The Grampians

On Wed., we left Adelaide and drove southeast toward Melbourne. Along this route, things definitely look somewhat greener, at least by Australian standards. It appears that this part of the country gets a little more rain than other parts. In fact, shortly east of Adelaide, we crossed the Murray River, which is a major Australia river, and it seemed to be full, with water high on the banks. We passed lots of Eucalyptus trees. I have come to love Eucalyptus trees. There are over 500 varieties of Eucalyptus trees in Australia. Eucalyptus trees shed their bark instead of their leaves. As a result, you see trees with smooth white trunks and branches full of leaves. They really are very unique, and very pretty. The flowers of the Eucalyptus trees have no smell, so I'm not sure where the Eucalyptus scent comes from.

Our major sight-seeing venture for today was the Grampians, which is a beautiful mountain range part way between Adelaide and Melbourne.

As we entered Grampians National Park, we were driving along the valley floor, where the majestic peaks rose on either side of us. Eventually the road began to climb as we ascended into the mountains. We stopped at some designated overlooks to view the spectacular mountain ranges that stretched out before us as far as the eye could see.

The Grampians are very rugged, with rocky, steep cliffs and sharp, jagged peaks. In fact, the challenge of the steep slopes of the rock faces attracts experienced climbers to the Grampians from all over the world. As we continued driving, the road began to descend after we crossed the top of the range.

As we drove down the other side of the slopes, we saw some sheer, steep, bald faces of massive slabs of rock.

We eventually reached the valley floor and were again surrounded by the mountains. It was late in the day by this time, and the sun was beginning to set behind the ranges to the west, giving the peaks a soft, silhouetted look against the backdrop of the late evening sky. As we continued driving, we saw a couple of kangaroos alongside the road. From Grampians National Park, we drove south toward the coast. Along this drive we saw lots of pastureland, with one sheep farm after another, each one with many, many sheep - way more than we've seen before concentrated in one place. The pasturelands here are very green and rich, obviously a less arid climate in this part of Australia. We drove to Warrnambool where we are spending the night. We have a view of the Southern Ocean from our hotel room.