Along the Road to Melbourne
Trip Start
Apr 19, 2008
1
8
42
Trip End
Nov 31, 2008
Port Fairy, Victoria,
Australia
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
I have spent the past week moving slowly from Adelaide to Melbourne, in a comfortable big red car, driven by chauffeur John, connecting my ipod to the car stereo so getting to play the Proclaimers and Elvis for hours on end, stopping off at places of interest en-route, staying several of the nights with friends of John's conveniently scattered along the way and being wined and dined by said friends (including mighty portions of mashed spuds...yes!!!). It's the way to go!
the aussie breakfast
Tour guide Riley has also ensured that a selection of key Australian experiences have been included in my itinerary, such as drinking substantial quantities of beer, vegemite on toast for breakfast, tim tams for snacks, arranging for a drunk local to spill beer all over me, listening to Rolf Harris in the car, learning coffee terminology (a long black or a flat white?), playing a didgeridoo, painting a boomerang in aboriginal designs (with a slight Irish twist), learning to throw a boomerang, examining the car to see if the roo that bounced off it did any damage... it's been a very educational week!
John, Mick and myself wine tasting
Leaving Adelaide we headed South and then East where the main attraction was the well stocked bar at Diane and Malcolm's house, followed the comfiest bed and snuggliest doona (they don't know how to pronounce duvet here...) in Australia. I don't know how they're not listed in the guide books...! That left us very close to wine country and well, as you will understand Mick, we thought "it would be rude not to..." ... so we spent a day wandering round the wineries and visiting 'cellar doors' for tastings, where lovely and informative assistants pretended not to be appalled at my lack of knowledge of things grape. The first asked what kind of wines are popular where I live and I told her it would be the 2.99 red in Lidl... not the right answer! They showed us the spitoon in the corner for emptying the glass after the taste... what?! Pour wine down a drain?! I don't think so! I thought these Aussies knew how to drink! The consequence of my insistence on not wasting good wine was that I was tipsy by morning tim tam time and giggling at absolutely everything by lunch time. At the final vineyard I decided enough was enough and I would enjoy a sobering short black (coffee) in their cafe... but it was closed... so I asked if she could offer me anything other than coffee to drink... and you know what happened next... "ah, yes, a lovely bouquet... hmmm, I'm getting aftertones of vegemite, er, no is that oak or vanilla?" It was definitely time to lay off the reds for a while. (Mick, we were worried you'd be disgusted at us guzzling wine instead of beer... but thought you'd feel better if you had one yourself so we left a glass for you on the bar... look closely at the picture!).
name that tune ...
the artwork
The next highlight was a visit to the Grampians, which I had always thought were in Scotland... those early settlers weren't very imaginative with their place names, were they? I had already been disorientated by driving through places named Coleraine, Killarney and Tyrone (thought of you there, Suzy!). At the aboriginal cultural centre in Hall's Gap I had a rare opportunity to create a meeting of Aboriginal and Irish cultures: the table on which I began my boomerang dot painting displayed a page of traditional symbols used in much Aboriginal art, which I was supposed to use a basis for the story unfolding across the boomerang, but somehow my
"my boomerang won't come back..."
Aboriginal lizard men ended up drinking Irish Guinness and falling over and then when they were attacked by Aboriginal snakes , Irish St Patrick appeared and pulled his old trick of banishing the snakes from the country. God, I had a great time! When it came time to learn to throw the piece of curved wood I put mine safely away and used an old one... having seen the price tags on Aboriginal dot paintings in those art galleries in Alice, I have great hopes of funding the rest of my trip with the fortuitous sale of my own 'intercultural art'... any takers, just drop me a mail...
the way to the Pinnacle
view from the Pinnacle
The gorgeous blue skies in the Grampians made up for the frosty early morning (well, actually I only heard about the frost, I thought it safer to stay in bed till it had thawed... you know, you have to be careful re-acclimatising to the cold after months in Asia...!) and we had a good walk up to 'The Pinnacle' which left me gasping for breath and wondering how I ever did Everest Base Camp a few months ago... too much eating and drinking and not enough exercise since then, God I need to take action... and soon!
The Great Coast Road
along the coast
Port Fairy (I wonder do they have their own "only gay in the village"?!!) was the last overnight stop, where Colin and Irene managed to procure some divine mash, soooo good that I was left speechless, which was just as well as I wouldn't
squinting in the sun
Wreck Beach
have wanted to steal Colin's talk time... a very entertaining character! They showed us around the next morning and we walked on the beach and around the harbour and sat enjoying the sunshine at a street cafe, with big frothy coffees and huge cakes (well MOST of us had huge cakes, anyway...!). From here the route to Melbourne passed
'Mick beach'!!
Yes, it was very cold...!
along the famed Great Ocean Road and in the weather we had it was only gorgeous: fresh sea air, the smell of seaweed, gulls cawing above, light glittering on the water, dramatic cliff views, towering sea stacks and sand between my toes. It was reminiscent of the West Coast of Ireland, only it wasn't raining... Walking along the
a few of the 'Twelve Apostles'
'Lizard men' on the sand
deserted Wreck Beach I rolled up my trousers and braved a paddle in the freezing waves to get a closer view of the rusting anchors on the shore and peer into rockpools, then we amused ourselves making 'lizard man' shadows on the sand. (Mick, we were missing you again so we tried to change the sign to 'Mick Beach' - have a couple of pints and look at the photo and you'll figure it out!) Ah, isn't it great being on holiday?!
'The Potato Line'!!!
