Hanna and Dan Adventures: Great Ocean Road and Grampians

Well we've been out of touch for awhile! We have been in small towns and camping where internet access has been difficult so we've chosen to do a big update all at once now. The next day after taking surfing lessons in Byron Bay we decided to go for a hike in the woods to this waterfall that Dan hiked to 5 years ago. He said that at that time the path was closed but he went anyways, and he was adament about doing it again so I agreed. It really felt like we were in the jungle, especially since it was raining and soggy...perfect weather for a walk...ha ha! About 1/2 hour into the hike we came accross this CRAZY lobster (in the forest..wierd) that was red and blue and snapping his pinchers together to try and scare us off! He looked really pissed off! As we were stopping to watch him, we all of a sudden noticed that we were covered in leeches! There were these land leeches that were holding on for dear life all over our shoes and legs and moving upwards! Yikes! Dan said the waterfall was about another 2-2.5 hours away so we decided to bail and spent the next 1/2 hour after getting back trying to rid ourselves of leeches...gross!

Next we flew back to Melbourne and rented a car and took the next 4 days driving west along the coast called the Great Ocean Road. The coast is beautiful! Craggy cliffs and winding roads....It was pretty cold and rained on and off all day so we only camped one night but we saw lots of koala bears which made me very very happy! Then we headed north to Grampians National Park to do some camping and hiking and spent 3 days there. We had a really really nice time, despite much of the park and hiking trails being closed due to (you guessed it) flooding. There is no flooding there now but in January the floods and storms caused significant damage to roads and tracks so a large portion of the park was unaccessable. There were, however, plenty of hiking trails to keep us busy and the weather during the day was absolutely perfect! At night I had to break out the longjohns though! The town in the centre of the park was amazing for seeing Kangaroos at night too! At around 6pm they came out to graze on front lawns and there were like 25-30 that you could see all at one...I was in my glory!

Today we have driven to Adelaide and plan to head to the Flinders Ranges (mountains and national park) for more camping and hiking tomorrow.

Hope you are all well!

Love Hanna and Dan xoxo

Koala bear on the Great Ocean Road