And so... to Melbourne

So... Danielle and I wound our way down to Melbourne in a lesiurely, carefree way last week.

We took a Premier Motors bus to Ulladulla, just under five hours south of Sydney.

Arriving just after dark, we hauled our backpackers and breaking daypacks (me) down a steep hill and up another one to Travellers Rest backpackers. It was a cute little blue bungalow on the hill infront of the owners' home.

It was an old-fashioned little place with polished floors, pine bunk-beds crammed into the small rooms but with a large sitting room complete with ancient TV (I mean ancient - turn the dials to tune type thing) and all in all rather like your grandparents home.

The place holds 16 people - it would be jam-packed if full - but luckily there were only 6 of us the first night.

We grabbed a KFC from across the road (after a very hairy five minutes as I attempted to pass the huntsman spider on the outside stairs) , as we couldn't bear the walk back down the hill to the town, and chilled out for the evening.

The next morning we decided to explore the town and take a walk around the headlands to the beach. The hill our backpackers was on fed down to the harbour and the road ran straight up the other side of the steep-sided valley and was lined with shops and cafes. It is a small, retirement-age and slightly-worn place and not cheap at all. But after a coffee, we set off for our walk. We walked back past the small harbour, up the hill again and turned off into the north headland for a walk through the bush and to the viewpoints.

We were so engrossed in chatting and taking pictures, we even started the circular route again - well all bush looks the same to us!

Then we walked down into a little secluded and seaweed strewn bay which we had to ourselves. The sea was FREEZING so we paddled a little and then sunbathed until our tummies began to rumble. So we walked around the rocks to Mollymook beach - a huge golden arc of sand which reminded me a little of Palm Beach (Home and Away's Summer Bay).

Here the waves were large and we sat and had veggieburgers overlooking the sands. The rest of the afternoon was taken up with wandering through the streets nearby and the cemetery (check out the vaults - VAULTS!) and thinking that all the homes and wide streets reminded us of America.

It was all very Boston, Danielle thought, while I imagined it to look like New England with its wooden houses and tree-lined roads.

In the evening the backpackers filled up a little, with the owners shoving three other girls in our tiny room (despite the fact that there were other, empty rooms), so we escaped to the tiny, faded cinema for a bit of Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore cheesy wonderfullness in the form of Music and Lyrics. The songs have been stuck in my head ever since.

Our bus the next day did not leave until 2.20pm but we had strict (and I mean strict) instructions to leave the premises by 9.45am (although we could leave our bags in the spider-infested pit under the balcony). So Danielle and I decided to take the walk around the south headland.

This was a lot of fun as we spotted laurikeats and all kinds of fanastic wildlife in the bush. The path wove along the clifftops and we could look south along the coastline and down on beaches pounded by heavy surf. We watched some daring surfers paddling far out to sea and expertly riding waves which must have been at least 10ft above them.




We passed a lighthouse at the headland peak and continued our walk through the trees and along the cliffs. Until we reached a clearing and the end of the trail marked on a rubbish map given to us at the hostel. hmmm. D swore blind the guy had said we could go down onto the beach and along the cliffs back to the harbour.

By this time, our stomach's were rumbling and we'd had enough of bloody birds and bloody trees and ant holes and photos. Our heads were heavy with the heat, we were virtually out of water and the sun was beating down on us with full force. But we climbed down the steps to the beach and picked our way past crabs and stones and pebbles and seaweeds right around until there was a slight problem. A lot of cliff face. A lot of water. Not much rock. We attempted to see how far the narrow ledge went around but I didn't really fancy the papers back home reporting on the death of another 'two stupid Brit girls die in stupid accident' headline. The shame would have killed me.

So I persuaded Danielle it was the stupid idea that she knew deep down it was (this is a girl who thought it wise to climb over a cliff-side fence onto two inches of crumbling soil to pose behind a bush for a photo...) and we wearily climbed back around to the steps and tried not to pass out from heat as we ascended back into the cool forest. It was about a two minute walk back to the road we discovered. Bummer.

We treated ourselves to lunch at the boardwalk cafe as a przie for not dying on the rocks and then collected our stuff for the short trip to Narooma.

We arrived around 5pm and checked into to our next place - Lynch's Hotel. Our room was above the smoky pub and it was fantastic. We had to walk on a little covered balcony to our room - a glass-panelled double door led into a tiny room with a double bed, towels, little wash stand and sink and with the doors open, we could lie on the bed and see over the balcony to the north coast - waves smashing against the cliff.

