Up to the big city of Melbourne

We left Drysdale area after 10:30am. We planned to get on the road earlier, but we were enjoying time with our hosts. Ruth made pancake breakfast for everyone, and of course with real Canadian maple syrup on top!

Once again, we had some showers in the morning, but it did clear up at times. Still, they are calling for "the coldest temperatures of the season" in this area, and the news media is all over that.

Ready to go. Next stop, Melbourne

Once again, we woke up Friday morning to rain. But this time, it stopped around 9:30am and was cloudy with sunny breaks for the rest of the day. Not great, but not bad!

We have been so busy since we got here to Drysdale that we really hadn't had time to go out and explore the area. So we took a couple of hours off to do just that.

New floor, and another camper modification

Woke up to another on-again, off-again rainy day.

So, with an unlimited supply of internet, I spent much of the morning working on our Mexico RV Caravan trip for next season. It's going to be a very different trip! Details coming next week.

By 11:00am or so, things started to clear up and I went out to finish the floor in the camper.

New floor for Joyce

Well, it was a pretty good day despite the constantly alternating sunshine and showers.

After breakfast, I went right to work to replace the floor in the camper. It was just a laminate flooring, but it had bubbled in a couple of places and it was a very plastic looking woodgrain.

Taking a break from RV'ing for a couple of days.

As forecast, it started raining around 5:00am. We stayed in bed until 7:00am or so, and when it sounded like the rain was letting up a little, we got up and got on the road.

The idea was to drive to the town of Torquay and sit out the rain in the library there.

Too expensive here to be doing any stocking up!

When we woke up Monday morning, the first thing on our agenda was a short walk. We had bumped into a local who told us that we should hike down the path near where we had parked.

He was right!

Our first koala bear sighting!

When we are parked up in the middle of a rain forest and it's a bit chilly at night, it only makes sense when we wake up first thing in the morning to get up and drive... even if it's just for a little bit. This way, we can at least get into the cab of the truck, and it doesn't take long to warm up once the engine is running.

Then, we can hopefully park up somewhere in the sunshine to have breakfast. It doesn't always work out that way, but at least that's the plan!

Seashore sights and shipwrecks

We never planned on taking this much time to get from Adelaide to Melbourne. After all, it's only an eight hour drive! But, that's if you stick to the freeway and don't see anything along the way.

If you take the coastal route, it's about a twelve hour drive... again, if you don't stop to see anything along the way.

Day two on Australia's Great Ocean Road

We are doing the Great Ocean Road from west to east, although many people suggest the best way is the other way around. So far, we don't think it's made any difference, however maybe when we get to the other half, it will. I guess we'll see.

We started today just before Port Campbell. There were quite a few attractions to see on a 23 km (14 mile) stretch of roadway, so we got an early start.

Guide to Car Camping

Do you love to go outdoors and experience nature? Do you want to light up campfires whenever you can? Well, the adventure spirit in you should be complimented by something else - the right gear!
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Beautiful Australian ocean scenery

We started driving early this morning, heading for the Great Ocean Road. We had purposely gone inland for the night because the Great Ocean Road area is pretty busy with tourists, and as such it is difficult to find free camping close to that route. And we are not Caravan Park (RV Park) type of people, and we're not interested in paying those prices.

So for us, it makes sense to spend just a little extra on fuel to find a free spot that we're happy with.

Tomorrow, we begin Australia's Great Ocean Road!

Woke up Wednesday morning to the steady drumming of raindrops on the roof. Just like they said it was going to do. Fortunately, the temperature was comfortable. I don't think it went below 13C (55F) at night, so it was quite nice for sleeping.

With the forecast calling for rain continuing until mid afternoon, we got up and did 50 kms (30 miles) of  driving into the small city of Warrnambool (pop 36,000).

Pub camping in Australia!

As expected, we slept fine Monday night. We were the only ones there! But, it was a chilly night. With the clear sky, the temperature dropped to 5C (41F), so when we woke up we didn't want to get out of bed!

We don't have a thermometer inside the camper, which is probably a good thing!

Here in Australia, every small town has a free RV dump station.

What a Sunday night we had! They were calling for high winds, and boy were they high! It was hard to get much sleep... there were times we thought the rig was going to take off... or at least fall over!

