Great Ocean Road and South Australia Wrap Up

The scope of this portion of the trip evolved greatly over the course of planning for the trip.  At first, it was nothing…maybe a day trip on the Great Ocean Road from Melbourne.  Then it was drive the Great Ocean Road in a day to Adelaide and do day trips from there to Kangaroo Island and the Barossa Valley.  It didn’t take me too long to figure out that was a horrible idea.

The final itinerary ended up at 7 nights, and I’m glad it did.  This was one of my favorite portions of the trip (especially South Australia).  Alyce really liked it too, though it may have lost a point or two in her book for being more rustic.

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The Great Ocean Road (“GOR”) is a 150 mile coastal highway commissioned by Australia to put soldiers returning from World War I to work.  It is also the world’s largest war memorial, being dedicated to soldiers that passed in WWI.

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Adios Australia!

Today was our last day in Australia.  We are sad but looking forward to seeing something new.  Tomorrow, we fly from Adelaide to Bali.  It is about a 5 hour flight, and we’ll get there around 3 pm.  It us, Bali signifies the beginning of the end of the big trip.  We both have mixed feelings about this.  I can’t wait to see my boys and my family, but I’ll miss all of these exotic and amazing places that we have seen.

For our last day in Australia, we left Kangaroo Island fairly early in order to catch the ferry.  We said goodbye to fatty who was waiting at the door for his last bit of grain and headed out.  We drove to another wine region called McLaren Vale.  Here, we visited two vineyards: Kay Brothers and Mollydooker.  Both of them were wonderful.
We did a tasting at Kay Brothers and a tour at Mollydooker.  Kay Brothers is an old vineyard, and they make some very highly regarded wines.  The man who was pouring the wine was extremely informative.  He gave us alot of history about the wines in Australia.  We also got to taste alot of great wine!
The tour at Mollydooker was excellent.  We walked through the vineyards, and he explained what made their wines different from other wines.  Apparently, “Mollydooker” is a term that refers to a left-handed person (similar to “southpaw” in the US).  The two owners of the vineyard are both left-handed and that’s how they got the name!  The best part of this tour was that we got to see the harvested grapes being crushed and juiced.  We have never been to Napa during harvest, so we have never gotten to see this.
We also got to taste juice that was just being pressed.  Some of the other tastings came out of the giant tanks that hold the wine prior to bottling.  At the end of the tour/tasting, we were going to buy at least one bottle of wine.  But, they let us have (for free) the two bottles that they opened for the tasting.  There was another couple on the tour with us, but they said that they didn’t want it.  Crazy.
For our last night, we are staying in the Amande Bed and Breakfast.  It is not the creepy type of B&B where you sleep in an old lady’s son’s room.  We have our own little cottage separate from the main house.  Am I the only one that is creeped out by bed and breakfasts?
Our flight leaves Adelaide around 9 am tomorrow, so we’ve got an early day (the drive to Adelaide from McLaren Vale is about 45 min).  We are looking forward to seeing what Bali has to offer!
Two weeks left 🙂
Sorry for the lack of pictures. WiFi is not good (again).  I’m getting tired of that.  Hopefully, the rest of the trip will have great WiFi.  Hopefully……….!!
XOXO Alyce