Out in the middle of nowhere...

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....so we left the Great Ocean Rd. and headed northwest to Grampians National Park. First stopped to see some koalas and emus in their natural habitat. Later we began to encounter problems when we could spot smoke from a huge bushfire from several miles away. Once we got closer, the road the guide always takes was completely closed. He said he was fairly sure of an alternate route but I could tell that was just to keep everyone quiet. We drive...and drive....and drive some more. It's at this point that I decide to go crazy and eat the better part of a box of Tim-Tams (my new favorite dessert in Oz; chocolate biscuits) because they are melting and of course, I cannot let chocolate go to waste. By about 6:30 pm it is HOT and even I was feeling a bit antsy in the van with the flies and not much space. So when he stopped to ask for directions (a guy? stopping for directions? Props to him!) and we were told we were just a few k away from our house that night, everyone was pretty happy. I've never stayed in a national park before and it was refreshing; we were literally in the middle of nowhere.

After a huge dinner, we head out to find some kangaroos and seeing them outside of a nature reserve was really a treat. There were about 40 of them just hanging out in an open field, watching us go crazy with pictures. I guess if I lived here for awhile the kangaroo thing would get old, but thus far it hasn't!

Upon returning, a 60 something couple from Las Vegas decided that we all needed swing dancing lessons and the whole thing was a riot. I mean, how many times in my life have I attempted to swing dance with an elderly Swedish guy? Yup, you guessed it: once!

The next day we headed to one of the mountain ranges and hiked a good hour to the top. I feel out of shape already from just two weeks with no exercise. It was quite the strenuous hike and I swear a lot more than 4.2k! Note to self: go running asap. After that, we pretty much headed out of the park and straight to Adelaide, stopping in places such as the middle of nowhere where there were a bunch of salt lakes and in Frances, S. Australia (pop. 34) for a pit stop. The transition from Victoria to S. Australia was quite a pronounced one. Literally, there is next to nothing on the road to Adelaide and it was even hotter. Not to mention S. Australia is 1/2 hour behind Victoria and New South Wales, which is just bizarre. I don't know how many time zones in the world change by 1/2 an hour, but I am fairly sure it a very small number.

Finally arrived in Adelaide and I was ready to be on my own again. Overall, the tour was good and it was really my best option since I didn't want to hire a car and do the whole thing on my own. Crashing a car in a foreign country while driving on the left side is the last thing I needed to deal with. Like I said, everyone was really nice but dealing with 16 people in cramped quarters and having to stop every hour for someone to use the bathroom was really getting to me. And some comments from people really made me cringe, such as: "We had no idea where you're from!" Um, are you kidding me? Clearly I open my mouth and I can only be from one of two places: US or Canada!! And that was from Americans! Come on now.... I did luck out in one very important department though. Our driver, like myself, had impeccable taste in music so luckily I got to listen to U2, David Gray, et al for most of the time in the van. What a great guy!

So then, I was back on my own in Adelaide...

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