A slice of lovely familiarity in a year of exploration ...

Day 136 - Wednesday 28 May 2008

Well - I've just read my first Bill Bryson book ('Down Under' - I'll leave you all to work out where it's about) and have been really happy that he does just what I stumbled into doing - tells you what he's been doing, recounts local facts and walks a lot (which pigeons also do the world over despite their wings - lazy bloody sky rats!) - so here we go again!

The family Rousey (James, Jo, Ashley and Chloe) have been fabulously putting me up here in Langwarrin just outside Melbourne and my stay in paradise (compared to dorm living!) is sadly almost at an end - it's been a great chance to recharge the batteries, give the legs a rest and surround myself with normality again - in fact if I closed my eyes I could almost be back in England - such is the familiarity of Australia, a lovely family and a great, old friend

The journey here from Christchurch involved my first ever double-flight-day as I headed from Christchurch to Sydney on Qantas and Sydney to Melbourne on Virgin Blue (which with that name really should involve naked cabin crew) - all straightforward, everything on time and a New Zealand airport that's got kind of a pre-9/11 security flavour - the in flight movie to Sydney was The Bucket List and it reminded me of the enormity of what I'm doing - as the days have ticked on this has been easy to forget - sea kayaking on Milford Sound now feels very much like 'the norm'

Early days here were used to try and organise a visa for China - a rainy, sombre morning was met with a 'computer says no' response from the consulate here in Melbourne - I can only guess at 'Free Tibet' demonstrations and that bloke who launched himself at the Olympic Torch in London - whatever way - I've had to resort to Visa First's service and more travel lessons about trusting others (my passport is currently not in my hands) - it'll all be worth it to see the Forbidden City and the Great Wall

Now Rousey has been a total legend in showing me his adopted country - Melbourne and the surrounding 'bush' - in my world Australia (heading out to in) consists of the ocean, the city, the bush and the outback - the outback we won't hit but we're all over the city and the bush

In the bush we've headed up Mount Dandenong and got a look back at the Melbourne CBD skyscrapers back towards the ocean (CBD or Central Business District is term for downtown in NZ and here) - we've also checked out William Ricketts Sanctuary in the Dandenong Ranges and I got my first taste of Aboriginal culture - William Ricketts was a wacky artist who specialised in clay sculptures and spent years of his life living amongst the Aborigines - he then lived high in the Dandenongs and the Australian rain forest placing these sculptures and developing a belief system that probably confused him as much as me!












The next day we went even further north and hit the Yarra Valley - now if there's one thing I've learned in the last few months it's that half the world has itself down as a wine producing expert - USA tick, Chile tick, New Zealand tick and now Australia tick - I wouldn't mind but they can't ALL produce a world famous Pinot Grigio - I think the definition of 'world famous' seems to be that they have a web site - anyway - the YV was a fabulous Sunday afternoon activity and, judging by how busy the Cellar Doors were, cruising them (there are 70!) is a popular activity here in Australia - hats off to Rousey for being a 'bloody legend' and doing the driving leaving me to sample a few and leave Yering Station with a world famous Pinot Noir!














We'll leave the bush for a second and mention one of Australia's (and probably the world's) great cities in Melbourne - we used a whole day exploring St Kilda (a hip city suburb next to the ocean with it's own pier), the Yarra River, Flinders Street Station, the regal shopping arcades, Eureka Tower (the best presented high city view in the world so far and even better than Sears Tower) and capped it all with a random highlight form this whole journey - footy at the MCG!

That last phrase translates as watching a game of Australian Rules Football at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (the world's best cricket stadium if size matters) alongside 78,205 other fans - a game that, very often, resembles schoolboy football when players scramble around an impossibly small space only for the ball to break free and the game to open up - for the record the Collingwood Magpies destroyed the Geelong Cats 134 to 78 and again Rousey came up trumps with seats right behind the goals just a few rows back from the front - you could almost smell the testosterone - and the humiliation - Geelong were top of the Australian Football League!

And to finish off the familiarity has been heavily enhanced by my return to a golf course - now the months on the road have not been kind to my golf swing - it's looking a little longer than normal ands the ball's straying a little further than usual from the hole - a 10 was interesting after the perfect tee shot - Rousey has pleasurably destroyed me around a couple of wonderfully open access, cheap golf courses - Sandringham (pronounced with the H sound) and his home track of Lang Lang (an Australian Ross-on-Wye Golf Club) that's tight and when off line dusty and difficult! - Melbourne has an astounding number of these courses nestled alongside the world renowned Royal Melbourne - it's not difficult to see why Australian players are taking the world and especially the PGA Tour by storm - in fact the only pain is carrying around a bucket of sand to replace your divots - mind you - it's not that hard - a trolley culture here!

And as if all of this wasn't enough then Rousey's come up with a couple of tongue in cheek Australian experiences - Pin Oak Court was clearly (even in the dark?!) Ramsay Street and for years I believed it was very long - but that was a clever Neighbours cameraman and it's incredibly short - but sure enough that's where Daphne stripped at Des' bachelor party in the first ever episode (I remember being off sick at the time from Newent Community School and watched it twice - lunchtime and late afternoon!)

And you've got to love kangaroos - we were sadly too late to get into a park run by Victoria State after the Dandenong Ranges adventure - but Swifty would have been proud of 'Tracker Rouse' who headed fearlessly into Dandenong Police Paddocks Reserve and got us right up close to a group of 6 who decided to 'boing' in our general direction like were in Jurassic Park when the Gallimimuses flocked towards Alan Grant and those annoying kids - a couple of the kangaroos were about the size of those dinosaurs!

It's almost over and out for Melbourne (but we'll be squeezing in more action before a train ride on Sunday inland and north east) and Sydney Harbour Bridge awaits - thankfully the real thing - and not the hockey bloke in Gloucestershire who changed his name to exactly that by deed poll - now there's a genius - if it's as good as everyone says then maybe I'll do the same ...