Week 67 - Adelaide, Grampians, Phillip Island, Melbourne (Australia)

New Years Day was a write off. While Slater went out to a dance festival the rest of us slummed it on the couches watching an entire series of Strike Back and Rhys finished getting things ready for our road trip to Melbourne.

We left Al and Slater’s early the next day to catch a bus to the garage where we were due to pick up our relocation camper van. We arrived in plenty of time and picked up the van with out any problems. It was huge compared to the one we had in Australia last time we were here, it could seat 5 people and sleep 4 (albeit at a squish). It was easy to get out of Adelaide and we were on the road in no time to start the 750km cross country trip to Melbourne (having decided one night just wasn’t long enough to do the coast road and allow time to make stops to actually enjoy it). About an hour into the journey and we started having doubts we’d made the right choice as we didn’t want to miss driving the Great Ocean Road. We set ourselves the task of reaching the Grampians thinking that if we camped in the south of the park we could still drop down to the ocean road if we decided we wanted to in the morning. We stopped in a little town called Keith and had some of the best fish and chips for lunch and stopped to see some white kangaroos before continuing to the national park. The road was pretty dull, relatively straight and not a whole lot to look at. We were glad when we got to the turnoff just past Horsham. When we got into the park the roads were so winding it took us far longer to reach the town, Halls Gap than we’d expected and by the time we got there the breaks were so hot they’d stopped working. We passed so many signs for scenic view points and little trails that we made the decision to spend the morning the following day in the park rather than booting it to the Great Ocean Road.

We stopped by the visitor centre, which had shut stupidly early, and noted down the location of a couple of free campsites. We ended up in a tiny little camp and had the place to ourselves until two vans pulled up just before dusk. The free campsites in Australia are incredible, most of them are in beautiful spots in national parks with just basic facilities, toilets and fire pits.

Our relocation campervan.

The next day we were woken by the kookaburras sqwarking outside our van. We packed up and headed out into the park to explore. We spent the next couple of hours pulling over at all the different spots. It was a bit of a rush and we would have loved to have spent a couple of nights there walking the different trails. There were a number of view points and a few waterfalls. Just driving around was great with views of the mountains. We still had a fair drive from the Grampians to Melbourne and got on the road after lunch for the last push to the city. We were due to drop the van at 4pm and after a short detour, found the car wash the guy had recommended us just to be told that the van was too tall to fit in. We found another wash and dropped the van back at 4:30pm.

The Balconies view point in the Grampians National Park.

We were lucky and Brendon, a Kiwi we met in Chile, came to pick us up from the garage so we didn’t have to work out the trains to get out to Ringwood where another guy we met in Chile, John, was putting us up. Ringwood is a lovely suburb, very green and leafy with spacious houses with picket fences, the kind of place you’d want to raise a family. We arrived just as John was BBQ’ing some sausages for an early dinner. Shorty after Kat, John’s other half came home from work and we jumped in John’s car and headed south to Philip Island. One of John’s mates and his fiancee had rented a house for the holiday week and had invited a big group of their friends down to stay and, being hospitable Aussies had let us tag along. We spent the night sitting around the living room, drinking goon and chatting before retiring to the granny annex were we were serenaded by two of John’s mates before bed.

After packing up, John become our tour guide for the day and drove us to all the highlights of Philip Island. Other than the penguins, which cost a small fortune and don’t come out until sunset, I think we pretty much covered off most of the island with a wallaby sighting to boot. Since it was really windy and threatening to rain we moved around a lot rather than stopping and chilling on any of the beaches. After a bargain lunch in the Pickled Vicar in Cowes we headed to Nobbies, a great board walk with stunning views that wound it’s way through a seagull nesting site. We even spotted a copperhead snake, the only snake found on Philip island. Another stop at a boardwalk through the mangroves and we decided to head back into Melbourne. Driving back to the bridge to the main land we passed a few more hot-rods (big brightly coloured vintage American cars) heading to a show at the GP race track, having seen hundreds by the bridge the previous day.

John and Rhys on Phillip Island.

The coastline of Phillip Island.

Edge of the Mangroves, Phillip Island.

