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Published: September 8th 2006
Cityscape
Melbourne city in all its glory from St Kilda pierG'day everyone,
Its been two months since my last blog and i have done loads since then so heres how it went:
After the world cup, instead of just sitting round and mourning the loss of that fine trophy, i picked myself up and got a job labouring for a builder who was renovating a pub in Richmond (a suburb of Melbourne), although it may well have been Vietnam for all i knew as all the signs were written in squiggly writing! The job mainly just included dismantling stuff, which is always fun, lugging bricks about and cleaning up the mess left by the other builders and slinging it into skips. I was pretty lucky as i was just sitting in the hostel at the right time when a builder phoned looking for someone to work, and the money was decent too so i managed to save a fair bit. The good thing was, as im sure most of you can testify, is that after a hard days work the last thing i wanted to do was go out in the eve and even more-so, wake up with a hangover in the morning so i spent very little money
The 12 Apostles
what a perfect time to arrive! when working. I did this job for a bout 2months then it finished, so that was the end of that.
On one of my weekends off during the job, five of us from the hostel (Reece, Brett, Katie, Denise and of course Myself) rented a car (which much to my suprise turned out to be a 2.0 Subaru Impreza) and i drove us all down to, and along the Great Ocean road. The drive itself, there and back was about 750km, and every road you drive along is like a rally track on the edge of a cliff and certainly is a demanding drive, but very fun! We drove thorugh Torquay, which if famous for its surfing on Bells Beach and all the surf shops, stopped of in Lorne (the next town along) for a bit of tucker and refreshment then headed along the road. The scenery all the way along is unbelievable! There are little lookout points all along the road at which you can park your car up at and have a look around. The most famous points along the road are Erskine Falls, Loch Ard Gorge, London Bridge, and the most famous of all, the 12
Erskine Falls
One of the many scenic spots on route to the Apostles Apostles (although theres only 7 now because the others have all collapsed). All of these are unbelieveable and we managed to time our trip perfectly so we got to the Apostles at sunset and this really was amazing. That night the five of us stayed in a hostel in Port Campbell for a good nights kip ready for the trip again the next day. We woke up bright and early and had the customary bacon sarnie to keep us going and headed further along the road to Warnabool in hope of seeing some whales as they had been knocking about around 250m from the beach a couple of days previously. Unfortunately it was not to be, and this was the same for the other hundred or so people hoping to catch a glimpse. After this we drove back to the Apostles to get a butchers during daylight and the three lads got a helicopter ride along the coast. It cost $90 for a ten minute ride, but i would have paid double that. From a birds eye view you could see everything, all along the coast, and a brilliant view of the Apsotles. Anyone that goes into Victoria in Aus,
it is definately a must see and the chopper ride a must do!
Another highlight of my stay in Melbourne was the 'Bev and Micks' Trashique party. Everyone had to go to the local charity shop and get the worst (or best) outfit they could get their hands on. Being a charity shop outfit specialist after years of practising at uni, i managed to get a particularly hideous outfit. It was a wicked night and plenty of fun was had by all, we even went out for a while in our outfits, we all certainly turned a few heads!
A few days after the trashique party, when the hangover had finally departed, once again i felt it was time to venture out of Melbourne and rent a car and head to the Grampians. This time there was only two (Reece and I) of us as most people had moved on by then. This time Budget rent a car gifted us with a Nissan Tiida (which i have to mention had twice the guts of the scooby!). As the two of us planned our route i realised that we had to pass through Ballarat on our travels, and I
London Bridge
The actual bridge section has collapsed had been chatting to an Aussie fella (Jim - from Western Aus.) the night before who was just passing through Melbourne, and was staying in my room, who needed to get to Ballarat. So we decided that we'd ask hime if he wanted a lift. Jim was over the moon with this and offered us beer or petrol money (ended up being both which was well received!) for the ride. Having been extremely drunk the night before, Jim decided that the 'hair of the dog' approach was the way to go, so preceeded in getting a crate of beer in at 9am for the ride. It took about an hour and a half to get to Ballarat and by then our Jim wasnt too bad. As he couldnt get hold of his sister that lived in Ballarat we asked him if he wanted to come along for the rest of the ride with us and see the Grampians. So he decided to come along and as he was quite chuffed by the offer he decided that we should stop off at the next bottle shop along the way and get another crate in. By the time the next bottleshop came
Helicopter ride
Amazing view from the chopper along the coast along Jim was suitably hammered after polishing off the other crate in a couple of hours and was now starting on the next one.
