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Published: March 7th 2007
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Very Cute
and very very lazy Melbourne - The World’s Best City to Live in?
Melbourne was a lovely city to stop in. So refreshing compared to British cities with hardly any litter, no graffitti that we could see, really friendly people and great artwork splashed around the place. We can see why this town is billed as the best city in which to live in the world.
We had two days to explore the city, enjoy the shops and eat as many of the bargain $9.99 (4 GBP) Subway meals for 2 people as we could. We spent a rainy afternoon at the Immigration Museum finding out that not all Melbournites originated as convicts; a great geography lesson.
The highlight was definitely Valentine’s Evening though (aye, aye - not like that as we were in a very romantic dorm at a hostel). We bought a bag of picnic food, 2L of the cheapest red wine and took ourselves off to the Sidney Myers Concert Bowl where the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra was putting on a free concert. The atmosphere was great, weather beautiful and the wine went down very well (all of it, somehow).
The Really Great Ocean
Very patient...
We cruised quietly on the lake to spot the platypus which are very shy creatures and there were only 6 of the buggers in the whole lake!?! Road
How great it is to throw everything into a car and not have to worry about the mess for 20 days. If anyone is familiar with Ang’s ability to make full use of the space in a car (in particular her Citroen which was dubbed as Barlow’s Skip) you will appreciate what a treat it was to have a Toyota Camry (big family car) to make homely and fill with junk. Our plan in the 20 days we had hired a car for was to see the Great Ocean Road (west of Melbourne), return to Melbourne for a cultural evening of fun (aka Neighbours night) and then travel east to Sydney.
Within an hour of driving from Melbourne we had reached the Great Ocean Road, a beautiful coastal region with very British-sounding seaside towns. We stopped at Bell’s Beach (a famous surfing beach), Torquay and then Lorne before setting up camp in a campsite in woodlands a little inland. We chose the campsite as it allowed us to get closer to nature than the large caravan parks along the coast (and it was free). The only draw back was a lack of showers but we
soon found a solution to that (other than not washing). We even spotted our first "big" spider. When using the loo Pete suddenly jumped out swearing and pointing at a rather large hairy spider right above him in the loo. Ang did point out it was probably the harmless Huntsman spider but he wasn't taking any chances.
The Great Ocean Road is not just fab because of the beautiful scenery, we also appreciated the freebies. Not only was our campsite free but along many of the beaches there are free beach showers and free electric barbeques. We both made full use of these facilities whilst staying near Lorne; Pete enjoyed the great meals cooked on the barbies, Ang was glad of the opportunity to shave her legs in the beach shower despite being in full view of the beach and road (embarrassing but necessary).
About an hour inland from Lorne is Elizabeth Lake where about 6 platypus live. We decided to splash out on an evening canoe trip on the lake to try to spot some of these elusive mammals. It was a very relaxing trip, peacefully floating around the lake looking for the platypus. We
Bush Camping
Ang rustling up some good bush grub (well, the man we were with) spotted 3 platypus in total. One was very young and not put off by the canoe - we got so close that at one point he came up to the water surface for air/to chew his food within a metre of the canoe and gave himself a bit of a fright.
The most spectacular section of the GOR was definitely the Twelve Apostles and Loch Ard Gorge. Geography at its finest! We both saw these beautiful rock formations at sunset and Pete was so keen he came back for sunrise too (Ang’s karrimat was just too comfy to get up from).
Back to Melbourne for some more culture
It was very fortunate that we had to go back through Melbourne so that we could be there on a Monday. This is the night to be in St Kilda’s district; Neighbours Trivia Night. It must be the densest (no pun intended) population of 20-35 year old female pommies outside the UK. We joined a bubbly team of 7 girls and another bloke (phew, Pete said) and settled into a brilliant and hilarious night. Highlights included: many renditions
Unidentified Spider
Looking up whilst sat on the toilet Pete let out a few expletives!!! of the theme tune to Neighbours (although Ang was disappointed it was the shortened post-1992(?) version and not the original); meeting Boyd, Jennay and Toady (although Pete seemed to find it necessary to pull faces in the only photos we will ever get with these stars); and Ang elbowing her way to the front of the crowd as Karl Kennedy’s band entertained the masses. Thanks Helen for this great wedding present - we both had a fab, fab time!!!
We even found the time to visit the holy land of Ramsay Street (aka Pinoak Court). Very small street in the suburbs of Melbourne. Even Pete admitted it was quite surreal walking around the TV set that is just ordinary people's houses. The only sign that it was something special was the security guard making sure Ang didn't steal some flowers from Dr Kennedy's garden.
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