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Published: April 29th 2015
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Adelaide
After our decision to go on a slight detour (approx 700km ...) we got a brief plan together and were ready to get back in the van.
An early rise in Port Campbell and we were off. This was easily going to be our biggest drive of the trip so far.
Day Four - 686km driven: Although this was going to be a long drive, we still managed to stop briefly at London Bridge - a cool limestone rock formation that has broken away from the mainland as well as a quick coastal walk at the Bay of Martyrs in pretty windy conditions! It was a bit like North Berwick, only a 24 hour plan journey away.
From here it was all driving. Novo took the first stretch and trusty Shane decided that motorways and dual carriageways would be too main stream for a road trip. He decided to take us on what can only be described as dodgy roads. Officially classed as 'C' roads, there was a lot of winding and going weird directions. Eventually we got to Hamilton (a main town) and I got out to ask what the
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Pink Lake best way to Adelaide would be. As usual the Visitor Information person was incredibly helpful and showed me loads of helpful leaflets and perhaps the biggest help for the whole trip - a map! This meant for the rest of the trip we ignored Shane and between Novo and I we got to Adelaide using a good old fashioned bit of paper. Due to this slight detour in the afternoon we hadn't made good time and by the time I got in the van to do my half - night time was creeping up.
We finally started to see the light at the end of the tunnel and by about 8-9pm were getting close. We had pre-booked our campsite for 2 nights due to it being Easter and being such a big drive we didn't want to rush. Before we got to the campsite we had to find a Dan Murphy's (cheap booze) and stock up. Novo and I decided against our old favourite VB because we were in a new state. South Australian's drink West End Draught, so we bought 30 cans ...
Day Five - 0km driven:
Good Friday was
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Grampians walk our only full day in Adelaide. As it turns out that wasn't great news. We got up and went to the City via bus, leaving Sheila to rest after the drive the day before.
On arrival we all agreed Adelaide looked like a great city. Very European in look and seemed easy enough to navigate. Unfortunately at Easter, everything is closed in Adelaide. When I say everything I'm not joking. McDonalds was closed. After a walk around the city and some lunch we chilled in the park for a while. We also had to find somewhere to get our dinner ingredients! China town was open so we managed to piece together a few bits and bobs for dinner. Due to Adelaide being a ghost town, we headed back to camp and got dinner sorted with a few cans of West End Draught. We then decided to plan out our next move - driving to the Grampians national park. This was another fairly big drive but after Adelaide, we were ready for anything!
Day Six - 532km driven: A quick stop at Coles (our beloved Tesco ...) to stock up on food as the
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McKenzie Falls Grampians is very touristy and also up a mountain range so we felt that food might be at a premium. It took us pretty much all day to get to the Grampians and along with Novo and I, Sam took a shot behind the wheel to give us a break.
Before we arrived at our end destination, a friend of ours Tom - from Adelaide mentioned to keep an eye out for a Pink Lake. We didn't know what to expect, but knowing Australia's literal nature we had an idea. However, it was way beyond what we could have expected. The lake was a bright pink salt lake which we could walk across and was like nothing any of us had seen before. After this it was a big push to the Grampians. On our arrival, the visitor centre said all accommodation was booked as it was Easter weekend so 'good luck'. However, she also mentioned a place called 'Devils Garden' we could try for free camping. It was essentially a forest with a few areas that looked ok for camping. We chose a spot and carefully parked the van. Obviously there was no toilets or showers so we
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McKenzie Falls selfie had a designated area for toilets and got to work on cooking some dinner. We were alone in this spot but soon another van rocked up. Kerry and I decided to say hi so they knew we weren't weird - not sure if it worked.
Day Seven - 395km driven:
An early rise saw us head to Halls Gap and up towards Zumstein which was the start of our planned walk. It was a 3.5km walk each way and we saw some great scenery. The main part of the walk was McKenzie Falls, which were incredible! After some lunch and admiring the falls, we walked back to the van. Before departing the Grampians, we stopped off at a lookout point and started a bit of a craze. Novo and I climbed over a fence and took a picture on the edge of a big rock. The girls followed suit and when we left there was a queue of people waiting to do the same! Next up was Coldstream. This is an area of the famous Yarra Valley - one of Victoria's main wine regions. It took us a good few hours and I
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Feet over the rock had to drive some pretty scary country roads in the dark but we made it to camp ready for the wine tour the next day.
Day eight - 180km driven:
Today was potentially the day Sam was most excited for. A tour around the Chandon Winery (part of the Moet Chandon group). This had been recommended to us by our old flat mate so we had high expectations. As we were driving, someone had to be designated driver - this was me. Mostly because I don't like wine and well thats it actually. The winery was great, they had a self guided tour which was highly interactive and we all learned a lot. But we were really there for the $5 tasting. The guys all got to taste 6 wines and score them. The girls agreed on most and Novo liked a couple of different ones, I thought they were all guff. After this our good friend Steph had recommended the chocolate factory, which was incredible. We all had some free samples and saw some chocolate being made. Then we each got some home made ice cream. These were the biggest cones
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View from the Grampians of ice cream we had ever seen - if you are in Coldstream, go here.
We ploughed on to Philip Island and got a good kip ahead of a busy few days.
To be continued ....
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