Saturday 26th April - Day 83

My room was freezing last night ! It probably wasn't really that cold, but Melbourne is a lot further South than Brisbane and that makes a difference. I make my way to where the bus is waiting for me at 7:00am; I'm going on a 3 day excursion to see the Grampian mountains and then to travel along the Great Ocean Road.

I'm not really sure what I signed up for. I was given a choice of a one day, two day or three day trip on the great ocean road and I chose three days. We set off to the Grampians - another international set of about fifteen travellers. This time it's people from other countries I haven't met before like Persia (Iran, I think). This girl doesn't look sixteen years old and she's studying engineering at university here; I'm guessing she's a genius, but I didn't ask. There are no international relationship conflicts throghut the trip.

The Grampians are a range of mountains named after the mountain range in Scotland. There is little logic to this as they aren't similar at all (so I'm told). It takes us about for hours to get there by bus and we go on a hike to one of the peaks. If you're into climbing mountains in a way that doesn't require ropes and other climbing gear this is ideal. The view from the peak is well worth the hour long climb. The intermittent rain is a little bit of a nuisance but nothing more. It's difficult to describe the view: It's high, panoramic, quiet, peaceful, windy, you see a lot of trees below you, other mountains around and although many people have done it before you feel like one of the few who has. And then you make the journey down.

We are then driven to a hostel to stay. The Guide, with our help, cooks us spaghetti bolognese. It wouldn't win any cookery prizes but we all have to eat and are grateful for it. And most people go to bed early.