But, we survived to tell about it. Nothing much out of place in the morning, except a few of the fake flowers from the graveyard were blown around... and our entrance steps were a good 20' away from where they had been when we went to bed.

Parked by the graveyard... all of our neighbors are very quiet!

When we left you last, we were on our way to see the glow in the dark mushrooms. We had read about them in advance, so we had a good idea of what to expect and how best to find them.

The best thing you can do is to show up in the area during daylight hours so that you actually know where they are. Most people show up at dusk or nighttime with flashlights glaring and then they never actually see anything!

Off to see the glow in the dark mushrooms!

Just around the corner from where we had been camped is the Umpherston Sinkhole Garden. We got there around 10:00am, and it was already quite busy! It's free to go down and wander around, and I guess because it was a Saturday of the long weekend (Monday is a National holiday here in Australia) and it was a beautiful sunny morning, people were out and about.

Did you notice I said it was a beautiful sunny morning? Yes, we had blue sky and sunshine!

First paid camping in Australia

And it's not really "camping"... it's just somewhere to park for the night and be able to use some nice hot showers!

Friday morning, we tried to get an earlier start. It was a great spot to overnight in the village of Tantanoola! Still, it was probably 9:30am before we actually got on the road!

Keeping our eyes open for wombats!

Slept fine once again at our free camping spot near Beachport. Quiet as can be.

We need to try and get on the road a little earlier though! If we don't get moving until 10:00am, the day seems to fly by too quickly and before we know it, it's happy hour! Not that there's anything wrong with happy hour of course... we just want to get more done before the next happy hour arrives!

Answering some of your questions...

Woke up at the normal hour of 6:30am Wednesday morning, and looked outside to see drizzle in the air again. Decided that another hour in bed wouldn't hurt! By the time we got up, there was some sunshine breaking through.

One of our readers had asked if there are other campers around. And another reader had asked how we find these free campsites.

Four nights of free camping

In four different locations. And there will be many more.

I know it's only been four nights, but first impressions are that Australia is a free camper's dream. Yes, there will be special times where we know that we will have to pay for our overnight spot (National Parks?), but most of the time we don't see any need to pay to park somewhere overnight.

You can't see everything!

Australia is almost the same size as the lower 48 of the United States... so when people ask "how much of it are you going to see in ten weeks...?" We reply "not very much".

It took us four weeks to explore South Korea... a country half the size of Kansas! So to see everything we want to see in Australia would take us two years... or more... of steady traveling.

So right now, we're not worried about seeing everything. We know that we can't.

Another battery problem, but then another good day!

Up as usual around 6:30am Saturday morning. Slept fine... no other campers, and no other vehicles... it was an absolutely perfect spot to spend the first night in the camper.

Speaking of sleep, a few people have asked! So here it is.... we did sleep really well. The mattress is just a piece of hard foam, maybe 6" thick. Not even memory foam. I was kind of worried that it wouldn't be good enough, but it seems to be fine. Although yes... it's a little short for me.

First day on the road in Australia

Well, our regular readers do know that we like to travel slowly! So when you see how far we went on our first day, some of you won't be surprised!

But we had a fantastic day anyhow.

We were saying goodbye to our fabulous Aussie hosts Pat and Louise at 9:30am.

May Expenses

Well, hopefully that was our most expensive month of the year done and over with!

We spent $4,967 CAD ($3,680 USD) in the month of May! But, we were also in five different countries and we were on six different airplanes during the month so a big chunk of that was travel and overnight expenses.

Here's how it all broke down...

Next stop... who knows?!

Bundy and Joyce are ready to go! And so are we!

I can't believe it took us about three days to get everything cleaned up and ready to go. We were being pretty fussy though... right down to installing shelf liner (mactac?) on the base of most of the shelves and cupboards!

Almost ready to hit the road!

We're seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Spent the morning finishing cleaning up Bundy and Joyce and got the electric systems figured out and working properly. The house battery seems to be fine, and the 160 watt folding solar panel kits works fine as well. Unfortunately, the engine battery did not pass the tests and needed to be replaced.

Our host Pat knows quite a few people in the auto parts and repair business and a few phone calls later got us a brand new battery wholesale for $150 AUD ($140 CAD, $105 USD). I had done some searching and the best I could find was $245 AUD!

Getting Bundy and Joyce ready to go!

