You have two options if you want to drive from Adelaide to the beginning of the Great Ocean Road. One of them is to drive around 600km along the coastline, the other one goes inland before leading to the coast through the Grampians National Park. We chose the second option since Kyle (couchsurfer from Esperance) highly recommended it. Additionally the 200km long Great Ocean was on the schedule. It figured out to be a very good choice!
The Grampians NP is a huge forest on and around a little mountain range which gave its name to the park. Unfortunately we had one afternoon only, so we could just visit the two highlights (even though the girl of the information centre looked very confused when we told her that we wanted to spend only one afternoon there). The first highlight is a waterfall (MacKenzie Falls) which is a bit overhyped in our opinion. Although it’s very nice it isn’t something amazingly spectacular. The second highlight is, however, much more spectacular. The walking trail leads through a little “Grand Canyon” (the name seems to describe the stone formation rather than the size), over hitch and ditch through a small forest upwards the hilltop. In the bush we were able to tick another box on our list of Australian animals. While Kerstin and Vera fearfully looked after dangerous snakes Tobi spotted an Echidna. This unique animal, looking like a hedgehog with the nose like an anteater, is very difficult to spot in the wild. It’s so unique and difficult to classify for the zoology that it became the only egg-laying mammal beside the Platypus (flat-nosed animal similar to a beaver from Australia). At the top of the mountain there was a huge “Pinnacle” over the deep waiting for us to be climbed. The absolute kick together with a strong wind (beware of sarcasm) providing a stunning view over the park!