Advertisement
Published: December 12th 2007
Mt Gambier
The Blue LakeAfter spending only one night in Adelaide we were back in the pig van and on our way. We managed to extend the rental on the van by another week, which meant that we were no longer in a rush to make it to Melbourne by the 26th. We left Adelaide late in the day so ended up staying at a camp site at Coorong National Park where we froze all night long before getting up early to try and cover as much ground as possible before dark. Our first stop was the town of Mt Gambier which is situated on the slopes of an extinct volcano. The largest crater of the volcano is now the freshwater Blue Lake which is a brilliant cobalt blue colour for 5 months of the year. That’s as exciting as Mt Gambier gets! We were on our way again by the afternoon when we crossed in to the state of Victoria and stopped for the night at Port Fairy.
The next day was spent continuing the drive to Melbourne via the absolutely stunning Great Ocean Road. Such an enjoyable and beautifully scenic road to drive along, one of the best things about it being
that it has so many bends! After spending more than 3 weeks driving through the outback where the roads are so straight it has been great to have a few bends to keep us occupied! It was along this road that we actually caught a glimpse of wild koalas too!
We finally arrived in Melbourne at 6.30 in the evening and found our way to our friend Nat’s house with no problems, we met Nat on the boat in Ha Long Bay, Vietnam. In the morning we had breakfast at Preston market where they sell amazing pizza, roast meats and pastries! Yum! The three of us then bundled on to a train to the city centre where we first spent a few hours at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and managed to get in to see part of a one day match between the Victoria Bushrangers and New South Wales Speed Blitz Blues for free! On our way to the Old Melbourne Gaol, Nat suggested that we take a peek inside the State Library of Victoria which is a great example of Victorian architecture and houses the Dome Gallery which offers insight in to the history of the state of
Victoria. The collection also includes the armour worn by the famous bushranger Ned Kelly (Australia’s answer to Robin Hood) on the day that he was shot at and arrested by police. With no time left to spend at the Gaol we decided to find somewhere to have a drink so Nat took us to the most amazing hot chocolate shop where they also sell chocolate covered pizza, cups of melted chocolate, chocolate cakes... basically, if it could be covered in chocolate, it was there! Delicious! That night we had our first taste of Aussie bush tucker when Nat cooked us amazing roast kangaroo for dinner.
On Wednesday we made it to the Old Melbourne Gaol where Ned Kelly was hanged in 1880. When we arrived we decided to join a free tour to gain a little more insight in to the history of the Gaol. Little did we know that the tour involved us actually being treated as criminals, which meant that we were searched then locked up in a damp, dark cell. Once we were set free we were able to have a look at the collection of death masks housed there and read several case studies of
Thr Great Ocean Road
The 12 Apostles (of which there are now only 8!). You can see Fairy Penguin footprints on the sand! some of the people who were kept at the Gaol. We then met up with Nat who took us for a walk around Melbourne University, one of the highlights of which was the interesting car park which featured in the film Mad Max!
On our final day in Melbourne we spent some time at the National Gallery of Victoria where we were able to get up close to two Rembrandt paintings and Picasso’s ‘Weeping Woman’ amongst many interesting exhibits. After that we caught the tram to one of Melbourne’s many suburbs, St Kilda’s, where we had fish and chips on the sand before walking along the sea front to
The Espy for a couple of beers.
The next day we said a sad farewell and a big thank you to Nat for his hospitality and brilliant cooking, he's a great bloke and we really enjoyed staying with him, we've told him to get to the UK asap! We then started the long drive up to the Blue Mountains. We only made it as far as Cowra where we discovered possums at the caravan site, which was over run with kids staying there for an athletics competition! On the
plus side, we did get to have a glass of wine offered to us by their coaches!! We finally made it to the Blue Mountains before lunch the next day. We dropped off the van at the nearest holiday park and made our way to the start of a few walks in the area and were surprised by some somewhat unexpectedly stunning views of the Three Sisters across the national park. The Indigenous Kedumba people who live in the area tell a dreamtime (creation) story of a battle between themselves and a neighbouring tribe during which the Kedumba leader feared for the lives of his three beautiful daughter’s lives, and so turned them to stone before any harm could come to them. Unfortunately he was then killed before he had the chance to turn them back to their human form.
On Monday morning we had another early start with an aim to being in Sydney before 10am to finally drop off the pig porn mobile. On the way we managed to see quite a surreal sight of purple hills, due to blooming summer flowers. Realistically the 200km drive was never going to happen by 10am but luckily we made
it in enough time not be charged for a late drop off. Despite what Paul says about feeling relieved at finally getting rid of the pig van we were both sad to hand back the keys and know that one of the biggest highlights of our trip had come to an end. Driving through the outback and east Australia has been a completely different experience to anything we’ve done so far and will stay with us for the rest of our lives.
So with our backpacks on for the first time in weeks we headed to the nearest train station and went to meet our friend Bex in the city centre for lunch. We met Bex and her boyfriend Mark back in Malaysia and again on Bali where they very generously offered us a place to stay during our time in Sydney. We could not be more grateful for this as not only have we had a great time catching up and having fun, but we also managed to save a heap of money, and our experience of this city could have been so different. A big thank you goes out to them for making it so enjoyable. That
evening after they had both arrived home after work, Paul cooked chilli for us all and we took our wine glasses up to the roof to check out the view. It actually took our breath away! From the top of their apartment block you can see the whole of Sydney from the city sky line across to the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera house.
The amazing roof top views lead us on our first full day to the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House for closer viewing. We walked along the water front at Circular Quay and up toward the Harbour Bridge and through the historical area of The Rocks, the first landing point in Sydney. Unfortunately the poor weather didn’t make for very good photos so the next morning we went back. We walked up along the Harbour Bridge where we were rewarded with spectacular views of the centre with the Opera House in the foreground. We then walked across to the Opera House to view the Harbour Bridge before enjoying a picnic in the Royal Botanical gardens. The next day we caught the train out to Darling Harbour with its kitsch cafes and water front bars,
followed by a stroll along George Street, the main city shopping area full of designer clothes shops and picturesque sandstone architecture. Day 4 involved us catching yet another train, this time out to the famous Bondi Beach to top up our tans on the golden sands. We weren’t there for long before the sky turned grey and we thought it best to head back to Mark and Bex flat to avoid getting wet. In the time it took us to get back to Potts Point and the flat it still hadn’t rained so we decided to take our chances and walk out to the Oxford Street region. Not much to mention here, it’s pretty much full of restaurants, night clubs and sex shops! There did seem to be a good atmosphere along here, it’s a shame we don’t have the means to go for a night out to appreciate it.
We took the opportunity to spend some time with Mark and Bex over the weekend while they were off work and kept the sight seeing to that of the roof while we enjoyed a glass of wine (or 2!) after our amazing BBQ dinner (including kangaroo kebabs) courtesy of
Mark.
We arrived in Christchurch on the South Island of New Zealand on the 10th to begin the final leg of our trip, it was sad to leave Australia as it completely exceeded our expectations. We love Oz! But now we're really looking forward to exploring New Zealand...
Advertisement
Tot: 0.204s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 13; qc: 72; dbt: 0.0999s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Captain Cook
non-member comment
You forgot to mention the waffles!