Great Ocean Road

Day One

Kym drove me to the Railway station. There I waited for the “Groovy Grape” bus. The bus was full to the last seat. We cruised through the Adelaide Hills towards a mid morning stop at Keith Bakery. We had lunch in the Grampians National Park. There we took a hike to the bottom of MacKenzie Falls. Over night we stood in the Grampians National Park, where we saw some wild Kangaroos and Willable. The weather was very mild, about 20 degrees, cloudy and sometimes with a little bit rain. We drove about 500km this day.

Day Two

We started with a hike to the Grampians. This is a small hill with a great canyon and a wonderful nature. The landscape from the was absolutely breathtaking. After Lunch, we drove to south to the Great Ocean Road. Stops were the Bay of Martyrs, the London Bridge and Loch Ard Gorge. This all are beautiful stone formations in the sea. For the night we stopped at Port Campbell in a beach home. The weather didn’t like us these days. I needed my raincoat and the jacket!!! But for the sunset at the twelve apostles was the ambience perfect! The rain did made it very special. (See the pictures in the album!!!) Back in the beach house we maid a fire in the fireplace to heat us and drunk some beers to cool us!

Day Three

This day started relaxed with a second walk to the twelve apostles to see them in the morning light. I took a helicopter flight around them. That’s a beautiful view from the sky! I’m thinking about to become a pilot… J After an other short drive, we visited the rainforest in the Otway National Park. There are huge trees! Up to 80meters high, 5 meters diameter and up to 400 years old! We did some more stops to watch some bays or beaches but there was nothing more special… We drove through Geelong, which is a great surfers paradise. We had there a stop for shopping. We arrived about 6-7 p.m. in Melbourne and the driver brought us to the different hostels.

I checked in the YHA, prepared my bad and went out to meet some people from the group to celebrate our Australian Christmas!

Today morning, I took the train to Olly’s house. He lives in a suburb over an hour from the center. The house is beautiful! I can stay here for some days. We will go to the ConFest on the 27^th and should be back on the 3^rd of January 2008!!!

cu next year!

--------have a-----------

!!! HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!

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LSD

My last school day is over! We finished the school with a share-lunch (everybody takes something for lunch and then share it). I get a certificate that I've been for 4 weeks in the advance class. it looks nice, but to be honest, it is only a paper more for my drawer at home!
Tomorrow, I'll have to get up early to catch my tour bus to Melbourne. The tour takes 3 days and 2 nights. I'll be there in the evening of the 24th December. I'll take a bed in the youth hostel and on the 25th I'll go to visit Olly, who takes me then to the ConFest. I'm exiting about that!
Now I'm a bit sad, because I have to leave my wonderful host family. They were so great and cooked very well! Thank you very much Billieann and Kym!

Reorganisation of my trip to Melbourne

Yesterday called me the car-company and told me, that they have to cancel my booking! Only 5 days before I'd like to take the car! However, that is the risk, when I take this cheep company... bloody shit!
I had to tell it to my travail-mate that I have no car and he must look by himself! That is nasty! I looked up for some travail-groups in the internet but the most agencies were booked out or do not travail before Christmas.
Today after school, I was looking for a trip to Melbourne and I have found one. Huh! Well done!
Now I can take my last schooldays very relaxed...

Barossa Valley

The Barossa Valley is the largest wine producing region in Australia. I took a guided tour to this Valley.

The first stop was at the Millbrook Reservoir. There is a dam and the interesting thing is, you can whisper on one side of the dam and you hear it very clearly on the other side of the dam! That is cool! I am wondering if it is the same with the Swiss dams.
Totally, we stopped at four wineries. I am a little bit disappointed of these wines. They are not really good or if they are then its 100$ a bottle... I had a good rose but thats it. These wines are not really my cup of tea. I think I will go to a big wine center here in Adelaide. They have all wines from South Australia. Maybe I find there a good one.

In the group were couples aged 40 and up. I was the only alone travelling and less than 40 years aged tour member. However, there was also a very friendly Swiss couple who lives in Melbourne.

It was interesting to see this small wineries, to see the grapes, the shops and the valley. I think the tour was not bad. In Switzerland, I would never do a wine tour, I think! :-)

I will look up for other Australian wines…

Cheers

I received some great news from Switzerland yesterday. I celebrated that until the morning. So i missed my school today because I slept till 12. In the aftenoon I went to the beach and prosted* once more with me! :-)

* cheers!

Fotos & Car

and once again: NEW fotos from South-Australia in my Web Album. klick HERE!

I could book a very cheep car from here to Melbourne. I will leave here on the 22th. I'll drive down to Melbourne on the Great Ocean Road and arrive on the 24th. I'll have a 2bed camper-van! :-)
YABADABADOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!

Kangaroo Island (Part 1?)

I booked a tour to Kangaroo Island (KI) for Thursday evening to Saturday morning.

The bus from the fairy picked me up in Adelaide and drove 2 hours to the fairy. One hour later, I was on KI, in Penneshaw!
I checked in to the Youth Hostel and looked for the next pub. That was not easy to find, because in Penneshaw has one YHA, one Hotel, one Restaurant, one Shop and one Pub! That is all on two streets, maybe 500 m length.

The bad part of the sortie is, that on this Thursday was a storm on the island and flashes made 14 bushfires on the island! One fire fighter died. I sited outside of the pub and the wind blowed from the direction that the fire was. You smelled the fog and ash was everywhere, on the skin, on the clothes and on the table. Well, that is why I started to drink my beer a little bit faster than usually, because I don-t like ash in the beer. The inhabitants told some scary stories about this bushfire but in the end we had a lot of fun with them.

On the Friday morning told us the tour guide that it is not possible to go to the western of the island. We had three options: 1. take the fairy back. 2. Take the shorter tour only on the eastside of the island or 3. Wait and take the tour tomorrow, what I did.

I spend the day with a little hike to the Iron Hill. I seen some more Kangaroos, spiders, eagles, dolphins, a saurian, death penguins and some old stuff from 18??. It was a nice hike. The afternoon I spent at the beach but it was cloudy and to cold for a swim. In the evening was a guided penguin-tour. In KI lives the smallest penguins and in the darkness, they come to the land. And we saw some…

On Saturday, all tours to and on the Island are cancelled. I took the Fairy back and went to Adelaide.

Yes, I got back some money from the Travel agency!!!

In the end, I like to see KI once again, but without fire. There are so many more things to see. But it is a bit expensive to go there… well, maybe in two years…?

still alive - fotos uploaded

This days, the weather is not so good as before... its cloudy and cold (20-25 degrees). so i don't want go to the beach!
I was in Glenelg at Saturday. This is a nice part of Adelaide on the beach. But there were so many people on the beach, You could not see sand or water...!!! I took a shopping tour and went back...
I've found some nice Pubs and Clubs in the city.

Some pictures are now in the web-album! Klick HERE!

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