Sydney to Adelaide
January 2-8
Now that the holidays were over, it was time for a headlong dash to Darwin where we were scheduled to fly to Bali on January 18th. That gave us very limited time to enjoy everything in between so we made the decision to extend our stay in Australia by a week. Since we had a Quantas flight, we thought this would be simple, but were told by the airline that the change was free but had to be initiated by the agent who booked the ticket. Even when I begged, the agent on the phone told me there was no way for him to access the reservation to make the change. I then had to contact our agent at Airtreks who informed me that we would be charged US$50 per ticket to request the change. I reminded her of all the business we had given them and that we still had to book the tickets for the remaining half of our trip but she wouldn’t budge and said it was Airtreks policy. We ended up going directly to a Quantas office in Melbourne and Claude convinced the agent to make to change for us for only AUS$25 per ticket (he says I just didn’t ask the right way the first time). Needless to say, we won’t be giving Airtreks any more of our business and I’ll let Claude do the negotiating from now on.
We left Sydney on the 2nd and made it to Melbourne in just a few days. We were anxious to get to the Great Ocean Road (one of the world’s greatest drives), so we only spent one day exploring the city’s vibrant downtown (or CBD as they say in this part of the world).
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| From Sydney to Ade… |
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| From Sydney to Ade… |
It is a really lovely city with stunning architecture and a lots going on. We were there just before the start of the Australian Open and Melbourne was already packed with tourists and sports fans so we decided to hit the road. We spent two days exploring the beautiful coastline of the Great Ocean Road and it didn’t disappoint. We stopped to watch the pros at a few famous surfing spots like Torquay and Bell’s Beach before continuing along the coast where we found a spot along the road where there were dozens of wild koalas sleeping in the trees beside the road.
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We made it as far as the Twelve Apostles on the first day
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| From Sydney to Ade… |
and scrambled to find a place to stay. This was the first place we had visited at the height of its tourist season and we were shocked to find everything booked solid. Finally, after about an hour, we found a place called Kangaroobie which is basically a camp that rents out its bunkhouses when students aren’t there. It had no AC or even fans, but was rustic and interesting and we enjoyed meeting the other groups who were staying there. The next day we completed the Great Ocean Road drive, stopping every few kilometers to enjoy another beautiful coastal view at places like Loch Ard Gorge
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and London Bridge
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where, incidentally, the land bridge collapsed in 1991, stranding two shocked tourists who had to be rescued by helicopter. Claude had actually visited the site only a few months after it happened on his first trip to Australia. The only drawbacks to our scenic drive were the extreme heat (mid-30’s), FLIES, FLIES and MORE FLIES and the inescapable throngs of tourists. Oh, and did I mention the flies?
At the end of the Great Ocean Road, we stopped at Tower Hill Game Reserve for lunch with the emus
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before pushing on to Mount Gambier for the night. The next day, we continued east along the coast and stopped at Coorong National Park to check out the sand dunes and the beach which reminded us a lot of Fraser Island.
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We saw a dead wombat (kids made me take a photo) which was probably the only way we were going to see one in the wild on this trip.
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| From Sydney to Ade… |
Finally, we made it to Adelaide where we spent three days planning the final leg of our trip in Australia and buying plane tickets for the remainder of our trip. In the end, we found a great agent who specializes in adventure travel and he helped us find the most economical route which turned out to be a round-the-world ticket with Star Alliance (much cheaper to buy in Australia than in North America). I also discovered that the Adelaide Library is a free WiFi hotspot and spent many hours there catching up on my email and blog while Claude took the kids to the museum and the beach. Once the logistics were all taken care of, it was time to head for the Outback!
To see our pictures from Sydney to Adelaide, visit our web album:
Tags: Australia, Great Ocean Road, Melbourne, RTW ticket, Travel
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