Loving the (Australian) Alps

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Only about 2 weeks to go folks and then I'm back in the UK, hope the weather is OK, I have been wearing shorts and t-shirts for most of 5 months and have no intention of doing otherwise back home! Fat chance hey! I've spent the last week travelling through Victoria, from the Great Ocean Road in the west through to Bright, where I am now, in the north east. I had a great couple of days on the coast, and the drive was pretty spectacular. Shame I didn't have a better car to really enjoy it but the scenery was great all the same. From Robe (great hostel, bit sleepy) I drove to Port Fairy - slightly odd name but a great little place all the same with an island I walked around, where I saw the odd brown roo in the photo. Then it was on to the Great Ocean road proper, which has some great sites and difficult/fun driving. The coast is made of limestone so the first part is dominated by features eroded from the rock such as the 12 Apostles. Further along the coast are some great little towns like Apollo Bay and also Cape Otway, where lots of (British) ships were shipwrecked in the 19th century. Rather than stay a night around here I decided to head straight along to Melbourne, so on Thursday night I turned up on Rhod's doorstep. He very kindly put me up for the next 4 nights. Melbourne was great. On Friday I explored on my own - went to the Botanical Gardens, the MCG (cricket ground) and the Eureka Tower for views of the city. That evening we hit Brunswick (where Rhod lives) with Laura, his flatmate and 3 other friends who have moved over from back home. Had a great night out, dinner and a couple of bars, but I was paying for it in the morning. So it was back to the Botanical Gardens to relax/sleep before going to see the film Burn Before Reading that evening (it's great, definitely go and see it). We got out of town on Sunday, driving out to some hills called the Yarras, about an hour from Melbourne. We walked a bit and tasted some wine, which we polished off with some home cooked dinner that night. On Monday I picked up my latest hire vehicle - a Jucy Campa! Lurid green, very sluggish but OK and my home for a week. I drove out to the Australian Alps - not quite as impressive as Europe's but not bad all the same. Yesterday I did a tandem paraglide over the town and surrounding hills. It was amazing. There's something odd about running off a cliff, but we had about an hour in the air, admiring the view and getting a great thrill when we caught the thermals and rocketed cloudwards. We got up to about 1800m where it was pretty cold but it was a great day for it. That afternoon I explored Mt Buffalo, a huge plateau around 1500-1600m high (you can drive most the way up though). The views again were extraordinary as was the abundance of bird life. It's also a ski resort in winter but it looks like it would be like skiing in Scotland! Today I have done a bit more climbing but without cheating this time, going up Victoria's highest peak, Mt Bugong (1986m). It was a very steep climb (up a route called the Staircase), and cold at the top but well worth the effort. Back on the bike tomorrow I think, before a bit more climbing and then the beach at the weekend.

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