Hi all, First a big thank you to my friend, Sheila - yes that is a real friend, not an imaginary Aussie one! - for creating my blogspot.
28/7/10
Here I am in Adelaide, safe and sound, in a superb hostel. Central, modern and clean. For tonight, I'm on a top bunk being last in the room. Thought it was a good idea to begin with, but after making up the bed, I think I'll grab a lower bunk tomorrow when two of the girls depart.
Melbourne is a lovely city, and I enjoyed all I saw and walked around. Art gallery, botanic gardens, hopping around on the trams. Went to Mary Poppins at theatre on Sat night. Fantastic performance, and the stage management and scenery alone were mesmerising.
Have journeyed along the Great Ocean Road. Mon and Tues, did lots of sightseeing along the way. That resulted inme driving from 9 - 6 today. Stopped a couple of times, as quite a boring drive along extremely straight and flat roads.
Managed to negotiate my way out of Mebourne on Mon morn at 8-45 only losing my way once. The scenery along the way has been fantastic. Lots of stopping places to get a view from. Not unlike Scotland, with the ocean on one side and blasted rock along the other. Roads not busy at this time of year, so no hassles. Visited a couple of rain forests - the first just a mini area, which was magical to walk through. So quiet. The next was much larger, with a treetop walk experience. At its highest, I was 47 metres up. Awesome. I went on a helicopter ride to view the 12 Apostles - rock formations created by the action of the ocean over many years. I was to be in the front seat on a very short excursion, but was upgraded to a slightly larger helicopter, but in a back seat. Result, photos more difficult to get! Great views for lme though-unforgettable - and saw a whale to boot! Will post photos when I learn how to. Motels have been very comfy. Luckily I asked garage attendant last night if the road to Mt Gambier was straight as wanted to continue driving until 8pm to make today's drive shorter. This was 6pm when I enquired. Lucky I asked as she said very bad road at night for kangaroos jumping out! Stopped over instead. Must go time up.X