Road trip through Australia - Day 2

Day 2 of our road trip through Australia began at the campground in the forest that we didn't want to drive to in the dark. In retrospect, the decision was not completely wrong, as we had to drive at least 10km through the forest and only on gravel roads. On the way there, we even saw our first kangaroos! The campground was between Ballarat and Creswick, the gold towns of Victoria. We arrived at the campground at around 7:30am and went back to sleep immediately because the parking lot in Creswick didn't allow us to sleep peacefully. When we woke up two hours later, there were 20 cars instead of 3 (when we fell asleep). They were all people searching for gold - lots of equipment like metal detectors and gold panning machines. It seems to be the weekend activity here instead of having a garden. We prepared breakfast amidst the crazy people and then took a walk in the forest.

After that, we drove to Ballarat, which according to the travel guide should be a nice place. We weren't overly impressed, but the open-air museum with actors would have been interesting, if it hadn't cost $50 per person for admission. So we only visited the Gold Museum, which cost us about $10 per person. Here, huge gold nuggets were recreated, which were found in the region. Among them, a 5kg piece in Ballarat. Another huge nugget was found just 3cm below the surface!

The goal of our drive on Day 2 was the Great Ocean Road, which we also reached in Anglesea. We made a short stop here to admire the sea, as the sea in Anglesea is said to be particularly calm and suitable for bathing. However, since the weather was anything but inviting for swimming, we soon continued our journey, as the next campground was located in the middle of nowhere. On the way to this sleeping spot, we were surprised again by kangaroos on the roadside.

Upon arrival, two parrots greeted us. We collected some wood and made a small fire and enjoyed the leftover pizza from lunch. However, as it was still getting cold quite early, we soon got into the car and went to bed.