After my parents arrived at their hotel in Melbourne CBD we joined their dinner for a nice drink. They where less exhausted from the long flight as expected and so we walked through the nightly streets of Melbourne. Even though Finja was only 7 months of age when she last saw the other „Perschmann’s“, she lost no time in laughing and playing with them.
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| Finja, her grandparents, Katinka and my sister Rita. |
We spent the next two days seightseeing in Melbourne. We walked through the famous SeaLife Aqarium (which had one impressive pool, but besides that was less impressive as expected), the Federation Square (with an really well done Exhibition about Dreamworks Animation Films, worth visiting!), the Eureka 88 Skydeck (Melbournes tallest building, offering an spectacular view over the city) and the many little cafés and shops.
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| Finja in Melbourne’s SeaLife Aquarium |
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| Melbourne at Sunset |
The nights we spent at a friends place in North Melbourne, using their shower and laundry and sleeping in their parkinglot, in the mornings we took the tram to the CBD to avoid parking struggles and fees. On their third day, my dad picked up heir campervan rental and we decided to check out a restaurant called Lentil as Anything before we would start our roadtrip. Volunteers offer a selection of 5 or 6 different meals, desserts and water, but instead of a cashier there is only a donation box: „Pay as you feel!“ The food was delicious, the ideas is great and we did not eat for free. We might come back, when we pass through Melbourne again!
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| A Koala at the Kennett Jeep Track – Wye River, Victoria |
The next 3-4 days where spent along the Great Ocen Road, seeing Koalas from a distance of 1m, awesome coastline views and the famous Twelve Apostels. It was easier then expected to find good and free sleeping spots for the night, as we are here in the off season now. We were not sure if rangers or police officers would wake us up at night or fine us, since my parents huge campervan is a bit harder to hide then our ’small‘ backpacker van, but no one cared!
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| Twelve Apostels – Great Ocean Road |
We drove all the way to Portland, where we had seen the white Kangaroos two weeks ago, but couldn’t see much of the impressive Blowhole landscape of Cape Bridgewater, due to heavy raind and wind. Today the weather was calm and sunny, making the Blowholes less interesting then the surrounding landscape. It looked quiet similar to Utah Desert, except for the endless blue water next to it.
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| Cape Bridgewater – Portland, Victoria |
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| Cape Bridgewater – Portland, Victoria |
We spent a few last days in the Grampians, not climbing to much as we had been here for to long now. We picked up the crashpads we had stored in a rain protected spot up in Buandik and did a last photoshooting in „Northern Fire“ for Katinka. Yesterday we came through Ballarrat, Australias most famous gold rush city. Sovereign Hill is a huge open air museum presenting Ballarats 1860’s life, gold mines and industries. It was very interresting to see and to chat with volunteers. Several Schools around Victoria use he oportunity of this place to send their students back into the past for a couple of days. They walk around in 1860 cloths, listen to 1860 school lessons and play 1860 games on the street, which must be an great experience as a 12 year old.
