Saturday 3 April 2010

Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia

After three weeks taking it pretty easy in Brisbane and Sydney, I've had whirlwind tour of the rest of the country. I don't mean to suggest that I've seen all the rest of the country, just that the rest that I saw I went through very fast.
I took the overnight train from Sydney to Melbourne and set off right away along the south coast on the Great Ocean Road. The top picture is from there. It was incredibly beautiful, and one of the best parts was a walk along the cliffs in Port Campbell.
I stayed the night in Port Fairy (with a name like that I couldn't resist) then headed back to Melbourne via an inland route that took me through the Grampians National Park. At the Brambuk cultural centre, they pointed me in the direction of a local rock art site, Bunjil's shelter. There I also saw a couple of wild wallabies. That was especially nice since the only mammalian wildlife I had seen in Victoria so far was roadkill, of which there is quite a lot.

Back to Melbourne after dark, I stayed at a hostel near Victoria Market. The next day was Good Friday, a holiday here and probably not the best time to visit. There was virtually no one around - it was like the set of a survivor movie. Eventually I found everyone at the Botanic Garden, where the whole city had gathered to barbecue.

Friday night I took an overnight bus to Adelaide, going through several of the towns I drove through a day before. I had 6 hours in South Australia before my noon flight to Perth. It was pretty quiet, I think I was the only person awake, but I saw a beautiful sunrise, and lots of very colorful lorikeet-type birds.

Around midday yesterday I arrived in Perth, Western Australia (abbreviated WA, which I find very confusing, having been born in the other WA). It was a beautiful day, and I spent the afternoon in Kings Park, where I took the picture here. As suggested (thanks Sue!) I went to Fremantle today. I did the Prison tour, which was pretty intense and interesting to compare to Alcatraz. I also dipped my toes in the Indian Ocean.

In a couple of hours I'll be heading to Singapore. Hard to believe I'm already more than halfway through!
Look, I've finally figured out how to put more pictures in!

2 comments:

  1. Congratulations on the added pictures. A round of applause here!
    Safe travel xoxoxo

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  2. I would guess there are many WA -- but these two are pretty cool.

    And thanks for the additional photos. You have quite the eye. How strange to think that you are on your travels and Erin and Meaghan are in Guatemala. How wonderful this life is. Continued safe travels and keep posting. --B

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