Victoria - Great Ocean Road to Melbourne to Violet Town


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February 8th 2008
Published: February 8th 2008
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Great Ocean Road


Hey folks! We left off last time leaving the Grampians, we headed south after this for the Great Ocean Road, a Great Road by the Ocean. In our case filled by 4x4's loaded with eskys (that's a coolbox for poms!), towels and kids off on their Australia Day (or Invasion Day as a few call it!) weekend trips to the sea. The sods get yet another long weekend - any excuse!! The scenery is indeed very spectacular, and I reckon we would recommend doing the drive to anyone in this part of the world. It's got as many cliffs and rock structures as you would ever want in a 2 day drive (and maybe a bit more!) It included "London Bridge", a double rock arch, which, ironically had fallen down in the 90's, and the 12 Apostles (think the Needles at the Isle of Wight).

At the half way point we stopped at a campsite which was free (yay!) and nice (yay!) and saw our first wild Koala!! We've heard them a few times, it's not a pleasant noise by any means! I was coming back from the loo in the dark and in my torchlight I saw a big fluffy dog come out of the hedgerow in front of me. At closer inspection it was in fact a Koala Bear shuffling along! It was going my way so i slowly followed it, trying to get Ben's attention quietly, it climbed back into the trees and proceeded to serenade us with it's terrible noises. In the morning we spotted the mite getting a few zzz's in the tree and took a few snaps - how cool is that!? Our second night on the Great Ocean Road was a bit tricky and we ended up backtracking to find a campsite in the middle of nowhere after every nearby caravan park was charging ridiculous prices for a patch of grass to put up your tent, it being a public holiday and all. But we made it and shared our last remaining beer as the heavens opened and it rained quite a lot for Australia.

Melbourne


Next day we got to Melbourne , and a quick scoot round Geelong, the state's second largest city. Australia Day celebrations were being dragged dozily into this following sunday, with a big event down by the waterfront that had the feel of excess the day before, with only half the stalls open. My enemy was there in a big red bus poisoning the locals with free fried chicken stick things, which Sarah enjoyed very much. But we only stopped in Geelong to find out about accomodation in Melbourne without having to go into Melbourne, so we headed off to the visitor information centre and let a friendly old chap book us into a very expensive BIG4 holiday park that we had no intention of staying at, then into the big city.

It took us a while to find somewhere to stay, before settling outside of the city, but next to the sea at a place called Chelsea, that was nearer a big town called Frankston, then Melbourne. We went to Frankston one day, when it was rainy, and saw a film called Juno. It was a brilliant film, but Frankston was a little like Bracknell-by-the-sea.

We spent our days in Melbourne wandering around the city, catching random trams and trains and finding interesting streets and suburbs. Brunswick Street in Fitzroy was a fascinating street full of interesting second hand and specialist book shops, 'caffeine dealers' as the coffee shops called themselves, boutique/second hand clothes shops, and restaurants, including a high proportion of vegetarian places.

We explored the botanic gardens, finding a bird that sounds like a sine wave pulse, a really strange noise (we recorded it). Fitzroy gardens were laid out like the Union Jack and had Captain Cook's cottage sent over from England about 80 years ago and reassambled here. we didn't go in though, as the 4 dollars entrance fee seemed a bit much. We fell asleep in this park one day, too much sightseeing, and got woken up by a wedding rehearsel.

Federation Square was an interesting place - outside the huge Flinders St train station, a big cathedral, the Yarra river and bang in the middle of town. We sat and watched some street performers here, including one guy who reaffirmed my faith in these people by juggling 5 sharp swords, thrown to him by a woman who missed the first two times, while on an 8foot unicycle! It was pretty crazy. I gave him all of two dollars for the entertainment.

One day we went to the seaside suburb of St Kilda, but didn't go in the sea, because of the thing on my back, which i'll come to in a minute, but it was a nice place. We had coffee/coke and this apparently world-famous chocolate cake thing called frugenhoff or something, which was nice, and explored lots of interesting music shops (all specialising in a diffferent genre) which was great for me, but rubbish for Sarah.

