Week 31 Great Ocean Road to Adelaide, SA-Australia

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There was a noisy dawn awakening by roosters and cockatoos to Day 2 of my Adventure along the Great Ocean Road and Grampian Mountains with Bunyip Tours. Thankfully it was a lot drier than the previous night but the hill up to the toilets was still slippery and mud-covered. The coin-operated showers gave you 3 minutes of cold water for your 3 dollars and then jammed, so I resorted to wet wipes. Some of the guys who were camping had left their rucksacks against the tent side and their stuff was soaked, so we laid their soggy clothes and sleeping bags over the backs of the bus seats so that we looked as if we were travelling in a laundry. We grabbed a quick breakfast and helped to clean up camp before setting off for full day visiting spots along the Great Ocean Road.

We took the steep Gibson Steps down onto the beach to see the first of many limestone rocks standing in the sea, the result of countless years of weathering, on a coastline that is receding at 3cm a year. We were lucky enough to capture these first rocks in the golden glow of the early morning light. It was a great feeling being on an almost deserted soft-sand beach with the crash of surf and call of birds the only sounds, the amazing scenery and the makings of a bright sunny day. Good to be alive.

Our next stop was the famous 12 Apostles and we got there before the hoards and coaches full of day trippers, so had the place almost to ourselves. There is a clifftop path out to a couple of good lookout points where you can see the huge rocks from various angles. Two of our group opted to take a helicopter flight over the coastline for 10 minutes and were thrilled that the sun broke through and they got fabulous photos. They probably have some shots of the rest of us waving like loonies at them as they whizzed over our heads.

For the rest of the morning we stopped at many different bays with huge free standing limestone cast rocks and some interesting formations of arches or weird shapes. The best ones were London Bridge, Bay of Martyrs and Bay of Islands. The link from the mainland to London Bridge collapsed some years ago, apparently trapping two people on the top of the main arch for several hours, to eventually be hauled off by a TV helicopter.

After another great picnic lunch we continued along the section known as the Shipwreck Coast which is a wild and rugged area full of narrow inlets with vertical cliff walls. Obviously were were regaled with lots of interesting and funny shipwreck stories by Adam our driver, who has a brilliant memory for facts and figures. He drew out a long story about one particular wreck where the only survivors were an 18 year old seaman and a female 18 year old Irish passenger. The boy was lucky enough to be washed into Loch Ard Gorge, where he swam back to the opening to rescue the girl, after hearing her screams for help. This gorge is the only one on the whole of that coast that it would have been possible to get out of as the rest have vertical cliffs that get lashed by high tide. They warmed themselves with a fire made from the wreckage of their ship and drank retrieved bottles of brandy. The boy managed to construct a rough ladder to climb out of the gorge and walked miles through rough bush to bring help. After only knowing each other for 6 weeks, he asked the girl to marry him but she refused as he was only a ships apprentice and not good enough for her, even though he had risked his life to save her and looked after her. She returned to Ireland. Bitch.

In the afternoon we stopped at Tower Hill to view a huge amazing dormant volcano which has a sunken centre and steep sides that has been turned into a wildlife haven. From the top we could spot wallabies and emus on the flat plain below. This thing is huge and almost perfectly round. In the winter it floods and forms a shallow lake that makes it look like an old castle with a moat, as there are hills of tree-covered lava in the centre that look like turrets. The photos don’t show the massive scale and its all the more impressive when you are standing on its top ledge as the whole area around it is really flat and you can see for miles.

We continued to our overnight stop in the foothills of the Grampian mountains where we set up camp at the Asses Ears Wilderness Lodge, set in 400 acres of bush with is own airstrip that was almost always covered in a very large mob of kangaroos. The name comes from a mountain ridge of the same name close by, which was beautifully highlighted by the late afternoon sun as we arrived. The area was full of all manner of brightly coloured birds and was extremely peaceful.

I had booked a cabin and it had its own bathroom and hot water shower, so most of the girls in our group queued up to “borrow” it, which was good for me as they killed the numerous spiders in the shower cubicle (after much screaming) before I had to use it. We all helped put up the tents and prep the food for the evening BBQ which was delicious. I was not too impressed with the obvious signs of mice in my cabin, including some fresh droppings in my bed, so I put all my food in the main kitchen fridge so there were slim pickings for the little blighters and I was not disturbed during the night by any rodent feasts.

The next morning I got up before dawn to watch the sunrise over the peaks of the Grampians and to listen to the cacophony of birds greeting the new day. I also tried to get close enough to the kangaroos to get a decent photograph, but the buggers were teasing me by letting me get almost near enough before hopping just far enough away to spoil the shot. There must have been about 100 animals in the group on the airstrip and we were to see thousands more during the morning drive through the area. There was quadbiking on offer at the camp but only Sammi wanted to do it, so she ended up with a private lesson and had great fun driving through mud and streams, with the finale of chasing the roos down the grassy airstrip at 70 kilometres an hour.

