Monday - The Great Ocean Road Tour, first stop The Grampians National Park

Today was a day of many miles!  After a 5am alarm and breakfast we stumbled bleary eyed along to the tour departure point, which luckily for us was only a couple of paces down the road, for our 6:20am pick up.  Our group this time was a different balance to the last; 5 Brits, 2 Germans, 2 French, 1 Swede, 2 Italians and 2 Singaporeans.

We drove out of Adelaide through the hills and came upon endless fields of open farmland - a big contrast to our drive on the West coast where we went through bushland and outback.  After a couple of rest stops in the early morning our first real stop was at a place called Bordertown, which no surprises was on the State border between South Australia and Victoria; where we also had the chance to see white kangaroos.

As we crossed the border we moved our clocks on another 1/2 an hour - so we are now 11 hours ahead of the UK. 

A quick lunch stop at a town called Horsham allowed us to refuel and then we were heading into the Grampians National Park.  First we went to Hollow Mountain, for a strenuous climb up to the summit through and over sandstone rocks.  It was a hard 2 hour walk in the heat, and upon reaching the top we had great views over the surrounding countryside, which in contrast to the huge Grampians ranges was completely flat for miles.

Back on the bus we drove a short distance to McKenzie Falls and did another hike, this time down to the pools at the bottom of the waterfall.  This walk however was a lot easier as the heat of the day had gone and it was a lot cooler.

Next stop was Reid lookout and the Balconies lookout, which were beautiful places to walk to...however by this time (7:30pm) we were feeling the strain of our many walks that day.  As we jumped back on the bus we started our final drive of the day down to Halls Gap a small town in the heart of the Grampians.  We picked up some red wine from the local liquor store and checked in to our accomodation for that night. 

The small wood cabins were on the edge of town and privately owned by the tour company - a small number of the group cooked spag bol for everyone, we decided to keep clear of the kitchen as there were way too many cooks already!  Unlike our other group tour where everyone sat up talking and drinking, us and the tour guide Jason were the only ones up past 10pm, so we sat chatting.