4.1.19 The Great Ocean Road

4.1.19

I wake up shortly before 6 am and I am glad to leave at 7 am. It is very humid, it is already 23°C at this early hour. My car windows are completely foggy and I can't see much in the first few kilometers because the fog keeps coming back. There is a 'total fire ban' in Victoria now, because everything is so dry. Barbecuing and any other open fire is prohibited. People are really afraid of these mega bushfires that happen here every summer. I am almost alone on the road and drive towards the Great Ocean Road, which stretches about 240km from Torquay to Allensford along the South Pacific. It is considered one of the most beautiful coastal roads in the world and is the reason why I added these 8 days in Australia to this trip. After driving the Cabot Trail in Cape Breton in the fall, this is the next world-famous coastal road in a very short period of time. I am excited.

I am very grateful for the air conditioning in the car. Oh God, how would it have been today without air conditioning in the New Zealand camper van. The temperature is already 30°C at 10 am. I make a few photo stops in between, see a few surfers, and slowly the traffic is getting heavier - of course, it is still school holidays in Australia and also Friday, so the weekend trippers will soon pack their swimwear.

At 11 am the thermometer shows 40°C. Outside, the sun is piercing the skin like needles. Around this time, I arrive at the Beach Comber Motel & Apartments in Apollo Bay. The room is wonderfully cool and nicely furnished with a refrigerator and well-functioning WiFi. I first put all my drinks in the refrigerator because everything is slowly cooking in the car. A wide bed - oh, I have to say, after 3 weeks in a camper van and yesterday's B&B, I am very much looking forward to this bed and a small, private bathroom right next to it. I have breakfast at a bakery on Collingwood Street in Apollo Bay. Specialty here: Pies! Okay, I'll save that for another time and enjoy a well-filled sandwich and a huge cup of coffee. There is a parking lot across the street and the sea is roaring behind it. And believe it or not, there are koalas sitting in the tree right next to the parking lot! I am thrilled! Not even 5 hours conscious in Australia and already the first koalas in the wild - and right in the middle of the town!

After it is over 40°C at noon, there is a meteorological miracle from my understanding: a weather front approaches the coast, the sun is covered by clouds and within 10 minutes the temperature drops to 17°C. Luckily, I still have a jacket in the car when I continue driving the GOR further southwest.

I stop at Maits Rest, a rainforest walking trail, and walk around for about an hour, enjoying the greenery and huge ferns and trees. I continue towards the Otway Peninsula, a cape that lies here on the Tasman Sea in southern Australia - unless it is the Indian Ocean after all? After all, I am - as far away as it may seem - now 2,000km closer to Berlin than two weeks ago on the South Coast of the New Zealand South Island. Now there are still more than 16,000km separating me from home.

But first, I enjoy the nature of the Otway National Park. Huge eucalyptus forests line the road to the southern tip of the peninsula, where an old lighthouse stands. On the way along Lighthouse Road to the south, you can often see koalas and I am lucky too. The animals are often sitting at dizzying heights of about 30, 40m in the treetops of the eucalyptus trees and one wonders how they manage to find their way back to normal heights without falling down. As a driver, you practically can't spot them, but you have to orient yourself towards parked cars that gather wherever people have spotted koalas in the trees. The koalas - as cute as they may seem to us - have become a real plague here due to the protection in the national park. I pass stretches of completely stripped dead tree skeletons. It looks as if some pests have killed the trees, but it is actually the masses of koalas that are responsible for this.

At the end of the road is the parking lot at the lighthouse. I save myself the entrance fee of $19.50 and take a short hiking trail through nature. But it is still quite cold, despite the jacket, and I am glad when I'm back in the car. It's incredible how much the temperature has changed since this morning.

In the evening in Apollo Bay, I sit at the Chopstick House. An Asian restaurant, with a very relaxed atmosphere, half open-air seating, and the food is delicious and affordable. I'm in my beautiful room at 8 pm, upload the many koala pictures to my tablet, and finally I am lying down at 11 pm after writing in my diary. According to New Zealand time, it is 1 am in the morning. I am quite exhausted after this long day.