Just before the Grampians we stopped off at Mackenzie Falls, which was beautiful. Unfortunatley, Mackenzie just happened to be Jims surname and despite all the signs warning people against the dangers of swimming and not to do it, with a speed that would rival Jodie marsh's pant dropping record, Jim was half naked and swimming under the waterfall, which i noticed by testing the water with my finger wasnt far off baltic!
After the splendours of Erskine falls, and enough time to allow Jim to dry off before he even got near the rental car and the deposit that i had paid with my bank card we headed to Halls Gap, home of the Grampian mountain range. There were only a few lookout points along the roads to stop and admire the view. The two main ones were Baroka lookout and the Balconies. Both were incredible views, all be it a bit cloudy from way up in the mountains to take a decent photo but i could see for miles. That evening the three
Trashique Party
The various horrendous outfits for the night, a bit of a shame you cant see my trousers! of us stayed in Halls gap in a small hostel called 'Tims Place'. Not much to our suprise Jim felt that we should get in some more booze so we can have a few social ones in the room after we get back from the pub! This we did and Jim had paid once again, at this point Jim had bought and mostly drank himself in the back of the car, two crates of 30 bottles and a litre of Jim Beam in about the 5 hours of driving time!
The next day we woke up a bit later (as Jim was quite hard to get out of bed!) and headed up to the lookout points again hoping it would be a bit clearer for taking photos. Then started chipping into the journey back into Melbourne. As we approached Ballarat, we woke Jim up (who had been sleeping the whole way back sprawled over the back seat) and dropped him off. The whole trip worked out to be about 650km and was certainly an interesting one with Jim on board, and definately funny!
I also thought it would be rude to be in Melbourne, the home of Fosters
Mackenzie Falls
Jims favourite spot and Carlton Draught, and not do the brewery tour. Myself, Adam and Reece headed to Richmond and had high hopes for the tour ahead. Unfortunatley, once we had paid up and waited to go into the factory, the tour guide told us that the factory is closed and nothing is running at the moment. So the tour was crap! Although we decided that we would get as many free beers out of them as possible as a kind of refund for the trip. With ten beers on tap to try we managed to get six free and as we had done that many, though we may aswell try the other four for good measure. All of a sudden the tour seemed like it had kinda been worthwile and we stumbled from the factory with a smile on our faces!
Other than renting cars and brewery tours i also became the member of a local darts team. I know darts isn't a proper sport, but the lure of free food to a backpacker is just too great and i found that i couldnt resist. Now if any of you had seen me playing darts then you will know im pants,
Baroka Lookout
Grampian range but with a bit of spare time on me hands and a lot of practice, i actually became pretty good and on my first outing i managed to win two of my games and the team won, and before you know it im throwing 140's and even a couple of 180's....so watch out Phil 'the power' Taylor!
I have also been converted into quite an AFL (Aussie Rules Football) fan and have been to a couple of games now. My team is Carlton Blues and unfortunately they are currently bottom of the league and probably will be at the end of the season.
Im still a big fan of the South Melbourne market and found myself across there every weekend picking up ridiculous amounts of cheap sausages and steaks. Ive even matured a bit in the fact that i will allow the odd vegetable to pass my lips, althought this is restricted at the moment to onions and peppers, but im certainly making progress. Although im not too hopeful about mushrooms as they taste like slugs, or sprouts yet!
I have now left Melbourne (be it with a heavy heart) and moved onto Perth. I arrived here
Brewery tour
We spent hours trying to find the bottle that this opened! on Thursday 31 Aug at a ridiculous hour in the morning. Ive done a few bits and pieces in perth but i'll save those for the next blog.
Hope you are all well and take care,
Dunc
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Fagin
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Big Fella
Jim sounds a little like Choch. Sounds like a good time, funilly enough Im starting me new entry tomorrow. speak to you soon mate