Melbourne to Alice Springs

---

G'day.

I arrived in Melbourne early Sunday morning after the 12 hour overnight train from Sydney. Had some breakfast before walking to the hostel, only ten minutes away from the station. As I was early I had to leave my rucksack in the luggage room and went for a wander around Melbourne.


Melbourne is the second largest city with approx 4 million people living there. I walked back to the train station first to book my next two trains, Melbourne to Adelaide and Adelaide to Alice Springs on The Ghan.


I had decided two nights would be enough in Melbourne and one night in Adelaide, as I said before wanted to get to the Northern Territories before the worst of the wet season hits during November.


I then wandered all over Melbourne walking down Flinders Street past the old Victorian looking regional train station, through Federal Square, Melbourne cricket ground (huge holds nearly 100,000 people!), Melbourne Park (where tennis open played) and along Flinders lane.


While at Federal square I booked myself a day tour of the Great Ocean Road at the tourist centre. As expected the weather not fantatstic and decided a day tour would do!


After many hours wandering about I headed back to my hostel to move into my room and meet my new roomies, Miles and John before heading out again to check out tours for Uluru (Ayrs Rock) for when I get to Alice Springs. I booked a three day two night tour for The Olgas, Uluru Rock and Kings Canyon, from Peterpan Travels!lol


Wandered around some more up Elizabeth Street, seems to have same street names as Sydney! Then back to hostel to have free pizza and a jug of beer in the bar next to the hostel, then off to bed early as tour pick up was around 0700 next day.


One of my roomies had one of the Willing Workers On Oganic Farms (WOOFing) so had a look thru his book at the various listings. Basically you work for four hours a day, doing various stuff like gardening housework or farming jobs and get board and lodging for your efforts.

Facebooked it and few friends have done before and reccommended it, plus Helen (Utila volunteering) said to have a look at helpx.net.


Minibus picked me and others up just around the corner from the hostel and we headed off to the Great Ocean Road. The road was built after the war to help stimulate the economy in the area and provide work to returning soldiers. The road passes through three distinct areas, the surf beaches, the rainforest and the shipwreck coastline.


There were 17 of us on the tour of varying nationalities and around half travelling alone, I sat next to an American girl called Paige. First stop of the tour was a half hour visit to Bells Beach famous for being used in the eighties surfing / heist film Pointbreak.


Weather a bit cloudy and chilly so whistle stop tours were fine! Next came the memorial arch over Great Ocean Road, erected in memory of the lives lost and those wounded during the war, Australia had over 60% fatality and wounded rate.


Stopped at another beach for a paddle and a kick about before heading to Kenneth river where we looked for Koalas in the trees, where Walter our guide got us standing with handfuls of bird seed holding our hands out, we looked crazy! But eventually parakees and some other birds came down for food.


Talking of food that was our next stop, Apollo Bay for our included lunch, which was nice, chicken and chips. After lunch we headed to Maits rest where we had a 45 minute walk through a rainforest walk, the coldest rainforest I have ever been in!lol


The highlight of the tour was our next stop and the sun was coming out, hooray! We arrived at the Twelve Apostles, which is weird because when they were named there only ten and now think only eight or nine! They used to be called the sow and piglets but the authorities changed their name. They are basically stacks created from the erosion of the soft limestone coast. The view of the coastline was amazing.


Another ten minute drive and we were at Loch Ard Gorge, a place famous for a shipwreck where the only two survivors took refuge in a cave in the sea gorge. Our tour guide asked who wanted to try and walk to the cave and that we may get wet, only three of us (English and French Florences) were up for it while the rest went for the walk around the top of the gorge.


We took our shoes and socks off, I took my jeans off as had my boardies on underneath as knew we would be near beaches! As we alked down to the sandy beach Walter explained more of what we were going to do.

Basically we had to time our movements based on the size of waves breaking into the gorge. So first we ran along the sandy beach between the cliff and the sea as the waves receded, then climbed onto rocks and continued to do the same.


We got to a corner point and Walter and I got hit by a medium sized wave, then I saw a large one coming thru the gorge inlet, I shouted to the girls but they were too slow and a massive wave hit them! French Flo fell down so I grabbed her then turned to see English flo was also wet head to toe, hilarious! Especially as they had just rolled their trousers up and also found out later that English Flo had no other clothes!


We continued to the cave anyway took some pickies then headed back the same way and walked back up the hill to the bus. The girls put their clothes on the bus dashboard to dry them off on the heater on the way back! Luckily I had taken Flo's camera and put in my jacket pocket otherwise it would have been wrecked by the water. Plus I was the only one who had brought a towel so I lent it to them.


Our last stop was another eroded formation called London Bridge, as it used to look like a large bridge until it eroded futher and was now London Bridge has fallen down! Walter stopped at a bottle shop on the way back so I grabbed a nice couple of cold ones for the journey home.


We had a three hour journey back to Melbourne with a stop at some take aways en route for our dinner. Arived back at hostel around eight thirty, been a long day. Some bits were a bit of a rush but again would only have been good to spend more time if the weather better. Enjoyed it over all and the two Florences made the day! Lol
We had travelled approximately 500 km in the bus!


Next morning up early again to catch my train to Adelaide, had two seats to myself and was comfortable. Hit Adelaide at six thirty at night and strangely crossed a time zone so clock back half an hour?! Walked the three km to the hostel and met Dutch Danny (met in Sydney) half hour later and went for a few beers, pool and some pub grub.


Did not have a late one as he was due to go in his tour early in the morning, Adelaide to Alice Springs. We said we would meet up again in Alice.


Next day I was catching The Ghan, which runs from Adelaide to Darwin 2979km! I was getting off at Alice Springs. Went to the supermarket in the morning to make some rolls and get some pies etc for the 25 hr journey.


Again the journey was comfortable and seemed to fly by with things to see out the window, books to read etc. Saw the sunset one side of the train and woke up for sunrise on the other! Had a girl from Japan next to me Yuka, so we chatted some of the way.


Still had a phone signal for first few hours so I checked out the helpx website and picked a few places, actually seems better than woofing as all Internet driven so up to date and created a profile for myself that hosts can see, you can also look for travelling companions.


When arrived in Alice was nice and hot in the thirties. The hostel used to be a cinema and had an outdoor movie screen to screen movies for free in the week. Had a wander round town and stopped in a bar called Bojangles Saloon, it was cool with an old fashioned saloon swing doors.


Also had strange toilets in that the door opened the wrong way with ten handles to choose from, when you turned a tap in the one next to it came on and the same with the hand driers, be difficult if you had a few beers!!


Stayed chatting to a couple of Australian guys, a German and an English girl so ended up staying for a few more beers. Early night again though as pick up for the tour was 0605, more about that in the next blog. Emailed a couple of the chosen farms from helpx bfore gong to bed.


Larf

---