nice sleep in a hotel on Darlinghurst road and a nice warm shower, we headed towards the south of Sydney…..

…. to pick up our new campervan!! We arranged another relocation, this time from Sydney to Melbourne. And the campervan we got this time was much bigger and even had…

… a shower, gas stove, fridge and even a tv (which we never used ofcourse)!

So we headed south with our new Apollo-beast, which was a much more comfortable ride. We passed this Sea Cliff Bridge which was spectacular, too bad it rained..

Suddenly we found a place near a campsite where the kangaroes were kinda used to people, so they came real close.

One more picture with our new campervan and the kangaroes in the background.

We were getting hungry so we parked the campervan somewhere along the river in Moruya. This pelican was getting curious what we had for dinner.

Alright, after a nice sleep in a hotel on Darlinghurst road and a nice warm shower, we headed towards the south of Sydney to pick up our new campervan!! We arranged another relocation, this time from Sydney to Melbourne. And the campervan we got this time was much bigger and even had a shower, gas stove, fridge and a tv (which we never used ofcourse).

Day 7: Bodella – Longwarry

We slept somewhere near Bodella on a nice campsite. During my daily nightwalk around the campsite I even spotted a possum. So in the morning we had breakfast at Pambula Beach. We even found some electricity to make some instant coffee with the camper’s watercooker. After breaky (as the ozzies call breakfast) I went swimming in the ocean. Freezing cold, but a nice refreshment and finally ‘showered’ again.

Having a well-deserved reststop. Did I already tell you about the flies? The flies are super annoying in Australia. There are a lot of them and they are keen on going into your nose, ear and mouth. I heard that, because there are so few people compared to land in Oz and because it’s so hot and dry, the flies are really thrilled when they can land on some person’s face.

This is Lake’s Entrance. Beautiful town located on a big channel splitting a landfill from the ocean.

We slept somewhere near Bodella on a nice campsite. During my daily nightwalk around the campsite I even spotted a possum. So in the morning we had breakfast at Pambula Beach. We even found some electricity to make some instant coffee with the camper’s watercooker.
After breaky (as the ozzies call breakfast) I went swimming in the ocean. Freezing cold, but a nice refreshment and finally ‘showered’ again.

Day 8: Longwarry – Melbourne

We slepped near the Princess Highway in Longwarry and had a good rest. DJ got freaked out about all the insects in the public toilets but at least there were toilets. We had to bring back the campervan today in Melbourne.

Arrived in Melbourne!! Delicious ginger beer at the Ponyfish Island Cafe under the Evan Walker Bridge. The plan was not to be in Melbourne around this time, but we had some minor drawbacks and we’re a bit ashamed to tell about it. Well, the original plan was to arrive in Melbourne and immidiately pick up our rental car to drive towards the west. We were coming back to Melbourne later, so we were saving Melbourne for later. However…. when we were picking up our rental car at Melbourne International Airport, there was no sign of the car company! So we asked around and one lady began giggling. She said that we probably booked a car in Melbourne International Airport, Florida. And yes, after some calls, we indeed booked a car in fucking Florida. Grrrrr, why would anybody name their airport after another city? Its super confusing!! Well, and since it was the day before christmas all cars were fully booked. So that’s when we decided to stay in Melbourne for a couple days and hire another car after christmas.

We really liked Melbourne! It was a cozy city centre and they really created a nice christmas-feeling, which is hard if it is not snowing and still light around 9pm!

They made a lego Christmas tree!

This is the St. Paul’s Cathedral…

… and we kinda felt obligated to visit their prime-time christmas service.

We were stuck in Melbourne, but had a really good time. Slept in a nice backpackers hostel by the way (The Spencer Backpackers).

Well, the original plan was to arrive in Melbourne and immidiately pick up our rental car to drive towards the west. We were coming back to Melbourne later, so we were saving Melbourne for later. However…. when we were picking up our rental car at Melbourne International Airport, there was no sign of the car company! So we asked around and one lady began giggling. She said that we probably booked a car in Melbourne International Airport, Florida. And yes, after some calls, we indeed booked a car in fucking Florida. Grrrrr, why would anybody name their airport after another city? Its super confusing!! Well, and since it was the day before christmas all cars were fully booked. So that’s when we decided to stay in Melbourne for a couple days and hire another car after christmas.

Day 9: Melbourne – Ballarat

So yeah, Melbourne did a good job decorating their buildings and creating a christmassy vibe.

Jep, we did the look-at-us-sitting-at-the-beach-with-chrismas thingy.. Even bought a christmas hat to make our friends even more jealous. This is the St. Kilda beach by the way.

DJ even got the idea to make a ‘snowman’ out of sand. She had the best time 😉

It was freaking hot down at the St. Kilda beach and we were surprised about the amount of people going to the beach on christmasday.

Since the trains were free on christmasday (thank you, state of Victoria), and since we are cheap asses, we took the train to Ballarat.

I already called with a car rental company in Ballarat the day before and they assured me that they would have cars available on boxing day. So Ballarat it was.

