And finally, the last part of our Australian adventure is here!
Even though it’s a good read per se, I advise you to read the first and the second part, just to get the whole picture. 🙂
Well, let’s kick off in to the last part of this great adventure.
Geelong and Great ocean Road
When we returned from Sydney a detailed plan for the next few days was laid out. Very next morning we were on our way to see one of the best known Australian sights – Twelve Apostles. We agreed that we’ll go through Geelong as my relatives lived most of their life in Geelong, and are in Melbourne just for the last few years. We also agreed that we’ll stop on the way on nice locations to take some photos.
Our first stop along the way was close to Geelong, where I finally managed to touch the sea.
We were driving around Geelong for a while, and then we went to Queenscliff. My aunt and uncle used to own a chip shop here, so we decided to have a lunch break. What I really liked in Australian chip shops was the fact that you can choose several different kinds of fish for your fish and chips. In this case I took “Flake and chips”. Flake is commonly used in Australia as a replacement for “shark meat” as it can be of different shark types, but mostly of “gummy shark” (I’m not sure if that’s the right shark or the left shark :)).
Equipped with different fish, chips and dim sums we had a lovely picnic in Queenscliff park.
After lunch we stopped next to the Queenscliff Observatory, which is west point of entrance to Melbourne’s Port Phillip Bay or as locals would say “The Bay”. From the observatory visitors can see the view toward The bay or toward Sorrento which is on the eastern side of the bay.
After sightseeing around Queenscliff we continued our long ride towards Twelve Apostles. We stopped on one of many beaches along the way. And when I say “one of many”, trust me because “Great Ocean Road” from Geelong to Twelve Apostles is 220 km long, and you can stop almost after every kilometre. (We took this route.)
As we got closer to the south of the continent nature got greener and vineyards started appearing in our sight.
Besides lovely beaches and gorgeous nature there were several weird houses along the way. I would say that this one was the weirdest one, but at the same time I would not have a problem staying in it for a while. 🙂
Some lads forgot their shoes, and we were all worried about them. You can’t walk shoeless around Australia. 🙂
Closer to Twelve Apostles the road detours away from the ocean and into one of Australian rainforests – The Otways. Unfortunately the whole road trip took too much time to stop here, so we just drove through, but in The Otways there is a huge tree top walk and one of largest zip-lines in Australia, with a lot of specific plant species to see. Technically, this rainforest requires a day or two to be properly explored.
Still, even driving through it is a fantastic thing as after hours of sun and warmth we ended up driving through the darkness of tall trees. You can check here more info about The Otways.
After the hours on the road, we were finally there. Since my Eastern European English still has a strong accent I was warned several times that “T” in Apostles is silent, so in order to memorize it I asked for this photo. 🙂 So it’s “Apos-ls”.
After a few minutes walk we were there on the famous Australian cliffs! The view on both sides is magnificent, and it was worth sitting in the car for hours.
I’ve read somewhere that Apostles are nicest in the late afternoons when the sun sets, and somehow we managed to come here exactly around that time of the day. It was absolutely gorgeous. I can still hear the sound of waves crashing into the coast of this big continent.
Since the day was almost over we decided to take a shortcut home with a stop in Colac where we stopped for a dinner. After a proper Italian pizza we drove back home but only a few of us were still awake. It was a long day. 🙂
Ballarat, Sovereign Hill
Next morning we headed up to Ballarat, small place about 70 km away from Melton which is well known for it’s dramatic past. It is also called “The Gold city”, so you can imagine why. It was one of the cities where gold was found, and back in 1851 the city boomed with 20 000 new inhabitants in a month, and later up to 60 000 people.
Today, it is a museum with a part of buildings maintained in original state and staff dressed like people used to be dressed back in 1850’s.
When you pass the entrance doors it looks like you have been teleported back in time.
