Advertisement
Published: March 7th 2007
Edit Blog Post
The Mitta Valley
More trees that could do with some water We crossed into the state of Victoria to be greeted by proper cowboys on horses rounding up their herds of cows - like something you’d expect to see in Texas! We made our way along the “Alpine route” passing through towns that played an important role in the gold rush era of the 1860’s. Our van suffered its first (I’m sure of many) mishap as one of the tyres disintegrated and the rubber started coming off! We managed to get a second hand one at a town called Bright, where we spent a couple of nights - we were lucky as the first couple of places we tried didn’t have one as it is a pretty old make, but in Bright which has population of 35,000 there is one man who drives a car with the same tyres! Bright is a beautiful place, a lot greener here than we have seen so far, so we hired bikes for a 60km bike ride so we could see more of the area. It was extremely hot, so we were very grateful to jump in the Oven’s river once we had come back - they have turned part of the river into a swimming
The Alpine Region
The area around Bright was a bit more colourful pool, which we shared with a class from the local school who were having a swimming lesson!
Everyone has been ridiculously friendly so far and also every Australian we have spoken to has ancestors in the UK. The guy at the campsite last night told us how he came over in the 1960’s from Scotland on the “£10 deal”. As part of a government initiative he had to pay £10, but his travel expenses were paid for as long as he stayed in Oz for 2 years - if he went back before then he would have to pick up the cost, of course he has been here ever since!
From here we continued to Wilson’s Promontory National Park on the coast. It is the most southerly point of Australia and being so close to Melbourne makes it a popular weekend destination. On the drive down to the camping grounds we saw kangaroos and emus, although we still have not seen any wombats..well, live ones at any rate, as we have seen many not so live ones by the side of the road. We did a couple of walks up to view points and out to secluded beaches
Wilsons Promontory National Park
Us looking a bit sweaty after a climb up to a viewpoint! - the beaches here are stunning and the water warm enough for swimming, although we have been told that normally it would be too cold but due to the recent good weather the temperature is lovely. We probably would have stayed longer at the park had it not been for bad planning on our part and running out of beer after the first night…Sam and Roddy were trying to get by without it but a cup of tea at the end of a days walk just doesn’t cut it!
This brings us to Melbourne where we have been for the past three days. It is a very relaxed city with it seems an “anything goes” attitude. The first night we were here, we went out to Brunswick St, which has lots of bars, cafes and retro clothing shops - at first we weren’t sure if there was a fancy dress party on that everyone apart from us was going to, but we soon realised that’s just the way things are! We have also been to the Victoria market, where we stocked up on lots of lovely fresh goodies for a picnic lunch in the park with the locals -
Wilsons Promontory National Park
Sam & Roddy on a walk through the park the facilities here are fantastic, in every park there are gas bbqs and picnic tables which everyone uses. There are probably not as many “sights” in Melbourne to see as Sydney, but it is easy to spend a day wandering around soaking up the atmosphere, like we did in St Kilda, another area of the city. Today we have been to the Botanical gardens but tomorrow we are heading off - not too far as our friends Mike & Kerrena who again we met on the Africa trip live in place called Geelong which is only about an hours drive away, so we will stop and catch up with them for a night. Unfortunately we will have to say goodbye to Roddy tomorrow and good luck, as we’re not sure that he’s safe to be travelling by himself! The last 10 days have been great and we are sorry to see him go - although it does mean that I get the comfy seat in the van, instead of the middle seat, where I can’t see out of the window as the rear view mirror is in the way and my bum is constantly about 50 degrees as I am
Sealers Cove
One of the many beautiful desserted beaches in the park sitting on top of the engine..so every cloud really does have a silver lining!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.046s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 11; qc: 25; dbt: 0.0252s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Kirsty
non-member comment
minky
Hey Sam - you do have another t-shirt with you, don't you? I'm guessing the blue one's your favourite?!