Time to jump back into my adventures! You'll be hearing the name Groovy Grape quite a bit because I booked a package tour deal with them. With GGG, I traveled from Melbourne all the way up to Darwin (2, 332 miles)!! Oh and by the way, a couple of posts ago, I said that I had traveled a couple thousand miles during my backpacker journeys. At the time, I was too lazy to calculate all the miles, so I just estimated....and guess what, my estimation was
way off! I have actually traveled approximately 7, 042 miles!!
WOW.
Alright, back to Groovy Grape. The package deal was an excellent price and the tours were such good value for my money! GGG caters to active backpacker-type travelers. I kicked off my first GGG tour with the Great Ocean Road and it was fantastic! I spent those 3 days with 5 Germans (
tons of German and Dutch in OZ), 4 English (1 girl from the Channel Islands between England and France), 2 French and 1 Danish; 3 guys and 10 girls, along with our tour guide Brian, a real Aussie bloke!
Once again, I have seen some beautiful scenery in the land of Oz. On day 1, we left Melbourne and started out by traveling on the Great Ocean Road! As you can imagine, just from it's name, it is spectacular! It stretches all along the coast, so even from the van, I had beautiful views of the ocean and beaches...no sleeping this time! And the waves in this part of Australia are HUGE!
 |
| YAY! |
 |
| A-mazing! | | |
Here's a few photos of some of the incredible things I saw on the first day:
 |
| As you can see, it was rather rainy and cold...yet still beautiful! |
 |
| It was really amazing to see the mist off the water rising so high! |
 |
| The Arch |
On days one and two, we got to see the amazing Twelve Apostles. There's only seven of them left now, but they are quite a sight! The apostles are a collection of limestone stacks that rise up to 70 meters!
 |
| We were there at sunset, but because of all the clouds and rain, it wasn't much of one. Rain or shine, the apostles are still an amazing sight! |
 |
| Incredible! |
On the second day, we were up bright and early, ready to see the shining Twelve Apostles again. So, if you haven't seen enough photos already, here's some more! ;)
 |
| As you can see, it was still rainy! I look like a conehead! |
 |
| Loch-Ard Gorge |
 |
| I LOVED this spot! |
 |
| London Bridge |
 |
| The Grotto. It was awesome to watch the waves and mist spout up through the rocks! |
 |
| Are you in love yet? |
|
I also saw wild koalas!! Koalas are actually really hard to spot in the wild, but Brian pulled the van over and we went out in search of them. We saw about five in the trees! I was super excited to see them because most of the koalas I've seen have been in zoos or wildlife reserves. Oh and notice that I'm not saying "koala bear"... koalas are not bears; they are marsupials. There is a catchy little Aussie song about not calling a koala a bear....if you know me well, I'm sure you've heard it! If not, I'll sing it for you someday. ;)
 |
| They look so cuddly! |
 |
| A little stretchin' action before falling asleep again. |
Koalas are such funny creatures. They basically get stoned off of the eucalyptus leaves that they eat and then sleep for 18 hours of the day. I won't tell you about their mating habits...you can google that yourself!
On the second day, we also headed into the Grampians National Park. We hiked down to McKenzie Falls for some spectacular views. We were also there at the perfect time to see sunset over the mountains!
In the Grampians, we stayed in an actual house (GGG housing) with an incredible view and a paddock full of kangaroos in front of it!
 |
| The lovely view from the house. |
 |
| Kangaroos in the mist to greet us in the morning. There were tons of them! |
On our last day, we again started out bright and early and hiked up to Mount Hollow in the Grampians. It was just beautiful! It was a really nice spot to relax in the sun and enjoy the view.
 |
| Hiking up to the top. |
 |
| View from the top. |
|
 |
| Another view. |
Moving on from the Gramps, we crossed over the border into South Australia and stopped at Bordertown, where we saw some white kangaroos!
 |
| Pretty neat, eh?! |
 |
| Hehee...having a little scratch! |
Finishing up the trip, we pulled into our final destination of Adelaide. As you can see, I saw some amazing sights and had a blast! The cool thing about booking the package deal was that a lot of the other backpackers on this trip had done the same, so I ended up doing several trips with a few of them! Groovy Grape Getaway #1 = totally groovy!
Up next: The Barossa Valley (think Jacob's Creek wine) and the Adelaide Hills! Until then, I'll leave you with the...
Aussie Fact of the Day: White kangaroos are extremely rare. They are basically albinos; white due to genetics (a white strain of the Western Grey Kangaroo). A white male kangaroo was captured in 1980 and brought to the park in South Australia where he became the founding father of the white colony. About 50 white kangaroos have been bred at the Bordertown park and a number of those have been sent around the country.
To see more photos of The Great Ocean Road, click on this link:
Great Ocean Road
