Day 311-313.

The Great Ocean Road.

After the best 9 days in the outback it was time for the next leg of my tour which was The Great Ocean Road.

Our first day was going to be pretty bland, it was mostly filled with driving as we were heading straight for The Grampians N.P. to squeeze in a hike, a waterfall and a view point! I was quite glad because I'd picked up a little souvenir on my last trip being what felt like the plague... So a couple of hours in a warm bus would be perfect. We drove for a few hours before stopping for lunch, one thing I rather pride myself on is being able to find power outlets ANYWHERE. It might mean unplugging a fridge but I'll find one! So anyway after we had dinner and I recharged my laptop we were gearing up to set off again... Our bus however, had different plans.

Our bus decided the key wouldn't work anymore, nor the spare. After trying and trying and getting other people to try we gave up and called RAC. They then took 3 hours to turn up, that's 3 hours in the fresh cold Adelaide air! To discover they couldn't fix it either! We then had to make a huge detour to the garage so they could replace the whole key barrel resulting in our whole first day being lost!

We'd all agreed to get up a bit earlier to squeeze in a little extra the next day for missing out on the previous. So it was yet another morning before sunrise to head off to our first hike, The Pinnacle. Now comparing it to Ayers Rock which I'd done just days before, even with my illness this was an easy hike but it gave us some pretty amazing views! The clouds were really low and were rolling through the valleys.

When we reached the pinnacle the view was incredible, we couldn't actually see anything below as we were above the low clouds and the viewing platform stretched out above them.

After this hike we then began the official Great Ocean Road. The road offers up so many different amazing views, rock formations and in general a beautiful coastal drive, today we were going to see the rock formations.

The first of the rock formations we were visiting was London Bridge which actually partially collapsed in 1990 leaving two wandering stranded on the newly created island! 

Second was The Grotto, also known as nature window... There was actually a wall stopping you from hopping down and walking through the otherside, but my photos were suffering from said wall, so said wall was hopped over!

The third stop was a narrow gorge with a beach hidden behind it... It looks pretty secluded and quiet here but the beach itself was actually really busy!! Before climbing down to the beach I'd noticed, I kid you not, 8 coaches (some double deckers) pile off crowds of Chinese! 

Our final stop of the day was of course, the 12 Apostles. This is was an attraction I'd actually really been looking forward to, it's pretty infamous and used in so many advertising scenes not to mention the things people have said when they visited. I think I'd built them up quite a lot... Whether I was judging it on what I've seen previously or I was just expecting more I'm not sure but for one thing, you can't even see all 12 as all 12 are scattering along the coast and second I didn't seem to have a 'wow' reaction like how I did when I saw Ayers Rock or Monument Valley for the first time. It was still something to definitely see and worth a visit but unfortunately didn't live up to my expectation of them.

We hung around for sunset as the clouds had been clearing during the day but right on cue as the sunset was setting, storm clouds rolled in and covered up any kind of sky we could see! Clearly throwing a strop because I didn't like them that much...

We thought we would maybe have better luck with sunrise, so we got up before dawn, AGAIN, and headed to the same spot... Clouds, nothing but clouds again! So no sunset or sunrise for us! Our final day was consisting of mainly driving back into Melbourne but we did have a few stops along the way. One in particular was to a spot off the road but a particularly bunch of hungry and cheeky parrots hang out. With a handful of seeds they fly down and perch on your hand!!

Well until another bird decides it's more deserving and you're caught in the crossfire!

And so that was my final journey for Australia! I then went on to spent my final night in Australia EVER with a pizza and my laundry pile!

It's funny because I'd never really pictured myself leaving Australia, I'd always known I would at some point but it always seemed so far in the future and now it was here!? Australia has exceeded my expectations in every way possible, it's a place I've learnt 101 lessons in myself, travelling, new people, new skills and more and for that I'll be forever grateful. I've met some really amazing people throughout my time here and I'd like to think I've seen some of the best Australia can offer, I've travelled the whole east coast from Melbourne to cairns, I've visits Tasmania, completed 88 days on a farm (which lets be honest, shocks most people who know me more than anything!), lived and worked in Sydney, sky dived and scuba dived the Great Barrier Reef and finished by seeing the outback and driving The Great Ocean road. As much as I'll miss Australia, I know I'll be back at some point but for now, I'm ready for a new adventure, a new set of countries and a new set of challenges!

So Asia, I'm coming!

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