Cockatoo Lake to Frank Potts Reserve Langhorne Creek

Today we covered quite a bit of distance. Most part of the journey was uneventful, however we enjoyed driving through the Coonawarra vineyards (many good Australian wines come from this region). 

Other ‘highlights’ of the day was a free shower in Taylors Bend and a crossing with the Wellington ferry over the Murray River.

For the night we have set up camp in the Frank Potts reserve along the Langhorne Creek, a basic campsite on the Fleurieu Peninsula.

Annya to Cockatoo Lake

One of our fellow campers told us there was a free shower in Portland so that was our first destination that morning.

We’ve been in Portland before and therefore we only stopped at the Visitor Information Center to gather some brochures. We needed to do some grocery shopping but as we knew we were crossing the interstate border we decided to postpone that till after arriving in South Australia. The simple reason; you can’t take fruit and veggies into another state as the Aussies are paranoid about transferring diseases and pests. Fair enough I guess as they had their share of this in the past.

Monique wanted to check out Nelson Lighthouse and it was indeed very picturesque. The turquoise blue ocean made the view even prettier.

We decided to skip the rest of the touristic sights as we’d seen them before and drove on to Mt Gambier. On our way there we stopped at Nelson where we prepared lunch whilst overlooking an inlet.Very pretty! 

After lunch we had all our leftover fruit (bananas, apples, mandarins, and capsicum) as dessert as soon it was time to cross the interstate border. Being Dutch there was no way we would just trow that out! 

Mt Gambier is well known for its volcanic landscape. The Blue Lake is one of their touristic highlights. Half the year the lake has a grey/greenish colour but during the warmer months the water turns bright blue (which we’d seen a few years ago). The reason for its colouring is still not known although most likely it involves the water warming up and the effect it has on some substances in the water. We noticed the water wasn’t very blue yet, just around the edges we saw that bright cobalt blue.

From here we drove to our campsite at Cockatoo Lake. Besides the many birds that live there we were lucky enough to witness a stunning sunset. 

The Grampians to Annya Camp

This morning we had a lovely free coffee whilst having a chat with Josephina (the Dutch owner of Lakeside Caravan Park). Although she and I (Monique) knew each other we had not actually met in person until now. It was lovely and very inspiring to have a chat with her about her life and especially the caravan park she owns with her Australian husband.

I can only say, if you ever visit the Grampians and are looking for a nice play to stay make sure you book a spot on their camp ground or a stay at one of their holiday houses (all decorated in retro style!!).

Anyway, it was time to leave the Grampians behind us and via the Victoria Valley we drove to Hamilton. We visited the Botanical Garden and then drove on to Nigretta Falls. These Falls were not very special but the picnic area was nice so we prepared lunch.

Not expecting much we decided to check out the nearby Wannon Falls and although there wasn’t much water flowing, the scenery was pretty cool.

We contemplated on staying at the campsite next to the Falls, but in the end we decided to get a few extra kilometres out of the way and drove further south-west to Annya Camp. Again a pretty site which we shared with only a few other campers (and some very cute dogs).

The Grampians

Our goal this morning was to climb the Pinnacle via the Gorge Walk, located in the center of The Grampians. We weren’t the only ones with this idea as the car-park was full and cars were parked beside the road leading to the start of the walk. 

Fortunately we did not notice too much of the crowds during our walk up.

We had done this walk previously and it is most definitely our favourite walk. The start and the end of the walk takes you through a narrow gorge and there are quite some rocks and stairs to climb. At the top you are rewarded with a stunning view.

Back in the Valley we decided to check out Lakeside Caravan Park. The owner is a Dutch lady for whom Monique has worked on a creative project a few years ago. Unfortunately she was out for the day. Nevertheless we booked ourselves in for the night and got the Dutch Discount. How funny is that?! 

We love it here already!

This lovely, well maintained campsite is situated beside an open grass-land and there are literately 60 plus kangaroos around. Also emus, deer and heaps of birdlife can be seen.

Avoca to the Grampians

It was cold last night and once you’re cold it is hard to get warm. Hooray for the extra sleeping bags we have in our van.

The sky was blue in the morning and although it was still chilly, it was nice in the sun.

Today we headed to The Grampians, one of Victoria’s most popular National Parks.  Before arriving there we had a short pits-stop at Stawell which to our surprise was much bigger than we expected.

After arriving in The Grampians we visited the Information Centre where we booked a campsite (Everything is very organized in this National Park. With the amount of tourists that visit this area that’s very understandable but not really to our liking). We also gathered some information about walks on the way to our overnight camp spot.

Therefore we ended up at the 2km Mafeking Return walk. Once Mafeking was a gold diggers town with more than 10.000 residents.  Although, ’ town’ might be slightly exaggerated as most people lived in a tiny tent or hut in the middle of the forest. Remains of mine shafts can still be seen and therefore staying on the path is wise. Some holes are more than 10 meters deep and overgrown with plants and shrubs.

In the late afternoon we arrived at Wannon Creek Crossing Campsite.

 The spot we booked was in a nice, quiet corner which was good as it quickly became busy at the site.

Melbourne to Avoca

We woke up at 10 this morning. Oops, so much for our plan to have an early start.

It wasn't the best weather to start our holiday, when we were driving over the West Gate Bridge it was pouring down.

Nevertheless we were very excited to continue our road trip and made our way to Ballarat. We contemplated to have a stop, but as we have been there many times before we decided to continue the drive.

We drove towards Avoca, to a campsite we had been before with friends over a long weekend some years ago. As in the previous time TomTom navigated us over the Pyrenees Ridge Road which was a bit of a 4wd track taking us all the way up the ridge where we enjoyed gorgeous views.

In the late afternoon we arrived at the Pyrenees Waterfalls campsite where we set up camp and took the small walk towards the waterfalls, which like last time was dry as a dead dingo’s donger (as the Aussies would say).

Oh well, the weather became much better and we just enjoyed our first evening back in the Australian bush just with the two of us.

Melbourne

The last time we updated this blog we were heading towards Melbourne. That week the weather turned incredibly cold and nasty so we ended up driving back to Melbourne much quicker than planned.

Since then we have been cat-, and house-sitting at our friends place for a month and afterwards we spend 9 weeks in Europe. Mainly with our family but we also enjoyed an amazing two weeks of camping in France, with beautiful weather and delicious food.

The plan was to continue our road trip through Australia just a few days after arriving back in Melbourne but unfortunately a few problems occurred with the car (back lights weren't working and there seemed to be an electrical problem) so we had to hang around a bit longer.

Nevertheless we were ready to go today. After organizing and packing the last few things we headed off in the afternoon. It took us quite a while to get out of Melbourne. We had a short pit-stop and visited one of our dear friends on the way. It was when we drove off towards Bunnings to get some firewood, that we realized we had forgotten to bring our annex (tent). NOOOO!!!

So therefore we are now back at our friends place . Thankfully they offered us to stay another night as it was dark already. So here we are once more.

Hopefully from tomorrow on we can share our adventures on this blog again. The plan is to go towards Adelaide via The Grampians and Little Desert Park. From Adelaide and surroundings we are heading towards The Nullarbor Plane to Perth. From here we are going to explore the west coast all the way up to Broome. Sander has already seen a bit of this part of Australia during his year as a backpacker. I have not been to Western Australia before but heard many positive stories and therefore I can’t wait to go and see it for myself!

Meanwhile here is a little photo collage of our time in Europe. We loved every single minute of it and thoroughly enjoyed spending time with our family...