Adelaide to Melbourne

bed count: 152

So - I was supposed to go all the way from Darwin to Melbourne (which is, incidentally, roughly the same as travelling from Scandinavia to Turkey...) with Adventure Tours with one day's stop in Adelaide. However, the rest of the 'original and the best' crew who I had started the trip with in Darwin were only going as far as Adelaide, so I opted to break my trip here and hang out with the fab four a bit longer and do the Melbourne to Sydney leg with AT instead.

And I am glad I stuck around in Adelaide, because it really is a lovely place. It gets a bit of a slagging (I think one Aussie politician got into trouble recently for calling it the 'arse end of nowhere') but I really don't know why. It is a nice, manageable size, is lovely to walk around, has loads going on and has a lovely wee beach area called Glenelg. But then I had just been in the bush for nearly 3 weeks, so maybe I was just in awe...

It was all feeling quite like autumn when we were there too - what with the colours of the leaves and the nip in the air. Quite unlike what most people imagine of Australia I guess.

Unfortunately Wendela only had one night in Adelaide, but we made the most of it by going out to a lovely pub (you know - a proper one, where people don't get all dolled up to go out, the paint on the walls is peeling a bit and there's a good band playing) and then having a big pile of pancakes at the 24 hour pancake shop for breakfast. Is it wrong to have dutch chocolate pancakes with ice cream and a side of bacon for breakfast???

So the rest of us hung out for a few days in Adelaide not doing very much really. However, Tristan and I were minding our own business walking down the street in Adelaide when we almost tripped over Jeffery Archer sitting in the middle of the street signing books. I thought they had stopped transporting convicts? Very bizarre and I am so glad I was with another Brit at the time as I really don't think I could have explained Jeffery Archer to someone from Japan or Sweden...

Other than that we checked out the markets, had a walk by the sea, ventured into the Indonesian festival, cooked some meals, tried to get tattoos (but the tattoo guy refused...), got haircuts, went to the pub, and ate more pancakes. But soon it was time to move on and Irene, Aoife and I, accompanies by Svenja, cruelly abandoned Tristan in Adelaide (poor guy) and headed south in a hire car.

The Grampians and the Great Ocean Road

Our first stop on the way to Melbourne was the Grampians, about 4/5 hours south of Adelaide. It was really hazy driving down this stretch, which we reckon was to do with the controlled burn-offs they were doing in advance of bush-fire season. Whatever it was it made it quite eerie and a little reminiscent of childhood autumns when the farmers would still burn the stubble in the fields after harvest. Still - it makes for great smoky sunset pictures!

Halls Gap reminded me so much of a wee Scottish alpine village and the YHA eco-hostel we stayed in was just beautiful. Very comfy beds, beautiful kitchens a tiny cosy TV room and two big lounges with wood burning stoves. It was almost heartbreaking to only be staying one night.

In the morning it was hazy and peaceful and we took a walk along the ridge behind the hostel with lovely views to the dry waterfall, a reminder of the drought here, then down to Venus Baths and back into the village. There were more beautiful views on the drive down to Warranambool where, in parts, it was like you'd just woken back up in the UK or Ireland.

We did very little in Warranambool - it was one of those 'admin' evenings where you do washing and shopping and watch a bit of TV for a change. But Warranambool is at the start of the Great Ocean Road and the next morning we headed off along the coast.

There are many opportunities to stop for pictures and we walks along the GOR, and we took most of them - well the opportunities for photos of sea stacks, arches, grottoes, etc anyway! The most famous stop along this stretch is the 12 Apostles, and we managed to call in here in time for a picnic in the car park and a walk amid the crowds to see the rocks.

We headed down to Apollo Bay that night, passing more beautiful scenery, and stayed in a lovely little hostel (Surf Side) which is like an old Kiwi bach (holiday home) but very well cared for. Lovely views of the beautiful bay from the massive window in the lounge, old comfy couches and a record player. There was a nice crowd at the hostel too and we ended up getting a little tipsy with 3 vineyard workers from France, Italy and America who instantly became my favourite people in the world when they thought I was in my early 20s. That's happening a lot at the moment. It must be the tan!

I was up early the next morning (side effects of too much wine) and managed to see the sun rise over a misty Apollo Bay. Very beautiful. It's such a lovely wee place and I would have liked to stay longer and explore all the wee shops and walk along the beach. But we had to push on as we had an appointment to keep, so we headed on down the very windy GOR, stopping to spot koalas and see the big surf beaches along the way on our way to Geelong.

We caught up with Andy and Viv and their kids on their small farm just outside Geelong and it was great to see them and tell them all about the trip from Darwin down (Andy and Viv did the 1st three days of the trip through Kakadu and Litchfield for their 22nd wedding anniversary). They have a lovely wee place, but it's clear to see from old pictures how much the drought has effected the landscape.

After a wee walk on their farm we headed into the big smoke Melbourne and tied to negotiate the confusing tram lanes to find out hostel.

Melbourne

It's often said that you are either a Melbourne or a Sydney person, but I think that is too straight forward. I have been asked which I prefer, but I lived in Sydney for 9 months and only visited Melbourne for five days, so I can't really make a fair comparison.

It was a little difficult to get to grips with Melbourne in 5 days though. It felt a bit more 'scattered' than Sydney and the skyline less dominating, but that could be just where we were staying.

As well as taking one of the famous trams into the city we did check out the fabulous special Spanish market which seemed to consist mainly of jewellery and food stalls - all fine by me! The vast Victoria markets are also pretty cool, especially the deli section where there is so much tasty food to choose from (there is a theme emerging...) but we decided to hold off because we had heard of a 'street paved with cake' which we decided to investigate.

Well ok - it's not exactly paved with cake but St Kilda, a seaside suburb of Melbourne, certainly has more cake shops per head of population than most other places I have visited. And when I say cake shops I mean shops with massive windows which have floor to ceiling displays of all the kinds of cake you can imagine. There were just too many to sample in one sitting, so we had to go twice...

But finally it was time to bid a sad farewell to the remainder of the Darwin crew as Irene and Aoife were sticking around in Melbourne for a bit and I had a date to keep in Sydney. Still - here's to a road trip reunion of the west coast at some point in the next few years!