Day 108 - January 8

My internal alarm went off around 9:30am. Hostels want you out of their place by 10:00am so I was used to waking up around that time.

Joel made us breakfast. Craig and I were planning to leave early for the long drive out, but we ended up talking for a bit. We actually stayed for lunch where Dee, Joel's sister, made us a potato and vegetable dish.

Not sure what to make of this picture.

After picking up my moms gift, Ugg boots with a Swarovski crystal as a button, we finally left Adelaide around 3:30pm. We decided to head back to Warrnambool and stay at the same hostel as last time.

After 615km's we arrived at 9:45pm. Checked into a 12 dorm room. It smelled like ass. Like I've mentioned before, there are a lot of people here that smell of stanky ass B.O. and this room had a handful of them.

Day 107 - January 7

We woke up in our hostel dorm and talked to the 3 other people that were sleeping in our room. There were 2 Germans: girl named Gina and a guy named Tobias, and 1 Dutch girl, Ineke. They drove from Canberra (the capital of Australia [near Sydney]) to Adelaide on a road trip. Ineke posted an ad for travelling partners (as she had her own car) and Gina and Tobias responded (seperately).

We invited them to our winery trip and I said they can carpool with us. They agreed.

From left to right: Canadian, German, German, Dutch, Doofus/American.

We drove to the Mclaren Vale area and stopped at the information centre for directions to the good wineries. They had a tasting in the information centre itself. We had some whites and reds, but nothing stuck out as delicious to me.

And so it starts....

We moved onto the next winery. They had a huge selection. Plus they had proper wine glasses.

And it continues...

 

My favorite - Mud Pie Dessert Wine

Gotta be deleicate

 

Went to the last winery. Tried a couple more, but it all started tasting the same to me. We walked around the building and went into a barn where there was more wine tasting and barrels all around.

There was a lot of Asians there. There was also cheese, crackers and olives on a table. We all immediately went to grab some cheese and crackers to eat. After taking a couple of bites, I realized the Asians were part of a private tour. I told my new friends to stay away from me so that I could blend in with the Asian crowd haha. The wine pourer told ze Germans that it was a private tour and that we had to leave.

Our little UN - Canada, Germany, USA... joke time...

An American (Craig), a German (Tobias), and a Canadian (Alex) walk into a winery.

Craig orders a glass of Dom Perignon; when he’s finished drinking it, he pulls out a pistol, throws the glass in the air, and shoots it.

He sets the pistol down on the table and looks around. Everyone in the winery is speechless.

Craig sniggers and says, “In my country we have so much money that we can buy new glasses any time we want. One more or less doesn’t matter.”

Now Tobias orders a Dom Perignon; when he’s finished, he takes the pistol off the table, throws the glass in the air, and shoots it. Then he says, “In my country, we have so many labourers that we can make new glasses any time we want. One more or less doesn’t matter.”

He sets the pistol back down on the table.

Finally Alex orders a Dom Perignon; after he’s finished drinking it, he picks up the pistol and shoots Craig. Then he says, “In my country, we have so many Americans that one more or less doesn’t matter.”

Made entirely of corks... including the people...

After that. We drove onto victor harbour. We walked across the bridge that connected granite island and victor Harbour. There was an option to ride a tram across for some money, but we decided to save money. Thank god we did as the tram was more of a old train cart being pulled by one horse. It looked like animal cruelty.


We hiked around the island. Craig being Craig climbed the enourmous rocks that were down by the waves on the side of the island. Tobias and I decided to join. Granite Island is also home to penguins, but you can only see them when they leave their nest in the morning and when they return home from hunting at night. It was 4:00pm so we weren't able to see them.

After hiking the island we drove to a German town, Hunsdorf. Along the way there we passed by a bridge and I could hear Ineke get excited. I turned the car around back to the bridge for her to take a picture of it. She had a hobby of taking pictures of bridges. Strange, but neat. She also used a film camera! Who uses those still?!

In the town of Hunsdorf, we went to The Germans Arms Hotel to eat. I ordered the roast of the day meat special: Saurbraten - Traditional German beef pot roast served with sweet sauteed red cabbage and rhine potatoes.