Back in Melbourne we were all pretty worn out but it being only Saturday we thought it would be wrong just to have an early night and instead decided on a fire in the garden. A couple of possum spottings later and we turned in for the night.

On Sunday, after a very civilised cooked breakfast served on the veranda, John took us to Ramsey Street. We were the only people there and wandered into the street as a security guard came out to meet us. He stood with us pointing out who lived where and we took photos outside every house, a must for any Brit in Melbourne! After, John dropped us at the station and we wandered in to the city for an afternoon of sightseeing. We’d read about a couple of alley ways good for seeing street art and were given a great map at the tourist booth showing us how to get to them. Melbourne is a really vibrant, arty city and everywhere you turn there are sculptures, buskers and graffiti. Some of the alleys were just tagged but others had really elaborate and intricate works. As we walked between the sites we got to see the centre of the city, the little laneways filled with coffee shops and high vaulted shopping arcades, the main shopping streets and china town. Our next stop was the river. After a stroll along the banks to see a couple of black swans we realised we were close to the Olympic Park and the MCG, although we were too late for the Ashes, there was a sculpture of some cricketer, Don Bradman, who Rhys says is one of the all time greats, and we headed to the ground so Rhys could get a photo with it. By the time we’d walked back in to town we were getting tired. We made one more stop at the Shrine of Remembrance war memorial, a huge building near the observatory where you can climb up to the terrace for views out over the city, before wandering back to Flinders Street, the main station, along the South Bank. Back at Johns we had another quiet night,a couple of drinks and dinner in front of the TV before bed.

Me and Rhys on Ramsey Street outside the Robinson/Scully household, Melbourne.

Graffiti in the centre of Melbourne.

Federation Square, Melbourne.

Rhys by the river, Melbourne.

View from the Shrine of Remembrance, Melbourne.

View from Southbank, Melbourne.

We arranged to meet one of my mates, Laura, who I met the first time I went to South America, on the Monday so after a lazy start to the day we caught the train into town. We’d left it abit late as we intended to have a walk around the botanic gardens before we met her and instead it was more like a quick run around. Back at Richmond Station Laura picked us up and drove us out to the Abbotsford Convent, a great little place that has been turned into a chilled out artists colony with lots of little studios and exhibition spaces. The Convent had a vegetarian restaurant called Lentils where you pay by donation. We pulled up stools and, surrounded by hipsters, helped ourselves to the buffet, which included dessert and coffee. Even Rhys cleared his plate despite there being no meat, it was so delicious. After food we had a little walk to the farm area behind the convent, got wee’d on by a cow when we stood down wind then drove back into Melbourne to catch our train back out to Ringwood.

We’d saved Tuesday to head down to St Kilda, Melbourne’s beach suburb, but first we had arranged to meet Lou, a girl we’d met in Guatemala, on her lunch break in the trendy area of Fitzroy. She took us to a great burger bar, Huxtaburger and we whiled away the hour catching up and eating lunch. After we left her we caught a tram down to St Kilda. When Rhys last came to Melbourne he stayed in a house with 15 other boys on a street a few rows back from the beach for a couple of months and he was keen to revisit his old stomping ground to see what had changed. The house had been completely renovated, a couple of photos outside and we wandered down to the beach. It’s not as nice a city beach as Adelaide and is a bit reminiscent of South End with a massive theme park area called Luna Park with a scary looking clown face guarding the entrance. We stopped for a coffee and a cake on the main street and for a happy hour cider at a little bar with seats spilling on to the seat to catch the late afternoon sun.

Luna Park, St Kilda, Melbourne.

Rhys had arranged to spend the evening at Dan’s house, one of the guys he lived with in St Kilda and we headed out on the tram to Caulfield. Dan’s mum and her friend were over from the UK so there was quite a gathering. We met his beautiful daughter Indie-Mae and his better half, Lolly and stayed for dinner. Sadly we had to head back to Ringwood before it got too late and left around 9:45pm. We arrived back at John’s just after midnight tired and cold, the trip not sped up by a misunderstanding at Richmond that resulted in Rhys getting on the train and leaving me on the platform to wait another 30 minutes for the next one.