Rosebud beach houses worth 350,000-400,000 AUD ….. blowing so hard.

McCrae lighthouse

Cape Schanck … so gusty windy that even my poles would have been blown out of my hands if I didn’t have straps around my wrists. OMG we had sunshine for 10 minutes.

Passed by the the hot springs…. … ya right……pissing rain!

Did you know there are about 50 million kangaroos…., more than the 26M population.

Another London Bridge. All this on Mornington Nat Park….. above!

Fort Nepean & Ft. Pearce National Park…… next stops……more pictures to come…..

Driving along the Great Ocean Road. Welcome to wind…. First stop Island Arch and Razorback. another “wow moment”

A while later climbing windy roads… thump????

Walk in a rainforest in Great Otway National Park

Stopped for lunch in place called Apollo Bay. Wow….. the highway is so incredibly winding…. gorgeous views.

Our final scenery stop was the “12 Apostles” of which there are only 7 left. The rest have eroded away due to wind and waves.

Oops forgot to add my steps….18,026 steps on the 16th & 10,387 on the 17th.

We awoke to cockatoos tapping on our window. There are many…. Maybe 8-10. There are Roos wandering around, and deer and a couple of emus. A herd of kangaroos is called a mob!!!

We originally were to go to Mackenzie Falls but it was closed due to flooding as was the “Grand Canyon” and so we climbed to the Pinnacle in Grampian Nat’l Park. OMG I am so sore and tired. It was 2+ km up and 2+kms down and a 800 metre increase in elevation. Absolutely beautiful…. Crazy rock formations. I understand the mountains are volcanic with sandstone thrown in. This place is on the other side of where were the night before.

Then we drove into this beautiful, spotless, old town of Stawell for lunch. After lunch to a winery …..“Bests”. Then to Lake Fyans. Unfortunately again, the road to where we were to go was closed due to flooding but we did stop at another place. This lake has been flooded since the early part of 1900’s. The dead trees are still standing in the middle. We did see a couple of black swans with 3 chicks.

Then back to the motel and dinner. After we witnessed a couple of male kangaroos fighting. Talk about kung fu fighting!!! I’ll have to try separately, the video of the kangaroos fighting. If I am unable to you’ll have to ask to see it once I am home.

11,635 steps

Guess what…. It’s raining!!!

We stopped at “London Bridge”….wow!

Then the “Grotto”

Our final scenery stop was the “12 Apostles” of which there are only 7 left. The rest have eroded away due to wind and waves.

Oh my…… did we get rain….. torrential…… worse than I have ever seen.

The shower in the English gals room was spewing out of the drain rather than drain out. They decided to stay in that room with soggy carpets so for their inconvenience they were given a case of wine.

Steps today 10,619.

First stop (after 2 hours)Coonalpyn where there are grain silos that have beautiful murals of children painted on the sides. As well, the walk under the railroad tracks have individual pictures I would say were painted predominately by children.

Next stop (1 hr. more)called “Bordertown, SA… at a bakery where all purchased delicious individual pot pies. The rest area there was some really weird sounds coming from the water iris’. Someone described the sound as similar to someone plunking a banjo……badly! Apparently they are frogs.

Next stop…..Pink Lake. It isn’t very pink for us because they have had so much rain that it is flooded, diluting the waters. The pink is caused by algae excreting a dye….. only done went the salt content is sufficient.

Got to Halls Gap in Grampian National Park, dropped our bags and went for a beautiful hike to Venus Baths.

I am not sure how these pictures are going to show and cannot seem to add comments. I will attempt to send more pictures of Thant hike. Wifi isn’t great!!!

It’s a free day so we joined Lyna and Brianna, got a bus pass and went to visit the Adelaide Gaol…. No longer in service. 1841 to late 1980’s…. Housed approx. 300,000 prisoners over the years. It was also where they held executions….by hanging. 44 men and 1 female.

On the way back we stopped at the Rundle Market, a pedestrian market with higher end shops as well as K-Mart, giant metal balls stacked, 4 brass pigs and huge pigeon.

After returning to hotel, Lyna, Brianna and I (Jeanette stayed behind), we took an Uber to Cleland National park that has a wildlife park. Amazing!!! We fed (and watched as others were fed) and petted Koalas, kangaroos, wombats, echidnas, bandicoots, emus, Tasmanian devils, dingos and wallabies as well as many types of birds. Pictures to follow…. Too many!

The flight was terribly long (left Nov. 12/22 at 6pm+ and arrived Nov. 14 at 3:30pm…. actually is ONLY 25-26 hours) but I was able to sleep in bits and pieces. I would recommend “premium economy” cuz your chair is much bigger and it reclines. I cannot criticize Air Canada…..we were well fed (even had real eating utensils….when was the last time you had that on a plane), drinks, blankets, little pack with toothbrush etc. in it.

So far we are disappointed…..disappointed in the weather (it’s been windy, rainy…pants and jacket weather) and disappointed that the excursion that we all were hoping to take today and was suggested as an optional tour by the tour company, is not available….they didn’t get theirs shit together cuz Australia has just recently re-opened. We (probably 10 of the 13 people on the tour) all wanted to go to Kangaroo Island…..to see the kangaroos and koalas. Lets see how the day goes. A couple of gals from Ottawa and Port Elgin have something planned.

This trip was costly to begin with but by the time we buy all the meals that are not covered, I could be in the “poor house”. The exchange is good for us but the price of everything is way higher than at home….don’t anyone complain! No tipping though & the taxes are incl. in the prices!

The first day of tour…in Adelaide-Nov15/22

Adelaide has a trolley that is free within the downtown area so we hopped it and went to the Central Market. It is a huge market that has predominately foods, including kangaroo meat. Jeanette also got a massage there that she is still talking about. After wandering there for a while, we hopped the trolley to the end of the “free line”, then back to hotel.

Later we checked out the Himeji Garden…. Small but oh so beautiful. Across from our hotel as well as circling the entire downtown area is a huge park. We saw some beautiful birds including lots of Australian magpies and Eastern rosella. The park is used for grammar school Phys. Ed including broad jump. All kids were wearing uniforms.

We didn’t meet the CEO (chief experience officer, Luigi) and the rest of the group (there are 13 of us) until 6pm. There are 6 from Canada, 2 from UK, 4 from Germany & 1 from Switzerland…. Only 2 guys in the group plus Luigi. After we walked to a restaurant and then walked and walked to get an Australian SIM card. $30 AUD for a month with a huge amount of data so that we can keep in contact with the group and CEO. 9943 steps.