Geena ordered a hot dog, but it came out to me a huge hot dog!! And I thought I ordered the meat special...

After eating we hung out in the hostel in their room for a bit. About an hour later Joel called Craig and said we could crash at his house that night.

We went to Joels and I slept on the floor by their christmas tree while Craig slept in Joel's sister Dee's bed. We all chatted for a bit then went to bed.

Day 106 - January 6

Craig and I decided that we might as well stay another night since there was a lot to do around Adelaide. After booking another night, we passed by a bunch of girls that were also from Canada, Saskatchewan: the non technological part of Canada. They were going to a winery that had Camel rides (insert camel joke here) and told us to join them. We said maybe.

We drove to the Central Business District (CBD) of Adelaide. All 'downtowns' are called CBD. We checked out the information centre to see what we could do. We asked about camel rides in wineries, but they didn't know anything about it. There were a lot of wineries to check out. We grabbed some pamphlets and headed back to Glenelg to meet up with Derek, a friend of Dan's (Dan is my colleague from my previous job at the Elbow River Casino).

Derek was a great guy to hang out with. We spent about 6 hours talking and drinking in the sun. He told us about his travels around Europe. From his stories it makes me want to travel around there too. He also talked about World War histories and how he's met an elite war veteren who was like James Bond. Craig, Derek and I had great conversations. It felt like we could all talk for a long time.

We parted our ways as we were going to get ready to meet up with Craig's friend Joel near the CBD. We went to Chinatown for a quick bite. It was sweaty and hot in the food court.

Adelaide reminded me of Calgary. The population is similar as well, with around 1.2 million. It wasn't as fast paced as Melbourne, more relaxed. The people seemed just as friendly too.

Met Joel at the Franklin hotel on Franklin street. He's a 23 year old Australian that Craig met in New Zealand and worked with. He was super nice and acted like a brother to Craig, where they would try and beat each other up.

Also met Joels friends: P'an-tau (PT) and Sophie (whom were a couple). Pt was in the army and Sophie was a cute Australian girl, seemed kinda shy but was talkative once you started a conversation with her. PT was a pretty cool guy and easy to get along with.

Day 105 - January 5

Ordered a Pancake surprise for breakfast at a small cafe in Halls Gap. It had a banana, a slice of pineapple, maple syrup, and ice cream on top. Breakfast of champions! I thought I took a picture of it, but guess not.

Went to the information centre and asked for other attractions in the Grampians. They told us to go to the Boroka lookout and the Mckenzie waterfall. The lookout was pretty cool.

The lookout to the vast of Australia... of nothing...

The Mckenzie waterfall was neat. It was a bit of a walk downwards to the base.

The bottom of the waterfall.

We kept climbing down past the barriers on giant rocks and the waterfall stream. If Craig didn't decide to keep going, I probably wouldn't have gone. He's apparently a bad influence.... In a good way.... I think...

This area was closed off as storms wrecked the walk ways, but that didn't stop us.

My new pet rock. I shall call him peanut.

They don't allow you to punch birds.

After the waterfall, we drove out of the Grampians toward Adelaide. On the way there we stopped in the small town of Horsham, pronounced hor-shum, not horse-ham. We asked if there was any interesting places along the way to Adelaide. They told us to check out the bat caves in the Naracoorte National Park.

The best avenue there is.
The best avenue that was.
The best avenue there ever will be.
(Brett Hart quote).

It was $16 ($20 for non students) for a tour of the bar caves. I asked if Bruce Wayne was in the bat caves. The worker said they hear Batman jokes everyday. Ruin my party.

 

It was pretty neat to be in them. The ones we went in were very vast! On some parts we had to use flashlights to see our way.

Bats in a box. Better than a dick in a box.

Not a real bat.

The entrance to the bat cave. On to find Batman.

There was only 4 of us on the tour.

My flashlight lit up some of the rocks around us.

We went into the Bat information centre to read on some more information. I caught Craig at the perfect angle.

What's this test tube thingy?...

Just catching my breath, wait a sec...

After that, we headed for the scenic route along the ocean to Adelaide. We past by a giant lobster on the way.

