Roadtrip Great Ocean Road – Just incredible! – # 4 Work and Travel Australia 2018

I haven’t planed anything for my time in Australia. I knew that I would start in Melbourne. But what is next … I had no idea! Maybe I will travel the East Coast, maybe the West Coast, or maybe I will work and save money? In the end, I decided to travel the famous GREAT OCEAN ROAD for a week! I don’t regret this decision until today!

How did I plan the Roadtrip?

Approximately 2 weeks after my arrival in Melbourne I had settled down and I also found really good friends. I started to plan a bit what to do while my time in Melbourne. One of the most popular attractions is the Great Ocean Road. Basically, it’s a road that stretches for several hundreds of miles right on the coast and provides a terrific setting during the road trip! It’s a “must to do” when you are in Melbourne.

Since my newly found friends wanted to fly home within the next month, we did not have too much time to rethink it. Therefore, we sat together for a day, discussed and planned various options.

How do I best travel the Great Ocean Road?

The first option is to book a tour. Almost every hostel and travel agency offers a tour to the Great Ocean Road. The tour can take between 1 and 7 days. You will drive with a bus along the Great Ocean Road and can enjoy the great panorama from the bus. The bus will stop at many sightseeing points. Depending on how long you have booked the tour, there are also days you can spend at the beach! This option is definitely worth it, if you are too lazy to take over the planning yourself, if you have too much coal or if you just do not have time left, but still want to see the Great Ocean Road.

The second option would be to plan the tour by yourself and to rent a camper van or to travel with your own car. The advantage of this possibility: You can decide yourself when and where to take breaks, where to go and how long the tour should should be. Basically, you are a lot more flexible, the feeling is simply awesome and it’s even cheaper (if you do it with friends, with whom you can share the cost).

How do I plan the tour of the Great Ocean Road?

The planning is really easy. There are three things you need to plan to have an unforgettable road trip: the vehicle, the food, the route.

The vehicle.

Depending on what you have planned for while being in Australia will depend on what you  decide; Should I buy a car / camper van, or do I rent it? If you plan to travel to the east coast, it is definitely worth buying a car. But renting for a few days also fine!Since I did not have any specific plans regarding what I would like to travel in Australia, I decided with my friends to rent a camper van. For this we simply googled which companies offered to rent cheap camper vans, but you have to be careful! Most companies show only a net price, which is ridicules because there are many more added fees. We decided to use the company “Travellers Autobarn”, where we rented the Camper Van for the Great Ocean Road (see picture).

If you have compared several companies, you also have to decide which car / van you want to rent. Here in the picture you will find several alternatives, which are offered most often.

In the end, we decided on a Camper Van, where 3 people can sleep without a tent. This also has been good! Otherwise I would have been too afraid of spiders or snakes! We paid about $ 1000 for a week. So for each about $ 333. First, the van should cost $ 800 total. When we were on site, there were still costs for blankets, dishes, gas bottles and so on. In addition, you could still take out insurance for $ 25 a day, which is there in case something breaks the van or we build an accident. Since we were pretty shocked about the many costs, we did not choose an insurance. Luckily, everything went well! But next time I will definitely take an insurance. Because the vehicles usually have more than 400,000 kilometres and like to break down! But I’ll tell you more in the blog post about Tasmania!

The food.

After we picked up the camper van, we drove directly to the nearest supermarket and bought something to eat and drink. Actually, we had only pasta with minced beef every day and oatmeal with banana and kiwi in the morning. If you still need gas faucets for your gas cooker or other things, such as Sleeping bags, pillows, etc., then it’s the best to go to KMart. There you should actually find everything you need!

The route.

