Melbourne to Sydney

Melbourne to Sydney was always going to be a bit different to the rest of the big trip. For one thing I once again had to meet and get to know a whole bus load of new people. It'd been so nice having familiar faces around every day.

And this trip was also a little different as it was combined with another tour group and it was much less of a mixed crowd in terms of age and nationality. Lots of young Brits who were all lovely, but I couldn't help missing everyone from the original crew.

Still - how to amuse yourself on a bus full of strangers. 1) Tell them you work as an underwater wood welder. 2) Let them try to guess your age (I am loving this game recently- averaging about six years younger). 3) Play each other the most cheesy and embarrassing music on your iPods.

There seemed to be an awful lot of driving on the tour, but we did manage to stop off for a few nice walks - along 'squeaky beach' where the sand squeaks when you walk on it and up in the snowy mountains (which had a huge fall of snow 2 days after we were there).

And yes, they do have snow in Australia. In fact the ski resort where we started the walk can boast the record for the lowest temperature ever recorded in Australia: a biting -23 degrees! Luckily it wasn't so chilly on the day we were there and the views were lovely. The mountain pass up through the Snowy Mountains gave us some beautiful views, as long as you kept your eyes on the horizon and not down at the steep drop a few feet to the right of the bus... Yikes!!!

Day two of our trip also happened to be ANZAC day, which is a bit like our Remembrance Day in the UK. It's a public holiday here and, as well as having lots of remembrance services and the like, ANZAC day is the only day of the year it is legal to play '2 Up'. Now, 2 Up is basically a game where you bet on the toss of a coin. Well 3 coins, but that makes it sound more complicated than it actually is. And, being in Oz on the only day of the year when it was legal to play I felt it would be rude not to participate. And you know what? The saying 'tails never fails' stood me in good stead winning me $10! Not bad for a newbie!

Of course, like many of the good things in life, 2 Up takes place in the pub and it turned into a rather jolly night, what with winning $10 and there being alcohol and judging the 'hairiest man' competition... Yes - we backpackers are a resourceful lot you know. We know how to make our own fun!

On the final day of the trip we headed into Canberra on our way to Sydney. Canberra gets bad press here in Oz too. They either tell you how boring it is or that both cannabis and explicit porn are legal here*. To me these things sound mutually exclusive. Or maybe it is so boring to visitors because everyone is at home bonged out of their tree or enjoying their porn stash?

Anyhow . We didn't see evidence of either of these ACT phenomenons on our flying visit to Canberra. Possibly because we visited parliament house, and I don't think they go in for that kind of thing in such circles. Not publicly at least.

I really liked what I saw from my fleeting glimpse of the city though, and I am not sure why it gets slagged. But then I already said that about Adelaide too so maybe I am just odd and should make it my life's mission to visit all the places that get slagged off and appreciate them for their true beauty.

Canberra reminds me somewhat of a Kiwi city (which is maybe what the Aussies have against it). It's very leafy and the autumn colours were beautiful. Parliament House was pretty impressive too, as was the big lake and the bits of art plonked here and there around the place. All in all though I have to say that my main impression of Canberra was of being rushed around it by the bus driver so he could get us back on the road to Sydney...

*Okay - technically it still isn't legal to use cannabis, only to grow it, and there are still limits to the porn thing. But this is a travel blog. Get over it.