Setting straight out, we tried to book a tour to see the penguins, seals and dolphins on Montague Island - but they were expensive and apparently the penguins are malting at the moment so we were unlikely to catch them. Disappointed, we booked a tour up the inslet for the following day.




We then wandered around the shore of the inslet as the sun sank in the sky and watched pelicans landing in the water, sat and revelled in the beauty of the scene before us - green mountains reflected in the water and the calmness of the atmosphere, before wandering up the steepest hill in the world to the hotel and watching sunset over the mountains on the balcony. After a gourmet pizza, we got into our pj's and hit the hay.

The next morning we stumbled to Woolies and bought fresh bread, cheese and salami and headed to the inlet to eat it on the grass. We lay, rested (what a wearying day) and watched children splashing about in the water, before taking our cruise on a little Waronga Princess boat.

The 100-year-old boat was filled with OAPs and a couple of kids and was captained by Charlie - a funny chap and the third Charlie in his family. He regaled us with tales of old-times in Narooma, history of the area ("This house here was built over 40 years ago!") and actually very interesting titbits. We heard about sharks he and his father had caught (proper big, scary sharks here) right in the inlet, the fish to be found and how they were caught, pointed out sea eagles and their nests and the rainforest parts and was generally rather amusing.



Then we stopped off for a walk through a bit of rainforest (not far - most people needed zimmerframes really) to see scary plants which stang lots, layers of shells the abo's used to throw down and all this was followed by a Devonshire Tea (served by a real Croc Dundee chap) on the banks of the inlet.

Then it was time to sample Sydney Rock Oysters which live in the inlet and which are supposedly some of the best in the world. I ate two.

Back on land, Danielle and I waited around and dozed (it had been a hard day) before getting fish and chips for supper. There was a hairy moment when D refused to eat her fish (there was a wobbling bottom lip I'm sure) but i managed to scrape the skin off it for her. Sometimes we mother each other. I say sometimes. We have to stop each other's strops a lot.

Then it was back up the hill to the "hotel" to watch lightening flash over the mountains and eventually to the bus stop at 10pm.

Uh oh... once on the bus to Melbourne I realised Oysters had NOT been a good idea. Luckily the immodium was on hand but it took a long time to locate...

Not much sleep was had on the bus so by the time we arrived in Melbourne (pronounce Melbun to avoid offending aussies - oh and CAN-berra not Can-bare-rah)at 7.30am, I was in full grouch mode and about to throw up.

After a worrying few minutes where I threatened to throw my toys out of the pram, we decided to get a taxi to Hotel Bakpack, one of the few we rang which would let us check in immediately.

It was a shit-hole to be frank. Big, immpersonal, though lots of things like free breakfast, tours, a job centre to keep people amused. Our room smelled. It was small and the beds were rickety. We showered in the dirty bathroom and then headed for sustenance.

The day was spent exploring. We walked up Lygon Street (Little Italy) and to Brunswick Street in Fitzroy for coffee. I loved this place. At first I thought "colourful"? More like a ghetto. The same way Barton Street in Glos or inner-city London suburbs could be described as colourful. More ghetto-like. But this gave way to funky flea shops and cafes with hundreds of people sat having breakfast in the sunshine (it was Sunday morning). Older buildings, all colourfully painted and with huge, artistic signs hanging off them and good strong coffee.

Then we caught the free city tram around the outskirts of the CBD and went around 1 1/2 times, found some sushi and then walked over the river. We jumped on a tram to St Kilda and walked down funky Fitzroy Street (cooler than school bars and cafes) to the beach. It wasn't Manly.

A thin scuzzy beach, horrid harbour dirty water. Seaside England air. Yuck yuck yuck.

Then a tram to South Melbourne and found Urban Central backpackers -still large but CLEAN and trendy. We booked in for the following night and then made our way back up to Little Italy for a slap-up pasta meal (well we deserved it for er making it safely to Melbourne - it was a free glass of wine with a meal too!). It was my first drink since leaving Manly and I felt extremely tipsy after.

The next day we moved our crap to Urban Central and then went shopping for a camera for Danielle (she lost hers at Sounds on Sunday in Jan). We also booked a car for two days for our trip to the Great Ocean Road on Tues and Weds.

That evening, we discovered there was a free BBQ at the hostel so filled up on that, met our roommates for the night - Jeannine and Dave - and made them join us for drinks in the hostel bar.

The following day was the Great Ocean Road drive... but that's a story for another day... pics to come too....