*Nom nom nom nom*
Damn, I just threw out 10 Litres of butter last night. Could've used that right about now.

I made it to Adelaide in 2 hours when it would usually take 3 hours. There were a lot of wide open roads so it was easy to cruise at 160 km/h, but when we went through towns, I slowed down to the posted limit of 60 km/h as speed cameras and cops would be posted there.

We past by a giant sign that I thought was funny, so I pulled a U-turn.

Calm voice: "Just a grassfire or..."
Angry loud voice: "A deadly inferno?!?!!"

Won't somebody please think of the children?!
(Helen Lovejoy quote [Simpsons])

We got to Adelaide by about 10:00pm and only found 1 hostel that still had their reception open: The Backpackers. It was in Glenelg. We stayed in a room for 6. Once again, Craig and I had the whole room to ourselves. This place had free Internet, which is always a plus!!

Our hostel.

Our room.

This place looked fancy for a hostel. Downstairs was where the common areas were located: reception/bar, kitchen, movie room. To get to your rooms, you had to go outside and enter through massive doors, then down a corridor to your rooms, which had 9 foot ceilings. The rooms were carpeted, had a giant mirror over the fireplace and very roomy for a 6 person dorm. These hostel rooms were the best ones I've stayed in, but the Warrnambool had the best common area.

Day 104 - January 4

Most backpackers check out times are 10:00am. Warrnambool Beach Backpackers was no exception.

One of the better backpackers I've stayed at.

We packed all of our stuff and was set off to the Grampians National Park. We headed toward Portland (the birthplace of Victoria) as that was where the turnoff would be for the Grampians mountains, according to Craig. Too bad he was sleeping until we got to Portland and we missed the turn towards the mountains. We spent about 30 minutes trying to find the turnoff and we kept passing a strawberry farm. I decided that it was a sign and that we should stop there. While asking for directions we also picked strawberries.

I picked the greenest strawberry there was. It was super tart! If you ever need a strawberry picker, I'm not the droid you're looking for. They also had strawberry wine. It was really good.

We finally headed toward the correct direction, Hamilton. From hamilton we went to Dunkeld. In Dunkeld we checked out the info. centre where they showed us the highest peak in the Grampians, Mt. William; elevation of 1,167 m (3,827 ft).

We climbed to the top of Mt. William. Seeing mountains was not a new thing for me, but being at the highest point of the mountain was another thing. The view was exhilarating. It was  a 360 degree view of the Grampians.

Fitting that I had a Canadian hoodie and he had an American Shirt. Shortly after I pushed him off the cliff.
Canada FTW!

At the top of the peak there is a dial that shows the name and elevation of the other mountains.

I pwn these mountains!

Break dancing on the dial.

In the distance to the right, there was either a controlled fire or lots of people stop, drop, and rolling.

We climbed down and drove toward the town of Halls Gap. It was like driving to Banff, but without snow. Halls Gap, like Banff, was situated in the mountains.

We stayed at Brambuk Backpackers Hostel where it costed $25 a night for a 12 person dorm. We had the whole dorm to ourselves. It looked like a military dorm with all the bunkbeds so close to each other.

Our room. So many beds to choose from.

 The main room.

We went into town and bought beef to make burgers. Craig put some burgers on the 'barbie'. There were 2 eggs in the 'free from other backpacker' part of the fridge, so we added that to out toppings. we also had avocado and Brie cheese with English muffins as the bun. It tasted awesome!

The chef at work.

That's one giant piece of meat!

<> <><>

 The meat is bigger than the buns. 

Luckily I can stuff giant meat in my mouth... wait a sec...

After dinner we walked along a path through a short field and the woods. We walked off the path into the field where there were a bunch of kangaroos.

This was the first time Craig had seen them. He decided to chase them. It was epic!
Warning! The following show features a stunt performed by an American. Any injuries or deaths that occur to him will be ignored.

I walked really close to a couple. If you slowly walk to them, they stay their ground.

Although we did hear of a kangaroo attack the day before, it's usually not a good ideat to chase kangaroos, especially Red Kangaroos, they're the largest.

We also watched an indigenous dance presentation.  They had special dances that were to keep bees away or to communicate with nature.