I continued on from Melbourne across the coastline of
Victoria via the Great Ocean Road. It’s supposed to be one of Australia’s
prettiest drives, and it certainly didn’t disappoint! I did a two-day tour from
Melbourne, with the first day taking in the sights of the GOR and the second
day a tour of Grampians National Park. Here’s the start of the road! It used to
be a toll road back in the day, so they kept one of the old fashioned gates and
put up a big sign, in case you didn’t already know where you were J
One of our stops along the road included looking for wild
koalas. I’ve never seen one in the wild before! There’s a bunch who live near a
caravan park just off the road, and I was able to spot a few.
I even saw him move around a bit, which is a rare treat, as
koalas sleep 20 hours a day.
We also went for a little hike in the rainforest. The
scenery was really quite pretty, and there were lots of funky looking
mushrooms, which I took oodles of photos of:
The highlight of the Great Ocean Road is rock structures
called the Twelve Apostles. There aren’t actually twelve of the rock
formations; I believe there are only 9. They are called the Twelve Apostles
though because someone thought it was a snazzy sounding name and would attract
more tourists to the region. It worked. If I had a nickel for every tour bus I
saw traveling along the GOR that day, I’d have a boatload of nickels.
Unfortunately due to the time of day the majority of the
rock structures came out a bit dark in the pictures. The sun was on a better
angle for the other direction though, and there were a couple of the ol’
apostles to be seen down that way as well:
We also stopped at a gorge that was the site of a famous
shipwreck that had only 2 survivors.
If you’re going to get washed up on shore though after your boat sinks,
this is a pretty scenic place to do it:
The weather for the Great Ocean Road day was a bit wacky –
constant flip flopping between sunshine and rain – but one of the positives was
that we were treated to several awesome rainbows!
The last scenic stop along the Great Ocean Road was a place
called London Bridge. The whole thing used to be connected, but not that long
ago the first arch collapsed, stranding two people who were at the end on a
freshly made island.
We spent that night at a random hostel called Ned’s Other
Beds in the Grampians National Park. The drive was a bit hairy though. We did
it well after dark, so the tour guide made sure that everyone was wearing seatbelts
and was prepared for any sudden stops or swerves. Kangaroos are super cute and
all, but they aren’t very smart and have a nasty habit of jumping out into
oncoming vehicles. The guide said that on average, he hits and kills one on the
night drive to the Grampians about every 6 months, and of course there are many
other close calls – roos who are successfully avoided. We saw a few on the
sides of the road during the drive, but they weren’t out leaping around all
over the place that night, which was a good thing.
Did some hiking in the Grampians on day 2. Here’s a view
from a big hill we were climbing:
And me sitting at the top of the hike! The last 15 minutes
of the hike was basically rock climbing. I almost gave up and turned around
when I reached a really steep one with no footholds, but I gave it one
gargantuan try and successfully hoisted myself up onto the rock, but I was
short on a bit of skin on my elbow J
At the bottom of the walk back down, the roos were out
grazing. I almost walked right into one!
After the morning/early afternoon hiking around the
Grampians, we drove to a town called Horsham. Half the bus was catching a coach
bus to Adelaide (me included) while the other half went back with the tour
guide to Melbourne. So that was it for the state of Victoria! I basically spent
5 days sightseeing. It would have been nice to have had a few more days, but I
basically saw the main parts that I wanted to see – Melbourne, the Great Ocean
Road and the Grampians. So off to a new state – South Australia!
The bus ride to Adelaide was about 6 hours long. Luckily
enough, the hostel I booked was literally 2 blocks away from the bus station.
It’s always nice when you arrive in a new city at night by yourself that your
accommodation is basically right there. It was a really nice hostel too. Both
the Adelaide and Melbourne YHAs I was very impressed with.
Didn’t have a whole lot of time in Adelaide. I was up and
outside the hostel by 6:10 am the next morning to catch my next tour bus to
Kangaroo Island. I was also sick. AGAIN. I’ve gotten a cold 4 times in the past
10 and a half months. Ugh. That’ll be one nice thing about not travelling
anymore in a few months time – maybe I’ll be able to maintain my health!
Anyway, KI is off the coast of South Australia. I didn’t know a lot about it,
other than it’s a mecca for wildlife spotting. Roos, wallabies, seals, sea
lions, koalas, etc… I was surprised at how large it was, and how populated as
well. I sort of imagined it as this tiny island where koalas hung out in the
trees over grazing kangaroos who had to hop over the occasional echidna, with
the bark of the sea lions in the background. It’s a pretty big place though,
about 75 miles long and 30 miles wide. It’s also home to about 4500 people.