We were exploring Chinatown one day when we decided to find some cheap lunch, and were lured into this one restaurant (called Mao's something or other) by a lady under a sun umbrella who showed us the menu, then hooking us in by pulling out a battered old menu with cheaper prices on, saying it was a cheap day for some reason today. So we went in and ordered the cheapest stuff we could, reading all the favourable biographies of Chairman Mao on the walls and looking at all his glamorous portraits (the cultural revolution was merely described as an 'erroneous decision'). They were big Mao fans here. The food was alright, but they charged us the big price, not the cheap price that we'd been promised. So i told the surly chinese teenage waiter, who totally lost his rag with me, and was close to karate chopping me round the neck i think, and the mysterious sun umbrella girl had conveniently dissapeared, so we had to pay the two dollars extra on our meals! Scandalous. It was quite fun seeing how my polite requests so angered this waiter, but he won in the end, but we had a good chuckle about it.

Neighbours
One day we caught an hour long tram to where Neighbours's exterior shots are filmed, ie. Ramsay Street! It was surprisingly small, there was no filming going on, there was a rude security guard who didn't return Sarah's hello, and it was a little bit of an anti-climax, but we got some pictures outside of houses that we knew were someone's but not sure who, and then got the hour long tram back to the city. We came very close to doing the Neighbours Night but were put off but the high prices (40 dollars each) and the experiences of other patrons (apparently it's full of 'chav' backpackers and sounded a bit like a night in Friar Street, Reading with Karl Kennedy leading the mob), so we thought, what the hell, we haven't seen it in ages anyway,
Time for a chopTime for a chopTime for a chop

and a squeeze
it's probably rubbish now, and what is a TV anyway? I can't remember. (Seeing Ramsay Street was enough for Sarah - it's tiny!!)

The Alien on my Back

We probably wouldn't have stayed in Melbourne as long as we did, if it weren't for my necessary regular trips to the doctor every morning. I had this horrendously swollen sebacious cist on my back that got to the size of a ping-pong ball and throbbed massively, meaning i couldn't sit back in a chair or lie on my back, so i went to see the doctor, who sliced it open and drained roughly a tablespoon full of stinking puss out of it, before prodding, squeezing and plugging up the hole. So for the next few days i had to go and let her have a look and a squeeze and plug it with fresh guaze, it was pretty painful, but thankfully here i am a week or so later and it is all healed up. So as soon as i got the all clear (which came in the form of an absolutely rubbish stand in doctor who didn't really know what was going on and hardly told me a thing unless i asked him six times) we drove on out of the big smoke, heading north, to the west of the Great Diving Ranges that shelter Sydney and others from the inland, to our next Wwoofing destination.

Murrnong Permaculture


Right now we are coming to the end of a week long Wwoof, our first in a long time, at a Permaculture property 2 hours north of Melbourne. This place is intended eventually to become a community, with 5 or so households working the land and leading pretty much a sustainable lifestyle. We're staying with a nice family, David the Dad and Felix and Grace the kids. Yet again, some great kids who are intelligent and good to talk to, and don't spend all day sat in front of a TV. A pattern is emerging methinks? TV = BAD! We can eat all the fruit we want - it's brilliant, although I think I've now eaten enough peaches to last me a few years!! We've been doing fruit picking, pruning, preserving, milking the goats (almost pros now!) and lots of odd jobs including painting a sign for selling fruit at the local supermarket (painstakingly painted with a cockatoo feather as revenge for them attacking the fruit trees!). There is an irrigation dam where we can swim, the top layer of water is as warm as bath water! For a few days we were joined by Lily and Daisy the dogs, who joined us on our errands and slept in our tent. We've been cooking and eating some v nice food and having pesto everyday!! We're off to the monthly village market in a little while which should be fun, so I'd best be off. Til next time!

(We'll put photos on soon!)



Additional photos below
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David, Grace and Sarah, Sign PaintingDavid, Grace and Sarah, Sign Painting
David, Grace and Sarah, Sign Painting

... with a Cockatoo feather off an unlucky bugger who'd attempted a meal from the almond tree
Our day off...Our day off...
Our day off...

... Exploring Gooram Falls and surrounding area
Swimming in the damSwimming in the dam
Swimming in the dam

bath water warm on top; much colder at the lower levels!


1st March 2008

'Milking the goat' pic
Sarah - odd milking technique you have there!!

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