Depending on how long you want to travel the Great Ocean Road, you should already make an approximate plan, where you want to go and how long you want to plan for which sections. I was with my boys for a week on the Great Ocean Road. We drove along the coast to Skenes Creek and then through the Great Otway National Park. Then from Pricetown along the coast to Warrnambool. For this route we have planned about 4 days. Then the way back the entire coast to Melbourne in 3 days. (see image)

I think that was the perfect time! We did not have to rush and had enough time to look at everything and make longer stopovers. It did not get boring!!! We visited the following attractions during the whole trip (but there is much more, so google and plan your route!):

  • Bells Beach
  • Aireys Inlet
  • Great Otway National Park
  • Apollo Bay
  • Lavers Hill
  • London Arch
  • The Grotto
  • Cheese World
  • 12 Apostles

My experiences on the Great Ocean Road

The road trip of the Great Ocean Road was my first real road trip in a camper van in a foreign country. Therefore, the anticipation was huge! The vibe was great and we were singing in the car.

Stop 1 – Bells Beach

Our first stop was Bells Beach, one of the best surfing beaches on the Great Ocean Road. You can not imagine the goosebump I got when I saw the cliffs, the beach, the sea and the bright sun! Bells Beach was also our first stop where we stayed. It was just great! We listened to music, cooked and ate at this beautiful place!

Coz there were no lights in the area, we could see the Milky Way. I have rarely seen such a blatant. And I started to think about myself, my life and how small I actually am.I did not sleep that well that night. I woke up coz of every noice, because camping in Australia is allowed only on campsites and you get big fines if they see you at camping outside as camperside. But to save money, we took that risk all week on the Great Ocean Road. Luckily nothing happened!!!

TIP: Download the app WikiCampersAU. Here you will find everything about road trips. Places to stay, gas stations, etc.!

Stop 2 – Aireys Inlet

This lighthouse was the most unspectacular attraction of the road trip on the Great Ocean Road. It’s just a normal lighthouse. Maybe it was because the weather was not so good. With a beautiful sunset or sunrise, that looks really nice!

Stop 3 – Lorne

The city of Lorne was our next stop. It is a small town right on the beach. Since we had enough time and the weather was just nice and warm, we had decided to go surfing. It was the first time I was surfing. Although I had a beginner board but I found that I was not so crap. I even stood once for 10 seconds and surfed the wave 😊We paid about about $ 25 for 2 hours for the rental per person including the Wetsuit. This is the normal price in Australia.

Stop 4 – Great Otway National Park

Next stop was the Great Otway National Park. What expectations did I have for the National Park ?! None, since it was the first time I visited one. It felt like Im in a rainforest. There were big trees everywhere, it was green and there were many lianas on the road. The road meandered through the rainforest and it was really fun to drive the serpentines with the camper van. As we made our way through the Great Otway National Park, we considered where we could stop off. Our first stopover were the Erskine Falls. It was the first time for me to see a waterfall close up. Unfortunately it was too cold to swim in the pool under the waterfall. Furthermore, we stopped in Levers Hill. This was not so intoxicating. Next time I would skip this stop. All in all, the Great Otway National Park was not as exciting as I thought. It’s just a national park: D

Stop 5 – London Bridge and London Arch

After coming back from the Great Otway National Park to the coast, the next stops were London Bridge and London Arch. There were two rock formations right on the coast, which looked incredibly blatant in good weather. That was the feeling I was looking for in Australia. The only thing that destroyed the feeling were the many tourists. There were an incredible number of tourists at the viewpoints and it was difficult to take pictures as everyone stood there with their camera and wanted to do some as well.

Stop 6 – The Grotto and the 12 Apostles

The Grotto and the 12 Apostles were my highlights on the Great Ocean Road. The Grotto was really good! It was blatant to be able to look through this rock formation. The 12 apostles, however, were not so intoxicating as the weather was really shitty. It was cloudy and not really warm. Therefore the sky was grew and the sea too. On the way back, however, we stopped by the 12 Apostles again and got up especially at 6 o’clock in the morning to see the sunrise. This was definitely worth it !!

Conclusion

We made many other stops, but there were no real highlights. It was the feeling of the Great Ocean Road along the coast. I would recommend it to anyone and would like to do it again on occasion. A week was also the perfect time, because you had enough time to stop and not have to go through it. I really enjoyed the road trip and am looking forward to the next one.

