Australia

I've already posted about these two short trips that I took at the end of November and beginning of December, to get out and see some of the amazing nature in Victoria, only hours from Melbourne. I have photos now as well though, which are here.

The day trip to Wilsons Prom was not nearly enough to truly explore the park. I was meant to go on a 3 day trip with two nights of camping, but the tour company cancelled the camping part on me, which was really disappointing. Still, it was an amazing day, we saw lots of wildlife, and I realized how out of shape I was after the first walk to a viewpoint.

I then spent 3 days on the Great Ocean Road, which was all just so beautiful: the ocean, forests, farmland... The main places I visited which the photos show were the nature area at Cape Otway, the most southern point of this part of the coast, with a lighthouse; the Otway Fly Tree Top Walk, which was a pathway suspended amongst a forest, so you had a totally different view of the trees and wildlife; and the western end of the Great Ocean Road, with the famous Twelve Apostles, as well as other formations and blowholes carved from the sandstone that makes up that area.

Some videos...

Walking along the tree top path. You can hear some of the clanging and other weird noises it made as it swayed around. Not for those with a fear of heights, or of clanging, swaying things...

Even bouncier! This is a part of the path that sticks out from the rest. You can see how it bounces around and the guy has a hard time walking straight (at least I think that's the walkway's fault).

The view from the tower that is the highest part of the walk. You can hear some clanging as someone goes down the stairs.

There's not a whole lot I can add to what I've already said about Melbourne. I loved it instantly. On my first morning there, by the time I had walked just a few blocks from my hostel, I felt at home. It reminded me of Portland, though busier and with people speaking in a funny accent. It was what I expected, whatever that was, I just know I wasn't disappointed. And I fell in love with it more the longer I was there.

One of my favorite places in the city was Federation Square. The square is relatively new and everything I had read about it talked about its controversial architecture and whether it fit in with the rest of the city. So before I went there I had the feeling that Melburnians hated the square. Once I was actually there, I didn't have that feeling at all. It felt like the cultural center of the city and so much went on there. The square has a few cafes with outdoor tables, a permanent stage, a huge TV screen, and a lot of space for events, activites, or, on quiet days, just hanging out. There were many times I popped over to Fed Square to see what might be up over there, because there usually was something. It seemed like every weekend there was an ethnic celebration: one week Indian, the next Turkish, one evening a Chinese children's celebration with lanterns and traditional dances. And if nothing happened to be going on, it was enough to pass some time sitting on the warm tiles, reading or people-watching. I thought it was a brilliant place, and I spent my last evening in Melbourne there, watching the final of the Australian Open on the big screen with hundreds of other people who had stuffed into the square to watch as well, while the sun set in front of us next to the city skyline. Talk about making it hard to leave...

I posted some photos before, while I was in Melbourne, but of course I took many more. You can go to my Melbourne album to see the new, and the old, photos I have put online. I ws going to keep them separate, but then you don't get the whole story. I was going to take advantage of Flickr now allowing videos to be uploaded, but all I get when I try to upload a video is a frozen browser. So the videos are included below instead (I hope they work! If not, try again later...).

I tried to take some everyday scene types of photos, especially of some of the beautiful buildings in Melbourne and some of the places I visited most. One day I also walked around part of Ascot Vale, not the area around where I lived, but the area my bus passed through before stopping at the train station, and I took photos of some houses, many of which are typical of Melbourne, or maybe of Australia in general. Some though wouldn't look out of place in Portland. They are in this separate album.

Koalas at the Melbourne Zoo:

Little penguins at the zoo:

Mollydog on the porch (She wasn't being very exciting, though I was trying to get her to run around. She can be a jumpy, excited dog, but it just wasn't happening):

Wow, I can't believe it's been so long since I posted anything. As you could probably guess, I just haven't had much time to use the internet, or I've been in places away from any internet access at all. If you've emailed me in the past few weeks and I haven't replied, I'm sorry I haven't written, but I have read my email at least and I am happy to hear from people. I promise a reply, even if it doesn't come until I'm back in NL. =)

Yeah, the 3 weeks or so since I last wrote have seemed very long because I've been so busy. In that time I drove on from Melbourne to Adelaide, toured Tasmania for 6 days, and then toured the Outback for 6 days. I am now in Alice Springs, in the center of Australia, the only "city" of any size in the Outback, about 27,000 people. It's damn hot, 40 degrees C, which is a bit over 100 degrees F. I imagine it's sort of similar here to Arizona or other places in the SW in the summer, a dry-ish baking heat that makes you feel like you're walking around in an oven. I plan to spend the afternoons anywhere air conditioned, it's horrible to try to do anything outside after about 11 or 12 until the sun goes down.