We did cover quite a bit in 2 days. We visited a Eucalyptus
oil distillery (where I bought some pure oil to unclog my nose), a sea lion
colony, a marron (freshwater crayfish) farm and a winery on day 1. Here’s some
of the KI coastline:
And some sea lions sleeping on the beach:
You could get pretty close to them, although we were asked
to keep at least a 10-meter distance. They were mostly sleeping, but there were
plenty of semi-active young pups to gawk at, including a couple who were
nursing.
We spent the night at a farm hostel in a koala sanctuary,
and had a failed attempt to locate penguins on the beach after dark. The tour
guide said he found some dead ones under some rocks in a little cave, but I
wasn’t sure if he was being serious or not.
The next morning we went for a koala spotting walk. There
were plenty up in the trees (including one who seemingly got lost and was
sleeping in a pine tree), but they were all quite high and all you could make
out was a gray fur ball nestled up towards the top. We also visited a granite
rock structure called the remarkable rocks. From a distance they looked pretty
dull – it’s a bit tough to get excited about visiting granite – but up close
they were quite amazing. They looked like some sort of crazy Salvatore Dali
painting. It was like a granite funhouse, where everything was warped and weird
and you never knew what sort of funky stuff was going to appear around the
corner. Here I am with the rocks:
After the rocks we visited a Seal colony. These guys were
much more active that the previous day’s Australian sea lions, but you couldn’t
get as close to them. They sure picked an amazing natural habitat for their
colony though! It was quite some amazing real estate. Here’s a picture of a
bunch of them on the rocks (my photos of the prettier real estate don’t have as
clear a shot of the actual seals)
The last KI activity was sand boarding. I’d done it before
in New Zealand and had sort of had my fulfillment of the whole sand boarding
scene, plus I was sick so I didn’t really feel like tumbling down a sand dune.
I gave it one go anyway, and as predicted, fell off the thing and went tumbling
down the sand dune. I spent the rest of my time taking pictures of other people
and watching the boys try to out-do each other on sand board stunts down the
hill.
We got back to Adelaide after an hour-long ride to the KI
ferry, a 50-minute ferry ride, and then an hour and a half drive back to
Adelaide. I was pooped. KI was gorgeous though – an expensive trip, mostly due
to the super high cost of the KI ferry – and well worth the time and effort to
go.
The next day was a free day in Adelaide, my first day in the
city. I was still sick though, so I decided to use it as a rest day. I’ll be
back in Adelaide a couple more times during my travels, so I’ll check out the
town then. I had a free pancake breakfast at the hostel (they give you free
pancakes!!!!!), ran a few errands, did some laundry and then spent the rest of
the day on the internet and futzing with my journal.
This morning was a bit hectic – my clothes out on the line
hadn’t dried sufficiently in 24 hours so I had to throw them in the dryer last
minute, and then I lost my room key, which I never found. I was on a tight
schedule, as I needed to make a bus to go to the airport. Got to the airport on
time and got on the plane, but somehow I spilled whiteout all over myself.
Hands, clothes, forehead and upper lip. I haven’t a clue how it happened.
I’m writing and posting this from Perth, Western Australia!
The west coast! Haven’t been to this part of the country yet either. I leave
tomorrow morning though, bright and early, to do a 9-day camping trip across WA
and back into South Australia, finishing up in Adelaide. I then fly back to
Perth and commence my travels up the west coast of Australia towards the
tropical north. Why not just tour from Adelaide to Perth, you might ask? Why
the 2 seemingly unnecessary flights? Ahhh, yes it does seem stupid up front
that I flew to Perth only to tour back to Adelaide, when in the end I just need
to go back to Perth again. BUT, the Adelaide to Perth direction goes to slightly
different places that the Perth to Adelaide tour. One of my MUST SEE (or
rather, must do) stops was only available on the Perth to Adelaide route, so I
had to throw in 2 extra plane rides to make it happen. You’ll see in the next
blog why I did this. I had no choice. I could not miss this stop.
So I’m hanging out in Perth for the afternoon. It’s much
warmer here than in Victoria or South Australia. It sort of has a southern
California vibe to it. I’ve only walked through the city as far as the bus stop
to the hostel and the hostel to the supermarket (I had to buy bottled water. WA
is the first state in Australia that I’ve been to where I absolutely cannot
drink the tap water. It tastes like shit), but it seems like a really nice
city. Again, I’ll be a tourist in Perth when I’m here next time.
That’s all for now kids! See ya on the flip side!
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