In my next blog post you can read something about my trip to Tasmania. It was a two week road trip with amazing beaches, lakes and mountains! If you have any questions, feel free to email me, comment on the blog post or write me on Instagram @fabianxarnold!

Your Fabian!

First stop Melbourne – My impressions and recommendations – # 3 Work and Travel Australia 2018

Melbourne – what a brilliant city. I have never been more comfortable in any other city. The atmosphere, the mood and the people are just wonderful! I am incredibly proud to have met many great people who have made the time unforgettable! I had such an amazing experience with many amazing memories whilst living in Melbourne, which you will intake and learn when reading this blog post.

Melbourne a city in Australia?

As written and seen in my last blog post, the first impression of Melbourne, Australia wasn’t that stereotypical city I first believed in. Since I was only in the CBD (Central Business District) in the first days, I was stuck in this big city feeling.. I wanted the feeling of cruising to the beach, surfing or kangaroos and outback, and what you would imagine when you directly hear Australia. At first I thought I was in good weather in London (25 degrees and blue sky). During my first week in Australia I had two moments which I would recall as “goose bump” moments, which I would like to share with you.

Jogging on the Yarra River at 8pm Skyline

I went for a jog around 8pm which was my first day in Australia. Everyone who know me, knows how majorly important sport is in my life, I cant live with out it. Whilst I continued to run I noticed it was starting to get dark, I was starting to think about what I should to do. I knew I had to continue running because I had missed the last 2 days training because of my flight, still little jet-lagged I bravely continued. I searched Google Maps for a route where I could combine jogging with sightseeing. I jogged towards the Melbourne Cricket Ground along the Yarra River, It was still warm 20 degrees, I continued to jog in just the tank top and short sports pants through the dusk, the canal reflected the many colours of the city. Crickets buzzed and there was a light summer breeze, this was my first goosebump moment.

I jogged whilst the skyline faced my back, after about 15 minutes, I turned around, It was dark and the entire skyline shined in a beautiful blue, I started to smile and thought, “Damn, I’m free, Why am I always thinking so much? This is my time! Enjoy your life, because you only have one.“

After I finished jogging, I sat down on a bench by the canal and admired the skyline for several hours. I could’nt  look away. I called @hagenrichter to share this feeling with him. We nearly talked 1.5 hours. I’ll never forget this day!

My first beach day in Australia

It was my first Saturday in Melbourne, it was a scorcher of a day 30 degrees to be exact, which therefore I decided with 2 of my buddies (I had only met in my first week at the hostel), to travel to St. Kilda beach.

We boarded the train to St. Kilda at Flinders Station, the sun was so hot that it became nearly unbearably to stay on the train. The ride took about 30 minutes, whilst being on the train you could already see the sea and the promenade and the blue water. The beach was long which also lay a line of palm trees along the promenade.

Thousands of people sprayed a summer feeling, as we got off the train we were greeted by a warm but refreshing sea breeze, this was my 2nd “goosebump moment”. I felt free, I felt alive! This was exactly how I expected Australia to be, although this reminded me of the beach in California, It was bloody awesome !!!

 

Is Australia expensive?

This is a very significant issue for many who are considering going to Australia, Yes I have to say, Australia is fucking expensive.

An example of my experience:

It was the first day living in Australia, It was a Sunday and I was on my way to the hostel, It was 25 degrees and I had consumed the last mouthful of water several hours before. Since I had no idea where the nearest supermarket is, I ran through the streets and ended up in a kiosk (7Eleven), I was gobsmacked, a standard water bottle cost just 4-6 dollars. I know it was only 3-4 Euros, but it’s still outrageous?!

Few other examples:

– Kebab $9- $12

– 1 scoop of ice cream $5- $8

– Fried noodles with chicken $12- $15

These examples can be shown in every Supermarket, almost everything is twice as expensive in Australia compared to Germany or in Europe. The first couple of months were the hardest, because sometimes I struggled to convert and compare the rates. You would never shop for just 10 euros to cook a great meal, It was normally a fee of $40-60 ahead, but if you convert that into euros, it’s 25-40 euros, which is still a lot! No question!

