The Grampians

We must be crazee to book a tour to the Grampians after spending 2 tiring days at Great Ocean Rd. but no time to waste!! we must see more of victoria before we leave!! haha!! plus the Grampians is actually this group of rocky and foresty mountains further west of melbourne in victoria. yesh... mountains means lotsa climbing n trekking! so yup, i think we were crazeee... but we survived!

Again we booked a tour coz liling hasn't been there b4 and it being mountaneous, we figured the road conditions must be quite bad. and true enough... PHEW! luckily we din drive... coz the roads were so tortuous! and they din even haf a metal barrier next to the cliffs!! (at least great ocean rd had!) if we veer towards our side a bit, downslope we'll go and then farewell...

as usual, the scenary was fantastic but this time, we hafta work our way up and downhill to catch them... got exertional dyspnea a couple of times, but good in a way la... coz can burn off the calories i ate on saturday nite. the company was less fun-loving... had only 13 ppl on e trip and e hongkongers din come along. so it was just 4 of us... pretty surprised to see a singaporean couple on the trip too. unfortunately, they're not really fantastic and nice ppl... e guy's alright but e girl's well... liling calls her a B*$&%... so we tried our best to avoid them as much as possible.

she's really strange... we manage to strike some conversation during morning tea and we asked her if she likes melbourne a lot especially since this is like her 2nd time here... and she said "no la... i dun really like this place..." and started talking abt how boring it is actually... and something abt them having only 1 week holiday so no choice gotto come here. do u get what she's saying? well, i dun... and her condescending tone disgusts me... then during one of e trek, she was leading the way and she was walking so fast! we're supposed to walk slowly n appreciate the nature around us... n look out for various flora n fauna along e way... so liling, ken n i decided not to follow their pace and slowed down to look around. anyway there was only 1 track, wun get lost...

obviously we got to the destination (venus bath) half an hr later... then she tried some small talk outside a toilet again... ken was telling her how we were enjoying e scenary and he kinda apologized for arriving late n holding everyone up (ken's our foreign minister rem?) and i was reviewing my cam photos n exclaiming how beautiful the scenary was... and she said "is this the first time u guys experience nature?" in that depreciating tone of hers again... we couldn't take it n made some excuse abt wanting to buy icecream n left without answering her. i have a good mind to tell her "u can't say u've truly experienced nature if u haven't been appreciating it isn't it?" n the likes of it... but well, i decided to save my breath!

anyway, most of e trip, we tried to avoid her, in e mean time feeling really sorry for her henpecked boyfren who tolerates her nonsense without any complaints... hahaha!!

enough abt tt insignificant character... the Grampians is a totally different type of erm... wat do u call it... habitat? there're manificent rock formations and mountains too but they're different from those at great ocean rd... firstly, e colour and substance is different already... those at great ocean rd r mainly limestone, tan brown in colour n it contrasts with the blue and green of the sea n sky really well... whereas those at the grampians are shades of grey against small groups of shrubs n canopies of rainforest trees. the great ocean rd, like i've mentioned r formed due to the forces of waves n winds... the Grampians however r formed due to the movement of the plates resulting in compression and rarefaction of the ground substance. (something lydat)

the best part of the trip was the Mackenzie falls... my first waterfall ever since i came to australia. i love waterfalls!! they gimme this refreshing and cooling feeling when u stare upwards from the foot of the fall. spent lotsa time taking photos there... there were plenty of dangerous looking cliffs along e first trek in the mountain... but WOW... e scenary is awesome as u walk along those overhanging rocks... and u suddenly feel like u're being engulfed by these massive rocks... n u feel tiny! haha!!

anyway, e weekend ended really fast but it was well-spent thru n thru!!