3 Day Melbourne to Adelaide Safari

Maya Dornig (Germany)
July 2005
Our Adventure Tours bus picked us up around 6.45am. Our driver, Tony, gave us a quick introduction about what we are going to do during the next few days and in particular today. Then almost everyone went back to sleep and we got woken up when we arrived in Torquay. This is the hometown of Billabong, Ripcurl, Roxy and all the other surf wear brands. After going shopping for a while, we got back on the bus and got to our next stop: Bell’s Beach. Wow! I have not seen waves like this in my life before!
After that we made our way along the great ocean road. We stopped at a campground were I got to see koala bears for the first time in my life!
We had our lunch in Apollo Bay – cute little settlement at the coast – and than went to the Otway Fly. This is a tree top walk, built about 25m over the ground. They have platform on top of a tower as well – from where we had a good look over the forest. I got a bit dizzy up there because everything is swinging a bit all the time. This walk was very interesting – because we all walked through a forest with a total different few than we are used to. This place is defiantly worth checking out!
From the Otway Fly we made out way to the 12 Apostles. Since it was a bit cloudy, the sunset was not perfect – but the place is impressive anyway.
We stayed at a little settlement called Princetown that night – the dorm rooms were very nice, clean and seemed new. The whole place was small but therefore cute and had a good atmosphere. We went to eat a very yummy meal in the pub next door.
The next morning we had to get up really early again. It was still dark outside when we left Princetown around 7.15am – and it rained. By the time we got back to the coast, the rain was not that bad anymore and we got out to do some small walks along London Bridge, The Grotto, Bay of Martyrs and we got to the Bay of Islands as well. In Warrnambool we got to see a few whales! After a short lunch break, we made our way to the Grampians NP. It took us a while until everyone had taken the perfect picture of a kangaroo at our first stop. Our next stop brought us to the Brambuks Aboriginal Cultural Centre. We had the chance to watch a video – telling us about some Aboriginal legends and we got to see a few original art pieces. The visitor centre was as interesting! We than did a walk to the Balconies and the Reed Lookout – unfortunately there was too may clouds to see anything at all. But after so much sitting in the bus – the walk was great anyway. For that night, we checked in a hostel in the heart of the national park. Our guide Tony then got in the kitchen and with the help of a few of us, created our meal for the evening.
The next morning started early again – but this time with great weather! We did the walk up to the Pinnacle. It was an amazing sunrise and for me defiantly the best part of the whole trip. The view from up there is amazing and I just could not stop taking pictures.
We did another walk to the MacKenzie Falls – unfortunately underneath the clouds again – so it was not only the water from the waterfalls that got us wet.
From then it was mainly driving all the way to Adelaide. We stopped at a few places on the way to get lunch, take some pictures of a prison they had turned into a toilet in Bordertown and some pictures of white Kangaroos.
We arrived in Adelaide just in time to find out that the All Blacks had just won their 2nd test match! Yeah!