Hitting the Great Ocean Road

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This time last week I was diving off the coast of Western Australia, I'm now thousands of miles away in South Australia and heading to Melbourne soon. After the diving I had to spend a day relaxing, as you're not allowed to fly for 24 hours after doing multiple dives. I didn't think there was much to do around Exmouth, but I was proved wrong. I hired a car, a little Hyundai Getz, terrible car, and drove around the headland and into the national park. There were some tremendous beaches and at the end of the road (only passable in a 4WD) was Yardie Creek, what looks like a river flowing into the sea, but is actually more of a lake as the river upstream has dried up. It was quite spectacular. A short walk away from the beach was a tremendous gorge and virtually no-one ventured up there so I had the place to myself. The amount of life, fish and bird, was amazing - I could have stayed there watching and listening for hours. Then on the drive back I saw kangaroos (luckily I didn't hit any on the road but I've seen plenty of roo roadkill) and an amazing and massive eagle that was sitting in a tree at the roadside.
The next day I flew out of Exmouth back to Perth, and after relaxing in King's Park for a few hours (and seeing a few weddings in progress there) I jumped back on another plane to Adelaide. I had booked myself into another nice hotel, but it again was a bit oversold, typical business hotel really. Did the job though and I spent Saturday sorting out travel plans and walking around the city. Adelaide is quite a nice place, great Botanical Gardens near the centre, some very cool shopping streets and others lined with bars and cafes. Went to the cinema that evening (Body of Lies, very good) to pass the time. On Sunday I picked up another car, and had planned to drive to Port Lincoln to go cage diving with sharks, but the lady there told me it was about 8 hours drive away! Again, taking distances in Australia for granted, so I decided to be a little more conservative. I drove north west along the coast but everywhere was pretty quiet so decided to head straight for the Flinders range, mountains/hills north of Adelaide. I had a night in a nowhere kind of place before heading to a cool, but very quiet village called Melrose at the foot of Mt Remarkable. (Lots of Celtic influence around here, places like Glenorchy, Bangor and Dublin!) That afternoon I climbed the mountain (960m) - lots of wildlife (got too close to a rather frisky snake) and an amazing wreck of a small plane that had crashed in bad weather in 1980, bit spooky. Stayed in a little cabin there and had a huge meal at the local pub that night. The next day, yesterday, I went mountain biking in the morning to see some of the countryside. It is very beautiful and very expansive, and I realised 4 months away has left me pretty unfit. I'm really feeling the after effects of climbing and cycling today! It was then straight into the car to drive the 600-700km here to Robe. A long afternoon's driving but some great views and I've now got 3 days to enjoy the coast and Great Ocean Road before I need to be in Melbourne, to see Rhod. Only 3 weeks now and I'll be back in the UK!

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