Great Ocean Road Trippin

Hello all!
Well it has been a busy few weeks since we got back from Cairns which is why I have been neglecting my blogspot. School was winding down and exams loomed. However, somewhere in between my rigorous study sessions.... and my demanding internship.... I managed to squeeze in another trip!!

Last weekend Sean and I took off from Sydney at 6 a.m. to fly to Adelaide, capitol of South Australia. It was only a short flight and Sean and I arrived in Adelaide at 9 a.m. It was already boiling hot when we arrived in jeans and sweatshirts. Time to head to our hostel for the night, Backpack OZ, get changed, and explore Adelaide for the day!

I had done some research prior to the trip and found out that Adelaide rents bikes for free! Needless to say I got right on that. So Sean and I, after checking into our hostel, picked up our free mountain bikes and decided to take a scenic cruise along the Torrens River that runs through Adelaide to the famous beach, Glenelg.

It was extremely hot, but the day was beautiful and we had wanted to do something active, while exploring Adelaide. Well, we didn't realize just how active a day it would turn out to be....

Our scenic 'cruise' ended up being a 40km + bike hike! In 37 degree weather!!!!

Despite the blistering heat and more challenging bike ride than we had planned, we had a great time and the ride was beautiful. Most of it was along the river, which looked like a scene out of the Wizard of OZ or something. Everywhere the grass was sunburnt and brown, yet a foot on either side of the river bank was the greenest grass I had ever seen (including GAP), dotted with red and yellow flowers. It was gorgeous. Along much of it horses were grazing too, as the path we took was a popular horse back riding route.

Other parts of the trail were right along the beautiful beach. It was so pretty.

Once we arrived in Glenelg we were hot, exhausted, starving...and only half-way through our bike ride, as we had to then make our way back to Adelaide. So we wandered around Glenelg, a very cool beach side town with lots of restaurants, found some grub and fuelled up for the return trip. We got back to Adelaide just in time to return the bikes before the shop closed, then went straight to our hostel to shower and have a quick nap. We were exhausted!!

Sean and I then went out to eat and relax. Adelaide is a beautiful old city, remarkable because of its really old stone buildings and amazing architecture. We enjoyed these views while sitting and eating at our side-walk cafe on the main street downtown. Needless to say though, we were looking forward to an early night, especially since we had to meet our tour group, that was to take us on a 3 day tour along the Great Ocean Road to Melbourne, the next morning at 7 a.m.

ZZzzz...