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Hi everyone. I hope that you are well. My name is Christian and welcome to my channel Backpacking Bananas. My partner Ben and I are currently on a road trip across Australia as we are relocating from Perth to Sydney. We have been driving along the southern coast for over 2 weeks now with our whole lives packed into his Mazda 6 and we have just left the city of Adelaide. So in this episode we are continuing our journey east which started with a 5hour journey to Mount Gambia. How long? Easter
159. 2 minutes. Exactly. 2 minutes on the clock. Someone Huh? Not yet. Why? What we need? What do we need to do? Stake out the sides. All right, we still need to stake out the sides. Okay, 3 minutes 18. I timed it because someone in the comments said, "Oh, why did you buy a swag that takes so long? Why didn't you just get a pop-up tent?" Is 3 minutes 18 a long time to put up a tent? That's a genuine question. That's not
sarcastic. I don't know. How long does it normally take to put up a 10? I think that's fast or fast enough. Anyway, there's literally like beetles wrapped up in between our footage sheet. I may not have pumped this up well enough. There we go. Our beautiful camp bed. I am so much happier to be back at just like a grass campsite. I cannot tell you how much nicer this is than being on the nullible surrounded by so many flies. We just couldn't do anything where this is lush. You can just set everything up in peace. And I know we're going to be able to cook here tonight in peace. Do you know what I have noticed as a consistent across all of the campsites that we've stayed in so far? Even the free camping
spots, we seem to always be the only ones with an actual tent. Everyone else has all the gear. They've got trailers or they'll have a rooftop tent. They'll have the awning. And I feel very inspired. I would love to have a setup like that one day, but I think it's it's obviously very pricey and I think it's going to be a setup that we're going to have to like work up towards. I'm not so fussed about having a trailer, I don't think, but the idea to me of having a rooftop tent and a 4x4 that's just kitted out properly is very, very appealing. I've actually already been looking at cars in Sydney to potentially purchase upon arrival, but we will see how it goes. Finances are not great for
me at the moment because if you've been following for a few months, you may remember a couple of months ago I got hit with like an electrician and plumbing bill of almost £10,000. And that was the kind of money that I was going to use to help me in Australia, which I now don't have. And so I feel like we're just working on a big budget at the moment. But that's okay. That is life. That's normality. And I'm going to be sharing with you a lot of things that we are doing to try and keep ourselves on a budget. Uh especially when we arrive in Sydney, which is notoriously a very expensive city. Oh my god, this campsite has one of these jumpy things. I don't even know what it's called. And there's no kids here yet.
We've just got the afternoon in Mount Gambia basically. And I heard that there were a couple things that were just worth a visit. Nice to see. And one of them is the umpon sinkhole oron. And kind of crazy to know that this is even here because I thought they only really had these kind of things, cenotes, some may say in Mexico. The southeast is under lane by limestone known as the Gambia limestone which formed 15 to 40 million years ago when the area was covered by the sea. Limestone provides a suitable medium for development of sink holes and caves. Umperson sinkhole, little blue lake, the cave gardens and Engelre cave are examples of the effects of solution activity in the area.
So, you wouldn't be expecting to find somewhere like this here. It's like a magical fairy tale wonderland. Wow. This is the blue lake. I believe it's 3 and 1 half to 4 km to walk all the way around, which is what we're going to do, even though it's kind of raining. But this is the other beautiful kind of iconic thing to do in Mount Gambier. So, here we are. Am I saying it right, by the way? Mount Gambier. Mont I have no idea. It's quite a hill that we're going up. I can only imagine that this must actually be Mount Gambia. There we go. Whoop. Good morning everyone.
