Day 1

The bus picked us up right on time about 6.30 am. The first stop was at the Surf shops in Torquay. The sun was hidden behind grey clouds, so it was not very pleasant. Then we stopped at Bells Beach, which I did not find very impressive compared to the Sorrento Back Beach where Meg had taken me 3 weeks ago.
Then we hit the Great Ocean Road – a more than lovely region! And since the sun had come out it looked very pleasant 🙂
At one of the stops we saw wild Koalas 🙂

After lunch we continued to Apollo Bay, then to the Otway Fly Treetop Walk which was one of the highlights this day.
When we had finished that walk we drove on to Port Campbell where we checked into our hostel for the night. It is not even 2 years old, basically brand-new, and really good! We had dinner with the group then headed out to the 12 Apostels for sunset, the absolute highlight of the day.

Because I had not slept the night before (too hot and too noisy and simply not tired) I decided not to check out the local pub like most the others did. Instead I uploaded the day’s photos, wrote the first part of this blogpost and then went to bed.

The group btw is really nice, and as unbelievable as it is, I am the only German! Okay, therefore we got 3 swiss people, but that doesn’t count 😉 or does it?

Day 2

We left the hostel around 7.30 am, before that I had to get up, have a shower, have breakfast and pack.

First we went to Loch Ard Gorge and admired the beautiful coast with the bays and the hidden beaches and heard the story about what had happened there. Then we checked out the Gibson Steps, another beautiful beach at this magnificient coast. The next stops where London Bridge, Bay of Martyrs, Bay of Islands. Lots of lovely photos, before we finally left the coast. We went into the Tower Hill Reserve where we had lunch surrounded by wild emus that wanted to steal our food before we headed off into the Grampians, the local mountain range.
We stopped at Brambuk where we had some time to check out the Aboriginal Culture centre before we did a short hike to our accomodation for the night. On the way we saw wallabies and kangaroos. This day was full of impressions, it is hard to keep it all together in your head, so I am happy to write it down, although I needed my photos to help me recapture the whole day in my head.

Day 3

We left our accomodation at 6.30 am to start a nice and early walk (2 km one way) up the Grampians to an amazing lookout, the Pinnacle.

Then we drove to another lookout which was not nearly as impressive, but it was a good spot for a group photo.

The last big thing were the MacKenzie waterfalls, really nice. Then we hit the road towards Adelaide. We had a BBQ in Nhil and a short stop in Bordertown. It is called Bordertown, … well, because it is on the border between Victoria and South Australia. So much for Aussie creativity!
There was a small wildlife park which is breeding white kangaroos. These are quite rare, because they’re basically brown ones with the Albino syndrom.

Then it was a mere 4 hours to finally reach Adelaide around 8 pm. I had some issues with the booking for my hostel but could sort that out. Then I went to my room to find that all the beds seem to be in use. I went to reception and a nice woman picked a bed that seemed the least likely to be in use and removed the linen before she gave me fresh ones. I just hope it was the right one and nobody tries to sleep in it while I am already there ^^.

Anyway, enough talk, enjoy my amazing photos!

“Surf Coast Shire, Great Ocean Road, Grampians, …”

From 2012-02-16+2 Melbourne to Adelaide. Posted by Philipp Hübner on 2/16/2012 (121 items)