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So having spent a week with my cousins in Sydney (I'll write about Sydney in another blog), I decided I would take a flight to Melbourne - frequently voted the 2nd best city in the world to live from a quality of life perspective and it's easy to see why when it has churned out some of life's greats such as Mrs. Mangel, Harold Bishop and Helen Daniels. Don't pretend you don't know what/who I'm talking about. I know most of you would also have been glued to the television at 5:35 each evening to find out the latest gossip from Neighbour's Ramsey Street.
Wanting to save the best till last however, I decided first to pick up the rental car and head south-west via Geelong and hit the Great Ocean Road. Hailed as one of the most dramatic and picturesque coastlines in the world, the road literally hugs the winding cliffs for the best part of 400km. I didn't actually know how long the road was or how long it would take due to the lack of a guidebook so I banked on 3 days and headed off. After a couple of hours driving I checked the map provided
by the rental company and discovered I had travelled about a 1/3 of the way! I decided to take it a bit more slowly, taking in the view but there's only so many coffees you can stop for without being overcome by the caffeine whizzing around the veins. I also didn't have any idea of accomodation and where I was going to sleep that evening so come about 3:30pm I was lucky to find to hitchhikers on the road.
Regis and Carole were French so I could spend the next hour gibbering away - it was like a GCSC oral class but more importantly they had a Lonely Planet guide albeit in French. I secured my accomodation for the night and dropped my companions off near the pond!
It was lucky I booked the accomodation. I was the only person staying the the entire complex. It was like there had been a hurricane warning and I was the only person who hadn't been listening to the radio. Not a soul in sight. I spent the evening with my head down in Barack Obama's book called the Audacity of Hope. A pretty good read and an interesting insight to
him as he increasingly seems to be banging nails into Clinton's coffin.
The next morning I started early and decided to go to the end of the road and all the way back to Melbourne that same day. It would buy me another day to explore the city and also relieve me of the need to listen to Bay FM for another 24hrs. The scenery was spectacular but it was a little hard to truely appreciate it for its own merits without comparing it to the recent drive up the west coast of New Zealand. I think on balance I still preferred NZ in part because it is not touted as the "GREAT West Drive" or the great anything for that matter...it just is. Much the same as most of NZ I found.
That said, the 12 Apostles, which are stacks caused by collapsed arches in headlands, (there are now only 8 - with 2 collapsing very recently) are very beautiful and warranted the drive (including with Bay FM). From the 12 Apostles, the road basically continues with stops at various coastal landmarks from Thunder Cave, to London Bridge finally reaching the National park of Port Campbell.
There is a quick inland route back to Melbourne which cuts an hour off the journey from Port Campbell but seeing as I could - I decided to do a U-turn and drive all the way back on the same road to take in the views one last time.
I arrived in Melbourne late that night and took the rental car back the next morning to the airport. Only then did I realise I would need a car to visit Ramsay street so unfortunately I had to give it as miss. I couldn't face a 3 hour official guided tour of a cul-de-sac. What they do in that 3hrs I cannot begin to imagine.
Melbourne itself seems a very relaxed city with a distinctly European edge. There's lots of open parkland and has a river flowing through it's centre which I always think brings a certain life to a city such as London, Paris, Amsterdam. I couldn't get tickets to a Aussie Rules game at the Melbourne Cricket Ground but by sheer coincidence it the Melbourne Jazz festival was finishing on the Sunday so I spent the day walking around the city stopping at various cafes and bars
listening to live jazz and soaking up the sun. Not a bad way to spend a day!
Well worth a visit and in some ways the feel of the place would suit the thousands of pommy expats entering Australia each year more than Sydney. One more week in Sydney - and a special one at that, as I finally cross the big 3 0 barrier. There would have to be a whole lot of growing up to do in the week to come!
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Lee
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Hello chap
Hello chap, I am glad to see the dead goat has been removed from you chin. At first I thought you had killed the poor creature just to keep your chin warm. Thanks for the amazing pictures, I have to admit my favourite is ther Bird in flight on the South Coast, wow what a picture. I have one for you but it's on my mobile, it's a bird with a can of beer.!!!!