Blogs from Grampians, Victoria, Australia, Oceania - page 5

What a weekend we have just had! I’m writing this at 11pm on Sunday night and my head is still spinning, but it was well worth it! Claire and I met a bloke from Holland, Michiel at the flower bombing thing the other week. He invited us to join him and his wife, Mandi, and about 20 others on their annual trip to a country race meet in a tiny town called Avoca in the Australian Pyrenees Mountains. We were promised a “rural Australian experience” (which broadly translates to an all day drinking session) - so we couldn't resist. And everyone at work goes on roadtrips every weekend - so it was about time we got out of Melbourne for a night! Avoca is about a two and a quarter hour drive north west of Melbourne ... read more

Dear Blog, Am sitting in an internet cafe in a small town called Kingston in Victoria on my way from the Grampians to start the great ocean road. Sould be really excited as its one of the things I have been looking forward to for so long, but I feel a bit upset today, just had a strange day yesterday. I set off on my road trip yesterday in such a great mood, everything just seemed good, had just picked up my bright red hire car, had bought some cd's, thinking about the previous few days staying with some lovely relatives and was thinking about the next few weeks coming up in asia and meeting up with Dave etc. Had quite a long drive and was quite tired, and even though most of it was ... read more

This is not to say that Australia is without its hills and mountains. I could tell you first hand, as I spent a day and a half hiking in the Grampians national Park, quite a large area of wave shaped mountains covered in native bush (well, mostly a bit burned, there was a major fire here last year). But the thing is that this area seems to come out straight from the flat plains that seems to be almost everywhere. It's seems like someone designed this land with a computer but was a bit lazy. So he did raise some mountains, but mostly just left it flat. This gives the mountain an artificial feel, because they seem so unattached. Take Hall's gap, for instance. A classic valley between two mountain ranges. But the effect is ... read more

Our next stop was Halls Gap in The Grampians. The drive between Tanunda and the Grampians isn't the most scenic, but did allow us to drive through Horsham and stop for lunch in Bordertown (where there was little choice of eateries). Jason was hoping the guy in the petrol station in Horsham would be chatty so he could tell him that he is from the original, more attractive/historic Horsham, in England. As we got close to Halls Gap, the scenery became prettier. But then there were obvious signs of a recent bush fire - every tree was charred black. This continued for many miles. However, it was only the next day that the scale of the bush fire (that we later discovered happened in Jan'06) became clear...the area affected was vast. Hundreds of square kilometres. Amazingly, ... read more

Hi Guys, so we headed for another tour of the beautiful sights of Melbourne. After the great Ocean Road trip was such a success we knew we wanted to see the Grampians, it was breath taking. We started the morning nice and early, my friend from work April who's from Scotland had decided to come with us too. First we travelled up to Ballarat, famous for its gold mines , you can actually go gold panning at Soverign Hill. We stopped of at Ballarat Wildlife Park where we got to feed the Kangaroos. I was a bit sceptical at first because I'd heard a few stories of how violent they can be, luckily these kangas are from Kangaroo Island and very tame. That was amazing! We then traveled up towards the Grampians, first we stopped at ... read more