Whow, I gotta be honest... The past 11 days have been a lot different than half a year in Melbourne. My roadtrip just began less than 2 weeks ago, and it was an amazing trip full with unexpected fun! Looking back at those days, it was one of the best weeks in my life. Yesterday we arrived in Adelaide. I was actually pretty glad to be in a city again, because I was really used to all those people around me. And ofcourse, time to relax and chill, to write my blog!

Anyways! During my last blog I was busy with contacting my travelmates... It took some time and re-calling everyone, to see if everyone was still on for the trip. One extra day delay so everyone was really prepared for everything. Fridaymorning, we (me, Bettina, Ulli and Lars (all Germans)) left with 2 cars in direction of the Great Ocean road. I was driving my car, Ulli was driving his, and we both got one passenger. Funny thing, Ulli has exactly the same car as me. We took it easy and left late in the morning to Point Cook. In this suburb of Melbourne is an militairy airport with museum. After the museum we were on our way to the Great Ocean Road. This is supposed to be one of the nicest roads in the world with all kind of lookouts along the road. We only made the first 20kms which was full of curves. Since the sun goes under around 5pm, we decided to camp in Lorne. That night was really bad... It was freezing cold and there was a lot of wind.

The next day we went further in direction of Port Campbell. On the way many sightseeing spots to make many pictures. This day I finally saw a lot of Koala's for the first time in the wild. These cute animals were just hanging above the roads we were crusing along! The further we were driving that day, the more rain fell out of the sky. When it just got dark, it was raining so hard, that we decided to take a hostel for one night. We checked in at Hostel Port Campbell. Just when we were walking in our room (10 people dorm, but only used by the 4 of us), it felt like we were in a hostel! Super clean, everything was new, modern kitchen, lots of space, PERFECT!

The next morning began a lot better, finally completely sunny weather. We took this day to see all the lookout spots between Port Campbell and Warrnambool, across the Twelve Aposteles. Absolutely beautiful, so many nice spots! But again, just like the day before, it was raining a lot again around sunset. It was even raining so hard, my car was hard to drive on the wet roads of Victoria. We were lucky that Ulli was able to arrange a place to sleep in Warrnambool, I really didn't want to camp again in the rain. In Warrnambool we were staying at a friend (Tim) of his old boss. Absolutely nice people, really open and friendly. Because we took it slow to see some places around Warrnambool, we decided to stay another day there. And to thank the people where we were staying, we invited them to go out for dinner in town. During the diner I really discovered that living in a small town is so much different than living in a big city like Melbourne. When we got back at the house, Tim was showing some big guns for fox hunting. These guns were so big... I was SO surprised that they were just there in their cabinet. Just holding one made me feel flabbergasted... The only (unloaded) gun I once had in my hand, was from the police, when I was in the 5th class in primary school. As a souvenir, I got a bullet from a shotgun attached to my keychain, NICE! Tim asked us if we were interested in shearing sheep. I was laughing, but yeah ofcourse! Betty and I were interested to do that. You gotta do it at least once in your life right? :)

So, the next day we went to (other) Tim in Dundonnel, the farmarea where Ulli used to work for 3 months. Tim's wife Susan was alreay making lunch for us when we arrived in their house. Whow... So friendly and generous! After having lunch we were driving a few km's further to the place where they were shearing the sheep. Oh my god! I have never seen this before, it looked like mass production. The shearing goes SO FAST: 1 minute and 18 seconds for one sheep when I was recording a movie. After looking closely we asked if we could give it a try. Betty, Ulli and me did it. It feels a little bit gross and dirty (there was blood everywhere from the sheep, on the ground, our hands, our clothes...), but we did it!

Afterwards we went back to the farmer's home, and he showed us 2 shotguns to hunt foxes. They were exactly the same as a day before at other Tim's. But this time, we were allowed to shoot on targets in the wired fences around the area. I shot 3 times, the last one was a hit. It felt so awesome, but my hands were really shaking from excitement lol. After this shotgun, we were allowed to shoot one time with the shotgun which includes a lens. Ofcourse, I wanted to try that one as well. Although, something went wrong... I was looking too close to the lens before shooting... Aim, shoot, BANG... I hit my head against the lens because of the 'kickback'. Oopsie. Everyone was saying something to me, but I didn't hear it... My hearing aids were set off (so I don't hear the BANG so loud). It left a small mark on my forehead, but I'm glad I didn't feel anything about it. But still, it was a great experience.

