We woke up and walked around town to get breakfast, and then continued our tour of the amazing geological formations along the ocean. On one of the beaches we collected a bag full of garbage, and plan to have it as a beach walking tradition from now on. We considered staying on the beaches longer, but decided to head on inland and catch a view of the mountains before sunset. I drove for the first time in Australia, which wasn't too hard on the rural roads we were following. I had to remind myself to keep left much of the time, and once turned into the wrong side of a road, but fortunately no one was coming.

The approach to the Grampians was beautiful-green tree covered mountains rising out of the fairly dry and brown plains. We stopped at the information center and planned potential hikes. Unfortunately we were there during Easter weekend which is a four day holiday for Australians and a huge time for traveling. So there were thousands of people descending on this small town, and all of the motels and hotels and campsites were already taken. We couldn't even find a campsite in the park! Fortunately we had reservations to stay in a hostel for the first night, and had a place to stay.

We watched all of the cockatoos and cockatiels coming in for the night-an extremely noisy bunch!!! They are always talking and complaining to each other. We went for a walk after dark fell and saw a group of three kangaroos eating grass near someone's yard. They would use their tails and front arms to move forward if they were just moving a bit, but if you got too close they would jump in the air, using their tails for balance. After dinner we went for a longer walk and found dozens more kangaroos, including a whole herd (?) in a mist covered field. It was a bit surreal to see their shapes and silhouettes surrounded by mist and then see them hopping away into the distance.

[Note: All pictures on this page are from the Great Ocean Road because it was so spectacular!]