Landed

So I survived the 14 hour flight from San Fran, even with the unluckiest of seat selections.  I did have the luck to sit next to a fellow avid trout fisherman from Tasmania and a sweet old lady who were pleasant travel companions.   After over a year of talking I finally got to hear my first honest “G-day mate”.  Surviving the grueling flight across the Pacific I landed in Melbourne and caught a bus to my hostel in the St Kilda suburb.  I picked this hostel because they advertised free pancakes and bikes, which unfortunately was the logic of many drunken Irish and German kids.  I soon learned that I had picked a party hostel that was a favorite among the impish offspring of European well to do families.  Despite the bad first impression I met some cool people and later went out for a pint with Tom, the only Australian staying at the hostel.  In drinking with Tom I learned a bit more of the lingo and we had fun making fun of each other’s speech habits and became mates over the next week.  Sadly I discovered that Aussie doesn’t have refined brewing techniques we have back stateside and the beer is quite bitter and requires a bit of practice before it becomes enjoyable.  St Kilda is the Oceanside suburb of Melbourne and I had a nice 10-acre park outside the hostel and was only 5 blocks from the beach itself.  An older town, it reminded me a bit of New Jersey or Coney Island as it’s heyday has long passed but is slowly returning.  Melbourne itself is the most beautiful city I have visited.  Old Victorian buildings reflect off the shiny twisted surfaces of modern architecture showcasing both where the city has come from and where it is going.  Open flowing parks and lush botanical gardens lead into the city center from St Kilda making Melbourne one of the few cities where it is possible to catch a relaxing breath of fresh air on your walk around.  That combined with the friendliest folk imaginable made Melbourne my favorite city.  Imagine finding the unconditional and sincere welcome of a small midwestern town coming from the citizens of a large city and you have the people of Melbourne.

It just happened that St Kilda’s rugby team was in the finals and I was in town for the footie game.  Imagine landing in Philadelphia during the playoffs when the Phillies are playing the last game and not realize it until you see the drunken fans hanging from the streetlights.  At 6pm some of the Irish kids where yelling “chug chug chug” encouraging each other to reach a grander level of inebriated idiocracy even that early in the night, while drunken German kids (age 19-22) dryhumped the leg anything that didn’t run away fast enough (later that night one particular kid was getting along quite well with a vending machine..)  Luckily Tom and I ran into some other quasicivilized kids and 8 of us escaped the leghumpers and took some beer and wine down to the beach and passed the evening telling stories and learning a bit of French.  In the wee hours of the morning we made our way back to the hostel through the destruction caused by celebration and I climbed into the bunk in a room I shared with 5 others for a bit of sleep before the next day.

Surviving the footie celebrations (it ended with a tie) I joined 3 Americans, 3 Canadians, and one Aussie for a road trip down the Great Ocean Road.  We split into two cars and I was stuck with the Americans.  David was the other driver in my car, a young trustfund kid from LA who still seemed a bit surprised by puberty.   I am not sure if he was ADD or OCD or just a @*#$ing twit but after 13 hours in the car with him I hating yanks as much as anyone.  The two American girls at least were not annoying, but didn’t have enough personality between them to make any conversation interesting.  Sadly the other car was a riot, Adam the Canadian is a great guy who loves the outdoors as much as I do and the other two Canadian girls and Aussie chick had a great time laughing and joking and telling stories while I was stuck with the Twit telling me to please drive 3kph slower than the speed limit.  Despite the company in the car I enjoyed the drive, the southern coast is amazingly beautiful with many different types of ecosystems right next to each other.  I walked through rainforests then an hour later through cattle pastures with koala’s chilling in the trees above.  At Port Campbell I saw the 12 Apostles, which is one of Australia’s most famous rock formations and I was amazed at how beautiful it was.  That and driving on the wrong side of the road in the wrong side of the car is kind of like a bad video game gone all sorts of wrong. 

Coming back to St Kilda I lined out the last of the things I needed to do in the city and made plans to escape to the mountains.  I found a Moroccan café called Shibah that had free wifi and enjoyed Turkish coffee and the chance to skype home.   I ate there with my German friend (not one of the leghumpers) and had one of the most delicious meals of my life.  Then the week after I landed in Melbourne I jumped the train heading west then took a bus a bit farther west, then another bus to Halls Gap, VIC.  Halls Gap sits in the Grampian Mountains and is a nice little town where cockatoos and parrots fly everywhere and roos hop down Main Street at night.  I stayed two nights at Tim’s Place, which is what a hostel should be.  Pudding the cocker spaniel greeted me as I walked up and the rooms were clean and everyone nice and no ones leg was in danger of getting humped as even Pudding had better manners than the kids back in Melbourne.

I took off on a few small hikes into the mountains, which are quite literally behind the hostel.  Paths flow over rocks and around trees leading me to beautiful waterfalls and ridgelines where all of Australia opens up beneath me.  After getting to know the area a bit I took off on a two-day hike around the valley and back up over one mountain range.  As with the bike ride it took a bit to get used to the pack but it was well worth it to be alone in the mountains again.  Having curious stag-like deer follow me for a couple clicks through grassy meadows to watching brilliantly white flights of cockatoos wing beneath me as I stand on the mountain peak was amazing.  That night I pitched my tent next to the path in a flat spot.  I had to hike 3k round trip to get water from that camp but level spaces were hard to come by.  Even though it was warm during the day it dropped down to 4 Celsius during the night and I was huddled in my sleeping bag by 8pm.  That first night shadow camping in the bush I learned that kangaroos sound frightening similar to zombies in horror films as they quietly set their front paws down with just a little bit of noise then drag their larger hind paws through the underbrush much like a zombie would drag a foot…  That combined with their warning cough/moan when they smelled my camp made for a bit of a restless evening but they soon went away and I drifted off to sleep.

I came back down to Tim’s Place and enjoyed a beautiful afternoon and a much needed shower.  Later that night I drank scotch and wine around a bonfire with Dominic, Tim’s brother, and Megan, Tim’s niece, who is watching the place while Tim is setting up his second hostel over in France.  Dominic is quite an adventurer himself and we passed the hours telling stories back and forth and being jealous of each other’s experiences.  If I ever make it back to Melbourne Dominic invited me to stay at his place and if I time it right in the summer we will go camping in the sand dunes down by the coast.  As bright and shiny as Melbourne is, this is the Australia I had hoped to find and look forward to spending another week here walking the mountains before I wander on.