Melbourne to Adelaide....... & so much more!

Groovy Grapes Getaway - Great Ocean Road & Grampians

Melbourne – Great Ocean Road Friday March 18th

What a fun day! To start the day I joined our groovy grapes bus tour with driver, Sean (a relaxed surfer dude type!) and my 20 other trippers (new friends David from Switzerland, Matt from U.K., Elisa from U.K and 3 nurses from Ireland). We headed out from Port Phillips Bay down to Torquay. Torquay is the surf capital of Australia with the headquarters for Quiksilver, Ripcurl, Oakley, Roxy, …… surfer’s heaven. From there we lugged on through rugged farmland witnessing farmer’s on dirtbikes. Then on to Bells Beach where the 3m high waves were dotted with surfer’s and crashing in towards the shore. Although trying to hide it in the photos, it was a rather cold, blustery day most duly noted out there at Bells Beach. In leaving the carpark we were able to see Eastern Grey Kangaroos on the hills in the distance. On to the Great Ocean Road, an expanse of highway stretching from Torquay up through to Woolamnbaroo built back in the 1919 era by post WWI servicemen. It is a pretty impressive feat to think of the tools and gear they would have had to work with and the terrain that it entails. We stretched down the surf coast to the seaside town of Lorne, with a population of 1000 but can max up to 5000 beds for all those vacationing Melburnians. It is a great place, apparently, from July to October to spot Southern Right Whales migrating. We were lucky to spot huge flocks of yellow-crested cockatoos before heading back onto the road to Mt Defiance Lookout, with fantastic waves crashing the cliffs. Sean has done a great job of explaining that there are 500 different types of Eucalyptus trees, the largest being the Mountain Ash and that koalas like about 50 different types of eucalyptus, striping the trees nearly bare. Another scene lookout at Cape Patton and on to Apollo Bay for a hearty lunch of fish and chips. We took in a rainforest along the Otway coast with a mix of huge tree ferns, eucalyptus and massive old mountain ash. A true highlight was driving along a back road and looking up into the eucalyptus trees and spotting koalas chowing down on leaves. We were able to get up close to see their long claws, furry selves and funny face and ears. An amazing experience. With a sleepy afternoon on the bus it was on to Gibson’s steps to take in 2 of the ’12 Apostles’, lime stone cliffs stacks. There are actually only 8 Apostles to be seen, a 9th sits as rubble and really who knows where the other so called 3 others are located and if they ever existed. A fun filled day with new friends and back to our hostel called the 13th apostle (I kid you not!!) in the small ? village of Princeton of approximately 17 people. Our group of 21 + 12 from the other groovy grapes tour passing south, effectively nearly triples the population for the night. It will be an early morning up the Shipwreck coast and up into the Grampians National Park.

I should also mention that our driver, Sean, at an earlier part of the day jumped off the bus hitting his upper leg on a fencepost which none of us thought was too serious. By afternoon he was hobbling around and needed some ibuprofen but still managed to do the walk with us and drove on. Nearly the end of the day, he could barely switch gears and was in a clear amount of pain. A fellow tripper, a medical student from Holland and another tripper, a masseuse? Took him for the hour long drive into Woolamnbaroo……………. That is where that story ends for now.

