We landed in Melbourne to find that Winter had taken an earlier flight and was there to greet us. As we broke cloud cover during landing, a familiar sight of grey / green haze spread out in all directions and it felt like returning to England.We left the airport as soon as all bags were collected, and made our way to Lucie's relative's house, on the east side of Melbourne. Once again we were lucky to enjoy the hospitality of friends and could miss out the usual backpacker domains. It also provided the chance to test some of my Czech skills and to hear the language spoke in all it's indistinguishable complexity. I have much to learn.
Melbourne is one of a few cities in Australia that was not established by convicts and it's people are very proud to state this in every brochure. A good path of historical enlightenment is to walk 'The Golden Mile' - a route from one corner of the central city to it's opposite, passing the landing point of the first ship, major buildings of influence & consequence, and finishing at the museum. We breezed passed sites requiring an entry fee and slowed at those that were free. By the time we reached the museum, our time was limited to two hours and within 5 minutes of that, it became clear we would not see it all.
Now that the cultural side had been taken care of, we jumped forward in time to investigate Federation Square (the celebration of the 2001 centennial), St. Kilda (the 'place to be seen' for pretentious style seekers & backpacking 'Neighbours' enthusiasts), the Observation Deck (the place to see from), and the Crown Entertainment Complex (where films are watched & money is lost.) I paid $50 to enter a 10 seat Sit&Go Tournament of 'Texas Holden'. 3 people went all-in on the first round and set the pace for the game. I played conservatively at first until I was the 2nd chip leader and became a little too confident in my subconscious feelings of psychic ability. Luckily while I was losing money, Lucie was winning on the slot machines. $30 up when I found her, she increased to $80 up, and cashed in when still $63 in profit. Now that's teamwork!
After a few days in the city we hired a car and headed south west to 'The Great Ocean Road' - a ribbon of tarmac that precariously grips the hillside only metres from a steep drop into the blue. It is 300 kilometres of the biggest war memorial in the world that opened in 1932 to commemorate those who died in WW1.
A short distance from Torquay we arrived at our first stop - a beach that was said in one film to be the setting for "the biggest surf this planet has ever seen". I'd wanted to go to Bells Beach ever since watching 'Point Break' when I was 14. It is probably the most famous surfing beach in Australia and from the viewpoints on the cliffs, the reasons why, could be seen rolling towards shore in a non-stop convoy. With neither a surfboard or the skill we kept our visit to talking about (and quoting some film history), and taking a few photos.
We then drove on a widow-maker of a road that had more twists and turns that a 'Bush Gardens' roller coaster. Great fun compared to the monotony of the usual straight roads in this country, but not too enjoyable for a passenger feeling slightly sick whilst in a car that was racing against the sun. We stopped along route to see the Erkine Falls in Otway National Park and take a few scenic walks but we always had in mind the time remaining until sunset.
By the time we actually reached the '12 Apostles', darkness prematurely taking over courtesy of a blanket of thick grey clouds. Despite the less than ideal conditions to view this significant site, the beauty of it's setting was undeniable. The bold yellow of the cliffs must truly look stunning when against a clear blue backdrop of a summer's day. It would be nice to return here some day and see how many of the now '8' remaining Apostles, are still standing.
We spent the night in the town of Warrambool, which lies at the western end of 'The Great Ocean Road'. After a restful sleep in a caravan park cabin, we had an early start to reach 'The Grampians' - the 3rd largest national park in Victoria and said by many to be the most beautiful. Using Halls Gap as our base point, we drove around to various points and explored as much as possible in the hours we had allowed. A large proportion of the park was devastated by fire last summer and the extent of scorched earth could be seen from any of the viewing platforms. The reassuring element of this scene of destruction was the beauty of fresh green stems and leaves growing out from black bark. The forest dealt with the damage and moved on unswayed. We left just before dark set in, and drove against a barrage of rainclouds to get back to Melbourne later that evening.
It had taken a total of 20 seconds of walking on the streets of Melbourne to realise why it is regarded as the fashion capital of Australia. We felt uncomfortably under-dressed as we wandered about the city and desperately craved the money to buy some new clothes.
The city is clean, well organised, with excellent transport links (including a massive tram network), and seems a great place to base oneself in Australia. There are excellent surfing beaches to the south west, & beautiful national parks and wine regions to the north. We spent a total of a week in Melbourne and had a very rushed tour of the area. The tiredness of traveling was biting at our muscles and called for some rest. We spend some days doing relatively little and on others, enjoyed the simple pleasures of just laying in bed for the majority of the day. In one regard it was time wasted, but it was a fundamental necessity required to keep the momentum of our traveling going.
Feeling slightly refreshed, if not still a little disoriented from traveling, we boarded a night-bus to Canberra, and promptly undid any of the good we had achieved in rest.
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