Grampians and a Great Ocean Road
An overnight Greyhound and a quick spin round Adelaides museum and Internet resources, followed by a steak and a fair nights kip, and I was off on the Groovy Grape Great Ocean Road tour. Lovely small group of 11. Our guide was called Whales and was rather ominously wearing a Sea Shepherd cap. We introduced ourselves by writing our name on the window, accompanied by a drawing of our favourite animal-mine was an eagle masquerading as a pigeon.
First stop was an incredible lookout over the city called Mt Lofty, with the entire city spread out below. Then it was a fair drive towards the Grampians. We stopped to see some White kangaroos (“Michael Jackson Kangaroos”) at Bordertown and eat icecream while Whales bought groceries, then for lunch at the border between South Australia and Victoria. Whales explained that if we stayed in SA we could drive 10kmph faster, and possess two cannabis plants, but I’m Victoria we could buy porn in a newagents. I asked if I could stay in SA!
After our sandwiches, we carried on, stopped to walk down to MacKenzie falls-long way down and even longer on the way up! Really pretty, but cold water! Saw pied currawongs, and killed a horsefly. Then we went to Reids gap, which had stunning views. Whales had been going on about setting up the swags and bush camp, and finally admitted to us we were in a hostel, but he was impressed that we hadn’t moaned. I’d been looking forward to swags! Lovely hostel though, with grey kangaroos grazing out the front.
Dinner was a fantastic lasagna, garlic bread and salad, after which I showered and went to bed-I was so tired, I’ve honestly seen the sunrise more times in the last month than the rest of my life. The kookaburras were shouting at the top of their lungs, very cool.
Day two, and we were up at 6.30am to eat breakfast, pack and head to Wonderland to walk up to the Pinnacle. It was a long way, and took over an hour, but incredible views and very rewarding. Best hike/views from Australia. Made it down before the rain, and headed to a cultural centre at Brambuk-good videos on the Dreamtime story for the area.
Lunch was hotdogs, very welcome as we were all hungry and tired. Then we reached the Great Ocean Road! Stopped to see the Bay of Islands, Bay of Martyrs, London Bridge and 12 Apostles, ran into Paula and Lorraine which was bizarre. Our accommodation for the night was a lovely backpackers/home up in the hills, which we took over. Helped prepare dinner, which was an impressive array of barbequed meats, chicken satay, salad, potato and HP sauce! Dashes over to the 12 apostles for sunset-I forgot my jumper and more impressively Ian forgot his $80 bottle of champagne. Whales turned up with it just as the sun went down having dashed back on a rescue mission-Ian almost kissed him! Took some cool photos. Then we went back for chocolate cake, there was a very funny moment when Ian and I both glanced over at the table to see if there was seconds, and caught each other looking! Watches How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, which went down well.
Much too early start as usual, ate breakfast and ready to go at 7.30am. Except that we were minus a bus driver, and also didn’t know where he was sleeping. After a search Whales was discovered, very apologetic for having overslept, and thankful for us being organised! Very funny! Stopped at a couple more places along the Great Ocean Road, then for lunch at Apollo Bay. Whales said that as we’d looked after him in the morning, he had a bit of the food budget left and would look after us now, so we could have fish and chips for lunch! It was superb!
After stopping at the GOR sign and seeing a house on a pole and the Round the Twist lighthouse, we stopped briefly at Bells Beach, home of the perfect barrel wave, then Torquay, home of Ripcurl and Quiksilver. This was my cue to abandon ship, and called Sam.
Bear in mind I had met Sam just once, 2 years ago, for about 3 hours-I didn’t have a clue who I was looking out for! I was giggling at a canpervan getting stuck on the speed hump, when the hairy man in the car behind pulled up; I was in two minds whether or not to get in! However, it was indeed Sam, and conversation was easy on the way back to Geelong.
Sam’s mum Gail was lovely and friendly, and Maggie was a ball of energy. Once John turned up, I barely stopped laughing for the rest of my stay! Had a lovely dinner, which I cleared up so efficiently that John joked I’d be eating the plate next. When Sam cleared the plates, he asked innocently where my knife was. I couldn’t think for the life of me, and almost believed that maybe I had eaten it! (turned out Gail had used it to scrape extra potatoes onto my plate then taken it away!) Very very funny.
Sam had to go to work so Gail and John drove me out to Queensbeach and we had a lovely coffee at a pub there. Kind of hard to see much but brilliant tour commentary and lots of jokes! Walked down to the waterfront on the way home and only got back a few minutes before Sam.
