WA and Melbourne

I will first make my excuses as to why i haven't done a blog post in over a month. The problem with Australia is that it seems to be the only place on earth where providing easy and cheap internet access is not taken for granted. It does go to show how much we rely on it now.

Despite this the month in Australia with Jon and in the later stages Jamie was immense. I really really enjoyed it and if there is any city on earth that can claim to have the best quality of life it has to be Melbourne or Sydney. Not being much of a city person at the best of times i loved these two cities with Melbourne i think just slightly edging it.

Anyways we started off our ambitious plans with 6 days in western Australia. Originally we were going there to watch some of the cricket but the lack of anything else to do in Perth, plus the rave reviews we heard about the margaret river region meant we took the hire car for an extra day. Before taking the car we had a day in Fremantle where we met up with Josh who happened to be in town before heading to south africa for christmas. We took in the sights of the fremantle jail on a guided tour before grabbing some beers and heading to the beach to watch the sunset over the indian ocean. The quality of life in australia is ridiculous at no point if you live in a major city are you more than 1/2 hour from a beach that puts most places to shame. And these are the city beaches much better were to come.

Perth isn't bad by any means just very quiet and the main attraction in Western Australia is the lack of people and the completely unspoiled coastline. So we headed south and our first day in Margaret river took in the beautiful Meelup beach and the cape peninsula as well as wine tasting at one of the many vineyards in this very famous part of the world. We ended it on Hamlin bay swimming in the crystal clear waters off a 5km stretch of beach with literally no-one else. WA is the size of India with only 2 million people of which most live in Perth. Unfortunately you could spend months here and not see everything and we only had six days. So unlucky for Jon as he was the only one driving the next day we blitzed it south to Pendleton to climb the Gloucester tree which is the highest fire lookout in WA at 60m. A little bit hairy climbing up some spikes sticking out of the trunk but an awesome view from the top. After a quick walk in the bush we pushed on to Walpole where you can do a boardwalk through the forest canopy. It was pretty cool but a distinct lack of any wildlife to look at. To date only kookaburras and kangaroos to tick off in the i-spy guide.

That was pretty much it in WA, i would have liked to have a bit of time to see the dolphins in Bunburry where we stopped for the night but time did not permit as we had to drop the car off. Again as with so much of the trip i flew out of perth with the feeling of having so much unfinished business, only getting the very briefest of tastes.

Even briefer still was my stop in Adelaide as i could count the hours on one hand having had my flight delayed until the evening and then being picked up early as the next morning. Instead of flying to Melbourne straight from Perth we had booked onto a tour of the Grampians and the great ocean road leaving from Adelaide. Normally hating tours more than anything this was much better than expected. First day was a bit rubbish as it was mainly sitting in the bus but the next two involved a bit of hiking, some amazing views from the pinnacles at the top of the Grampian mountains as well as the coastline of the great ocean road. Good times and after this we arrived in Melbourne to get ready for the most un-christmasy Christmas of my life.

Despite it being the 23rd of December and making quite a few attempts to boost the Christmas spirit listening to the Glee rendition of numerous classics (Jons ipod not mine) being sat in the sunshine getting a tan seems to nullify all efforts. Despite this we went to the cathedral in the centre of Melbourne Christmas eve which seemed to be full of English people for the evening service, before standing in the main square watching carols by candlelight. Turned out to be pretty good in the end and it was a great atmosphere all around. For Christmas itself we signed up for the meal at the hostel which after a few initial reservations was pretty good. Being my first Christmas not at home it kind of helps being around other people who are also away from their families and are in the same position as yourself. The atmosphere was pretty good and the post Christmas lunch activities were one to remember as we all headed down to St. Kilda beach to play cricket (which my team won) and football (which i gave up on due to the dubiious leg breaking challenges that seemed to be dominating). After watching the complete misery at home over the winter i was not the slightest bit envious of not having a white Christmas and i reckon i could get used to sunbathing with some turkey sandwiches in the future.

TBC...