Adelaide - Melbourne. The Great Ocean Road.

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Bore da. Hwyl. Hello. And welcome back me!

Australia has been tough to blog. Often for days up the east coast nothing, and i mean nothing would happen, short of arriving at a town where the only possible past time, was to sit in the sun either on the beach or by the pool side. Of course i met some awesome people and they do deserve a mention. Elaine, Alex, Luke, Curtis and Clare.

So I was in Adelaide last time i wrote. Now i'm in Sydney.

In Adelaide I went on some runs, went t the museum and art gallery, boughta new camera, oh and had a tenni session with one of Australia's most prominent tennis coaches, Peter Smith.

I got up early on the 8th April and after breakfast helped some backpackers jump start their engine. Then i got on my bus with Roel and Kwame, who i had also toured the centre with. We cruised out of Adelaide with driver Tilly and Shaun. The first major stop was to see some white kangaroos, a very rare sub breed of the Australian Skippy.

We had a spot of lunch before tackling Hollow Mountain. We were officically in The Grampians now, so named because of their apparent likeness to the Scottish Grampians. Whatever! Hollow mountain provided some fantastic views across the flat plains either side of mainly dense bush.

The Grampians were formed like most mountans in Australia, compacted under the earth during one ice age or another before something like a volcano or eathquake forced the peaks up.

As the sun set we visited a beautiful waterfall and then a viewpoint over some lakes and bush.

That night we were headed for Halls Gap, a small town that is the only passing point, apart rom either side, through the Grampian Mountain Range. It was cold, very cold. We were now in Aussie Autumn, and as hot as my last two months have been, this is cold. I was still wearing shorts now, so i couldn't complain. Muc.

Following morning, as ith nearly all the tours, we rose early as we had an action packed day ahead. At 7am, we were stood sheepishly in the car park near The Pinnacle, one of the famous peaks of The Grampians. Itwas good to do the walk so early i think in retrospect. One could see the land evolving as the sun rose higher and hotter. There were clouds and mist below us that were gradually burned off in the sun.

After lunch we started to cruise down The Great Ocean Road. I think its made up of three parts. The Skeleton Coast, The Shipwreck Coast and The Surf Coast. The latter two are fairly self explantatory, but the first one is allegedly where the whites culled the aboriginals, en masse. As we followed the road, that clinged to the cliff and wound in and out of the inlets and headlands, there were many sandstone formations, carved through erosion by sea, wind and rain, where we stopped for the obligatory photo.

Sunset saw us at The 12 Apostles. The sunset was unfortunately disappointing. There was too much cloud. But it still cast some beautiful colours over the sea. After sunset we drove to Princetown and our accomodation or the night. It was Shauns Birthday, so after a BBQ dinner, eaten inside because it was too cold, we headed to The Talk of the Town, the loca bar, packed out by all 15 locals.

Another sunrise the following morning. We drove for a short way to The Otway Fly. A rainforest experience. It was pretty awesome as we were walking through the rainforest as the suns first rays started to penetrate through the leaves and catch the early morning mist.

From there we cruised along the Great Ocean Road, briefly stopping to see some Koalas and King Parrots. I became the birdman, as at one point i had three King Parrots on me, two on my arms and one on my head, including a beautiful male who has a deep red head and chest. Another half hour we arived at Lorne, and the place where i would jump off for the weekend.

Lorne is a seaside town, that i compared to Teighnmouth in many ways, and not only because Torquay was up the road. It was the ideal bank holiday destination for Aussies. The place was packed!

While there i enjoyed a day long rainforest walk, some runs and vietnamese hospitallity. A family arrived and i gave them a hand getting the BBQ started. They repaid with shitloads of food and a few beers. Very welcome. Very good food.

I got back on the bus with another driver on the Bank Holiday Monday to cruise to Melbourne. In British terms, I was driving to Cardiff from Teighnmouth, on a bacnk holiday, via Torquay, the surfing town of the southern coast, Anglesea, just a small village and The Great Ocean Road sigh.

We crossed the river into Melbourne at sunset, it cast beautiful light over the city, as the city lights came up too. Back into the business of city life for the first time in a good month. Oh well, such is life.

Peace Out.

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