Belated post about my trip to Australia
I've been terribly neglectful of posting about my trip, which was rather fantastic. I explored Melbourne and went on a tour of the Great Ocean Road and Grampians National Park, where I saw lots of wildlife. I did do a series of videos, which I kept updated while I was in Australia, so if you want the general over view -- they are all pretty short -- you can check them out (Part 1 - Arriving, Part 2 - At the Beach, Part 3 - Tim Tam Straws, Part 4 - Queen Victoria Market & Royal Botanic Gardens, Part 5 - Old Melbourne Gaol, and Part 6 - Geeking out over the National Gallery of Victoria).
For those who just want pictures instead, I have oodles of pictures from the whole trip on flickr.
I don't have a video of the Great Ocean Road or the Grampians, because I had camera issues (I left my battery back at the hostel). I did get to take lots of picture, though, because the guide allowed me to borrow his camera and use his memory card during the three days I was on the tour.
The tour, run by Bunyip, was definitely at the top of my list of favorite things, because it allowed me to get out to see the gorgeous coastlines with blue-green water, the dry, rocky mountains, and kangaroos, koalas, emus, an akidna, and a red-bellied black snake (highly poisonous - yikes!) in the wild -- all without my having to rent a car, figure out how to stay on the left side of the road, and plan where to stay and what to eat.
The Bunyip tour was my first experience with any such tours, and I was well and truly spoiled. It was a small group -- only eight of us, including the guide -- so there was plenty of room to spread out in the small bus. Adam the guide, was very kind (as I mentioned above). He was also rather funny, keeping the energy up during the driving portions of the tour by telling local stories and giving us facts about what we were going to see. He was extremely knowledgeable about a vast number of things, from horrifying koala mating habits to shipwreck stories to why eucalyptus trees shed their bark. If he was ever faking it, he did so so well that I couldn't tell. It was clear he genuinely loved his job.
The food was basic but good and there was plenty of it.
The accommodations were great. The first night we stayed at a park with a lighthouse on it, which was closed down to the public at night, so we had the whole property to ourselves. I stayed in one of the bunkrooms in a small, cute little house that looked like something someone might use for a summer cottage.
The second night we stayed at the Asses Ears Wilderness Lodge, which had the lodge, an outdoor kitchen, and a number of bunkroom cabins each their own porches to sit out and enjoy the outback. There was also a flight strip for bush pilots and a four-wheeler course on the property. My tour-mates and I wandered out to the flight strip (each of us well-dowsed in mosquito repellent) and set up chairs to watch the sunset. Later that night, we went out and looked up at a sky brightly lit with stars, in which the Milky Way was a clearly visible streak across the sky. I also had the Southern Cross constellation pointed out to me, something I was looking forward to seeing on the trip. All of it was wonderful.
I don't really know what else to say about the tour at the moment, as I saw a great many beautiful coastlines and views from mountaintops, which are really best expressed through the pictures, and even then it doesn't do it full justice.
After the tour, I returned to Melbourne. I had only one day left, so I took the day to visit with a twitter buddy, Lily, who lives in Melbourne. She took me to this great little cafe in the hills near her home, and drove with me out to the Yarra Valley, so that I could get a look at the countryside and all the wine-making vineyards (we didn't stop for any wine tastings, though). It was a great end to a great trip.
Finally, and to sum up, some random things about Australia (or Melbourne):
- Melbourne is huge. It's in my estimation about the size of the Bay Area
in California (which comprises San Fran, Berkeley, Oakland, San Jose,
and numerous other cities in between). Instead of splitting everything
up into cities, everything is split into large suburbs, which are all
apart of Melbourne with Melbourne central being the heart of the city.
- It's expensive. Oh my, yes it is (for example, a Volvo Coupe costs around AU$73,000, while in the U.S., the same car would be US$25-30,000. Meals and everything were pricey and to make matters worse (for me, at least) the Australian dollar is way up, so things are even more expensive. However, minimum wage is also a lot higher there as well.
- There is no tipping, which is really nice. If you do tip, you only do so for above-and-beyond exceptional service, and then only a few cents worth. It took some some getting used to for me. Tipping is just so standard in the U.S. that it felt weird not to tip, as though I were being mean to my server or something.
- They drive on the left side of the road. I already mentioned this, but the thing is, I never really got used to it. I didn't have to drive anywhere myself, but I walked a lot of places and took a lot of trams. I probably whipped my head back and forth a dozen times whenever I crossed the street, just to make sure that I didn't get myself hit by a car in my left vs right confusion. I kept getting confused about which side of the street I was supposed to catch the trams on, too, often realizing at the last second that I was on the wrong side of the street and having to run across to catch the arriving tram.