Victoria: Melbourne and the Great Ocean Road
When I arrive at 5am, it’s very very cold. I’m lucky I booked ahead as everywhere is very busy as it’s the Melbourne Cup.
Melbourne is a nice city to wander round, and it’s supposed to be a good place to live. There’re a few buildings to look at including the Flinders St Station, Federation Square, the MCG cricket ground. The river is nice to walk along, but I can’t stop shivering and that does spoil it slightly.
The Great Ocean Road is one of the things on my to do list. The road starts at a place called Torquay, which as a quaint little seaside village is far away from it’s English namesake. Here is Bell Beach which is apparently good for surfing, and some of the big surf brands were started here. I feel a tad guilty that my bag is full of faked Quiksilver and Billabong clothes… but only a bit. The coast along the Bass Straits and Southern Ocean is tree and scrub lined, brodering the beautiful beaches. In the Otway Ranges we see some koalas in the trees, and I have a bag of fish and chips on the beach for my lunch at Apollo Bay. After this is the main event: the Twelve Apostles. It’s really sunny today, so I treat myself to a helicopter flight over them which is worth every cent. After this we see London Bridge, the bridge bit actually collapsed in 1990 just after some tourists had crossed it. Lucky. And finally Loch Ard Gorge before Port Campbell town for a drink, and the long drive home. What a fantastic day.
Adelaide is my next destination, another overnight bus. I spend my last day in Victoria at St. Kilda, one of the bays a short tram ride from the city. It’s sunny again, but with an icy wind. Still, being British, I am probably the last person off the beach. I wander round the town- this would have been a nice place to stay I think, better than in the city, and watch the kite surfers in the harbour before heading off to the bus station.
Tags: Travel
Nick