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…to the ferry terminal
The journey from Adelaide (South Australia) to Geelong, west of Melbourne (Victoria), offered us everything you could possibly experience on a trip. From sunshine to torrential rain, monotonous stretches across farmland and getting stuck in soft sand with the tide coming in behind us; somehow, we experienced almost everything and challenged each other.
But first things first: from Adelaide, we headed back into the hinterland of the South Australian capital before following the coastal mountains in a south-westerly direction. In addition to extensive forests, the landscape was characterised by dairy farming and sheep farming. The further we travelled from Adelaide, the harsher the climate became for wine growing; the vines disappeared and the sheep herds increased. 😉
And by the way: Adelaide welcomed and bid us farewell with lots of rain.
We drove to the end of the road at Cape Jervis, marked on our map as Land’s End. There we briefly considered whether we would have enough time for a trip to Kangaroo Island. Considering the price of the ferry crossing and our early appointment in Geelong, our decision was quickly made, we turned around and continued on our way eastwards.
Instead, we enjoyed the south and south-west coast of South Australia to the full, whether at the nature park campsites, the many places of interest or the extensive lagoons around Clayton, where Australia’s largest river flows into the sea. In addition to the lush nature in this area, one is also made aware of the excessive nutrient input from the Murray River, and the consequences are unmistakable on the extensive beaches due to the excessive algae deposits.
After a long stretch on the Princes Highway, we soon followed side roads directly behind the dunes through almost deserted areas. Many sections are protected nature reserves, but may be driven on the designated paths. We were also appropriately brave and ventured deeper and deeper into the sand dunes. We noticed the signs and warnings about soft sand that we saw several times, but we happily continued our journey until it was finally over. Our car sank into the soft sand like powdered sugar! There were no anchor points anywhere and the winch easily pulled the buried sand plates out of the sand as if it were pudding. The situation was somewhat awkward, as we were relatively close to the sea and the incoming tide further increased the time pressure. Normally, there are always off-roaders on the road, but on this darn Monday, no one was on this dune road. In the end, we freed our heavy load with the Hi-Lift jack; i.e., lifting the respective driven wheels, placing the sand plates underneath and moving the car half a metre out of its predicament. After sinking back into the sand, we repeated the same operation. In the end, I (Tom) lost count of how many times I lifted the car out of the soft sand, but the waves in the background were getting closer and closer, spurring me on.
After this sandy adventure, we stuck to more solid roads and paths. It was also a bit of a wake-up call that a single vehicle can get into trouble really quickly and the crew can quickly reach their limits when it comes to rescue. In future, we’ll pay more attention to the ‘soft sand’ signs and be more careful! 😉
Our cool box and cooler bag were now completely empty, the car had been washed and we were ready to cross the border into Victoria. Large signs informed us what was permitted and what could lead to hefty fines. We adhered strictly to the rules, but crossed the state border on a side road and no one paid any attention to our border crossing. That way, we wouldn’t have had to eat all the remaining onions at our last dinner, which was very noticeable the next day in terms of stomach rumblings and smells.
After Portland (Victoria), we had had enough of the main road and the omnipresent truck traffic and turned off into the hinterland. We roamed through the vast hinterland until just before the Otway Ranges (mountain range). But Chantal soon grew tired of seeing so many farms; too much agriculture. The road finally led us back to the coast and we found ourselves on the world-famous Great Ocean Road, which, according to the travel guide, is a must-see on any trip to Australia.
We still had plenty of time, so we often left the Great Ocean Road and scrambled across countless paths criss-crossing the Otway Range. Not all of the area was placed under protection over 20 years ago; today, large areas are used by various timber companies, which are clearing and reforesting the forest on a large scale. In some places, the cleared areas look chaotic and the planted monocultures somehow do not fit in with the image of the adjacent national park.
Thanks to persistent environmentalists, however, large areas of the original eucalyptus forests have been preserved and even in the national park, many forest roads can be driven on with an appropriate vehicle (4×4). In addition to cruising through the forests, many other sights invited us to take detours. In addition to sunshine, we experienced a lot of rain on the south coast and were always glad to spend the night at lower altitudes, as it was very cool and stormy in the evenings and at night at higher altitudes.
So it happened that, thanks to the rainy weather, we ended up driving the entire Great Ocean Road after all. Along the way, we discovered that we should still visit the 12 Apostles to the west; we still had plenty of time. Despite the rain and storm, we sought out these sandstone cliffs around Port Campbell and were surprised to find that huge numbers of tourists were being brought there by bus. Although almost ‘blown away’ by the wind, we liked the sandstone towers in the raging waves of the sea. The detour was more than worth it!
What was once called Dawson City in Canada was Ballarat in Australia at the time. According to my (Tom’s) information, the world’s largest nugget was found here. This discovery triggered a huge exodus in Europe and Asia, and the small town grew into a large city within a short period of time. The pressure on the local people was enormous, and this exodus had devastating consequences for the indigenous population. We spent a long time in the museum village on Sovereign Hill and enjoyed the past in the former gold mining settlement. However, we skipped the gold panning, as we didn’t know exactly what we would have done with any finds.
Finally, the time had come; the date for the crossing to Tasmania had arrived. From our last camp in Brisbane Ranges National Park, it was a short drive to Geelong, where our ship would set sail in the evening. This time, we had been wise enough to keep our onion supply small so that we could enter the next state smelling a little better.
We were looking forward to the island trip and further adventures on the island south of Australia.
Chantal and Tom/November 2025
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