Wye River Beachfront Campground Independent Review of tent only pitch
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A load of waffle
Sometimes my inability to plan ahead fails miserably, sometimes it pays off!
My daughter and her family had booked the Big4 campsite at Wye River months ago. I really couldn't be arsed to drive for nearly six hours just for an exhausting weekend, so I said I wouldn't be going. Their break was going to be for 7 days from the public holiday onwards, on the 26th of January, which happened to lie on a Thursday this year. Unexpectedly my boss announced that we would have the Friday off as well, making it a four day long weekend. It wasn't until late on the Wednesday afternoon before the public holiday, that I decided I'd find out if there was any spaces left at the Big4 campsite for me and my little tent. Unsurprisingly, there wasn't, and I was kind of glad as I couldn't really be bothered, it was all just too much effort, I was just going through the motions. Then I noticed on Google Maps that there was a campground opposite the Big 4, so I gave them a call and was shocked that I found myself booking the last pitch on the Beachfront Campground! I was kind of panicking as I gave the guy on the phone my card details, as I hadn't committed in my head that I was going to do this!! But, too late, it was done. When I got in from work that Wednesday night, I hurriedly packed my camping gear, mountain bike gear, surfing gear, beach gear, surf board, body board, mountain bike, skateboard and electronics. Thursday morning I packed my clothes and food, and set off around 10:30am. It was all quite civilised really!
I used to love driving but for the last 25 years, with the introduction of speed cameras, and the sheer amount of traffic on the roads, I find it tedious nowadays! So tum-te-tum te-tum I plodded along the M31 from Albury towards Melbs, then skirted around the west of the metropolis on a couple of other major roads, only hitting a stop-start-jam for 15 minutes, after there had been an accident near the Avalon airport. Eventually I hit the Great Ocean Road. Australians like to put Great in front of things! The Great Dividing Range, the Great Ocean Road, the Great Australian Bight, the Great Barrier Reef, the Great Alpine Road etc. Now if there's any Aussies reading this, it's just an observation not a criticism and in fact, the Great Ocean Road is very scenic, beautiful ocean views one side and forested, sometimes rain forested, hills the other. The trouble was, due to it being a public holiday it was busy. Sight-seers driving along, without a care in the world, at 30kph argh!
The first 400 Kilometers went reasonably quickly, the last 150 kilometers went very slowly, at least for the last 50 Kilometers I could take in the pretty views! Eventually I arrived at the Wye River Beachfront Campground. I'd left home at 10:30 and arrived at 16:30, with only a quick stop for fuel in between.