Adelaide to Melbourne

Saturday 6th September 2014

On Thursday, we'd parted ways with our Adventure Tours guide, Sheldon as he was returning to Alice Springs on a return version of our trip.  This was also coupled with the fact that Adventure Tours subcontract the Adelaide to Melbourne part of the trip to another company called Wildlife Tours.  Enter our new guide and for the sake of my blog I shall call him 'C'.  I'm not using his real name as he was awful and I don't want to slag him off on here as well as Trip Advisor (although I didn't mention him by name there either)!

We left our hostel at 7am before shortly crossing the Victoria border.  By this point I have now visited New South Wales, Queensland, Northern Territory, South Australia and Victoria.  Just Western Australia, Australian Capital Territory and Tasmania to go.  I wonder if I'll manage them all before I come home?!  Unfortunatley the border between SA and Vic wasn't as grand as the border between NT and SA and not even worthy of a photo stop.

En route we stopped off at various hurried lookout points (although we were never told how long we had at any of them! Gripe number 1!) throughout the Grampians, starting at the Reid Lookout where we were able to take in the hawk or camel-like Balconies.

Along the walk from the car park to the lookout, various stones had been carefully balanced on top of each other.  Very eye-catching!

After these lookouts it was on to Silverband falls.  To give a little background information, this is taken from www.visitvictoria.com.
"Walk 1.5 kilometres (return) to view the damage caused by the powerful torrential rain that flowed through this area during summer of 2011. Look for the former footbridge that was washed 50 metres down the creek by the force of debris."

Next stop was the Brambuck Cultural Centre where we were left to our own devices for 45 minutes.  To be honest I would rather have spent this time at the previous lookouts instead of being rushed through the other lookout points.

Our final stop before settling into Halls Gap was their cricket ground which was covered in wild kangaroos.  This stop was particularly exciting as I had the privilege of seeing my first wild Joey!

During the evening I was just more wound up by the inept guide as he gave us no time to get our room ready, claiming we were 'late' for the restaurant where we had no booking (?!), communicated badly about what we could order, gave such poor directions back to the hostel that most of us got lost in the dark, didn't tell the plans for the next day including leaving time, and complained about group members (his clients!) when they weren't around!

Luckily this annoyance was swept away when Susan, Jen and I had a great conservation about all sorts of rubbish, tucked up in our bunks, chatting and giggling just like we were on a school trip!

Sunday 7th September 2014
I'm ashamed to say that the first words out of my mouth this morning were swear words under my breath after C barged into our room, flicked on the light and announced 'Time to get up!', cementing the feeling of the school trip!  In all fairness, he improved as the day went on, along with the stunning scenery. 

Today saw us traveling along the famous Great Ocean Road and I have to say much of the landscape reminded us Brits of home.  Many of the photos speak for themselves so I'm not going to say too much other than label them.

We started at the Bay of Martyrs...

...and continued to the London Arch, formaly known London Bridge before the part joining the land collapsed.

Those of us who had travelled together from Alice Springs were keen to have our own group photo so here you can see Shin Lou, Susan, Tom, Maria, Mary Anne, Me and Jen.  We snuck this in before a whole group photo.

Next stop was Loch Ard Gorge where there was a story of two Victorians being swept ashore after a shipwreck.  Trusty Wikipedia states:

The gorge is named after the clipper ship Loch Ard, which ran aground on nearby Muttonbird Island on 1 June 1878 approaching the end of a three-month journey from England to Melbourne. Of the fifty-four passengers and crew, only two survived: Tom Pearce, at 15 years of age, a ship's apprentice, and Eva Carmichael, an Irishwoman immigrating with her family, at 17 years of age. According to memorials at the site, Pearce was washed ashore, and rescued Carmichael from the water after hearing her cries for help. Pearce then proceeded to climb out of the gorge to raise the alarm to local pastoralists who immediately set into plan a rescue attempt. After three months in Australia Carmichael returned to Europe. Four of her family members drowned that night. Pearce was hailed as a hero, and continued his life living until age 49 and being buried in Southampton, England.

Maria couldn't resist making a sand angel!

Our penultimate stop before lunch was the 12 Apostles where some of the group went up in a helicopter.

Through the rainforest we trampled to reach Anne's Cascade but again, we couldn't stop for long.  It was strange to think of all the time I spent in the rainforest around Cairns but it still hadn't lost its appeal!

A girly picnic was enjoyed before returning to the bus to travel through Apollo Bay and Lorne to our last stop off point - Koalas and Parrots!

We tried to entice one of them onto my hand but he wasn't having any of it!

This last glimpse of the Great Ocean Road shows how truly close we were.  We had a similar view north of Cairns but I didn't manage to capture it.

The last piece of excitement we saw was this lighthouse which was the location for 'Round the Twist'.  Those of you which know the TV series will now be singing Have you ever... ever felt like this? When strange things happen, are you going Round the Twist?

A few of us were dropped at the YHA Metro (apparently we were the lucky ones who actually got dropped where we were staying!) and Jen and I ventured together out to find some dinner.  At this point it was sad to leave the rest of the group but we certainly weren't sad to be rid of C!  It was a shame really because all of the views between Adelaide and Melbourne were just as stunning as the previous leg but the guide just let the couple of days down.  At least Sheldon and C were the right way round in terms of duration and we still got to experience all of the amazing sights that the Grampians and Great Ocean Road have to offer.

If you fall down today, stand up tomorrow.  - H G Wells