We headed out of Sydney on a bright orange camper van with 4 days to get to Melbourne. Rather than take the main highway (which would have taken just 9 hours), we clung as close to the coast as possible on Princes Highway, the scenic route, with plenty of stops in between.
The scenery was breathtaking. Maybe we'd been in cities for too long, but we were marveling at it every day on the road. We drove through lush green hills and stopped at perfect sandy beaches, which were mostly empty. I always imagined Australia to be a desert land, but on the east coast, it's far from it. We saw some amazing wildlife, cooked some awesome food on our little stove, and walked some lovely trails. We stopped whenever we saw anything remotely interesting-- a whale museum, a winery, a koala conservatory.
Our first day on the road happened to be Valentine's Day. We didn't have any plans, but it couldn't have turned out more romantic. We found a lovely campground to park our van overnight. Not expecting much, we took a trail from the campground and it led us to an amazing white sandy beach! That night we cooked a delicious dinner in the woods and dined on a picnic table surrounded by hungry possums (I think). After dinner we took a bottle of wine and dessert to the beach and laid under the stars. The moon was full, as if it knew we were coming. It was beautiful and I will remember it as long as I live.
More to come.
- Julia
The beaches were incredible and we couldn't figure out why they weren't crawling with people!
Our Valentine's Day dinner!
Yum! Food always tastes better out in nature.
