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…There’s a reason why it’s called this!!
Thurs 2nd Feb - Sun 5th Feb I wasn’t sure what to expect with this tour except lots of ocean, surf and sand….and yes I did get all those things - and a whole lot more…but first things first - met some really nice people on this tour - we have Betinna from Germany, Dilliana from the Netherlands and Odette and Mike from Quebec.
Our first stop was in a place called Bells Beach, which was beautiful, and apparently this was the place where they filmed Point Break - which I will now have to rent out on DVD just so that I can say I’ve been there and annoy everyone who is watching it with me (as some of you may know when I’ve seen anything about Egypt!!)
The Great Ocean Road (GOR - cuz I can’t be bothered to spell it out all the time!) is an amazing stretch of road - it’s approximately 300km long from Torquay to Nelson and it’s got the most breathtaking scenery you can ever imagine…this is going to sound obvious now, but on the one side you have some spectacular terrain, rain
forests in national parks, beautiful deserted beaches, waterfalls and waves crashing on cliffs and the coastline. Then on the other side you have the great expanse of ocean which just goes across the horizon as far as the eye can see - to the point that you can see the slight curvature of the earth!!... it really is round!!
The tour I took had a lovely relaxing pace, where we had time to see things and take a thousand pictures!...you’re gonna love me when I get back - I’ll be known as Slideshow Dinh!!
On the first night we stopped off at Apollo Bay, a small little coastal village! nothing much exciting happening there! It was just quant!
Early start the next day with a walk in the Melba Gully Rainforest! My first proper bit of exercise in months!!
Then it was onto the stunning 12 Apostles...I don’t think there are 12 anymore, a few of them have crumbled into the sea!! but still stunning, none the less! This is where I took my first ever helicopter ride out over the Apostles…WOW!! Bertinna and I decided to splash out and do the ride - we flew out
to the top end to of the 12 and then back again to where the general viewing platform was - a fantastic trip! - it was only lasted for about 15 mins and it went sooo quickly!! before we knew it, we were hovering over the landing spot and it was over!!
We then went to Loch Ard Gorge named after the shipwreck of the ship Loch Ard (one of many along the shoreline there - you’d think they’d learn not to go that way with the numbers that crashed before them!) According to history the ship was from England bound for Melbourne and it ran aground on Muttonbird Island and out of 54 people on board, on 2 survived and ended up being washed up in the gorge! We got to the beach via some wooden steps which I presume wasn’t there at the time and was built for us tourists! The beach itself is gorgeous and the gorge is very secluded - I could have sat there for ages just watching and listening to the waves crash onto the rocks at the entrance of the gorge.
There was also a visit to The Grotto, which I
must say, was gorgeous! You take some wooden steps, which wind down the cliff face to the bottom where the sea is visible beyond a quiet pool at low tide.
Stayed overnight in a place cutely named Port Fairy, in the smallest bed in the world - I almost fell out of the bed at one point!!
The next day was another fun packed day with a visit on a little speed boat out to see seals and sea lions (still don’t actually know the difference between them!) - sat next to Dilliana on the boat and we were squealing like kids every time it hit a wave and bounced along. We were sat there willing it to go faster and faster and was very disappointed when it stopped all of a sudden…then we realised why…the tide pulled back to show a ledge that if we’d actually landed on, we’d probably be shark food!!
The seals / sea lions were cute but god, did they smell!! almost to the point that I thought I was going to see my breakfast again!! We also went to the Petrified Forest (sounds like something from Harry Potter!), blow holes, crossed
the border into South Australia, Umpherston Sinkhole and Mount Gambier with the bluest lake I ever seen, and funnily enough called the Blue Lake - not very creative these Aussies!! It’s formed inside an extinct volcanic crater and there are a few theories as to why the lake is blue - the locals putting dye into the water to make it into a tourist attraction (maybe…), microscopic blue organisms (spelt that really carefully!) that rise to the surface in the winter, water being filtered through the limestone walls are just a few of them, but whichever one it is, it’s quite simply stunning!
We then had an overnight stop at a place called Robe, we all got drunk at dinner and tried to name the instrumental music playing in the background before heading back to our cabins for after dinner drinking Baileys through tim tams!! You bite the opposing corners of the tim tam and then suck the Baileys through it…usually done with milk but seeing as we were all adults, we tried it with Baileys! It was v v nice!! (I wonder whether you can do it with penguins - the chocolate ones not the real ones!)
The following day was the final leg of our trip to Adelaide. On the way we visited 90 Mile Beach…named cuz it is 90 miles long! also The Granites at the edge of The Coorong National Park. The Granites mark the start of Aboriginal Land that leads all the way up to Kangaroo Island near Adelaide. We climbed up and played on the sand dunes for a while - not as big as the one we climbed in Jordan, but we still had fun running down them!
And then it was all over…the 3 and a half days flew by, I met some really nice people, and saw some amazing sights, but we’d now arrived in Adelaide and it was time to say goodbye to them!
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