The Oz Experience Part 2

The second part of the tour took us from Melbourne to Adelaide through The Great Ocean Road……we started the day at 5am…..so early but it gives us head way on the long journey ahead……we met Trucker Trev who was going to be our Tour guide and bus driver for the next 3 days we also met the rest of our group….we were really pleased as they were a really mixed bunch…..Pedro from Spain….Umberto from Milan Italy….a mother & daughter from Switzerland two German girls a couple from the USA, Josh & Christian, Andy from Plymouth, Kirsty a Scottish girl two girls from London, Louise & Donna a Dutch couple and an older couple from New Zealand, we all got on so well and the sun shone for the whole trip……

Day 1

We hit the Surf outlets just outside of town for breakfast and some quick last buys in Melbourne…from here we headed along the GOR stopping for pic's at many scenic viewing points….we traveled firstly to Apollo bay where we stopped for a traditional Australian lunch of fish & chips (Flake which is a small shark….ummmmm lovely) Apollo bay was beautiful as was most of the Great Ocean Road extremely scenic…… Beautiful Oceans and green green landscape. We stayed the first night at a small Village in Apollo Bay there was literally a hostel, a pub and a shop in one street probably the smallest town we have ever stayed in ( It could take you 2mins to walk to the end of the street!!) A good Australian BBQ was had by all after dinner the boys went to the pub and the girls settled down for a girly chick flick!!

Day 2

6am Breakfast….6:30am bay of Islands for pictures of the landscape….alot of the GOR is limestone & sandstone that is breaking away from the land….. its amazing to see!! At the bay of Islands we were told a love story about a ship wreck bottle of whiskey and two young survivors, thinking about what may have happened way back when….well it was just magical!! From here we went to tree tops which was national park that allowed you to walk high into the trees when we say high we mean high, it gave us a true understanding of how high the Australian Trees really are, they tend to be tall and skinny so how they stay in the ground on a windy day is beyond nature!! From here we hit the real meaning of the GOR The 12 Apostles…..there are now only 8 remaining….again they are sediments of rocks that have slowly be worn away from the land by the sea erosion, its fantastic to really sea that as a world we are losing land to the sea on a daily basis…….although the weather was not that good, we got a chance to watch the sun set over the horizon and take loads of photos for our memories………

In the afternoon we hit the Grampian Mountains & went on an uphill 15k hike to the most awesome viewing point although it was quite scary!! It was so high up…..but well worth it, well spent the night at a really cool ECO country cottage type place we all helped make tea together and settled to Goon, card games for the evening, things did get kinda messy after 8 litres of the stuff especially as it was our tour guides last trip for a while as he was due to travel South Asia…..we had so much fun but getting u at 6am wasn't the best feeling in the world!!

This is the last time for a while that we'll have to have an early rise…and believe us it was soooo hard after last nights antics! We set out on the bus everyone looking a bit worse for ware with there pillows getting on the bus at 6:30am. Our first stop was at waterfalls; they were really nice to look at, there's so much untouched scenery in Australia and it was refreshing walking down to the fresh waterfalls. We got back on the bus for an a few hours so everyone chilled for a while, had a little snooze and Lucy even learnt a little Spanish from Pedro! Next stop was a rock climb up a mountain and a walk to see some original Aboriginal art. Lucy took the rock climb… a really scary climb that got your heart racing as your walking along high rock faces and ledges but well worth it for the view, as Donzy had no sensible footwear (check out the pics! LMAO) she decided to talk the Aboriginal art route and seen some strange looking markings. After that we all stopped for lunch before crossing the boarder, which is very strict on getting into South Australia as you're not allowed to bring in any fruit or vegetables etc and they do random checks! We finally arrived in Adelaide city in the early evening. The Oz experience is now over, sooo worth doing as we got to do so many things that we would have never of thought of doing alone and we've met some of the best people on these adventure tours and will be sharing more experiences with and will certainly be keeping in contact with our new friends. We're at our final stop now in Australia……. can't believe how fast time is going! But we're loving every minute of it!!!!!