From Grampians with Love

By luck I am founding my self in Melbourne, Australia and after having five usual days in office with some ‘Good to have face against name’ kind of stuff it was going to be an exciting weekend as I decided to take a two day tour of Great Ocean road and the Grampians National Park.
But there was more fun waiting for me before that, thanks to a colleague I got a chance to visit a local beer brewery on Friday evening and believe me it was one of the best beer I ever had in my life. Drinking Fresh beer just where beer is brewed and listening to some good blokes singing…what else can beat this?

As beer was quite smooth so even after having a substantial amount of it (read Jugs) I was awake on Saturday early morning to start my trip. It was a mix of nationalities with Americans, Japanese, Chinese, Germans, Singaporeans and our driver cum guide was a Dutch born and bought up in Australia having typical Australian sense of humor.

Great Ocean road is amongst the most scenic, rugged coastlines of the world and driving on the road is an experience which you cannot describe in words. It indeed was a good drive and we visited the famous twelve apostles (though our guide told us that there were only 10 apostles ever existed it’s just a phony name given to promote tourism...btw there are only 8 left now) and then there were few other famous structures like London Bridge and beaches. Need not to mention there were many clicks with “Yes, I was there” kind of poses around all these great structures.

From there we head towards Grampians national park as it was our night halt and we were told that we can expect Kangaroos during the journey. Our bus went slowly as there were chances that we might ran into Kangaroos which is very common is this part of the world. There were few instances where we need to slow down or even stop to let kangaroos cross the road. Finally we reached our destination and we were in a small town called Halls Gap which is located in the heart of the national park, with an average of 300 families and around 6000 beds for tourists.

After having my dinner I went outside to try my luck with kangaroos as our guide told us that they do come down from the forest , and there were instance where you can found them just outside your house , producing their typical sound. I was not disappointed as I saw a few but as it was very dark and I was a bit scared also. I called it a day and decided to see them tomorrow early morning.

I wake up around six next morning, it was drizzling a bit but when I went out the view was worth enough to compensate for an early rise. I was surrounded by mountains from all sides, lush green trees and a beautiful road. What a view!!! I went on the road still scared although our guide has told us that the kangaroos found here are small and not dangerous as Big Red kangaroos found in other part of the country.


Suddenly I saw a small kangaroo family (they are social animal, always found in groups) and I went close to them to get a good picture , but they ran away once I was in their comfort zone. Never mind as there were many jumping on their two legs making a great sight to view on a beautiful morning. Finally I was able to get few clicks with one being my favorite as the lad I was clicking didn’t move at all even though I went quite close suddenly I realized that the lad I was clicking was peeing !!

Then we started our trip to the national park. Few view points, a water fall and a walk inside the tropical forest were few things which we did before we started moving back to Melbourne. As the last stop of the tour we visited a wine brewery for some wine tasting. So there I was sipping glasses of white and red wine and I was happy as the journey which started with some great beer ended with some good wine.

PS: Photos would be uploaded soon once I am back as I forgot to bring the data cable for my cam :)