The Grampians and Great Ocean Road

Becca far too generously came with me to the pick up point for my Groovy Grape tour from Adelaide to Melbourne which left at 6:45am - I've clearly got very nice friends! Our tour leader, Sid, stopped by every hostel in Adelaide picking people up then we headed for the Grampians. Sid had an impressive music collection on his 128gb iPod and had put together a playlist of entirely Melbourne talent that had us all singing along and shazaming throughout the journey. There was a complete mix of people on the trip - everyone from gap yah travellers to a 60 year old and her 14 year old niece (who had somehow made it on to an over-18 only tour).

After a little drive, we stopped off at Josephine Falls where we walked down to a waterfall before hiking back up. Sid also took us down some hidden tracks that even locals didn't know about where we discovered incredible views and not another tourist in sight. We finished the day at Halls Cap Oval where there were wild kangaroos everywhere, then finished off in a tucked away cabin for the night where we played board games by the fire. The freezing weather was definitely a shock to the system after travelling up the East Coast!

The next day we made it on to the Great Ocean Road, stopping off at more secret lookouts and beaches as well as visiting the famous ones - The Bay of Islands, Port Cambell and sunset at The Twelve Apostles.

Another night's stay in another pretty much private hostel then we were up again at dawn for a short hike to Beauchamp Falls Conservation Reserve. Towards the end of the Great Ocean Road we stopped for lunch at Kennett River where there were wild koalas sleeping in the trees and we had a chance to feed the exotic birds!

Finally Sid dropped us off at our respective hostels in Melbourne. I was staying at Nomads along with Jack and Theo from my tour and the boys signed us up for a trivia quiz the hostel was running that evening. Fia and their friend James joined our team and we went on to win a decent $50 bar tab!