Australia a Very Big Country
After 22 hours of travelling we arrived in Melbourne, a bit groggy, on a Saturday morning. It wasn’t as hot as I had hoped for. Melbourne is a nice city with about 3 million inhabitants. We took a coffee at Federation Square, a very modern complex of buildings, housing museums, shops and restaurants. We had a nice stroll through one of the beautiful parks and by the afternoon we were tired and slept for 3 hours, just to awake in time for dinner at St. Kilda Beach. The next day we explored more of Melbourne and went to a concert in the evening.
Now our 5000 km tour starts. We west drove to Apollo Bay where we got our first impression of really nice beaches, rainforest and red wine. In one of the eucalyptus trees we saw our first koala performing his usual activity – sleeping. Next day we started off with a 3 hour canoe trip on a very wide river. We had the stream to ourselves. Clouds started covering the sky. It was quite warm and the notorious Australian flies began to obsess us. They don’t bite, they are just annoying. Then, continuing to drive westwards, finally we came to the 12 Apostles, those famous rock formations. They are impressive and just great to photograph. We arrived in Portland, Australia’s oldest city, founded in 1834. On we went next day to Mt. Gambier, a volcanic region with various craters. One was filled with dark blue water, the other we climbed up (300 m) and had beautiful views of the landscape. I’ve never seen so much sky in my life! Had our best steak here! The next two days were consecrated to the Barossa Valley, where we took a bike each and visited 3 wineries. More was not possible; they are so large that they lie kilometres apart from each other. We tried a tandem, but when I tried to steer and ended up moving Harry’s saddle from left to right, we gave this mission no further tries.
On December 24th we arrived in Adelaide and the first thing we had on our list was to see the Tasmanian Devil in the zoo. But, like all night active marsupials, it slept in its den. Then we played snooker and had a dinner all by ourselves in the hotel restaurant. The shops had closed by 4 o’clock. Next morning it rained. We wanted to treat ourselves to a nice Christmas Brunch, but they were all booked up. So we ended up in a Chinese restaurant eating chicken feet. We quickly left that place and drove to Glenelg on the sea and sat by the ocean – for 10 minutes: rain. We drove to the airport and took off for Tasmania.
We enjoyed our stay on this very green island a lot. Hobart is a buzzing little harbour town with nice shops and houses. The island itself is not very populated, so no traffic jams and crowded places. We hiked one day for 5 hours through eucalyptus forests. We saw beautiful lavender fields, ate fresh raspberries on a farm, saw beautiful beaches and laid back little towns with Victorian style buildings. It was a bit cool and did rain once or twice. Before we left for Sydney we had an extraordinary lunch at the Moorilla Wine Estate outside Hobart. It was founded by an Italian who also collected antiques, like mosaics, sarcophagi, coins, etc. For this little precious collection he built a museum which could be visited for free.
We arrived at our German friends 9p.m. on the last day of 2005. They live in Wollongong, just 90 km south of Sydney. With friends of theirs we celebrated the New Year and were happy to stay at one place for several days. Next morning, when I got up and went into their garden, I wondered if someone had forgotten to turn off the heater. By 10 o’clock the thermometer showed 37°C and by 2 p.m. the record high of 47°C!! It was an experience! Our friends took us for a little sightseeing tour to a lighthouse. There my girlfriend and I stood in this boiling heat and just were thrilled about this hot sensation. Side effects from this heat: we did see a fire in a National Park not far away and the smoke reached the coastline in the afternoon. Now I hoped for a lot of swimming and relaxing on the beaches, but this expectation was put off by the next day. Temperatures had dropped to 25°C and it rained. Unfortunately the weather stayed like that during the entire week. I was a bit disappointed about that. By Saturday the sun was back and we visited friends of our friends at Jervis Bay, famous for its white sand beach. These friends live in a house at a bay and are equipped with everything connected to water. So it was here that I, for the first time in my life, had the chance to go water skiing. After 10 tries I made it and it was a great feeling. I did suffer from sore muscles for the next 3 days.
Of course we visited Sydney which we enjoyed a lot – a vibrant, colourful and pretty city. We visited the aquarium where sharks swam above our heads. We saw new varieties of trees and animals in the Botanic Gardens. The harbour with the Opera House and the harbour bridge is just wonderful. We had the great opportunity to see the world’s third largest cruiser, the Diamond Princess in 300 m of length!
From Wollongong we then had to accomplish 1000 km back to Melbourne in 4 days. That might sound manageable, but highways in Australia are open to any vehicle and run through cities and have just one lane for each side. Those last 4 days were also very nice. We drove along the coast, had beautiful views of the ocean, saw in one bay a stingray, 2 dolphins, sea urchins and pelicans. We did have a rainy day again and we decided to visit the wine region of Yarra Valley. What a good decision. We stayed at a bed and breakfast place run by a Dutch couple and we lived like king and queen there. We were the only guests and were served breakfast at bed. That’s probably the original meaning of bed and breakfast!!
We tried our last attempt in the sanctuary of Healesville to see the Tasmanian Devil, but again, he slept in his den. But we did see other animals like the wobbly wombat and dingoes. At midday we had a delicious lunch in one of the wineries with the best wine we had ever drunk. The view of the countryside from the terrace was so relaxing. This was real vacation. In the evening we went to the beach in St. Kilda in the hope of taking a last swim, but it was too windy and the beach was not the cleanest. So we had our last supper with a beautiful sunset. The next morning we packed our bags, put them in the car and went for a last stroll in Melbourne. You do silly things like buying calendars for 75% off the normal price. We visited the National Art Gallery which had outstanding masterpieces. Then it was time to say goodbye and our 30 hour long trip back home did tire us a bit.
Summary:
Australia is a big continent. Either one lives there or you go back several times to explore the different regions more intensely. What we didn’t like too much was that shops close at 5:30 and restaurants at 9 p.m. On one side you find those beautiful Victorian style houses and excellent fish and chips reminiscent of England and on the other side the modern skyscrapers in the big cities and American fast food chains. Sydney and Melbourne also offer great cultural events like concerts, exhibitions and sports events. And their museums are wonderfully arranged with lots of explanation. Yes, the beaches were unbeatable, but then you risk meeting sharks, too strong waves, currents or far too cold water. We do regret as well not having had more time to stay at one place longer to really relax, read a book or just enjoy the sun. But if you travel that far you want to make the most of it. But what we saw was beautiful and we will keep this trip in a very special memory.
“See you later” – what every Aussie tells you for “Goodbye”. And when a server brings you your drink or meal they always say “thank you” right away. Another word we learned was “Hazchem”, which is not an Arabic word or the Australian sound for a sneeze; it is short for Hazardous Chemicals. §§§