Two Days Blur into One

The morning could not have been colder in Halls Gap.  I managed though to get out of bed, pack my bag and eat breakfast before 7:15. 

The day started off with a lovely hike to a place called the Pentacle in the Wonderland Park of the Grampians.  The hike took about an hour and 30 minutes and we were all sweaty and panting by the time we hiked to the top on the peak.  The view though was absolutely stunning and totally worth the sweat and labor.  We all relaxed at the top for a while before heading down and driving to the cultural center.  I didn’t take any photos there because there wasn’t much to see.

Walking over rock slabs the whole way.

Cool lichen formations.

the view!

Tiny rock opening

So beautiful

So close to the edge... maybe too close?

The other views

Then we all headed off to this great look out spot called London Bridge because of the rock formation in the ocean… it had incredible orange sand that I wanted to run across but couldn’t.  

Some of my travel buddies

The London Bridge is on the right.

Off to the twelve apostles we went next!  Except there are only 7 left now; the wind and water action against these tall rocks has worn them away.  The sun was much too bright so we are going to come back later the next morning. 

Our next stop was our hostel; there were only two showers and about 12 girls.  I was super tired of waiting so I casually jumped into the boys bathroom and showered in there while I blasted my music and got all clean.  For dinner we went out to a pub that the hostel owns and ate veggie burgers and drank wine.  What made it even a better night was that we went back to the apostles and watched the most incredible sunset ever!

In the morning we all rushed to get ready and eat breakfast before we went back to the 12 apostles for a third time.  It was fun to see them in a different light but it wasn’t very interesting.

Next stop was Johanna beach, which is absolutely stunning.  I took my shoes off and ran through the sand and into the water just because it felt like it had been so long since I was on a beach.  I managed to find this really cool cave that I walked through, I didn’t go very far though because it was a bit scary even for me. We did go to another beach where a huge wave snuck up on me and got me all wet, but I don't remember the name.

Stalactites!

The cave!

Baby stalactites

I see the light at the end of the tunnel.

So pretty

Goodbye beach.

Photos below are the no name beach.

We ended up going to a cute café for coffee on Lavers hill where I got super close to feeding the scarlet rosellas and magnificent king parrots.  

Next place was supposed to be Melba Gulley for a nature walk through the rainforest but the bridge along the walk was being repaired so no nature-walk for me.

What the walk would have looked like.

Forest selfie.

Looking up

Giant ass fern

Back to the bus and on to the Great Ocean Road we went next.  The road was very twisty and bumpy but I enjoyed it nonetheless!

Goodbye travel buddies

Bus driver Brian.

After the Great Ocean Road all we did was drive to Melbourne… nothing interesting happened except when everyone got off the bus and we all said goodbye.

When I arrived at my hostel I had to hike up 5 flights of stairs to my room and then stayed in my room the rest of the night, except for a shower of course.