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Published: January 25th 2006
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Another early start to pick up our three day tour down the Great Ocean Road, final destination Adelaide. We managed to get two seats at the back of the bus next to each other after people faffing around over seating.
Day One- We headed down to Bells Beach in Torquay, where they hold an annual surfing competition. It was actualy tiny but the surf looked pretty good (like we know anything !!). We had a look at the retail outlets, but didnt bother buying anything. Along the way we also saw the Lighthouse from the kids programme 'Around the Twist'. Pretty sad I know, but you suddenly worked out who was English on the bus as they were the ones hopping off to take pics. The Great Ocean Road itself was spectacular- the scenery was stunning- jagged coastlines with beautiful beaches. One of the places we stopped off at to get some snacks was home to wild Koalas, but most of them were asleep, as koalas are most of the time. Was great to see them in the wild though, rather than in a zoo being held for a cheesy photo. We stopped for lunch at Apollo Bay and got
some time to chill out at the beach before heading off to Otway Fly. This was a 25m elevated tree top walk in a tropical forest. It was like something out of 'I'm a Celebrity get me out of here'. The trees were huge and along the walk there was a spiral staircase which took you to tree top level. It was so high you could feel it swaying once up there- there were a few scared faces.
As sunset drew close we arrived at the Twelve Apostles (which are infact 11 now) to watch the sun go down. Pretty impressive, some people also opted for the helicopter ride but as we were watching our cash we gave it a miss.
That night we stayed in a hostel in Princetown- if you can call it a town. A BBQ dinner had been prepared by the other hostel occupants, our deal was to do the washing up. That night we had a very quiet drink at the pub across the road and then called it a day.
Day two- We had been informed by the tour guide that we didnt need to be up until 7, however the
Wild Koala
Asleep so we could only get this pose.. nice three Korean girls sharing our dorm decided to set their alarms for 6, which went down really well! Lights on, bags being opened and closed about 50 times- oh hostel life! After breakfast we also realised that one of the reasons they had perhaps got up early was to take our comfy seats at the back of the bus. We then took their seats with less leg room, good start to the day.
We went back to the sight of the 12 Apostles to take a walk down Gibsons steps to the beach for a wander which was nice and refreshing. After we headed further west to see the sights of London Bridge and Loch Ard Gorge, we were given ample time to just have a wander round at our own pace and the scenery was stunning.
Then it was a drive to the Grampians National Park which is massive. Great place to drive through and there were loads of Kangaroos and Emu's that kept running out in front of the bus which was quite amusing as the driver tried and succeeded in dodging them. We took a 4.5km walk uphill to The Pinnacle which was pretty tough,
it was about 1pm so the sun was blazing, not to mention the path up wasn't that clear. We took a few wrong turns and got to some very scary edges before we realised that this couldnt possibly be the right way. The view from the Pinnacle was amazing when we finally got there, we had a good rest before making our way back down again. Martin was bitten by an Ant of all things on the way though, he didn't realise what had bitten him at first, but when we seen it was an ant we found it quite funny.
That evening we stayed in a lovely hostel in the Grampians and managed to get our own room for the night which was a bonus. Before dinner we went for a wander and came across a field of kangaroos- they were literally everywhere. They didnt seem bothered by us being there either so got some good pics along the way.
Day Three- In the morning we went to McKenzie falls, a waterfall in the Grampians, another trek to get there of course! The rest of the day was spent driving to Adelaide, but a few pit stops
were made along the way in small towns and we also stopped to see some white kanagaroos- they looked a bit like goats- very odd looking.
To summarise the trip, we had a great time- the scenery was stunning and we had a pretty good group of people and an excellent tour guide. It was a nice way to travel to Adelaide and we were amazed at how the landscape changed so rapidly along the way. We were also starting to realise just how big Australia really is when we looked at how little distance there was between Melbourne and Adelaide on the map....
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