12 Apostles to Grampians – Saturday march 19th, 2011

This early start (after to be honest one of the not best sleeps yet) I awoke to help early with breakfast to hear that our driver, Sean, had been hospitalized overnight and may need surgery to relieve pressure as his leg had continued to swell rather substantially. We all felt horrible and were a little shocked but our wonderful hostel owner, Ross, piled us all into the bus and drove us back out to the 12 Apostles and attempted to carry on our tour as best as possible. We stopped at Loch Ard Gorge and played on the beach watching the tide come in and snuck into the Thunderous Caves and rushed out before the waves overcame us! After a quick stop in Port Campbell we met up with our new driver, Robert. We all kind of laughed, with his long shaggy brown hair, jeans and shirt he looked like he just stepped out of a gig in a bar. Well we were pretty bang on, as he later explained that the boss had called him while playing at the bar and asked if he could do the tour and bring us back from Melbourne to Adelaide oh and pick him up in say an hour? Haha I love this country and the randomness that has ensued is well priceless. We carried on to London bridge, part of the limestone which had jutted out and you could walk out onto it. A large section collapsed down in 1990. Robert told us a story about how there was this couple who got stuck out on the landing when it collapsed and were lucky enough thank goodness to not fall down. The news helicopters of course got there before the rescue chopper and the story was frontline on the 6 oclock news. Funny thing was though that the couple…….. the man had brought his girlfriend out there for the romantic walk, not his wife who was at home watching the news!! Oops We than carried onto the Bay of Islands and finished up the shipwreck coast and up through to Woolamnbaroo. We stopped at an extinct volcano sight, Tower Island, where we made a massive bbq of hamburgs, yummy while watching the emus & koalas graze around us. Best spot ever. Cutting up into the mainland through towards the Grampians we could see far off in the distance. Through kilometers of farmers fields and dottings of trees we could note the recent floods and where the water was still residing higher than normal. This section had controlled burnout off fires in process as well giving a smoky feeling too. Oh and the piles of locusts that we drove through I have never seen make such a splattering on a windscreen, requiring so much wash down poor Robert could barely see out at times. Our last stop for the day as we drove into the Grampians was the Brambuk Aboriginal Centre and in this location we walked around the bend to see nearly a hundred Eastern Grey Kangaroos grazing and jumping about. Moms, Dads and little joeys were happy in the pasture and as the sunset we walked about and even witnessed a couple of them ‘boxing’. This amazing day was capped off with a BBQ Pad Thai meal and all 21 of us hanging out for drinks, ice cream and good times. What a great time, I do not want it to end tomorrow…………….


Sean is still in hospital, wishing to go home but awaiting an ultrasound of his leg to determine just how bad the compartment syndrome of his leg is.

Grampians to Adelaide – Saturday March 20th

I am not sure if I can fully explain how cool it was to be the first one awake this morning. Not surprisingly I woke up before my 0620 alarm and attempted to have a shower but someone had pulled the plug on the hot water tank overnight to charge their camera battery haha so that meant no hot water………. Coldest shower ever but none the less I was wide awake then  I wandered outside to find the sun trying to rise up and over the mountains of the Grampians to the east but as I am doing so I am surrounded by a family of bouncing kangaroos, completely oblivious to me even being there. A mom, dad and baby joe just grazing for their morning breakfast, how cool!! Such a fun moment followed by, what I am calling ‘flocks’ of cockatoos!! Loud squawking hundreds of yellow-crested white cockatoos flying in and surrounding the nearby trees filling in every space, nook and cranny of the branches. After a group breakfast and pack up we sped and I do mean sped along the orange bouncy washboard roads from our ‘Ned’s Beds’ hostel to the Hollow Mountain, part of the Grampians range. What a gorgeous bright, sunny day for a hike with a great group of friends. We hiked, climbed and challenged ourselves over heights, cliff faces, ledges, overhandgs and crevasses. I LOVED it!! I was totally in my element and enjoyed finding the hand and footholds to conquer a steep section. Many in the group had never hiked before or climbed anywhere and were afraid of heights as well so it was a true ‘face the fear’ day and I was really proud of some of these girls, in particular. To be embedded in the hollowed out part of the mountain, seeing so far from the top section was truly incredible. We lined up as well for a shadow photo, where the sun cast our shadows on the rock behind, leading to some really cool poses. Such a fun morning and with only one minor fall little nursing duties were needed on the trek either. An amazing time that made me want to really get into rockclimbing and doing more hiking in general when I get home.

After that it was unfortunately mostly a driving to Adelaide day through towns like Ballarat, Horsham rural County, Dimboola and Nihill for lunch. All the more it was a fun bus ride still getting to know everyone, having a whole lot of laughs and taking in the scenery too.

We parted ways with the hostel drop-offs but several of us are going to meet up tomorrow night for drinks and others are on the Barossa Valley wine tour with me tomorrow. Yeah, I hope to be a wine connoisseur by tomorrow night, or more likely aim to be not to drunk!