Melting in Melbourne & Great Ocean Road

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We made our way down to Melbourne firstly by bus to a tiny town then to get the train to Melbourne. The train took us through some very remote places & gave us a real idea about the dry & hot conditions that Australia experiences. We couldn't get our heads around how dry the area around Melbourne was. Everything was brown, we would see a farm then go for another forty minutes on the train before seeing the next door neighbours. It really gives you an idea just how massive this country is.

We were pleased when the train finally rolled into Melbourne, I was especially as we had been sat next to a little boy who had just got a pet baby rat.

We checked into the hostel & quickly discovered we had checked into a room which resembled a prison cell. We didn't venture further than the bar in the hostel on the first night, so we had lots to see the next morning. After what has been awarded one of the worst nights in a hostel we weren't really in the mood to do much. We quickly found out that the whole of Melbourne was full so we had no option but to stay & put up with it.

We visited the South Cross Market as recommended by the Lonely Planet which was well worth the visit. It was then on to the Immigration Museum which was very interesting. We both found it very interesting, we definetly learnt alot & discovered what the immigrants faced after 5 week boat trip to Australia.

That evening we went up the Eureka Tower to the 88th floor, which gave us spectacular views accross the city & off the sunset over St Kilda. We went on the glass platform which is a moving glass box which takes you three metres out of the side of the building, 88 floors up. Definetly not for the faint hearted, we finally managed to let go of the hand rail & have a walk around. The top floor windows are coated in 24 carat gold. It is the worlds highest residential building, it must be amazing to wake up each day with these views, although I guess you pay the price tag for this.

We knew to expect a hot day the next day, they were predicting 40 + degrees. Nothing can quite prepare you for walking out the door at 8am & it already being 30 degrees. We thought we would make & early start to beat the heat. We visited Captain Cooks Cottage located in a park in Melbourne, a little part of England in the middle of Australia. Very bizarre it was like stepping into England for half an hour. A visit to Melbourne wouldn't be complete without a tour of the Melbourne Cricket Ground. We were shown around by a guy who hasn't missed a single game of cricket there in years and we pretended to know what he was talking about. Although cricket has been in the press so much out here recently we did have a small advantage.

To continue with the sporting theme we then went to the qualifiers for the Australian Open & had a very civilised afternoon watching the tennis. We then were beaten by the heat, it got to 42 degrees the only thing we could think of doing was sitting in the shade under a tree in the park.

It was finally Neighbours tour time! We went with our Neighbours boff tour bus driver. First stop the school which becomes Erinsborough, the novelty is taken away when they get the Erinsborough high sign out of the back of the bus & gaffa tape it to the fence. Must be strange to be sat in lessons with Neighbours being filmed outside. It was then onto the studios where they film the outside scenes for the garage & grease monkeys. It was not what you expect with lots of old lorries about.

It was then on to Palm Road, better known as Ramsay street. Its tiny in real life, before you are allowed off the bus you get all to do's & don'ts & how real people actually live here. You don't get long, just long enough for a quick photo with the sign & a look around. Its then on to meet the mystery star, obviously everyone wants to meet Karl or Harold, but with it being a two week filming break not many were about so we got a meet Declan, not many of us recognised him, we got a photo & that was the tour over with.

We picked up our hire car for the next part of the adventure in Melbourne, being to young to drive the car (which I think is great, the only thing apart from getting an OAP card which I am too young for) I was chief navigator & James chief driver. We managed to make our way out of the city, only just after James suggested we should have gone for the sat nav option! We decided that rather than go on one of the organised tours we would hire a car then we could go where we wanted & stop when we want to.

We drove through the Dandenong's, a very touristy route which reminded me of the Peak district a little. We went up to Mount Dandenong & had a fab view back over the city right out to the sea, when we were up the Eureka Tower we could see the Mountain which we were now stood at the top looking back at the city.

Driving out here is so different to back home, we were driving along the main highway which was basically a road going through the subarbs. We headed down to Phillip Island, we had booked tickets to see the famous Penguin Parade where thousands of fairy penguins (the smallest in the world) come back to the island to nest after a day out at sea. When we got there it was freezing so quickly had to dash back to the hostel to find our winter clothes!

They have board walks so you can walk around the penguins nesting areas without disturbing them. Then we sat on this wind swept beach waiting for the penguins to come in. You arent allowed to take photos so we have no evidence of this. Then finally they started to arrive back, they came in groups of 50's, thousands of them, all waddling up the beach to their nests. It was well worth the wait & we also saw some chicks waiting in nests for there parents to come back with dinner!

The next day we had an explore around the island, before heading down to Sorrento to catch the ferry to join up with the Great Ocean Road. It was a beautiful area & we saw five dolphins chasing our ferry which was an added bonus we didn't expect to get.

We then got on to the Great Ocean road & headed west our first stop was Apollo Bay, we had lots of stops on the way, stopping at the famous Torquay, Bells Beach & Lorne to name a few stops. The drive was amazing we virtually had the road to ourselves despite it being a v.touristy area. I think we couldn't have picked a better time of day to drive it, with the sun setting it was spectacular, although a bit hair raising at times with the twists & turns! Our first night was at Apollo Bay, where we had an explore the next morning before heading off. The guy at the hostel recomeneded we went to Cape Otway on our way towards the 12 Apostles, as if we were lucky we would get to see wild Koalas. After spending ages driving watching the trees we were finally rewarded in the end seeing about 10 koalas perched in the trees. How they sleep on the branches without falling off I don't know! We drove through more countryside today rather than along the coastline. We finally arrived at the 12 Apostles, we had a quick walk along the beach before deciding we would come back & watch the sunset.

It was then whilst we were at the hostel our car accident occured, that may be a bit dramatic, basically someone reversed straight accross the road, which was so wide you could have turned a tank & into the side of our little pom mobil! I choose to ignore all James' comments & jokes about how it must have been a woman driver. Luckily the hostel manager got the license plate, we took out full excess cover when we hired the car which was lucky or they would have been charging our card $6,000 dollars & we would have been heading home. To cut a long story short, when we returned the car it turned out to the car which hit us & did a runner was a hire car from the same company which cut down all the paperwork we had to do & we got the last laugh.

The sunset over the 12 Apostles was a little disappointing it ended up really cloudy but still a spectacular sight. We continued along the Great Ocean Road stopping at lots of places on the way, we headed back to Melbourne via Ballarat we drove for miles without seeing anyone along the straightest roads which seemed that they were never going to end.

It was then time to say goodbye to the pom mobil & Melbourne and jump on a plane to Adelaide. Melbourne is so completely different again to Sydney & Canberra. The Southbank very much reminded us of London. The Great Ocean road has some of the most amazing, breathtaking scenery & beaches.

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Photos

Little bit of England
Cooks Cottage, Eureka Tower & Melbourne CBD in background