From Sydney to Melbourne & The Great Ocean Road

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I've been shite at keeping my blog up to date I know, but there's a good reason. I've just been having too much of a good time I haven't had a spare minute to sit down at a computer.

After my last entry I headed out to the crab races at Scubar in Sydney with my hostel room mates (Claire, Petra & Marlous) and had one of the most hilarious nights out ever. I just happened to be travelling with crab bibs in my backpack (a challenge set by my brother and Lee) so it was obviously fate that the crab races were on near by. The girlies and I wore our bibs with pride all night and once the alcohol was flowing decided we would try to get as many people as possible to wear our bibs and get photographic evidence. It was a major success and we met a few lovelies and crazies along the way. The next morning I was woken up by a phone call from my friend in Melbourne asking where I was and what time my flight was getting in. Slowly the ball dropped and I realised I had missed my flight...'OH CRAP!' No one's fault but my own, so I just had to laugh it off and made my way to the internet café in my PJs to book another flight for that afternoon.

6 hours later I was in Melbourne airport being greeted at the gate by my friend Leanne, who I met travelling through Vietnam. We headed to Karen's (another lady I met in Vietnam) and caught up over dinner before getting to sleep at around 2am. The next morning we ventured into the city. It was a busy, but a brilliant day starting with an exhibition at the ACMI (Australian Council of Moving Images) and finishing at the Queen Victoria Night Market. I spent the hot summer evening at the market stage dancing away to the vocal stylings of Dan Sultan & Co. They had some awesome bands on the whole night. I have just completely fallen in love with Melbourne!

Thursday 15th Jan I spent the day with Leanne and her family in the City. The highlight was hitting the docks in the evening. Every night at 9pm they have a pyrotechnic display along the Southbank involving some very huge flame throwing pillars. The display only lasted about 10 minutes, but it was just awesome. The heat those things generated was incredible! The next day, Karen, Leanne and I went exploring in nearby Ballarat; location of the famous Goldmines and the Eureka battle. The whole town still looked like it was living in the 1800s, but I loved that. It was such a nice change and so different to anything I've seen before.

Saturday evening I went out with Karen and her friends to a free concert at the Fitzroy Gardens in the City. The Black Sorrows (who are really big out here) were giving a free 2 hour concert, which I've been told is a common thing in Melbourne all throughout the summer. The concert drew a big crowd. Everyone came tables, chairs and picnics in hand and let loose dancing around the field. After a couple of glasses of champagne and a brandy I of course joined in too. Once the gig had finished Karen and I weren't quite ready to go home and ended up in a random bar called Rick's. It was pretty much empty...maybe just 5 patrons, but a lady called Liz Bradley was there performing with her acoustic guitar. She was really talented so we ended up listening to her set and wearing out our dancing shoes a little more before we headed off home.

Early Sunday morning Leanne and I hit The Great Ocean Road, 'Thelma and Louise styley'. During our 9 hours trip to Waarnambool, we stopped several times to soak up the sights and stretch our legs. The first stop was the famous Bells Beach (from the movie Point Break). The surf was good, so lucky for me this meant lots of hot surfer guys were milling around. Leanne asked a couple of guys fresh from the surf, boards in hand, if they wouldn't mind having their photo taken with a tourist; turns out they were visiting from Brazil, but I said they could pretend for that instance that they were Australian. :o)

Next stop was the lighthouse in Aireys, made famous for being the location of 'Round the Twist' followed by lunch in Lorne. We were on the road again after a short time and soon came across a small group of tourists gathered on the side of the road. Being curious we had to investigate so parked up and went exploring. Turns out there were a family of koalas in the Gum trees on the side of the road. Once the tourist group had moved on I had a good search through the bush and managed to find 5 koalas. I spent the next 30 minutes taking photos before we were on the road again.

On the way to Waarnambool (location of our bed for the evening) we made several stops in Port Campbell National Park and I was treated to some of the most beautiful sites I have ever seen in my life. First was the Twelve Apostles. I had heard about them, but nothing could have prepared me for how breath-taking they were on a clear sunny afternoon. I was trigger happy with the camera. Second stop was Lock Ard Gorge (the setting for The Pirate Movie in the 80s) Again...it was just beautiful. The photos should speak for themselves. The final stop as darkness drew closer was London Bridge or what was left of it. In the early 90s, London Bridge was a huge rock bridge going out to sea, but the middle collapsed in 1999 leaving a massive gap.

We arrived at Leanne's auntie's (Denise) place in Waarnambool after 10pm feeling drained and in need of a good night's sleep which we surely got. It was an early start on Monday morning as we went to collect Leanne's nieces and nephew for a visit to the Wildlife Park in Allensford. I had a good laugh with the kids going around the park seeing the kangaroos, bats, kookabarras, monkeys etc... Before we left the park owner let me hold the baby koala (Nelly). She was so incredibly cute and fluffy. What came next, was not so cute and fluffy! I conquered my fear of snakes and agreed to hold a python. It was freaky and I really struggled to stay calm, but it wasn't so bad in the end. I'm not saying I would do it again, but I probably wouldn't dismiss the idea of holding a snake so quickly. After the park, I asled Denise to drop me off at Waarnambool beach for a couple of hours since I hadn't been at a beach for a while and was in the mood to top up my tan. It was a ridiculously hot day (high 30s, low 40s) so I struggled lying there in the heat and had to regularly take dips in the sea to cool down. The beach was packed as should be expected on such a hot day.

By 6pm (yesterday), we continued our road trip towards Hamilton where we stayed with Leanne's friends Tara and Jo. They were such a brilliant couple; absolutely hilarious and just COOL! They are both music teachers so had rooms full of pianos & guitars. I locked myself in a room for a couple of hours and just played the piano...it had been too long since I had the chance to do that. We chilled out for the evening in front of the TV with Jo and Tara before heading of to bed again.

We left Hamilton this morning at 11am for Halls Gap in The Grampians. Once again it was a boiling hot day reaching the low 40s. It was a struggle! We stopped for lunch in Halls Gap, which is a small town situated right in the middle of The Grampians before we drove to a few look outs in the mountains. We walked the trails to The Balconies and MacKenzie Falls, which were meant to be relatively easy grade treks, but the heat just made it unbearable. Never the less, we had an amazing time and it was well worth the sweat and almost tears. I achieved my goal of seeing Kangaroos in the wild just before we left The Grampians and although we didn't get too close, I managed to get a few photos. The drive back from the Grampians to Melbourne took about 4 hours and in that time, as much as I wanted to stay awake, my eyelids felt too heavy and I was out like a light until we reached 'home'.

I'm back at Leanne's and am desperate for some sleep. We have another early start tomorrow because we have tickets to The Australian Open. I'm just waiting to see the order of play and then I'm off to bed.

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Photos

Crab bibs on crab race night
Just one of the many photos

Nelly the baby koala
I WANT ONE!