Yet another stupid-o'clock start and yet another uncomfy Oz Experience bus, but at least this time I had some companions already so it wasn't going to be dull!
Our new driver was an older bloke called Bryan, who was a bit more sensible than Andy from the last tour, but was clearly going to teach us much more along this tour. To the amusement of myself the Kate's and Nick, the Russian pair were on this bus and greated us like old friends! Eek! Bryan didn't do the introduction thing, and so the gang (myself, Nick, Katie, Kate) settled in at the back of the bus which was mostly full of Germans. We later got chatting to a young Doctor called James who is working just north of Sydney and taking a few days out to relax and Fiona a straight talking scots chick (that'll annoy her calling her that! ;-)) who is doing some touring after spending lots of time working along the north eastern coast. I ended up doing most of the walks with James, Fiona and Nick, as the Kate's were storming around looking for trouble by themselves! ;-)
We drove for a while to get out of Melbourne and on stopping in Torquay (seriously) where the Great Ocean Road begins, I spotted a hair dressers out of the window before we pulled in for a break and some breakfast, so I ran up the road to get my fuzz removed before the trip (I keep neglecting it, really should buy some clippers!). I got back just in time to grab a coffee before we headed of again.
We stopped at the official start of the Great Ocean Road and took some snaps, and then took a walk along one of the beaches there, which was pretty dull after the scenery on the last trip. We also stopped at a few points along the road at key tourist spots to learn about some of the history of the area and to spot some wild life, taking in some great viewings of the super lazy Koala's at low level for some nice pictures and seeing lots more of the birds that are happy to sit on your shoulder in the hope of receiving some food. We also stopped at a place called Otway which is an old forest where they have built a metal canopy walkway, with a huge tower going up through it at one point and a 'fly' which is a platform extending out over the forest floor which moves and sways as you stand on it. We didn't see any wildlife here, apart from some rubbery dinosaurs on the childrens walk, which provided some amusement for the kids (us).
The Great Ocean road is a stunning drive, and all along it I was thinking how much fun it would be to drive in one of my old toys (which just made me a little sad, having not driven anything apart from a smashed up old pickup in Thailand for months now!).
We got to the Twelve Apostles for sunset which was simply stunning and then went on to our accomodation for the night with some beers in tow from one of the local shops. The accomodation was in the middle of nowhere and we enjoyed a barbque dinner and myself, James, Fiona and Nick sat and chatted over some beers for the night with three young Germans joining us later... we used the guest book to keep us entertained, as some of the quotes of "this is the best place on earth I have stayed" from clearly deranged Asian travellers, were hilarious!
Another early start and we went back to the Apostles to see them after sun rise and then some of us took in a helicopter ride along the coast. This was pretty good, and luckily myself, Nick and James were in the right place at the right time to get a small helicopter to ourselves for the flight. We played paper, scissors, rock for the front seat, which didn't go well as we all pulled the same shape twice in a row whilst the aggrevated staff member was trying to give us his safety talk walking to the helicopter! Nick won, and the staff member promptly sat James in the front seat with Nick behind him and my fat ass on the other side for counter balance... Lol! The flight was cool, and as I remarked to the pilot that the "turns were awesome" he duly obliged with some quality sweeping turns... woohoo! (That tip works with any helicopter pilot by the way, they love it too clearly and mostly have to be highly sensible on these flights, so enjoy the opportunity to show off a bit!) We got some nice shots of the Apostles and coastline during the flight too, nice souvenirs.
After the flight we drove into the Grampians National park, where we took on a decent walk up the rock mountain side, in the wind and rain. James, Nick, Fiona and I did the walk together and the view from the top was still pretty good, even in the face of the clouds and bad weather. We enjoyed the challange for sure! We then drove on to our night's accomodation where we enjoyed hot showers and a very comfortable house, while Bryan cooked up a mahuusive spagetti bolognese for the group. We enjoyed the evening teaching the Germans how to play 'shithead' (an amusing card game which some of you will know) and polishing off some more beers.
The next morning was another early start with the usual basic breakfast of cereals and toast. Today we were driving through the rest of the Grampians mountain range and we took in three nice walks along the way at Reeds Lookout, which has more lime stone formations in the sea like those at the Twelve Apostles, Hollow Mountain, where Bryan showed us six thousand year old childrens hand paintings on the rocks near the summit, and then we took in the magnificent MacKenzie Falls including the couple of hundred steps down the valley and back up to enjoy it.
The rest of the day was a very long drive with a stop of for lunch in a weird backwards little village with only one shop for lunch who's kitchen helpfully closes at 1:30pm, LMAO!
We all got dropped off at our various points and once again I had to say goodbye to one of the better companions during the trip, James, who was meeting friends here in Adelaide to go to a hockey team 'keg' party... I hope he survived!! ;-)
The Kate's, Myself, Nick and Fiona were staying in the same area and so met up for a few beers before a well deserved sleep-a-thon after another good road trip!
Pictures are on photobucket...
