One of my biggest dreams has always been to see the Great Ocean Road in Australia. As my last stop in Australia before I go to New Zealand this was a great experience. I had booked a two day tour from Adelaide to Melbourne. On the first day we went to the Grampians. We spent a night there before heading down the Great Ocean Road to Melbourne the next day.

Early in the morning me and some others were picked up by our tour guide in front of our hostel by bus. After all our suitcases and backpacks were stowed away in the trailer of the bus and everyone had found a place in the bus, we set off towards the Grampians.

Normally this tour is designed for 24 people, but this time there were only ten of us, which is pretty relaxed if you are not such a huge group.

Heading away from the city

For the first two hours we only drove the highway out of Adelaide. Meanwhile most of us slept because we woke up so early.

After a short break in which we stretched our legs a little bit, we just went along the highway for another two hours. But before that we all introduced ourselves and of course four out of ten people where German. The other Germans were also girls my age, travelling alone.

Our first stop was a pink lake (which wasn’t that pink). As the water was only a few centimetres deep, we could go quite far into the lake and it looked as if we were walking on the water.

Then we went on and sat again for quite a while in the bus until we arrived at about 1 pm in a small village. There we had enough time for a break and had the possibility to eat something.

After the lunch break we almost reached the first destination for this day. If I make tours with the bus, I always notice how big the country is. It took us two days to get from one town to the next. We started early in the morning and only arrived at our first stop after almost 7 hours driving.

The famous McKenzie Falls

After a curvy drive through the Grampians, where we had a beautiful view of the nature, we stopped at the famous McKenzie Falls.

First we were greeted by wild emus when we got off the bus. Then it went downhill for 500 meters and a lot of steps down to the McKenzie Falls. The waterfalls are really spectacular and even threw a rainbow, which we saw as soon as we reached the falls.

After we had spent some time there, we went up all the stairs again. We were lucky, as it was not quite so warm, it was not quite so exhausting. But our tour guide told us that he had done this tour at 48 degrees a few weeks ago.

The beauty of the Grampians

From the McKenzie Falls we went on to two Lookout Points. From there we had an incredible view over the Grampians. We could see for miles only the forest, fields and lakes and it was really quiet so we could hear the animals.

Together with the three other German girls from the group we sat at the Reed Lookout. There we got to know each other better before we went on with the bus.

We then stopped in a very small village in the Grampians called Brambuck and watched wild kangaroos. Some of these kangaroos were much bigger than the ones I had seen a few days before in the Wildlife Park on Kangaroo Island.

Then it was already time for dinner, which was included in the tour price. In a small pub in the village we could decide on a meal. I had decided on the spaghetti carbonara (since I usually eat nothing else in the hostel but pasta…)

After dinner we checked in at our hostel where we spent the night. But before we all went to bed, we all went to see a lot of kangaroos again and that was the first time I saw a kangaroo with a baby in a bag. It was so beautiful in the evening in the middle of the Grampians, where there was nobody but us to watch the animals.

In the evening we all went to bed early, because the next morning it should go on very early along the great ocean road. If you would like to know what we eperienced during our time on the Great Ocean Road, please read my next blogpost Driving along the beautiful coast of the Great Ocean Road – Australia Travel Diary.