The main activity during the morning was walking in the spectacular the mountains, with three different treks in spectacular scenery. I did the first two but only walked the first kilometre of the Wonderlands Trek which was the longest, as it included several sections over steep and wet boulders and instead stopped to watch some abseilers and then helped Adam set up lunch. The first walk was a couple of undulating kilometres through bush and rockscapes to the amazing Balconies lookout, where the whole valley was laid out beneath us. When we started the low clouds were swirling cold mist around us and you could not see any of the views, but as the sun burned through it was like a grand reveal, with the most jaw-dropping scenes unfolding. We had not realised how high we were and there were superb views on both sides as we walked back along the ridgeway on the way down. I was not brave enough to jump across to the Toadstool Rock, but have included a picture of Alicia on it..

The second walk was to Mackenzie Falls where there was a choice of different walks to view the Falls and the surrounding terraces of water. I picked the middle one and took a long and steep walk through a boulder-strewn valley with the massive rocks of the peaks all around and plenty of shade from the gum trees. I ended up at a lookout point over the valley with the top of the falls in view but you couldn’t really see the full force of the gushing water. Some of the other guys opted to do the harder walk down the side of the falls, but you also had to climb back up and they were red faced and knackered by the time they got back to the bus. My walk had left me breathless and puce too.

After our last picnic lunch at the small town of Halls Gap, we headed to the Brambuk Cultural Centre where we learned more about the Aboriginal heritage and heard their imaginative stories about the creation of the Grampians. We had a go with the didgeridoos and made some very rude and un-melodic sounds with them. One of the guides then told us more about the tools used by early Aboriginals, including how they did not use the famous returning boomerangs to hit their prey, but instead the whirling sound that it creates when its thrown makes animals such as kangaroo lift their heads up from grazing, which showed the hunters where the animals were hidden in the tall grass and then used spears for the actual kill.

My final stop with the group was at the old gold mining town of Ballerat. Three of us were carrying on to Adelaide from here so we all made our goodbyes and swapped contact details, then the rest left for their return to Melbourne. At the time we booked we were told that we would catch the overnight bus connection to Adelaide but what they hadn’t told us was that we got dropped in Ballerat at 4pm and the bus didn’t leave until 10pm, so we had a long time to kill in a small town where everything shuts at 5pm. We tried the cinema but there was nothing we wanted to see that finished in time to get the bus, so we went for a leisurely meal and then hung out in a bar with some comfy sofas, chatted and read. The bus was reasonably comfortable and had reclining seats, but it was full and made two long stops in the middle of the night which was annoying. I did not get much sleep.

Thankfully it was only a short walk to the hostel and I was able to stow my luggage and use the kitchen and lounge before getting my room key at lunchtime. I spent the day around the hostel, doing laundry and checking out the various tours on offer in and around Adelaide, then got a very early night and slept like a log. Nice crisp, clean sheets and no mouse poo.

I explored Adelaide city the following day and ended up spending hours at the huge Central Market, where all kinds of produce are on sale. I bought lots of fresh fruit, salad, cut meats, bread and cheeses and a new cool bag to replace the one I left in New Zealand. I was going to have a few days of healthy eating and the thought was so surprising that I wandered into the Haigs Chocolate shop and stocked up on the final essential food group.

Adelaide city centre is quite small but has plenty of green parks and lots of churches, many built from large stone blocks. The suburbs are sprawling and measure nearly 80 kilometres long and 20 wide, but the centre is easy to navigate and explore in a couple of days. The weather was sunny and clear and very pleasant in the mid 20’s.

On the Sunday I went on an all day wine Tour of the Barossa valley with Groovy Grapes and the fun Simon as our guide. We had a couple of hours early in the morning to explore the beautiful Adelaide Hills and stopped for a breakfast break at the last remaining toy factory in Australia, where they have the largest rocking horse in the World. We also stopped at the Whispering Wall which is a reservoir dam where the sound carries along the wall, so when we split into two groups on either side of the wall we could clearly hear each other without raising our voices at all. Good fun.

On to the Barossa Valley where some of the biggest names in Australian wine for the international market are found. Although its not the biggest area for grape, it is the best known overseas and accounts for almost 50% of the countries wine exports. Famous brands here include Wolf Blas and Jacobs Creek and we started the day with a visit to the Jacobs Creek HQ where we learned the history of the brand and had a good tasting session.

We visited 4 wineries in all, going on to Vinecrest which is a small boutique winery, then to Richmond Grove where we stopped to set up a BBQ lunch at the picnic tables in their grounds. The food was wonderful and included yummy kangaroo steaks, chicken, burgers and loads of different salads - they call it the “Big Feed”. The last stop was to taste wine and lots of different ports at Seppeltsfields. It was a good day and we covered a lot of ground in two major areas of Adelaide, then retuned back through lots of suburbs, so got a good feel for the city.

I had been having trouble in booking budget accommodation for the next week and found out that there are several major events happening in the area, causing all the rooms to go. In addition to Anzac Day on Sunday, there is also the Special Olympics trials going on. I have therefore booked to go to Port Elliot for a few days, two hours bus ride along the coast to stay in a hostel right on the beach. Therefore you lucky people, this week’s blog is a day early, which should make up for being so ate with the last one.

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