Unfortunately, we didn’t have any transportation to cary our luggage anymore.. So after finding a free campsite, which was a few km’s outside ballarat, we had to walk all the way to the campsite. After half an hour of struggling, we found a trolley and we ‘borrowed’ it to make our life’s easier 😉

Okay, so we arrived at this free campsite outside Ballarat. Until that day, on every of these campsites there would be other people camping. But this one was completely abandoned, it was a grassy field located along some highway. It was kinda scary to camp there alone, in the dark, with nobody around. I took this picture to remember this kinda strange night. And as we haven’t had enough bad… luck yet, it started raining really hard! And I can tell you one thing about our tent (without flysheet): it was not made for bad weather! And we also wanted to keep our luggage dry, so were basically folded around our luggage in a mini-tent and making sure that nothing touched the canvas because otherwise the tent would leak (which it did do anyway). We had very little sleep that night.

Celebrating Christmas in Melbourne.

Long story short: we were going to rent a car at Ballarat and took a train to get there the night before.

So we arrived at this free campsite outside Ballarat. Until that day, on every of these campsites there would be other people camping. But this one was completely abandoned, it was a grassy field located along some highway. It was kinda scary to camp there alone, in the dark, with nobody around. I took this picture to remember this kinda strange night.
And as we haven’t had enough bad luck yet, it started raining really hard! And I can tell you one thing about our tent (without flysheet): it was not made for bad weather! And we also wanted to keep our luggage dry, so we were basically folded around our luggage in a mini-tent and making sure that nothing touched the canvas because otherwise the tent would leak (which it did do anyway).
We had very little sleep that night.

Day 10: Ballarat – Grampians NP

Funny thing. Next day we were walking back to the city center with our trolley full of luggage. We had basically no sleep, we looked terrible. So a car stops and asks if we are alright. He explained that he thought that we were some kind of homeless and maybe needed food or money. Haha! Was a very nice guy so he offered us a ride to the car rental company. Arriving there they indeed had a nice Suzuki Swift for us, yes! So good to have some kind of transportation again. Freedom. So we drove to the Grampians National Park and made this first shot of the park.

Nice to see what erosion can do. These rocks are formed like this and are looking like pancakes on top of eachother, because some layers of the rock are made from softer material than others. That’s why these layers will get eroded due to wind faster than other layers.

This lookout was called ‘The Balconies’ and you can maybe see why.

The MacKenzie Falls, beautiful hike to the top of the opposite mountain.

In the late afternoon, we went to do a little flat hike around the village. Incredible how many wildlife you see in just one and a half hour walking…

… first we saw a bunch of kangaroes, skipping away when you come to close…

… the amount of nice and unknown birds are unbelievable…

… and to top it off, we saw this deer!

This kangaroe didn’t want to meet me and refused to shake my hand, bastard!

After our evening-walk we looked up a really nice free campsite which is called Plantation Campground. Maybe the nicest campsite we have stumbled upon. Up to a hundred tents/campers/caravans in the middle of a forest. We had really nice neighbours which offered us food, cold beers and even a so-called bush-shower! Skippy even visited when DJ went for a shower!

So this is how we got our hot shower! And we could use the fire to make our food. Great night, thanks Corrina Clark and Sherrif!

Next up: Grampians National Park.

After our evening-walk we looked up a really nice free campsite which is called Plantation Campground. Maybe the nicest campsite we have stumbled upon. Up to a hundred tents/campers/caravans in the middle of a forest.
We had really nice neighbours which offered us food, cold beers and even a so-called bush-shower! Skippy even visited when DJ went for a shower!

Day 11: Grampians NP – Wannon

We did a really nice hike passing the so-called ‘Grand Canyon’..

Grand Canyon.

Carrot-break!!

So this was on boxing day and we had the urge to annoy our friends again with the way we spent christmas.

Stunning views walking towards the Pinnacle.

The Wonderland-loop

Having lunch at the top of the mountains!

I was a bit tired so I took a little nap. Wasn’t until I saw this picture that I realised I was this close to the edge..

So this was our final destination…

.. called ‘the Pinnacle’..

.. very photogenic scenery..

.. good place to overthink the essence of life..

.. picture from the platform

Leaving the Grampians NP we encountered some typical Victorian landscapes. Dry yellow grassfields, nice trees, blue skies.

Mount Abrupt near Dunkeld.

What a good time we had.

We set up camp near the Wannon Falls. We found some good dry wood, slammed them to pieces…

.. and made a brilliant camp fire for our chicken saté’s, beef and zuchini’s. Cold beer to top it off!

Day 12: Wannon – Narrawong

We set sail towards Portland. Beatiful roads along the way.

Yes, that’s a railtrack.

Nice beaches around Cape Bridgewater, close to Portland.

Good to see that the state of Victoria utilizes sustainable energy.

Blowholes near Cape Bridgewater.

We heard about a place near Portland were you could find like a hundred seals on a rock formation. We decided to not book the boot tour, but do the hike.

And there goes the speedboat.

Beautiful hike a few hundred metres above sea level.

