Advertisement
Published: June 21st 2007
Edit Blog Post
So we finished our very short time in Adelaide and were off again on yet another Groovy Grape Tour with our lovely tour guide Jazz! this time it was only 3 days long and took us 1100km to Melbourne via the very famous and incredibely beautiful Great Ocean Road!...
We got picked up at 7am on the first day...Scoffing our Sausage n egg McMuffins! got on the bus with the Isrealies and Sabrina from the last trip... our group on this trip was full of nice people but they weren't as Groovy as the last trip! some of them were old enough to be our parents!! We hit the road on our first day to drive just over 600km but it didn't seem so much as we slept some it and stopped quite often for tea n coffee...so noone was complaining about the cold! the top temperature we got was 15degrees...which is freezing after wind chill!! so i had a quick shoppping spree at KMart for gloves, scarf, hat n coat!! ANt was being hard and just got some gloves...but lets face it with the mop of hair he has now he doesn't need a hat lol! (By the
way Margaret..he is managing ok with it being long, he just wears a hat 24/7...and on nights out where he can't wear it he gets into a huff trying to put gel on and everyone laughs at him getting stressed and threatening to shave it all off!!haha).
The first part of the drive was mainly through the counryside of South Australia it was really pretty and seriously felt like we were driving through the Lake District or the Welsh countryside...it looked the double then all of a sudden there would be an Australian Eagle, a Field of Kangaroos, Rock Wallabies or a group of Emus!!then u realise its not Britian!! After lunch we drove across the boarder into the 5th state we have visited, Victoria. we stopped in the mountains and did a quick walk to the amazing Mackenzie Waterfalls down so steep stairs...it was the walking back up that was hard work! but we saw a fantastic Blue Kookabura. then we drove upto the highest part in the National Park to watch Sunset, very pretty but sooooooo cold!!
We arrived at our very impressive hostel in the South Grampions Mountain Range (this is the most southern point of
the Great Dividing Range which runs all the way up the East Coast). We were staying in a big lodge in the forest with a massive fire. Yet again Ant was incharge of the BBQ! nice warm nights sleep!
Early start the next morning, breakie, packed and away by 7:30am. we went for a lovely walk that morning up and around a mountain...my mam would have loved the wildlife because you could just walk down the mountain path and a massive kangaroo would be standing 5ft away from you before it bounced away! we saw the sunrise emerge through the trees then it started to drizzle...then the cloud closed in and by the time we got the the summit the view was just mist! very much like a day in Britain.
After that we did more driving through the countryside stopped for lunch in the rain...Ant finished his book Angels and Demons by Dan Brown (while he was reading it he was unaccessable to humanity!). We finally hit the Great Ocean Road, which was built in 1918 by the returning ANZAC servicemen of WW1 and took them 14years to complete! We drove down the road on the way to
our hostel in Port Campbell on the way we stopped at some fantastic viewing points including "The Bay of Islands" (which erodes an average of 2cm per year from the wind and water). Then to "The Grotto" (made by the waves in a pool then the weak acids in the water erode through the limestone to make caves!)..so there u go!
Then to the Famous "London Bridge" which used to have a bridge connecting it to the mainland then in 1990 a couple got stuck on the island when the bridge collapsed! there was a lot of press attention over it...but unlucky for them they were having an affair and their partners found out about their dirty weekend away!! lol. Our oceanfront beachouse was so nice and Ant got the fire going so it was nice and warm.
Yet another 6am start...freezing cold outside jumped on the bus to the first viewpoint of the Apostles (the most famous sight on the Ocean Road). We also had a look onto the beach where the only 2 survivours of a shipwreck Loch Ard washed up in 1878. we found some amazing calcium deposit drips in the cliff and even found a
massive Cuttlefish bone which was brilliant white! Then we visited "The Blowhole" where 11 dead bodies were found from the shipwreck and apparently the water turned purple from phosphurus matches in the ship's cargo! Then we saw the massive Mutton Bird Island where the ship actually hit...finally we got to "The 12 Apostles"... originally called The Sow and Piglets (where Mutton Island was the pig and the Apostles were the piglets.) Fantastic views and there was even the brightest rainbow i have ever seen out for us across the ocean...very special time!
Set off on the really windy ocean road for a few hours only stopping to see 6 wild koalas..very cute! travelled through some lovely coastal towns stopped for pizza and the Isrealies were teaching us Hebrew! our final stops were the remeberence arch for the men who made the road. (it was actually the 3rd arch, the 1st was changed when the road was widened, 2nd was destroyed in a forest fire) and then Ant went of a big shopping spree at a surf outlet centre..so if you see him in a red hoody and a black hat thats his new gear!
Finally pulled into the
vibrant city of Melbourne and collapsed into our hostel! spending at least a week here.
there you go you're all upto date!
chow for now xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Advertisement
Tot: 0.109s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 11; qc: 49; dbt: 0.0552s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
char
non-member comment
so jealous!!
wow, loks like u guys r still havin an awesome time ova there n im dead jealous im stuck back at home :-( on a plus side it looks like for once we've got the betta weather... nice scarf emma!! haha!! x x