The Great Ocean Rd & The Grampians

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We had a great night in Geelong with Mike & Kerrena - they have just arrived back in Oz after 3 years of working in the UK. We went to the local pub and devoured some more pies - it was great to see them, although they are already thinking about going away again, as that’s how much they miss travelling!


From here we did the infamous Great Ocean Road - apart from a poor rainy start, and beginning to think that we wouldn’t be able to see anything of the coast line, the day cleared up nicely and we had fantastic views over the cliffs and out to the ocean. The 12 Apostles (well, 6) were magnificent and over that particular stretch of road you are stopping every 5 minutes to get out and enjoy the view. It was also here that we encountered our first fly troubles - we’d heard that they can be particularly bad in summer but we were hoping to have just missed them, unfortunately we haven’t, as they are everywhere. We were going to camp in a lovely spot just by the beach in the sand dunes, but after 5 minutes of fly swatting and trying to get them out of the van, we’d had enough.


The Grampians National Park was our next stop, where did some walking. After a scary encounter with the lady at the tourist office (she could have easily been a character out of Little Britain), we really liked the area. Again a big part of the area suffered a bad fire in January last year as a result of a dry lightening storm which set alight 6 separate fires - areas have started to recover but they are in desperate need of some rain to really get things going. There are notices up in this area saying that the water reserves are down to the last 8%, so things are really starting to get quite desperate - we are doing our bit by drinking beer and wine instead of water, every little bit helps! We had a great campsite here, which had lots of kangaroos bouncing around the grounds in the evening - a couple came up to check out what we had cooking on the BBQ..luckily it wasn’t roo burgers, otherwise they might not have been too impressed!

Ps. we invested in a new camera in Melbourne, it has a great "soft skin" option on it when taking photo's of people which smooths out wrinkles and makes you look better...so you may find more photos of me from now on! I've not had botox..honest!

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Photos

The Great Ocean Road
Our first stop down the "Gibson's Steps".

The huge cliffs
You can just spot a mini Sam at the bottom of the cliff!

The 12 Apostles
All 6 of them!

Another Ocean View
You can really see the waves in this one

The Grampians
The view from the top of Mount William

The Balconies
Sam ignores the warning signs to get a closer look!

Comments

[tarsh]

hello
hey guys awesome photos!!! glad you two are having fun. We have your dtuff we have gone thru it all and taken and sold what we could so thank you the new spa you have brought us is great - just kidding everything is here and intact!! When do you arrive in kiwi land and what are you plans!! cant wait to catch up love tarsh

[Sam Rach]

Hey Tarsh!
Cool - thanks so much for that. You must be a miracle worker if you manged to get any money for our old gear! We arrive in NZ on the 1st May - will need to be in Auckland for a bit to buy a vehicle and then we'll head down to the South Island after visiting a couple of spots we missed last time, so hopefully we'll see you about mid May sometime? Can't wait to see you guys..also looking forward to some of the "chocolate fruity shitty goo" that you promised us - I never forget things where cake is concerned! Rachx