After chilling out for an hour, their 3 kids came home from school and we all prepared for a bbq-dinner. It was really nice and delicious. At some point, because these people are so welcoming and friendy, I kinda felt bad about how people in Holland actually are. Australians in the country are a lot different than citypeople. I can't really explain it why... Or mabye it was the wine why I can't explain it... We were allowed to crash downstairs to spend the night. The next morning we went outside to make some pictures of the area and discussing our trip for the next few days. We were basically at the same place for 3 days now. After saying goodbye, we went to the Grampians National Park, you could say the Alpines of Victoria. Wonderfull place, so much green everywhere... We spend the night on a camping over there, eventhough it was pretty cold again (2 degrees during the night).

The next day we went further to Portland, back to the coast. During our trip, we were occasionally switching seats in the cars to make it not too boring. This day I've let Betty drive my car so I can sit in Ulli's car. It was almost end of the day, just about one hour to go to reach Portland, and than it happened... A truck passed us on a rough road, the tryres lifted a stone up, and bang... The stone hit our windscreen. One BIG hole in the windscreen. We were so glad the stone didn't go trough, otherwise I have no idea what would've happened next... Ulli arranged an appointment to replace the windscreen on site in portland the next day, so we drove futher. In portland, next to the coast, we stayed on a campingsite again. Because of the rain and since there was no kitchen, we used the laundry room as kitchen and dinnerroom :) I slept better this night, it wasn't that cold around the coast. But mostly because I slept in my car this time. My tentsticks broke the day before, so it got unstable. Instead of sleeping there, I moved my stuff from the back of the car to the tent, so there was room to sleep. The next morning, it was actually good that I did that, there was water everywhere inside the tent.

Later in the morning we were kicked out of the camping, because we checked out too late. We were like the only one on the camping, but the campingowner didn't seem to like backpackers like us... We discovered the area around Portland and waited for Ulli's windscreen replacement. It was fixed after noon (so quickly!), so we didn't had to spend another night in Portland. We drove further... This day, I finally left the state Victoria and came in South Australia. After sunset, we reached the town called Beachport, where we settled on a camping in between the bushes. Just one hour before we arrived at the camping, I bought a new tent. At the camping... Well... Chris and Berber, if you guys are reading this, thanks for the tent, but since it was really leaking water and broken, I've burned it ;)

The morning after, it was actually an amazing area to make pictures of anything, like our cars. Later we drove further trough South Australia. It was a funny day, a couple of days ago I bought a few walkie-talkies so we can communicate car to car during the trip. We were playing games like 'guess the song' and provicate each other with loud music on the road :) About 100km from Adelaide we spend the night around a lake.

We woke up in the morning when it was complete fog in the air. We couldn't see anything further than 50 meters, so bad! It was also the first night for me where I woke up in a tent full of musqito's. We were driving past a small town, Port Elliot, where we were buying some beer. The guy in the bottle shop adviced us to drive a few streets further for picknick area, so we could take our breakfast there. Finally a morning/afternoon with no clouds in the sky, breakfast-lunch in the sun. After the breakfast-lunch we went futher and further... We were driving close to Adelaide. I really wanted a shower (I didn't had any for 4 days), so we were looking for a hostel in or around Adelaide city. It took some time to find a hostel with (free) parking spots, but we finally managed to check in at Beach Hostel Glenelg.

It's now 2 days later, we've chilled out in this city, we gave Betty a nice birthday (which was today), and we've been looking around for new travellers to join us. Lars was quite a different person than Ulli, Betty and me, so we told him it was better not to join us further to Alice Springs. At this moment there are 2 spots open, and we've met a couple of people today who'd like to join the trip. We'll find out soon what's gonna happen :)

Just to mention, for the last half a year I met so many international people in Australia... A good reason to write my blog in English from now on. And it really took me 3 nights to write this story, take a few good pictures out of the almost 1200 I made in 10 days... My next blog probably won't be so long as this one :) But I'll let you know when I get in Alice Springs!