Blogs from North Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, Oceania

We decided we wanted to see Melbourne and The Great Ocean Road before we left Australia and thought it would be really fun to drive there! It took about 4 days to get there (and about 1800kms!) We got to see loads of beautiful countryside on the way and crossed 2 states! We camped on the way down and stayed in some really funny little places- some of them were teeny tiny towns, with only one road in and out and not a tourist in sight!! Most of them were off the New England Highway and all called English names, like 'Stratford upon the river Avon' 'Gloucester' and even 'Stroud'. We stayed in Melbourne itself (in a hotel this time!) for a couple of days and did a few sights- it's such a beautiful city- so ... read more

Cancelled trips Road trips: Australia is great for 'em; the seemingly endless tarmac, the wind in your hair, loud music pumping from the speakers, and that glorious scenery. The fact that I can't drive nor hold a driving licence is not an issue! In fact I quite like NOT driving - all that concentration and no alcohol. Borrrrring! But, maybe I should grow-up - learn to drive... I waited for Doreen’s arrival in the foyer of the hostel, I was fully packed and it was a beautifully sunny day. Doreen arrived in tears. Thrifty the hire car company - renamed Shifty by me - refused to let her have the car. They wouldn’t accept her international drivers licence without her actual driver’s licence from Germany - for some reason Doreen hadn't thought it was a useful ... read more

There is something magical and almost mystical about great train journeys.Iconic associations spring to mind…..The Oriental Express,The Trans Siberian Express,our own Blue Train and of course some of those Inspector Hercule Poirot murder movies,one of which was set on a train.When planning our travels through Australia there was no real connect with their World class train journeys until Sue’s brother,Rory Lynsky,traveled on The Indian Pacific from Perth to Sydney during 2008.A bit of research and there it was…The Ghan,a 2900km train journey from Darwin to Adelaide.Not only would it get us to a jump off point to access Tasmania but the added opportunity of experiencing one of the World’s top train journeys and seeing a huge slice of this enormous country was irresistible.Train travel is not a hurried affair……after all we had roughly fifty two hours ... read more

Melbourne hmmmm. It was a mixed bag to say the least. We arrived into Melbourne at 5 in the evening, foolishly thinking that the hottest part of the day was around midday, only to discover that the hottest part of the day during a heat wave tends to be dinner time - woohoo - let’s bake J Walking out of the lovely air conditioned airport into the evening sun felt similar to walking into a very hot sauna (fully clothed and carrying rucksacks). Once we arrived at our hostel we were very happy to have booked a nice double room all to ourselves. We had a huge fan and a nice big window, but no air-con which was a bit tough. But the common room had a huge TV and some cosy couches and plenty of ... read more