And the best thing is, all the facilities are still fully functional, so visitors can search for gold on their own, and what ever you can find it’s yours, and you can take it home. I always thought that searching for gold as seen in western movies is a piece of cake, you dig a little, you mix the soil in the pan, you take the gold and you are rich.
In our first try it seemed like that, it almost looked like we’ve hit the mother lode, as we picked this tiny piece of gold out of the creek.
However, after almost an hour of digging, it seems that this was the largest piece we’ve found that day. With 30 degrees in the shadow we quickly figured out that gold digging is not an easy job at all, and at a time on this location there were thousands of diggers trying to find much more gold than we found.
According to the stories, in the beginning it was almost like picking up the flowers in the spring. But by the time guys needed to dig underground if they wanted to find anything.
And imagine how that looked like back in 1850’s if it looks like this today, with maybe a few hundred guests trying their luck.
The whole museum is a nice place to see and spend a couple of hours. There are free mini lectures, shows which are performed according to the stories found in books from that time, and workshops where you can learn many different skills that were needed back then.
One of the things that was needed in the process of digging was fat, and you could weight it on this scale. 🙂
After more than four hours spent in Ballarat and Gold Rush museum we ate meat pies here and then we moved to Geelong beach.
Geelong beach is famous for it’s sea bath or boardwalk, that was built to protect the swimmers from sharks and currents, and Geelong Bollards. Bollards are the work of a local artist Jan Mitchel, and there is so called “Bollards trail” with more than 100 different wooden pylons with a personality. 🙂
While above fancy couple is on the way to the beach, talking about personal matters, all these guys are here to train saving people from the sea. More than 100 different bollards can be found, and you can search them online or see them clicking here.
Boardwalk was originally built back in 1928, but was rebuilt in 1993 with public donations. On a 310 meters long boardwalk each wooden board has a donators name on it, so a certain Gates family was active here. Not sure if those are related, but besides very famous Gates family, I’ve never heard of any other Gates and it seems that both are philanthropists. 🙂
After a very hot day in the search for gold and on the beach, we ended up having a fancy dinner in the city, and then we headed home to relax. Tomorrow was another lovely day to spend in Melbourne. 🙂
Melbourne
My cousin was born under the lucky star, or maybe we brought the luck of the Irish with us, but she got a set of free tickets for the “Taste of Melbourne”, food festival organized by the best Melbourne restaurants. It was placed in Albert Park, practically on the place where Formula 1 start grid is laid out. I had to find the map of the race and regular map of food festival to compare the locations.
As a true F1 fan, I had to take a decent photo on one of the most important races in the F1 Calendar. 🙂
I’ve wrote quite a decent post about what we ate there that day, so will not bother you again and you can read about the food here.
Still, I want to share a photo of my favorite car that was properly re-used as a movable coffee shop. 🙂
Yep, that is Volkswagen. One car for many purposes besides driving around the planet. 🙂
One other thing that I want to share with you is my favorite instrument. There were people taking many different photos around this huge fork, but I’d say I was the only one “playing it”. 🙂 At least I hope I was the only one. 🙂
After food and sweets, we went for a walk closer to Albert Park Lake where we enjoyed the view, free ice-cream that we got exiting the Taste of Melbourne and watching black swans. These big black birds are native in Australia and New Zealand, and are still not self sustained in Europe even though they were introduced in Britain.
So, a black swan is not just a metaphor! 🙂
After the morning in Albert Park we took a tram to the end of the famous St. Kilda Beach, and we walked along it all the way back to the Albert Park area.
Along the way I’ve noticed an exhibition similar to one that exists in Zagreb. There are planets of our solar system in their appropriate size and distance ratio.
Unfortunately, I’ve figured out too late that there is a whole solar system on the beach, so we passed far away from the sun and I did not notice it. (I’ve found it on Google maps).
However, I’ve noticed the Earth and the Moon. Look how small they are.