Sorry I didn't film much last night. It was raining a lot. But we had a good setup. We set our blue top basically across everything like across the cargo bag on the top of the car and across the tent. And so we actually had a very nice little dry night in our tent all cozied up looking at everyone's in their trailers thinking we can't be hard on ourselves like with our own setup compared to everyone else's because not only obviously do they have big trailers where they can take as much as they need and also it's super fast for them just like leaving in the morning. Like Ben was like, "Oh, they all left at like 8:00." And I was like, "Yeah, cuz they can literally just hop into the driver's seat and go,
whereas we have to pack things down, obviously." Not only that, but also we are relocating our entire lives. We have our entire lives packed into that car, as well as all of our camping stuff. And so, of course, it's going to be a bit harder and take us a bit longer, but that's okay. Anyway, we've made a little filter coffee this morning. Ben pointed out that over there on this part of the campsite, which is what I'm walking over to, there's some alpacas. Hello. Oh, hey. There's another one over here. Oh, wow. There some of the unpowered campsites are all the way down here. I guess when it gets really busy and in peak season in summer, they use up all of this space, but you're quite far from the
amenities like the kitchen and the toilet down here. But what would you prefer to be close to those things? or close to the alpacas. Oh, this one looks peaceful. Oh, you got a good spot there, mate. Don't you? Very good spot. Very scenic. Nice contemplation station. I approve. Filling up before we leave Mount Gambia. And the price here for we get unled 95 and it's 182.5. $182. Just stopped off in Port Berry at the coffee roasters and I am thrilled because they sell the made by Fresco coffee cups there and I had lost my lid and they sold the lids separately as well. So I have a lid again for my
coffee cup and I don't need to buy a whole new one. Though I like this coffee cup so much that I was actually planning on buying another one from the exact same brand but luckily I don't need to now. Yay. While we were in Port Ferry, we were also in need of a good little stretch of the legs. And I clocked a nice little circular route around Griffith's Island. So, we spent just over half an hour doing this 3 km walk. Here we go. This is the Port Fairy Lighthouse. Right. I haven't done a long run since Espirans, so today's the day. And I think it's going to be the longest run I've ever done. 1 hour 33 minutes. So, I'm hoping to maybe be able to whack out 13 or 14
km in that time. I don't know. I go off heart rate. And so, obviously, if my heart rate is going a bit too high, then I slow down and then I won't get as far, which is why I can't predict how far I'm going to go. But, we are going to fill up my little hydration pack with some Power Aid. I'm going to run along the War Namble. Is that where we are? Wampample Wanample. I actually can't remember the name of town we're in. And there's supposed to be a really lovely long foreshore prominard. And there is like an extended part of that called Thunder Point, which is cool to walk along or run along in my case. I'll have a little look at my maps now to plan the route, but other than that, we'll be on our way.
Almost on 5k and I'm at a whale watching spot. Can't see any whales. Don't think I'll hang about too much cuz my heart rate's going to go down. Back on the run now. Let's go. And I'm turning around. Keep getting lost. They keep having me to look at Google Maps on my phone just to check where I'm going. Oh, there may not be whales, but there are bunny rabbits. Hi. Cute. This is a hill. Kind of just potting up the hills. I have no idea where I am, but it's very cool and really starting to feel it now.
Almost done 12ks and I think I'm going to turn around here. Karma still says I'm maintaining after all that devastating. We just rocked up to this campsite earlier and I did ask for an unpowered site and she was like, "Yeah." And then she was like, "That's $46." And I thought that was a bit much, but I was like, "Okay, whatever. Let's pay it." But we're at a powered site. we have power and so I'm like maybe she'd mis heard me. Anyway, we're paying $46 to stay here. But it is rather lovely. I just had a nice shower
and I'm in my comfy clothes which I'm so happy about cuz I was getting chilly and now I'm going to go find Ben who's in the camp kitchen. When we're staying somewhere where there is a camp kitchen, it's just nice to use it so that we don't have to get all of our things dirty. Oh, there's the man himself. How's he get in? Just spent the morning in the Wanul library and actually we came here yesterday as well. I don't know why I've never thought to come and work in libraries before. It's so good. There's free Wi-Fi. There's like quiet tables. I can just get on with what I want. I don't have to pay for a coffee and things like this. I know some of you are probably library veterans and
laughing at me right now like going like, "Oh, yeah, obviously." And yeah, why didn't I think of this before? Anyway, we are now setting off to do officially the Great Ocean Road. And actually, I've got ChachiBT to help a little bit with the itinerary because we've booked our accommodation for tonight. But because we're not leaving here until just after midday, I was like, "Okay, I need this to be optimized. I need our stops to be optimized so that we're seeing all the things that we should be seeing along the way with good timing and that we make it to our accommodation before it gets dark. We are turning on to the Great Ocean Road. Thought there was going to be a big sign, but there's not.
Our very first stop on the Great Ocean Road is the Bay of Islands. Oh, the waves are crazy out here. Apparently, it is a particularly windy few days as well, so I think we'll be seeing a lot of that. This is the little town of Port Campbell. It's super cute. We're just going to stop and get a coffee here. Right, we are now at the car park for the 12 apostles. And I knew that this place would be popular because this is like the iconic spot of the Great Ocean Road, but I was not expecting it to be like this. There is like a dedicated helipad and even a dedicated line of helicopters for the twelve apostles.
There is a whole shop and kiosk at the car park. Got a cafe in there, toilets that are blocked off. And you have a choice of two hikes that you can do. I would have wanted to do the Gibson steps, but it is closed at the moment. And so we are just going to do the 12 Apostles Lookout, which from the car park is just 1 km, 15 to 30 minutes flat and even surface. Lovely. What you can always guarantee from my channel is just showing you what it's really like in places. Not going to sugarcoat things if I don't think that they are particularly special. The commentary from Ben is rock number one, rock number two.
