Up bright(ish) and early for a 6.30am start along the Great Ocean Road from Melbourne to Adelaide. Big bus of people (24 I think) and a very excitable driver. Grabbed a window seat and of we went. Leaving Melbourne, we drove sixty kilometers or so to Torquay to check out the surf shops (bit pointless for me), and after several stops for photos of the coast line (Bells Beach and Anglesea to name a couple), we pulled over at Aireys Inlet where (a highlight up there with meet the neighbours night) we saw the lighthouse from Round the Twist (everybody.. Have you ever, ever felt like this....)! Sweet! They also filmed Mad Max here, and we saw his house from the film (more of Mad Max to come when I hit the outback apparently).

More coastline, more photo stops at random beaches (lots of photos for you all to enjoy...), and into Otway National Park to look at some wild Koalas. Not really that wild, just dopey, and they really don't know how to pose for pictures, stupid things. We stopped for some strange Greek Kebab thing and chips for lunch at Apollo Bay, and then pulled away from the coast and back into the national park, which is actually a cool temperate rainforest (actually had to wear my walking jacket, last seen in Estionia in the snow!!!), to wander around the Otway Fly. This was a metal walkway construction running for 600 meters through the forest canopy at up to 50 meters above the forest floor. Quite fun, even if leaves did obscure most of the views (!), but more curious was that my fear of heights seems to have subsided somewhat (might have been the skydive I suppose)...

Anyway, onto our accomodation in a town called Princetown (1 hostel, 1 pub, 1 shop and yep, I got lost walking between the bottleshop in the pub and the hostel), for a barbie, and then a quick trip to the coast, and the rocks that are th Twelve Apostles for a sunset viewing. Well it was overcast so the sunset was rubbish, but we did get to see a dozen or so little blue penguins wandering up the beach to bed. So we followed suit (not with the penguins, don't worry Dede).

Second day, up at six for toast and cereal and a little bit more coastline, viewing spots known as London Bridge, Bay of Martyrs and Bay of Islands, before cutting inland and into the Grampions Mountain range. A stop for lunch, and then a couple of hours hiking to places called the Balconies and Reeds Lookout to check out the pretty amazing scenery (you'll notice now, less photos of sea, more of rocks and trees), and the Golden Orb Spiders (big things, rather scary but not poisonous.. allegedly), before finally moving on to a town called Halls Gap and our hostel. This was where myself and four others cooked dinner for 25 (my chopping skills paled somewhat compared to the French chef helping out), and then a couple of us sat out to watch the stars for a few hours before turning in for the night.

Final day, up at six (again, red eyes now). Actually one really red eye. Woke up to find blood on the white of my right eye the day before. Looked freaky, but me being me, decided to leave it and see (!) if anything were to happen.. Not much really except the blood moved nearer my pupil, guess it was a burst blood vessel. Maybe.

Anyway, I digress. Early morning walk to the bottom of Mackenxie Falls (getting a bit like the Kiwi Experience in a way), and onto Hollow Mountain for an hours hiking and scrambling to the mountain top to look out over the farm lands of South Australia. Very flat. Still pretty amazing though. Even more amazing was when our guide had to stop to help out a lass having breathing problems, and everyone else followed me through the bush, knowing that I got lost tha first night. Some people eh?! Still, we carried on west to Horsham for lunch (7 dollar domino's pizza!) and then came the 300km drive to Adelaide. Through farmland. Sleep time really. Passed between South Australia and Western Australia at a town (excitingly named) called Bordertown, where we had to stop and bin any fruit or vegetables we had (nothing for me to do then!), as there is a bit of a fruit fly problem in these lands. And at this point, someone turned on the flies. Hundreds of them. Only to get worse I was told as I moved north. Something to look forward to then. We had a quick look at the rather sad cancer ridden rare white western grey kangaroos (theres a reason animals arent white over here in this sun!), and then more driving before crossing the Murray river and eventually hitting Adelaide.

A quik shower and change of clothes and then met up with some of my fellow passengers in a bar. For vodka. And Bacardi Breezers. And a Fecking Jager Bomb. ANd bed some time around two in the morning...