The VW Camper Van Blog is a website for lovers of all types of VW campers from Split Screens and Bays to T25’s and T4’s.

This time 5 years ago, we had just started a massive 5 month round the world trip which saw us leave the UK, Fly to Singapore, then on to Australia, Hawaii, Mainland USA and then home. It really was the trip of a lifetime. In this blog post I thought I would write about the middle part of that amazing journey we led me to becoming a massive VW Camper Van fan.

We had just spent 3 weeks in WA (Western Australia) travelling around Perth and down to Bunbury and Busselton to see an old school friend of mine who is lucky enough to live there now. We then spent a week seeing Alice Springs and Uluru (Ayres Rock) before flying down to Adelaide where we had intended to drive from Adelaide right up to Cairns following the coastline.

When we were in Perth, we had seen a really cool van with a mural plastered all over the side. Turns out these were vans for hire called ‘Wicked Campers’. We thought they were so cool that as soon as we landed in Adelaide, we started looking in to getting one to use instead of a hire car. After a lot of phone calls we found out that there were no vans available due to the holiday season (this was the end of November). So after a lot of deliberating, we wondered in to an outbackers travel shop in the center of Adelaide and asked the cool guy behind the counter (who looked like a cross between Steve Irwin and Crocodile Dundee!) what sort of camper vans he could get us.

After 10 minutes we had paid a huge $2500 deposit and booked our Backpackers Camper Van for the next two months. We had one last night in Adelaide before we picked the van up so headed down to the local Hog’s Breath Restaurant for dinner.

The next morning (and after a rather strange taxi ride out to the local Britz depot - the driver looked very ill and spent most of the ride opening his door and spitting out of it??) we picked up our home for the next two months. The Van was an old Toyota Hi Ace ( I know… its not a VW but it was still fairly cool to us as we had never even been in a camper van before). Backpacker Camper Vans are old Britz vans that have been used quite extensively and they can no longer fetch the big rental money. The then rebadge them (or not in our case) and rent them cheap to backpackers - ideal!!

We pulled in to an awesome camp site on Brighton Beach called Brighton Caravan Park (just south of Adeleade and about 10 mins from Glenelg) where we spent the night playing with all the fridge, cooker, pull out bed and electrics. It was great fun. As it was nearing christmas, Lu insisted on putting up Christmas decorations to make us feel at home.

The next day we got up and drove to a mall where we stocked up on supplies and bought some camping chairs (Britz were trying to charge us some stupid amount per week that I can’t remember now but we bought some for $15!) and then drove on an amazing scenic route right down the coast to the ferry point that goes over the Kangaroo Island. After spending a bit of time deciding whether to go to the island or not we decided not to and drove back up to a nice little town called Victor Harbour. We had a walk over the causeway to Granite Island and then pulled up for the night in Port Elliot.

We became a member of the BIg 4 Caravans Parks which saved us a lot of money each night and the Big 4 Parks were really good and had great facilities.

The next day we came across the pink lake which is a salt lake that due to some reaction with the salt, turns pink when dry?

We found a really nice campsite at Meningie where we managed to get a pitch looking right out on to Lake Alexandrina. We got talking to a chap who was in a Caravan who gave us some tips on where to visit on the way down to Melbourne. He said we had to go to the Grampians (more about that later).

The next stop was Mount Gambier, home of the Blue Lake. We pitched in a Big 4 Campsite right next to the lake and had a walk down to have a look. It really was amazing and the photos here can not do it justice. Apparantly, for six months of the year the lake is a grey / graphite sort of colour and then for some unknown reason it changes colour to the bright turquoise blue colour you can see in the photo. The lake is actually a volcanic crater and the water is the towns only source of water. The building you can see in the photo below if the pumping station that fuels the town.

Next stop (after the tip off from our Caravan friend - I forget his name now) was the Grampians. We spent the night in a campsite on another lake and it was the first hot night we had since picking up the van. We had been sleeping in the pull out bed in the roof but due to the heat, we decided to sleep down below!

After a swim in the smallest swimming pool I had ever seen, we drove on some very scary roads up the the Pinnacle Lookout. To get to it, we had to hike for a further hour after parking up but it was well worth it for the view.

Another two hour drive and we found ourself back on the coast at the start of the Great Ocean Road. We followed the road from Warrnambool down passed the London Bridge to the 12 Apostles.

We spent another very hot night at Apollo Bay where we sat out until late being bitten by Mosquitos (unknowingly, obviously) and then woke up the next day to celebrate Lu’s birthday. We had breakfast in the camper van on the beach and then travelled up to Lorne to see an amazing waterfall.

We spent Lu’s Birthday Evening at a campsite in Torquay (as we live 2 minutes from Torquay in the UK we thought this was appropriate for her Birthday Celebrations - a curry in a Camper van!). The next day we had a look around the Surf Mall where we got some bargains and then headed up for a night in Geelong which is at the other end of the Great Ocean Road.

We wanted to spend some time in Melbourne so booked in to a Budget Motel Chain Hotel. We had a trip up the Rialto Tower for a great view over Melbourne and then spent the rest of the time exploring the South Bank and the Casino as well as shopping in the very festive Melbourne centre.

After 2 nights in the motel, we were keen to get back in the van and get some miles under our belt. But of course, we couldn’t leave Melbourne without doing one more thing - visiting Ramsey Street!

Don’t miss out on Part 2 of our 5500 Mile Trip accross Australia in a Camper Van

In the next part of this article, we see Lu and I travel from Melbourne to The Capital Canberra and then on to Sydney for the most amazing New Year I have ever had.

Make sure you do not miss the next installment by signing up to free update via email or RSS.

Posted by Steve

If you liked this blog entry you can receive updates via email or RSS.

Posted on Sunday, November 23rd, 2008 at 9:14 pm
Posted In Featured, VW Camper Van Holidays | Tags: Amazing Trips, Australia, Camper Van Holidays, Toyota Hi Ace

2 Responses to “Our 5500 Mile Trip across Australia in a Camper Van - Part 1: Adelaide to Melbourne”

• Brian Keogh on December 14th, 2008 said:

  Great pics and story there guys. I live in Mount gambier, so enjoyed your post.
  Steve you might wish to check out this kombi site also. its in Perth, there are a lot of pom members that live there.

  cheers brian

  http://thekombikonnection.myfreeforum.org/

• Steve on December 15th, 2008 said:

  Hi Brian,

  Thanks for your comment and the link. The forum looks interesting so you will probably see from posts from me there soon.

  That’s interesting that you live in Mount Gambier. It’s probably one of the coolest lakes I have seen and the photos do not do the colour of it justice. We stayed in the Big 4 park which is just off the roundabout by the Lake - a cool park with a great camp kitchen and BBQ’s and Pool. Unfortunately, we only spent two nights in Mount Gambier before we headed on up to The Grampians. We did have a wonder round town and I remember a Mall with a Target and a Big W in it and we also visited the information centre which was just out of town.

  Hopefully one day we will be back - this time in a VW!

  Thanks again

  Steve

Leave a Reply

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website

Notify me of followup comments via e-mail