Crossing the Outback - Day 1 (220km)Getting Started and Stuck

Today I picked up my campervan. (Thanks Liam for driving me there). It turned out to be a massive vehicle:  7.1 meters long, 2.8m wide and 3.2m high. Enough space for 6 people: I don´t even want to to know how much fuel I will need for my 8 days 5000km road trip (that is twice the distance Karlsruhe – Moscow)

Anyways, after an intensive briefing and a quick shopping trip to Aldi I finally hit the road. First target: the famous Great Ocean Road. The biggest War memorial of the World. Actually, it is just a road along the southern coastline between Melbourne and Adelaide.

I planned to drive the whole road up to Adelaide the first day. How could I’ve been so mistaken. Clearly you can drive to Adelaide in one day, but that is when you start in the morning and take the motorway. I started at 1pm and due to almost permanent construction site I was condemned to drive around 30kmh most of the time. Obviously I didn´t give up and drove into nighttime (which I was actually not allowed to do). There is a lot of wildlife on the roads in Australia. Finally I got a bit to scared and drew over to rest and check the map for the next town. That was a mistake. It t had rained around the Great Ocean Road for almost a week. My campervan had no profile on its wheels. Both things I didn´t know in advance. So I got stuck in the mud still standing partly on the road with the rear of the vehicle. I tried digging out the wheels, putting sticks and tree bark under them to get them out of the mud. It was no use. What a nice start into my road trip.

A local farmer drove by and stopped after seeing my car standing next to the road in the middle of the forest. He couldn´t pull me out but gave me a lift into the next town. He recommended the local pub. And indeed, after talking to the first 2 guys at the bar somebody volunteers to drag me out of the mud.

So on my first day driving I already had my first emergency. At least people here are very helpful. So I am positive that I will arrive my destination in time.

Good Luck to me :D