cyrsullivan
Mar 2, 2024
2 min read
Updated: Oct 2, 2025
Another month has flown by. We’re ensconced in a nice little apartment on the Gold Coast overlooking the Coral Sea. We spent the last month navigating the Great Ocean Road, visiting the sights of Adelaide, hiking in the Grampians National Park and checking out the mines of Victoria’s Gold Rush region. Our loop ended back in Melbourne, where we returned the rental car and caught a flight up to the Gold Coast.
The Great Ocean Road is one of the world’s amazing roads. The construction project was created to provide work for returning First World War servicemen and serves as a memorial to those servicemen. The road hugs the south coast, often carved from the coastal cliffs. It affords spectacular views of the coastline, sheer cliff walls, island arches, blowholes, canyons and caves. It’s a surfers delight and it’s all surf, all the time. We stayed in a number of the quaint coastal tourist towns dotted along the route, mostly hiking the coastline to take in the vistas.
Hanging with the Beach Boys in Geelong at the start of the Great Ocean Road.
Limestone stacks, arches and petrified forests around the 12 Apostles near Port Campbell.
Out and about along the Great Coastal Road.
Adelaide is Australia’s fifth largest city. It’s a compact, pretty city with more than its fair share of green spaces, coastal beaches, and is enclosed by the Adelaide Hills. It’s also the host of a month-long Fringe Festival. We spent a week exploring the city and its outlying neighbourhoods and took in a show at the Fringe. It was totally worth the stop.
Pic’s of some of Adelaide’s gorgeous green space and abundant street art.
One of the time balls that dot the coastline between Geelong and Adelaide. Used in the 1800’s, the balls were hoisted and dropped at a predetermined time to allow passing ships to verify their marine chronometers. Just like the Time Square New Year’s ball drop.
Next on our tour was the Grampians National Park. We spent three nights at the Halls Gap Wood Cabins, just on the edge of town. The property was lousy with kangaroos, and wild birds feeding in the fields behind the cabins. Halls Gap is a charming little village, it has everything a hiker needs including a few restaurants, coffee shops, t-shirt shops and a brew pub. A great home base for hiking the nearby hills. We enjoyed a number of hikes including the Pinnacle, an awesome experience.
Hiking in the Grampians
We completed our tour via the Gold Rush Region of Victoria. We spent a couple of nights in both Bendigo and Ballarat, two gold rush towns that still exhibit the atmosphere of days gone by. The highlight was a tour of an abandoned gold mine, including the above ground infrastructure and outbuildings that support the mine.
