Great Ocean Road, first couchsurfing experience and South Australia

Last Sunday I left Tasmania and landed in Melbourne, where I rented another car to drive the Great Ocean Road. It was a windy, rainy day but the rain often stopped and there would be an amazing rainbow over the sea, I can't count the number of times I parked just to watch rainbows!

Taken from the Great Ocean Road, a couple of km before Apollo Bay

 
I arrived in Apollo Bay in the evening and met my first couchsurfing hosts. For those who don't know couchsurfing, it's a project that appeared in 2004 and allows people to accommodate travelers or be hosted when traveling themselves for free - the idea is to help others and meet people from different horizons, not to make money. I joined couchsurfing just before coming to Australia and had sent a request to Nathalya asking her if she could host me, to which she replied yes. Nathalya is from Brazil and lives with her husband Joel and a friend, Kip, both from the US. They are working in Australia on holiday visas. We had a lovely evening around a glass of wine and a meal cooked by Joel and in the morning they invited me to the restaurant where they're working for a coffee. They were really great and the experience incomparably nicer than staying at yet another hostel.

After we said goodbye I continued the Great Ocean Road and did a detour to visit a lighthouse. The views were amazing, but even better than the lighthouse was the road to get there: there were literally dozens of koalas on the trees! I parked the car and stayed there for ages watching them, they don't seem to be afraid of people and some come really close to you :-) 

Near Cape Otway

 

View from the Great Ocean Road

Shortly after the Great Ocean Road ends you enter the state of South Australia. The landscape becomes a bit boring (endless fields and sheep). I had decided I'd sleep in a tiny town called Robe because they were supposed to have a youth hostel there but when I got to Robe it turned out that the hostel has actually closed, so I had to go around town searching for a room. The price was always from $100 upwards and when I said that that was a bit expensive for me ("a bit" being an euphemism) I got looked down on... I found the place and the people snobbish, suddenly I didn't feel like staying there at all and decided to drive to the next town and if I didn't find anything cheaper then I'd just sleep in the car. The next town was Kingston SE, about 40 minutes from Robe. I saw a signpost on a pub which read "accommodation", went in and they had a room for $40, so I stayed for the night, still on time to go to the seashore and watch the sunset.

Driving from Kingston to Victor Harbor (yes, that's Harbor, no "u") the landscape changes again, but this time it's very beautiful. The Princes Highway crosses the Coorong National Park and you can stop for a walk here and there in the wetlands, between the lakes, bush, dunes and the ocean - and you can spot pelicans! You can also be eaten alive by flies, as I almost was. It has always been my opinion that all animals deserve to live, except two, and those are flies and mosquitoes. DEATH to them!

Coorong National Park

After Coorong thr landscape changes one more time, this time it's the vineyards - immense, gorgeous vineyards. I had to stop in one of them in Langhorne Creek and taste a an amazing chardonnay. I thought I might as well drive to the famous McLaren Vale instead of coming straight to Victor Harbor but gave up the idea since I wouldn't be drinking more wine anyway, as I was driving (ain't I a wise boy?). So I got to Victor Harbor once again just in time for the sunset... after spending almost $300 in my transportation to Kangaroo Island tomorrow, a place to stay for tonight, fuel (you must return the car with a full tank if you don't want to pay extras) and 3 or 4 silly stuff at the supermarket (I'm talking about biscuits and apples here, not caviar and smoked salmon). It's just amazing how fast money disappears here, I knew Australia was expensive but now I actually FEEL it!

Sunset (Victor Harbor)