Oh, there's two apostles on this side. Which ones are these? John and James. Am I thinking of the disciples? What's the It looks like they're actually like doubling the size of this car park or this whole establishment. So, the area of the 12 apostles is going to get a whole lot bigger, which is kind of crazy cuz it's already like quite a big establishment. But, I guess it just shows that the popularity for this place just continues to increase. People from all over the world are coming to visit. And I got to say, I think both Ben and I's expectations were very different for the Great Ocean Road than what we've kind of seen so
far. In my head, for some reason, I was expecting something similar to the Amalfi Coast, Amalfi Coast in Italy, kind of like driving and like being able to see the ocean as we drive along. Maybe we just haven't got to that part yet. Also, for some reason, I didn't quite know how busy it was going to be, but that's okay. You come to visit these places to learn these things. They're still very beautiful views.
Okay, we are now in the heart of Cape Otwe National Park and there was just one little walk here which I thought might be quite interesting on our way to Apollo Bay/ Sugarloaf which is where we're staying tonight in a place called Sugarloaf. It's called Mate's Rest. This is Mate's Rest Rainforest Walk. Mate's rest is one of the only remaining cool temperate rainforests in Cape Otwway National Park. It's been beautiful. I'm glad we stopped through. Sorry guys, I stand corrected. We've now reached the point of the Great Ocean Road, which looks even in the rain like looks as I was expecting it to look like we're driving like right by the ocean. But it took to get past Apollo Bay to get to this point.
We were going to be camping tonight. We kind of wanted to camp all the way along the Great Ocean Road. However, as you may have been able to tell from those shots of the driving, the weather's pretty shocking and it's supposed to be really bad overnight. Rainy, really high winds. And so, we were like, maybe it's not the best idea to camp tonight. But the reason that we were going to camp is obviously to save money. So, we were like, right, okay, well, if we're not going to camp, we at least want to just stay in super cheap accommodation because we're saving money here. So, I found the cheapest accommodation I could that was in the Great Ocean Road area. And we're in the little village of
Sugarloaf. And the hotel that we're at, if it's called a hotel, I don't even know what it's called, is called Estate. They have all these rooms and they were all $75 each. And I found it on Airbnb. It's selfch checkckin. And this is our room. We're in room 12. How cute is this? So, we've got a king-siz bed. We have a little mirror there. We've got towels. It feels very like clean in here. Looks like we have a little heater in the corner, too. There is a shared dining area. Absolutely beautiful view. It's also set on a farm. There's alpacas. There's cows all in the field there. This is the shared dining area and lounge area. Wow. Oh my gosh. This is beautiful. What? No way.
How? This is stunning. And there's table tennis. I think there's a proper like kitchen here as well which we can use. Gosh, very pleased with this. No way. Oh my goodness, it's huge. We've got a really nice clean cooking area, two big fridge freezers, massive stove setup, and we've even got a rice cooker. We actually do want to make rice this evening. We're going to have a Mexican. Okay, we're going to bring all of our things in. I can hear that the rain's coming. Good morning everybody. Oh my goodness, the rain and the wind this morning was horrible. I didn't get any footage of it, but like it was whipping up. We had the tarp on top of the rooftop um go
said rooftop tent. I wish on top of the rooftop car. It was just like flapping about. I had to go out in the wind and like try and like retuck it under to keep our rooftop cargo bag as dry as possible. Even though it is like water resistant, it's not fully waterproof. And so I just like to have the top covering it when it is raining. We were going to make like quite a few stops on the way to Melbourne this morning because we are still on the Great Ocean Road. Now, although it's not raining now, it is still a bit windy. Because of that, we've decided that we're probably just not going to stop too much and we're just going to make a beline to Melbourne. However, it is still along the Great Ocean Road, so I do still think it's going to be a
beautiful drive. But we've got about 2 and 1/2 hours and then we'll be in the city. The stretch of road from Sugarloaf to lawn was by far the most beautiful on the whole Great Ocean Road. I wish we had just known that before feeling quite hard done by the day before. And I don't know if this is a hot take, but all the iconic stops we made yesterday, we found to be quite underwhelming and overhyped to be completely honest. And maybe that's what driving across Australia will do to you though that when you arrive at the Great Ocean Road, you realize it's
not actually the highlight of your whole road trip, like what the media makes you think might be the case. My personal highlight of this part of the road trip was Great Otwway National Park and the cool rainforest. I'd love to do more hiking in this area. In the next episode, we are arriving in Melbourne, one of the coolest cities in Australia. And we're actually going to be spending over a week in Melbours as we have quite a few friends and family to catch up with. And FYI, we still have some spots left on my Austria ski trip in January 2026. If you are wanting to get away to the slopes of the Alps this winter, we are welcoming people of all skiing and snowboarding levels. So, you can secure your spot on my website. The details
will be in the description. And I will see you guys in the next video. Bye-bye.
