Adelaide to Melbourne & The Great Ocean Road

After leaving The Outback we needed to catch our breath, shower properly and sleep in a comfy bed.  Our tour thankfully gave us two days in Adelaide to explore the city and get ready for two very long days as we drove from Adelaide to Melbourne.

Our new tour leader informed us that our two days together couldn’t be more different.  The first day wouldn’t involve much walking but would instead require 500 kilometers of driving.  As a reward, he hinted that the second day would blow our minds.  We think both days were pretty spectacular.

To make the trip work properly and allow time for mind blowing things on Day 2, we needed to make good time and get from Adelaide to Grampians National Park – a nature reserve in Victoria featuring beautiful waterfalls, sandstone mountains and impressive vistas.  We would spend the night in the Grampians at a group hostel and then link up with the Great Ocean Road, which starts just to the southeast of the park, and end up in Melbourne late on Day 2.

So, let’s get started…with a picture heavy review of our two days

As we left Adelaide, we soon crossed over the Murray River, which at 2,500 kilometers is the longest river in Australia.  A large part of the river forms the natural border between New South Wales and Victoria before flowing into South Australia (where we crossed over it).

Soon after leaving the Murrary River, we made a quick stop in Coonalpyn.  A local artist has taken to decorating grain silos with portraits of local school children.  The paintings are huge.  See for yourself.  They’re quite good too.

After a quick stop to check out the grain silos, we soon reached Bordertown, which as luck would have it is near the border of South Australia and Victoria.  Someone (though our leader said it’s not clear who’s done it) has taken the time to build an unusual kangaroo reserve.  It features mostly albino kangaroos.  The powers at be are allowing the kangaroos to breed and removing the kangaroos with color and leaving behind only the albino kangaroos.  Why?  We have no idea but the bundles of white fur hopping all around made for quite the spectacle.

Again, after a short ride, our attention was turned from white fur to a pink lake.  The lake is cleverly named Pink Lake.  This salt lake has an unusual bacteria which grows in the lake and produces the pigment for which the lake is named.  The more it rains, the less color in the lake.  The brighter the sun and the less overcast, the pinker the lake.  Luckily for us, it had been dry recently and the lake had a wonderful pink hue.

After a long ride, we entered the Grampians National Park.  The Grampians were formed by compacted sand over millions of years. The mountains are full of silica and quartz, which makes for very hard rock, and were pushed higher by tectonic and volcanic activity nearby.  Notably, the Grampians are older than the Himalayas by 50 million years and predates the Alice Springs orogeny, so they’re older than Uluru and Kata Tjuta also.

As we entered the park, we visited Broken Falls…

Then Mackenzie Falls…

Then Reed’s Lookout and the Jaws of Death…

…and finally, Boroka Lookout…our hostel was close to the lake in the distance…

After a good night’s rest, we began the journey early in the morning for Melbourne.  After a short drive we arrived at Grouse Lookout, which featured excellent views of Mount Eccles and the Grampians off in the distance.  Mount Eccles is a volcanic dome; several of these volcanic domes are scattered throughout eastern Australia.

The Grampians…

Mount Eccles

As we drove in and out to Grouse Lookout, we saw lots of wallabies.  Both redneck wallabies and swamp (or black) wallabies.  They’re harder to photograph than kangaroos because they’re notoriously shy and prefer rockfaces or steep hillsides.  It’s not uncommon to drive near one and only see the tail as the animal scampers up a steep hillside into thick brush or down into a gulley next to the road.  Kangaroos are more gregarious and prefer wide open plains.  They’ll stop, stand up and take a peek at what’s entered their field.

We stopped at Tower Hill Reserve where we were promised koalas.  We saw two adults.  The first was a female perched high up in a tree.  She was awake and moving around, which is rare.  After a short hike, we saw a second koala, but it was difficult to tell if it was a male or female.  They’re fairly well obscured by the tree branches.  So, we moved on.

After joining the Great Ocean Road, we stopped at Warnambool, a popular whale nursery at Logan Beach.  We did see one mother whale swimming with her baby.  They were pretty far out but we could see their flippers and see their exhale spouts.  More interestingly, we caught a playful seal body surfing in the huge surf.  The seal kept looping wave after wave.  It was pure joy to watch!  We’re not sure who was having more fun, us or them!

After another short drive we stopped at Bay of Martyrs.  ­­­­Famous for more notorious reasons (best not to mention why), the Bay of Martyrs is now more famous for the London Bridge natural landmark.

First a picture before the collapse…

Now a picture after the collapse…

The coastline here is simply magnificent…

Then a short drive further up the Great Ocean Road to the Loch Ard Gorge, site of a famous ship wreck.

The Island Archway…

The Razorback…

Site of the shipwreck (just beyond the rocks)…

We also visited the cemetery for the less fortunate aboard the Loch Ard…

Just a bit further down the road we came to the famous 12 Apostles formation…which is odd because there are more than 12 Apostles (technically anyway) and there aren’t 12 rock formations making up the 12 Apostles rock formation…

Again, the coastline along the Great Ocean Road is stunning…

The Great Ocean Road was originally built as a private toll road but is now owned by the government.  This is all that remains of the original toll gate at the Road’s eastern end…

The Great Ocean Road was built by soldiers returning after World War 1.  Midway through construction, the builders of the road decided to dedicate the road to their fallen comrades.  The statue tribute to comrades at the eastern end of the road.

As sunset quickly approached, we made for Point Addis Marine National Park.  This is more a surf spot (frequented by our tour leader) than a tourist spot.  So, it was a nice quiet spot from which to watch the sunset and reflect on a great day.

So that’s it.  A picture tour of our 2 day trip from Adelaide to Melbourne.  Day 2 was definitely our favorite of the two days and was full of one awe inspiring sight after another, but Day 1 got a bum rap.  Between the wildlife and the natural wonders, Day 1 was pretty magical as well.  As we were when we left The Outback, we are left wishing for more time in the Grampians and perhaps an extra day along the Great Ocean Road, but we are not saddened in the slightest.  These were two magical days and are glad that we got to share it with you all.