Bundy is the truck... a 2008 Ford Ranger 4 wheel drive diesel with 128,000 kms (79,000 miles) on the clock.

Joyce is the camper that sits on Bundy's chassis. She was "home made", but very well made.

Today, we started getting Bundy and Joyce ready to hit the road!

First full day in Australia... running around!

We made a sort of a rough list of things to do, and our host Louise had taken the day off work to run us around. We'll say it again... it has been so great having them look after us on our first couple of days in the country! Thank you so much Louise and Pat!

So we went out to get some things done. We were gone about five hours and I've already forgotten the order in which we did things, but here it goes...

Finally... arrived in Australia!

Bali airport has got to be the busiest airport we have ever been in. The problem of course is that it's simply too busy for the size of the airport. So they've got all of these flights arriving and departing at all hours of the day and night.

Our flight from Bali to Adelaide, Australia was scheduled for 12:05am... at a gate that had three other flights scheduled to depart within a hour or so time frame. There were people sprawled everywhere.

Our one day in Indonesia

Slept like a rock Saturday night, and up Sunday morning to write an interesting blog post about Singapore. If you missed it, you can read it here...

https://www.travelwithkevinandruth.com/2019/05/singapore-to-bali-indonesia.html

Then, we went out to get some breakfast.

Singapore to Bali, Indonesia

Saturday morning, we checked out of our AirBnb apartment at 8:30am because Singaporean blog readers Han and Michelle were coming to show us some parts of Singapore that tourists wouldn't normally see.

And besides the tour, they gave us some interesting insight into how Singapore survives and thrives.

Singapore at night

This is the second blog post of the day! If you missed the first one, you can read it here...

https://www.travelwithkevinandruth.com/2019/05/the-more-natural-singapore-and-we-are.html

Friday evening, we went to the light shows at Marina Bay. There are two of them... one behind the Sands hotel at the "Supertrees", and one in front of the Sands hotel in the bay itself.

The more natural Singapore, and we are going to Hawaii!

This morning, we didn't leave the apartment until after 10:00am... because I was busy booking our return to Canada in August. I had no plans to book it today, I was just doing a random check of the prices and I spotted something.

Normally, one way from Australia to Canada is about $1,000 CAD per person. And I would have been happy to get it for $700 each. But I saw a deal from Sydney, Australia  to Honolulu, Hawaii for $274 CAD each. Then, I saw a deal for three days later from Honolulu to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan for $312 each one way. So, $586 per person and we get to spend 3 days in Hawaii to break up the distance!

Singapore - Our feet were done, but it was still a good day.

Singapore is the 20th smallest country in the world, with a population of about 5.6 million. It's located only 112 kms (70 miles) north of the equator.

It's a clean, modern, and very safe city.

It's also a global financial center with a tropical climate and multicultural population. Almost all of the signage is in English, despite the fact that 75% of the population have a Chinese background. And there are four official languages... Malay, English, Mandarin, and Tamil.

Arrived in Singapore!

Singapore is country #35 for us!

It's the first new country since we were in Barbados is October of 2017.

Let me tell you about the last 24 hours or so...

Next stop, San Francisco, and then Singapore!

We called our Uber driver  from our AirBnb in Calgary at 3:30am yesterday morning. Yes, silly o'clock!

I was a little worried that there wouldn't be many Uber drivers around at that hour of the day (or night!), but it turned out that we only had to wait about 8 minutes and there he was, ready to bring us to Calgary airport for our 6:05am flight to Los Angeles.

First stop, Los Angeles!

Yesterday we returned our car rental to the south end of the city of Calgary. Then, we walked the 5 kms (3 miles) back to downtown and wandered around for a bit.

The weather was still not great, but at least it didn't rain.

Exactly the way you would get them in Mexico!

It would be nice if somebody would tell the weather gods that it's supposed to be springtime. Because there is certainly no global warming happening here in Calgary just now!

Yesterday felt like March in Canada, not May in Canada. Pretty sure it must have been snowing in the nearby mountains.

And so, we were looking for something indoor to do. And apparently so was the rest of the city.

Sometimes I think we must be a little bit crazy...

Just a little bit though!

Yesterday, I spent a good part of the day finalizing our trip plans to eventually end up in Adelaide, Australia where we will now arrive on May 27th... only 10 days later than originally planned.

But it's still a bit of a convoluted route as to how we get there.