So I started on my next trip going Melbourne to Adelaide, there were 20 of us on the trip and only 3 english and 1 american - I have found one of the Swiss girls who is travelling all the way up to Darwin on the same tour so thats a relief!

Our first destination was along to Geelong, which I still dont really understand why thats a tourist destination, it was only 3 days ago and I cant remember anything about it, so it definately was not a highlight on my trip - we probably just had a coffee (or chocolate milk in my case) and carried along the road. We had a stop off at Torquay which is where they hold the Ripcurl pro-surfing event/tournament thingy and we say on Bells beach and watched the waves, they were huge and apparently that was 'calm' for that particular beach, I am so going to be you-tube/googleing the tournament this year now I have a taste for what its all about.

Following Bells beach, we started on the Great Ocean Road which was a gorgeous to look out of the window, and luckily I was on the right side of the bus to see it all the way- it was just unfortunate that I was so tired and slept for the first half of it (typical!). My body is now trained, get on a bus or transport and fall asleep - thats going to be fun when Im driving (yes Dad, I will need some supervision for my driving for a few days please, but no yelling at me!) Anyway we were following the Great Ocean Road for 2 days so I saw plenty of the views - I wish that my drive to work/home/Leeds took such a beautiful path but then again Im sure I would be so busy gazing out the window I may cause an accident so its probably best thats its a once in a lifetime road to travel on (as a passenger!)

We followed on to a random caravan park that had wild Koalas living in the trees there and so we went spotting them, and we say about 6. We also saw birds that liked to fly at your head and land on either your head or shoulder. I was majorly freaking out so I spent the time there going 'why do birds ruin everything' and 'i would go on the bus if i could remember where it is' (the whole getting lost up a mountain where it has a clear path has really affected me so I no longer go anywhere on my own without a map or a taxi- i think im justified at that?!)

And then there was another 'tree incident'. A tree top walk at Otway National Park - basicalyl a 2km suspension bridge on top of trees, one word I havent used this whole trip but I need to now - boooorrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnggg! My new american friend (Rachel) insisted that I took some pictures and I do have a rather fun one of me looking tiny next to a huge tree but other than that tiny piece of excitement it was at the end of the day just a load of trees.

I have now realised that it cant be the sun as it was cloudy all day, that it must either be the sea air (my granny always tells me its good for me) or purely being on holiday that something is definately happening to me......I have taken about 100 photos of rocks, pretty rocks, but still they are rocks. I am debating with myself which one I should have blown up and made a feature on a wall in my living room. Of course I am talking about the 12 apostles but still at the end of the day it is just rocks - a beautiful collection of rocks though. (I am willing to debate this when I am home!). We went to a few beaches to start looking at them from a distance and I was stood on a rock, asking Rachel to take my picture and i wanted a small wave around me so you could see the rock was by the sea when I had just said 'wait for a wave' and i turned around and this huge wave crashed over me and i was soaked! It was pure comedy timing, it definately gave half the group who was behind me (waiting for their pics on the rock) a huge laugh! I must admit, I have never seen a tide come in so fast, after the rock I jumped off and we went further along teh beach and suddenly our tour guide was behind us screaming to come back and when we looked back the beach we were at was suddenly disappearing, the sea must have come in about 10 metres in about 20minutes and we were in danger of not making it back to the Gibson steps and back to the bus!

After the Gibson steps beach we went to where you can see the sun set over the 12 Apostles, or what I like to think of the Sow and Piglets (renamed for the tourists!) but with all the cloud it wasnt much of a sunset but still it gave me the opportunity of taking even more pictures of rocks - yipppeeee! Everyones a winner!!

So we started day 2 of the trip with more around the 12 Apostles (another yipppeeee!) and we went to the Loch Ard Gorge, London Bridge, the Bay of Martyrs and Bay of Islands for even more pictures of the 12 Apostles (and more pictures!) and heard a lot about the History and different stories around each of the beaches.

We stopped for lunch at a place which I think has a fabulous name - Warnambool! before we travelled on to the Grampians National Park where we had a lovely walk up the hill. We then went to the Grampians accommodation which was a lovely little collection of wooden houses, they reminded me of dolls houses, they were so cute. On the bus our tour guide was explaining which ones we were in and she said 'now the pink house' and I couldnt stop myself yelling out 'oooh me, me please!' oops - but of course I got to stay in there! Unfortunately it was only pink on the outside but still, it was known as the pink house so I was very happy! Round the corner from the pink house was a field in which about 50 wild kangaroos lived, it was quite a weird set up but they were very happy in this field which was surrounded by residential houses, and didnt seem to bothered about tourists taking photos!

That night in the pink house we had a small party with the rest of the group. Now trying to play drinking games with 6 different nationalities is a challenge so we stuck with the one everyone could understand easily, the animal game - I was a crocodile (snap, snap, snap) and we had some great actions for other animals, including kangaroo, seal, shark and monkey and played this long into the night. Now if anyone has heard of the 'witch, who, thank you' game please let me know as I am told this is an English game which is really stupid and annoying (I am still playing it in my head 2 days later) then please tell me as I have never heard of it and believe the Swiss guys just made it up!

So day 3 we started another hike up the hollow mountain. I thought it was going to be the usual walk up a hill, nice pictures but this was a proper rock climbing experience with no harnesses. It was a little dangerous in times and I am sure if it was in England it would either be banned or a nice hand rail/steps put up as we were climbing up verticle rocks that you couldnt simply step up you had to climb and after reaching the peak we came down and started clambering through spaces so small we were lying flat on our stomachs and wiggling through as they were tiny. It was so much fun, we were literally running around this rock and our tour guide was starting to get very nervous telling us to slow down and to be careful as there were huge drops. I again thought of my lovely waling group that I think I should join when Im back and am now thinking some sort of adventure walking group may be better?

Following this amazing walk we went to see some rare white kangaroos which are the only ones in the world and if you ever see any they are from this patch of land with a wire fence in the middle of nowehere! But to be fair they just look like sheep so you arent missing anything!

Finally we crossed the Murrary River (which looked to me like it may burst its banks at any time, but apprently has been like this for weeks) and we were in Adelaide. It was about 9pm that we got here and got all sorted that we struggled to find anywhere to eat (ended up at McDonalds - boo!) as everywhere seems to close about about 830 here? We went down the party street which had sights I have never seen before, i thought Newcastles Bigg Market was bad but this was something else, the outfits - crikey! So we decided we would just go back to the hostel bar and have a few drinks with the majority of the people on the tour which was nice.

So that brings me to my one day in Adelaide - super!

Muchos Louvos!

xxxx