Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
March 11th 2007
So now for the final part of my Oz Experience bus journey around Oz! Cant believe how quickly its gone and how many amazing things Ive seen and done! The 3 day trip from Adelaide to Melbourne via the Great Ocean road was the best trip out of my whole journey, I was with such a great group of people (10 out of 24 were the same I was with on 6day trip from Alice Springs!) and our driver, Dave, was great, so much fun he really made it a great end to my oz exp bus journey ……
Day 1: Adelaide to Grampians National Park
As we crossed the South Australia / Victoria border we gained 1/2hr, so many time changes in the last few days but now back to normal and 11hrs ahead of UK!
We drove through the Grampians and stopped at Mt Hollow for our climb, and man did we climb!! This is the first time I think that Ive climbed like that, no paths, no right or wrong way, just getting up there by full on climbing, clambering up the rocks and squeezing through small gaps in the mountain, what a challenge, we all helped each other though till we got to the top and had great views of the surroundings! Getting down was still tricky but not as bad as getting up, I struggled on some bits cos my little legs just couldn’t reach enough so had a couple of leg ups ha ha! The whole thing only took 1.5hrs but one of the most challenging hikes Ive done!
After all that exercise was tome to go down 250 steps to the beautiful McKenzie Falls, complete with a rainbow at the bottom awww! Getting up the steps was easier said than done – my poor legs! After a brief stop at Reeds Lookout to see the Grampian Range we went onto our accommodation at Halls Gap in the heart of the Grampians where we def needed chill time! Out on the verander we sat under the stars drinking and chatting then a group of us decided to go ‘Roo spotting’ in the pitch black with little torches. It was so funny and we did manage to spot a few roos after all!
Day 2: Grampians along Great Ocean Road to Princetown
We drove along the rim of Tower Hill – a huge volcanic crater with loads of layers of volcanic ash, awesome! Then we went down into the bottom and spotted a few sleepy koalas!
Then there we were on the Great Ocean Road, a beautiful and amazing road that hugs the coastline into Melbourne with great ocean views and unique features. The first stop was the Bay of Islands where the entire bay was filled with random, multicoloured, multilayered limestone rock formations, tall islands standing in the ocean. The Bay of Martyrs was similar with rock formations eroding at approx 2cm a year but there was also a beach!! I suddenly realised I hadn’t been on a beach since Mission Beach where I did my skydive, was so great being on sand again loved it! We fooled around on the beach enjoying the sunshine and climbing random rock formations, loadsa fun! Next stop was London Bridge, different from the one I saw at Portsea so many months ago and loads bigger! There used to be 2 arches but one fell in 1990. Story is that a couple rang in sick to work and spent the afternoon on the arch of the bridge furthest out when part of it crumbled, leaving them totally stranded!! There was a massive rescue operation complete with TV crew and it made front page news the next day! So not only did their bosses find out they weren’t actually sick, but their partners weren’t too happy either, yes they were married but not to each other, oooops…! We had a long lunch at Port Campbell, a small town with small beach area surrounded by cliffs, was really chilly there – or it was for us, remember Im used to 40degrees heat after being in desert! In the afternoon some did a helicopter ride over the Twelve Apostles while the rest of us walked down for a closer look. Theres actually 8 here (one is a pile of rocks as it crumbled away) and the other 4 are slightly further down the coast at Loch Ard Gorge the site of the tragic 1878 shipwreck where 52 of 54 passengers and crew died and the 2 survivors were found here swept into the gorge. Along with the last 4 apostles there is also Razorback Mt with its jagged top, and Curtain Lace a rock formation named for its multiple rock layers and erosion. Down in the gorge itself there were amazing massive limestone rock formations where we chilled for a while looking out into the narrow gorge – so random that the 2 survivors got washed up here as the entrance to the gorge is very very narrow! At Gibsons Steps we went down onto the beach and played around for a while until the sun started to go down and we made our way back to the twelve apostles. It was so cloudy that there wasn’t actually a sunset but we did see Little Pengiuns coming out onto the beach!! (They used to called Fairy Pengiuns but some found it offensive so now they’re Little Pengiuns!!?) They weer so sweet and it was so funny watching them waddling out of the sea and trying to escape the tide sweeping them away again! Back at the accommodation we celebrated what was to be the last Oz Experience night for some of us, in style by partying on the bus that been part of our lives for so many months now and Im not saying anymore about that!!!
Day 3: Princetown to Melbourne
Few sore heads but such a great atmosphere for the last day, high spirits all round! We made our way to Otway Fly – one of only 3 steel canopy walks in the world (other 2 are in Oz too), 25m above the forest floor so pretty damn high and it sways as you walk along it too, great for that hangover ha ha! It was through a temperate rainforest, just like the first one I ever went to, and just like being in Jurassic Park! Did some tree hugging again, been a while and had to be done and loved being back in the forests with all the massive trees, strange plants and lovely foresty smell! That what I love about Oz, you go from Cities, to caves to forests to beaches to deserts to nothingness!! As we drove through the Otway Ranges we got our first glimpse of the small seaside town Apollo Bay before we stopped there later on. Then onto Lorne, a beautiful and pretty cool town set on the edge of the ocean. The views along the Great ocean Road were amazing, I wanna live by the sea – so so beautiful!! At Kenneth River Tourist park we did some koala spotting, they were everywhere in the trees and so much bigger and fluffier than the ones in Queensland. Back on the road we passed the lighthouse used in ‘Round the Twist’ remember that show!? And then onto Bells Beach, world famous for rip curl international surf competition – longest running in world! In Torquay we visited some factory outlets, like Quicksilver and Rip Curl and then we cruised into Melbourne!
Was so strange seeing the City that I first arrived in way back in October! Felt really sad too as it was my last time on the oz experience bus and the end of Oz Experience adventure!
It all ended in style though as went out partying in St Kilda until the early hours (5.30am ish to be precise) and then the next day (yesterday) I made the 1hr train journey back into Frankston where Paul & Shell were waiting for me, ready to take me into their home again to chill out for a few days, bless them!! And that’s where I am now!!! So strange but nice not having to get on any more buses for a while but strange cos the last few months have been about planning the next adventure, so that’s what ive done and on Wednesday Im off to New Zealand for over a month!! One of the girls I was on my last Oz bus with in on the exact same flight as me (how random!) and Stef (friend I made in Melbourne and was in Sydney with) is flying into Christchurch from Sydney on same day so is meeting me at the airport and we’re touring around both of the islands together till middle of April on the magic bus tour! So next couple of days is just for chilling out, updating my journal for u all (which is gunna take me a whole day!) and investing in some much needed warm clothes for chilly ol New Zealand – whatever tan I have now is gunna be long gone by the time I get back from NZ, then who knows where my next adventure will be! So the next time most of u hear from me I’ll be in New Zealand where the time is different again and the weather might be a little more like you’re having back home!
Ang xx
** Having probs putting my pics on, it just wont let me, will keep trying ...!
- comments