Especially if you compare them with the size of Jupiter and one of it’s new and undiscovered moons. It’s the Albert’s Park golf course “moon”. 🙂
Closer to the end of the beach I’ve noticed this… I call it “Bureaucracy at work”. Imagine how much time, money and effort is wasted to put all this tables, just to comply to some crazy rules. And besides, it looks terrible. 🙂
Since the weather was not really our companion that day as it was windy and rainy, we grabbed a tram to the central station in the downtown Melbourne.
Central station is another “state of the art” places in the city, where an old factory and its tower are maintained inside the train station and shopping centre. In order to protect the tower a huge 20 story tall glass cone was built above it, and as such it is one of the largest structures of that kind in the world.
From there we again wondered through the streets of Melbourne, where we learned that everything can be called shorter, as it’s usual in Australia. So why spending time saying “McDonald’s” when you can say “Macca’s”? 🙂
We roamed around China town in Melbourne and one of many streets covered with graffiti. This one is Croft alley. To find out how many such streets are in Melbourne take a look at more here.
And at the end of Croft alley, there is the craziest bar ever. The Croft bar themed as science lab, where cocktails are prepared and served in lab equipment, and toilets look like toilets in some hospital or asylum. 🙂
Since evening was already there, we moved to Fitzroy, on Brunswick street to taste the delicious and awesome N2 Extreme Gelato!
Guys are preparing ice cream in front of you. You select the taste you like, they put the liquid parts into the metal pot and then they pour a bunch of liquid nitrogen in it. While they mix it for a minute or two liquid nitrogen evaporates, and the whole “kitchen” floats in the cloud. In the end you get the awesome gelato and the syringe full of hot chocolate stuck in it. Addiction is instant and you just want more. 🙂
After the ice cream we ended up in one of the bars where the Melbournian youth is hanging out. Cool name for the bar “Naked for Satan” and even cooler beer name “Two Wives”.
We hanged around for a while, had a few drinks and then we had to go back to Melton and catch the last train which brought us home around 2 AM. If we’d miss that one, we would need to stay out till 7 AM, and since it was our last night in Australia it made no sense to stay out too long.
On the way to the train I’ve noticed a small palace called “Umago”. Somewhere on the end of the world someone knows that my hometown Umag-Umago is something unique! 🙂 Lovely! 🙂
Next day was all in packing and barbecuing since at 11PM we were taking off towards Dublin. In the morning I went with my uncle to the Melbourne Market, and to shop some goods that tourists must take home from Australia. Tim-Tam cookies, Vegemite, and kangaroo steaks and sausages for barbecue.
Off course, in front of one of the shops one of our ex Yu local sheriffs was parked, and similar to those Croatian weird plates he had to explain to everyone where he’s coming from. At least he sounded smarter as his plate says “Bosnian 1 Boss”
We had a lovely late lunch / dinner and we packed our staff. It was time to leave.
14 days passed by quickly, and it all sounds like a dream now. Luckily we took 4000 photos and a few videos so we can remind ourselves that we really were down under.
As a conclusion, it was the best trip so far in my life, and if you can make sure to visit this wonderful continent.
I’d love to see it again, and again, and again as I am aware that we managed to see almost nothing, and we had fully packed 14 days to explore it. It’s so big, and so different.
I hope you enjoyed reading my writings about it, and that at least those who can’t afford to visit it enjoyed it as we did.
In the end, I’d like to thank my family for taking us around and taking care of us those days, I’d like to thank Adriana for all the stories we’ve heard, and things we’ve learned about Melbourne, Melton, Geelong and around, aunt and uncle for all the food, driving us around and making our stay most relaxed and luxurious possible, Chris who got married and invited us down there. I’d also like to thank my ex boss Steve for taking us all the way to the Ku Ring Gai Chase National park and around Sydney. I’d like to thank Sara for having a good time with us and taking us back to the airport. I’d like to thank B. in Hobart for not asking me for International driving license and not ruining my dream. 🙂
I’d also like to thank all those who read all three parts of Australian adventure and shared them around. 🙂
Till next writing…
Love
Balky
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