Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Hi guys,
We've been very busy the last week so its been hard trying to find time to update this.
7th
We left Adelaide at 6.20am! Such an early morning but luckily the minibus left from right outside the hostel so we didn't have to walk very far. This was the 1st stage of our Oz Experience tour and would take us from Adelaide to Melbourne (with a few overnight stops inbetween). The bus was small and there was only 15 of us on there plus our 2 guides so it didn't take us long to get to know people.
Our first part of the journey was driving through lots of fields and took us all morning, so we got to sleep, well try and sleep on the bus. The first stop was in a small town called Bordertown (near the South Australia/Victoria border) where we got to see white kangeroos and their joeys. They were all kept in an enclosure on the edge of the town to keep them safe.
We then headed off into Horsham for lunch before heading to the Grampians which is a mountainous national park. Our first stop was Hollow Mountain where our guide told us we would be going on a full 90minute stroll. It turned out to be a hike up the side of the mountain and more like rock climbing. It was quite scary at some points trying to get a good grip, but as long as we didn't look down it was fine. At the top the views around us were amazing and we could see for miles. Walking down seemed a little easier and we were soon back on the bus heading towards our next stop, Mackenzie Falls. The walk down to the falls was nice and easy, although walking back up the 276 steps was a little more tiring.
After the falls we headed off to a lookout point where we walked to see the balconies - 2 pieces of rock jutting out of the cliff like balconies. You aren't allowed to climb out on them any more (due to people falling off) but a few stupid Japanese tourists had climbed over the fence to stand right on the edge to get photos. It was a long way down.
We then headed back to the bus to travel to our accomodation for the night which was in Halls Gap. We were staying in private holiday huts with small rooms and only 4 beds in each. Dinner, which was spaghetti bolognese was cooked by all the girls, while the guys sat and drank beer (they did do the washing up though). That evening we went to bed shattered and know we had to get up to leave at 7.30am the next day.
8th
On tuesday we woke up to the sound of rain pouring down on the roof so our morning hike was called off. Instead they took us to the view point that we would have seem from our hike and it was so misty that all we could see was a little bit of green and then lots of white blanket. We were all quite glad we hadn't hiked for 3 hours to see nothing. The rest of the time we should have spent hiking was taken up by a visit to an aboriginal centre to learn a bit of local history and see some art work.
We then headed out of the mountains and towards the Great Ocean Road, stopping along the way for lunch at Warnabool. Once we reached the road we stopped at several car parks along the way to see the different sections. this included the Bay of Island, Bay of Martyrs, London Bridge and Loch and Gorge. Our accomodation for the night was in Port Cambell so we headed towards the town to our hostel. On the way we were stopped by the police as the road was closed for filming of a bollywood movie - a remake of the Stepmum apparently. So we had to wait for the car and helicopter to go past before we could restart our journey. Our hostel looked newly refurbished and was nice and clean inside.
That evening we journeyed out to the 12 Apostles to watch the sunset. They were filming more scenes for the movie there but luckily it didn't affect our viewing. The weather was windy and it felt freezing. The sunset didn't look as spectacular as we thought it would but it was still pretty.
9th
The following day we had another early start, leaving at 7.30am to head off to Otway National Park to go on the Otway Fly - a walkway through the rainforest 25metres off the ground. We then got taken to Apollo Bay which was a lunch stop for everyone and where we would get of the bus to stay for a couple of days. It felt strange to leave everyone to carry on to Melbourne without us as we had spent so much time together over the past 2 days. The weather in Apollo Bay was not as nice as we had hoped and so relaxing on the beach in the sun was now not an option. Instead we checked into our hostel (only 4 years old and very modern looking) and spent the rest of the day relaxing. We ended up being given a twin room even though we had paid for a dorm so we emptied our bags all over the room creating such a mess and then turning it in to a laundrette.
10th
The following day after catching up on our sleep we went for a walk around town into a few of the shops but it started raining so we headed back to the hostel. In the afternoon we met a group of guys and a couple of americans and we all decided to have a BBQ that evening. So we ended up staying up most of the night drinking and woke up in the morning feeling like we had had no sleep.
11th
We had to get up so we could check out at 10am and spent the morning walking to the beach and around town before the bus picked us up to go to Melbourne.
On this last part of our leg towards melbourne we travelled along the best part of the Great Ocean Road right along the seafront. We only stopped off twice, once to sea koalas in a small cove off at the side of the road (one was walking along the ground and then ran and jumped up the tree after we had seen us all) and the next time at Surf City. This was a large shopping complex but all the shops were so expensive that we didnt end up buying anything.
We then headed into Melbourne where we arrived at our hostel early evening. We will now be spending the next 6 days here exploring the city.
Becky ......... and Fran xx
- comments
pat hi becky, i feel tired just reading your e mail. take care
Gill Is this the same Becky who didn't walk anywhere? Glad you're ok