Great Ocean Road & Grampians Tour

Did you all have a great Christmas? I definitely did, as I celebrated it on the Groovy Great Ocean Road and Grampians Tour! It all started on Christmas Eve Day. The first day was the biggest day of driving. It was quite a long way to the Grampians, but luckily enough there was entertainment from our Groovy Guide Tom!  We played a game to introduce ourselves (very good idea), so in the first hours we knew EVERYTHING about each other. He also had an iPod with heaps of music on it, so it was definitely not a boring drive! After a morning coffee stop in the Adelaide Hills and a fuel stop in another town, we arrived in Frances. This was pretty much a town with a couple of houses and a pub, and at that pub we had lunch! After that we went to MacKenzie Falls, and took a small hike to there to take some great pictures. After that we went to some other lookouts in the Grampians and lastly arrived in Halls Gap. There we stayed at the Brambuks Backpackers. We saw lots of Kangaroos and had a little Christmas Eve party before going to bed.

 

The second day we made our way into the Grampians to visit some more great lookouts before cruising along the Great Ocean Road. Here we visited some great sights like the Bay of Martyrs, London Bridge, Loch and Gorge and the most beautiful part: the Twelve Apostles. We expected to see a great sunset there, but unfortunately it started to get really cloudy. Although we still enjoyed our time there and after sunset Tom cooked us a dinner at our hostel: the 13^th Apostle. Here we met another Groovy Grape group who came from Melbourne with tour guide Lorry. We all celebrated Christmas outside, while enjoying an (alcoholic) drink!

The third and last day we continued along the Great Ocean Road, to see the Twelve Apostles in the morning light and after that we made our way to the Otway National Park, which is one of the oldest temperate rainforests in the world. We then had an hour at the beach and drove to the official start and the historical section of the Great Ocean Road, with stops in the seaside villages of Apollo Bay, Lorne, Anglesea, Bells Beach and Torquay! Around 7 PM we arrived in Melbourne, sadly the tour was over. After 1 night in Hotel Discovery, I made my way to Melbourne’s Southern Cross Station where I took the Overland Train back to Adelaide for only $54!

If you want to see the Great Ocean Road & Grampians in a Groovy way, freecall: 1800 66 11 77 or phone: +61 8 8440 1640, email: getaways@groovygrape.com.au , or surf to www.groovygrape.com.au 

     

If you want to jump on the Overland train you can surf to: http://www.greatsouthernrail.com.au/site/the_overland.jsp and select the Red Service Seat.

Or stay at Hotel Discovery in Melbourne, check out: http://www.hoteldiscovery.com.au/

Groovy Kangaroo Island Tour

Guess who was a lucky bastard this weekend? Me! I went on a 2 day tour to Kangaroo Island on Saturday with Groovy Grape, my second Groovy trip!

My Saturday started really early. I had to wake up at 5AM, because our Groovy tour guide Dan was to pick me up at 5:45! After we picked everyone up from their hostels in the city we made our way to Cape Jervis, where we had to catch the 9AM ferry to Kangaroo Island. On our way we had the opportunity to have a little brekky (Australian word for breakfast) in the town of Yankalilla. We arrived at around 8AM to Cape Jervis, on time for getting the tickets and catch the Sealink ferry.

Vivonne Bay

After 50 minutes (of sleeping :P) on the ferry we arrived on Kangaroo Island. After buying some goon for the evening, we made our way to the highest point of Kangaroo Island, Prospect Hill. From there we had an amazing view of the island. Here, Dan told us about how Kangaroo Island was discovered, and what kind of animals you can find on the Island. After that we had a sandwich lunch and we made our way to Seal Bay, where we had a guided tour on the beach and saw heaps of sea lions who where lazing around.

When the Seal Bay tour was finished, we drove to a place called the Little Sahara for my favourite part of the trip, sand boarding! This is, as the name explains, the same as snow boarding, but on sand! We had so much fun! A couple of hours later we drove to Vivonne Bay. Vivonne Bay was rated the best beach in Australia (based on things like clarity of water, privacy and cleanliness) through research by the University of Sydney. After taking some nice pictures and chilling at the beach we made our way to the Groovy Cottage where we had a BBQ dinner, made a campfire and watched the amazing wildlife (kangaroos, koalas, geckos and even a scorpion).

Remarkable Rocks

The next day we visited Hanson Bay, at the koala sanctuary, the Remarkable Rocks where you can take some funny pictures and Admirals Arch where we spotted some New Zealand fur seals. After lunch and a visit to the Flinders Chase National Park visitors centre we headed back to Penneshaw, to take the ferry to Cape Jervis and drive back to Adelaide.

If you want to take a trip to Kangaroo Island call 1800 66 11 77, +61 8 8440 1640, email getaways@groovygrape.com.au , or surf to www.groovygrape.com.au !