There and back again . . .

[tracemul7]

Hey All,

Just a note to say that we did our trip around The Great Ocean Road and back again
We did the following:
Day1: Adelaide to Mount Gambier (via The Coorong)
Day 2: Mount Gambier to Warrnambool (via Portland and Port Fairy)
Day 3: Warrnambool to Apollo Bay (via Bay of Islands, The Grotto, 12 apostles etc and Port Campbell)
Day 4: Apollo Bay to Beaufort (via lake Colac and Skipton)
Day 5: Beaufort to Horsham (via Arrarat, Halls Gap and Grampians)
Day 6: Driving the Patrol around almost every 4x4 track in the Grampians)
Day 7: Horsham to Adelaide

The whole trip was stunning - we had an amazing time!
I'm into photography, so took tons of pics, but the best ones are here, if anyone is interested:
traceyhorricks.smugmug.com/Holidays/Great-Ocean-Road-Trip

The patrol ran really well - with 3 adults and a weeks worth of camping stuff, we were still getting about 500km on 55 litres.
Day 6 was New Years Eve, and glad we spent the time off-road, because the main roads in the Grampians were actually melting in the sun! The temp sensor in the patrol was good on the offroad track, but shot up when we got back on the tarmac roads!! We went over gravel, sand and dirt, through water, over rocks and totally loved it! The patrol seemed to be in her element! She just went and went - no issues at all

Every campsite was awesome - the highlight being Beaufort Lakes Campsite. Stunning location, on the side of a beautiful lake. The people were so friendly, and the location was just perfect.

Lucky we put some shade cloth on the front of the Patrol, cable tied to the bullbar, covering the radiator - there were soooo many locusts!!!! The worst was in Arrarat, where they just covered the roads. When we stopped at Halls Gap, there were clumps of them just falling off the car!! Insane!!

Horsham was a little windy on new years eve - gusts upto 75km/h, but the tent was fine

Coming home was a little disappointing - after such an fantastic trip!

In Summary (roughly):
2000km,
200 litres of diesel,
1200 photos taken,
30 videos taken,
5 camp sites (total $225 for 3 adults for 6 nights),
$300 in food/drinks taken with us, plus about $150 between us on lunches and a nice meal out.

[Bob]

Great Pics and your Trol is very neat. Glad you had a great time

[Maxhead]

Sounds like an unreal trip, good on ya and glad you enjoyed it.
The trol looks a bit clean tho ...lol

[tracemul7]

Great Pics and your Trol is very neat. Glad you had a great time

Yeah - she is very spoilt and cleaned regularly. But she doesnt look bad, considering we just ticked over the 390,000 during the trip

[tracemul7]

Sounds like an unreal trip, good on ya and glad you enjoyed it.
The trol looks a bit clean tho ...lol

Yeah - it was awesome She did get dusty towards the end! 250km round the tracks in the grampians tends to kick up a bit of dust :P
Need to find some more places to go to make her dirty
But then i'll take her home and clean her lol

[Dhuck]

Some nice pics. Looks like a beautiful trek

[Woof]

Thanks for sharing your trip with us Trace, love the photos.

[MudRunnerTD]

Good on you trace and welcome back, Glad to hear the trip went well.

[wildgu6]

Glad you had a great time buddy. on my way to check out your pics now.
Great write up too buddy, very informative. Well done.
Planning a trip to the grampians in about 6 months, would be great if you could suggest some good tracks to conquer.

Cheers Pete

[NissanGQ4.2]

thanks 4 the write up Tracey, will check out the link 2 the pics when i'm back from my holidays Sounds like an awesome trip