And there they are. I hope you’re on a device which has a zooming option.. We could definitely tell that the seals were there because of the noise and smell!

And of course, hiking in Australia, you are definitely going to see some wildlife. First we saw a black-furred big creature quicly making its way back into the bushes. Couldn’t really see what it was, we think a big straying dog or a kangaroe. Then we found this snake..

…and also we came across this echidna, which is like a big hedgehog.

So yesterday we met this friendly couple from Portland on the campground. They invited us to drop bu their house when passing Portland. And so we did. They were a very friendly, adventurous couple with a big wanderlust. We had some fish and chips together and after leaving they recommended us this nice campsite just out of Narrawong.

We set sail towards Portland. Beatiful roads along the way.

Day 13: Narrawong – Cape Otway NP

Goodmorning! Today we were going to do the Great Ocean Road, something we were really looking forward to and should be one of the highlights. Unfortunately we heard from several people that on Christmasday the most eastern part of the Great Ocean Road was severely damaged by bushfires. More than a hundred families lost their house. The road from Apollo Bay to Lorne was still blocked, which meant that we could only do two third of this amazing ocean road. Still people told us, the best part was open.

First things first: posting our postcards to friends and family. After that duty we had a nice cup of coffee in this beautiful town.

There we go! Great Ocean Road!

Bushfires are a real problem in the dry state of Victoria.. You can see these signs everywhere.

First lookout point: Bay of Islands. Incredibly beautiful cliffs.

Bay of Islands.

We saw really a lot of these signs driving through Australia. Not only the kangaroe-signs, also the ones with koala’s on it, horses, possums etc. DJ already saw a lot of kangaroes before, but for me it was still really exciting to see these signs and to know that there was a possibility that these animals could cross the road any moment. They never did though, but we did see a lot of dead kangaroes along the road, probably hit by trucks.

This arch along the Great Ocean Road is called ‘The Grotto’. If you look closely you can find a very handsome man at the other side 😉

This rockformation is called ‘The London Bridge’. It used to have two arches, but the left arch collapsed a few years ago. Funny story: when that arch broke down and the rocks fell into the water, two persons were illigally camping on the right arch. They were rescued by a helicopter two hours later.

Another of those arches along this great coastline. Erosion is a funny thing.

‘Island Archway’, these two rock pillars ared named Tom and Eva after the two teenage survivors of the clipper ship the ‘Loch Ard’ that crashed onto the rocks nearby. Fifty four drowned.

‘Loch Ard Gorge’. Unrealistic swim.

The big tourist attraction ‘Twelve Apostles’. Beautiful how the waves collapsed onto the rock pillars. You could almost see them crumble bit by bit after every wave attack.

And on the other side are two more ‘Apostles’.

Still at the ‘Twelve Apostles’.. Beautiful view.

Baking them pancakes!! Cool thing about Australia is that you can find a lot of free barbeques, watertaps, toilets, showers etcetera. We made good use of it.

We read on WikiCamps that there was a road leading to the lighthouse in Cape Otway NP which we could definitely find koala’s at. And, once again, they were right.

… the koala just walked on the street and passed our car.

After seeing the koala’s, just before sunset, we drove to a free campsite in the Cape Otway NP. Although not really visible in this picture, we saw some pretty amazing stars in the sky. We had some friends to share a campfire and some beers with too.

Yup, it was super cold at night, so we had to wear many layers of clothes to not freeze to death. I had the genius idea to wear the christmas hat as well…

Day 14: Cape Otway NP – Melbourne

Good morning! So this was our campsite. Look at how small that tent is!

We had a nice little walk at a nice little rainforest called ‘Maits Rest’.

Scenery while driving to Apollo Bay.

Driving to Apollo Bay. Looks like someone has been painting the sky with a white brush.

Before we had to go land inward because of the bushfires and say our goodbyes to the Great Ocean Road, we decided to have one more swim in the pacific ocean.

So unfortunately, we had to leave the Great Ocean Road and make our way up to Colac. We had a nice picknick at the Colac lake.

Before we had to go land inward because of the bushfires and say our goodbyes to the Great Ocean Road, we decided to have one more swim in the pacific ocean.

Day 15: Melbourne – Sydney

We slept like a charm and the next day we decided to explore Melbourne some more. This is at Docklands.

Normally I don’t go and take pictures of H&M’s, but this one was to pretty to ignore.

So yes, today was 31 december and we knew the reputation of big Australian city’s and their firework shows. So we found a real nice spot along the Yarra river with a good view on the city’s skyline. Bought some beers (not really allowed to drink but hey, we’re tourists, we didn’t know), some pizza’s and just waited until the clock hit 12 o’clock.

Happy New Year!! Great firework show by the city of Melbourne. After the spectacle we decided to just sit and chill, we had some good company as well.

Day 16: Melbourne – Brisbane

We had some really good hangover-breakfast..

Our last day in Melbourne and we decided to check out a nice part of Melbourne called Fitzroy. Great graffiti too!

The end of an amazing trip.

Only in Australia: signs telling people to relax.