Australia is not for smokers!

Yes it’s right! Many backpackers stop smoking or at least stop their consumption while in Australia, Why?! A pack of cigarettes costs $30- $50 and tobacco for $20- $30 Is that too much? I am an absolute non-smoker! Therefore, this has no effect on me, the price in Germany or in Europe as a total could also be raised, because smoking is shit and absolutely unnecessary! Away from that it is also gross and unhealthy!

Do you already know the good old Goon?

Goon ?! What is that.. Goon is a cheap wine that can be purchased in 2-5 litre packs, this  costs $12- $20 and is by far the most popular alcohol among backpackers in Australia, does it taste nice too? NO.

I believe it says it all, if you were to read the ingredients on the back on the package it says “this may contain remains of egg shells and fish!!” Why should you drink something like that? the question is quite simple to answer.

Everything else is just too expensive! A vodka bottle costs about $30-60, the $30 bottle is the exact same bottle as the 5 Euro cheap vodka in Germany. All spirits are accordingly too expensive! Even beer is so expensive! A box of beer (24 bottles) you get in Germany for a good 12 euros, here in Australia a case of beer costs $ 40-50.

Melbourne is something for sushi fans

 

The only thing I’m completely surprised about and what I’ll miss in Germany is the sushi! In Melbourne every third shop is a sushi snack! But it is far cheaper than in Germany! If you make happy hour and want to buy sushi as a snack you pay about $2-3 per thick sushi roll. I found a shop in Melbourne that has happy hour every day at 21:45 and sells 4 sushi rolls for $6. This is unbelievably cheap, I went there every night and bought sushi! Just awesome! If you want to know which shop I mean, leave a comment under the post!

 

 

 

 

 

The Vibe in Melbourne is just indescribable! – Festivals, bars and life

The nightlife in Melbourne is not anywhere comparable to Germany, meaning the clubs in German are much better! There far greater restrictions here, for an example the clubs are only operating until 2:00am – 3:00am and you also have to be inside the club before 1:00am, this is the “lock out” rule, not in before 1:00am you may swell go home, But everything is better. So what do I mean by better? Australia have many more pubs, bars and not so many nightclubs. The Australian pubs are completely different than German pubs, everything is much bigger, more open and familiar. Some clubs even have a pool, billiards, TVs and a super friendly vibe.

In Germany, only the older people go to pubs, here in Australia, it is normal for everyone to meet at the pubs from all ages, to enjoy food and beverages. As far as the festivals are concerned, every weekend in Melbourne there is a new festival, Beach festivals, music festivals and food festivals or normal funfair. Since most festivals have no cost you have something new to do every weekend.

 

 

Yarra Valley – The sky for wine lovers

Yarra Valley, which is about 1-2 hours by car from Melbourne! It is a incredibly, beautiful landscape that is perfect for hiking, you should definitely make a stopover here. We decided to join in a wine tasting after the hike, what could be better than a delicious wine at the end of the day with a beautiful sunset? I’m more of the red wine drinker, What about with you? Leave a comment there 😊

The conclusion

For us Europeans it’s extremely expensive living here in Australia, once you get used to the value of expenses you become more aware which works out to be not so bad, once you start working, you understand why expenses here are are so high. Australians earn a lot of money! About twice as in Germany, the minimum wage is about 16 euros.

Apart from the living cost, I’m totally in love with Melbourne. Melbourne has such a great vibe, which I fitted in very well. Although it’s a city with almost 5 million people, the city centre was not as large as first thought. I spent most of my time in St Kilda on the beach or in the CBD (centre). There are some superb beaches in Australia, and the vibe with the promenade was great !!! The CBD is superb too, you fill with just joy whilst you stand amongst the large buildings, you start to think how small you really are.

In the next blog post I’ll tell you about my road trip on the Great Ocean Road. It was really cool! I can tell you in advance! If you want more input, feel free to email me or visit my Instagram account @fabianxarnold.