Of course I have many stories from the past few weeks, which I don't have time to write now. It'll all come eventually and if I do it from home I can add photos and videos. So look forward to all of that! I've had a great time though, though it's been trying sometimes with some of the long walks I've done and with the heat and many hours trapped in a bus that was desperately trying to cool us with the airco, but it's hard fighting that kind of heat pounding against all the windows. Tasmania was definitely a different story, much cooler and wetter and I actually had to drag out my jeans and rain jacket and long sleeved stuff for a couple of days. In the Outback, the only time I got out my sweatshirt was to use it as a pillow when we were camping outside. Tasmania was beautiful though, it is so full of amazing nature, temperate rainforests and rivers (that aren't dry!) and waterfalls and white sand beaches. It felt very similar to New Zealand and I liked it in the same way. It's not very populated either and has lots of tiny towns scattered around the island, quite a few of which we popped into for toilet breaks or to fill up the bus with gas. Humourous sometimes to see small town life.

On both tours I met a lot of great people and it's sad I'll probably never see them again. We had a happy little group though for a few days and I'm sure we all will fondly remember the trips.

My time in Australia is nearly over, which I hate to think about. This is likely the last time I'll post from down here. I am not looking forward to leaving Australia, but I am looking forward to seeing everyone back in NL and sharing stories. I hope to see those of you back there soon!

After nearly a month, I have returned to Melbourne, though only very briefly, I'm just staying here tonight and then tomorrow it's onwards west towards Adelaide. It was nice to be back in a place I know though.

So I've been driving from Sydney over the last 3 days. It's been rather exhausting, the first day I was so tired and sore when I finally arrived at my destination; I've learned to take more and longer breaks to avoid feeling like that again. The first day I drove to a small town near Australia's highest mtn (which I can neither spell nor pronounce). Not the most exciting drive until I was in the mtns. The second day was much better, through some gorgeous forests and eventually to the southern coast of Victoria, and then today to Melbourne, which also wasn't a very pretty drive, but I did go this morning to an Aboriginal site out in the boonies in a national park and that was beautiful. Added a couple of hours to my trip though, but it was worth it, it was a small cave-like area with water, surrounded by rainforest-like plants and animals, apparently one of the most southern occurrences of a setting like that. A sign mentioned a certain type of lizard, and I think I saw one of them crossing the road on my way out. I had seen tiny little lizards as I walked to the Aboriginal site, but this thing was huge! It was about a meter long, including its tail. Glad I didn't come across one of those in the forest...

Happy 2008 everyone!

I was mostly on my own on New Year's Eve, but still it was worth it to see the amazing fireworks that Sydney puts on at midnight. I found one of the most perfect spots, across on the north side of the harbour, almost right next to the bridge and with views of the Opera House and all of downtown. It was a small bit of park, but it didn't get crushingly crowded by midnight, at least not where I was sitting, and the people remained mostly civil. I spent all afternoon there, getting a bit sunbaked. It was sunny and about 28 degrees (low 80s F), but I fortunately didn't get burnt, I just kept slathering on the sunscreen. It may have been toasty here, but I was for once glad to not be in Melbourne since the forecast there was for 42 degrees (about 108F). That's just too much... It was quite warm here though and I envied the people around me who'd brought umbrellas for shade. An older couple sitting behind me graciously offered me the shade in the tent they had set up, so I sat in there for about an hour til it was late enough in the afternoon to be cooler. I later got to know the group sitting to one side of me, an Australian guy and his Polish girlfriend and German friend, very international... He shared some of their champagne with me at midnight, very nice of him, and we all wished each other Happy New Year. The fireworks were unbelievable. Actually, they give you a teaser at 9, the "family fireworks" so people with kids can see something and then leave to get the kids to bed. But that was nothing compared to the midnight fireworks. About 5-6 barges are set up on the harbour and from where I was you could see 3 of them, one being rather close to our left. All the barges had the same fireworks going at the same time and just one of them was about the same as what Portland might do on the 4th of July. Then there was the amazing stuff going off on the bridge, which is the centrepiece, and eventually added to it all was stuff going simultaneously on the tops of 8 buildings downtown, which we had a perfect view of. The finale brought me chills, the bridge was lost in all the fireworks going off, including a beautiful curtain of sparks falling from the base of the bridge, there were all the barges letting off tons of fireworks, plus an added barge on the water right in front of us.... There was so much at once, it was incredible, everyone cheering, and when it was over a huge cheer and applause from the whole harbour. Definitely a memorable beginning to 2008.

I have today in Sydney, then I drive towards Adelaide over the next 6 days. My last road trip of the trip. =( I'm kind of looking forward to moving on from Sydney, looking forward to being back in Melbourne in a couple of days, though I won't have a lot of time there. Should hopefully see some amazing views on the way...