Travel Diary: Goodbye Sydney, Hello Adventure

12 March - Sydney to Canberra The day is finally here.  Time to say goodbye to our little home in Sydney and hit the road for our epic road trip across the country.  And the best part is my parents are joining us for the first leg.  We will all be driving from Sydney to Melbourne in Delilah then they pickup their own Mighty campervan and we all drive to Adelaide via the Great Ocean Road.  It's going to be awesome. We had tried to pack a lot of our belongings in the van last night but we still have a lot more to pack in.  We picked up mum and dad from their AirBnB in Ultimo and took a couple of hours to cram everything into the van.  Dan, the concierge, lent us the luggage trolley and we proceeded to make about 4 trips up and down the lift loading in the van.  We had to get mum and dad in the van and load more stuff around them!  But alas we did it and were off by noon! The journey to Canberra, 300km away, took about 4 hours.  We kept an eye out for koalas and kangaroos along the way but saw nothing but road kill. We were expecting something special from the capital of Australia but there was nothing.  I mean we literally drove through the city, checked Google and realised that was it.  The city being about 100 meters of small buildings.  We drove through them around the roundabout with Parliament in the middle and back.  So nothing much to explore. We had pre-booked into the Ibis Budget just outside of the city.  The Ibis was surprisingly ok.  The room was small and the bathroom looked like it had been taken off a cruise ship but at $35 a night you can't complain. The guy at reception told us the only place to eat was a complex in Dickson 5 minutes down the road.  They had the main chains and a few Indians and Thais.  We settled on a Thai and ordered some curries.  Only then did we realise it was a BYO.  They didn't serve any alcohol but at 50c a beer corkage we opted for dry dining. With no beers and no pub we drove back and got an early night. 13 March - Adelaide to Melbourne Early this morning we headed back to the complex in Dickson and found the one and only coffee shop, Kickstart.  It was more of a take away but we ordered food and sat on the boxes and windowsill outside to eat our bacon and egg rolls. Back on the road for a killer drive of 700km down to Melbourne.  We drove all day, taking turns, again seeing nothing but road kill.  Mum and dad are actually pretty comfy in the back and getting in some naps.  After baking yesterday, we tried the aircon in the front and it miraculously had fixed itself.  Aircon all round, amazing. We drove around the outside of the Melbourne city and still ended up sat in traffic all the way to Ripponlea, a town next to St Kilda, just outside of the city.  We pre-booked an AirBnB for 3 nights whilst we sightsee Melbourne and watch the Formula One.  We had a 2 bedroom apartment to ourselves.  The apartment was ok, a little old and dusty around the edges but perfect for us to chill out and sleep. After dropping in our bags we headed straight down to Elwood Beach.  The beach looked really pretty but it was so windy.  We persevered and dad and I even had a quick dip before quickly retreating back to the van. In the evening we wrapped up (it's bloody freezing in Melbourne) and headed out to eat dinner.  We walked 10 minutes down the road into town and found a little Italian for dinner.  And they served booze!  Coronas all round and we finally felt like we were on holiday.  That was a hell of a long day. 14 March - Melbourne In the morning we headed back into the town and found an amazing cafe called Artful Dodger.  It had a retro feel and served the most amazing healthy breakfast options.  I've got to say, Australia might not be able to dish up a good old English breakfast but they do breakfast very well nonetheless. At the railway station we purchased a MyKi card (the Melbourne version of Sydney's Opal card) with $12 to get us around for the next few days.  The railway to the city took about half an hour.  Shaun parted ways with us today to go to the Arnold Classic (as in Arnold Schwarzenegger), a body building and fitness exhibition.  He had a cracking day and actually got to see Arny himself and some of the other top body builders. Mum, dad and I went off in the city in search of the Eureka Tower, Melbourne's sky tower, to get a good view of the city.  We walked across the bridge over the river and couldn't see it.  A quick Google search and we realised it was staring us in the face.  It just looks like a standard skyscraper so we decided to give it a miss.  Instead we hopped on the $5 tourist bus which took us around the city and surrounds for a couple of hours.  All in all not that much to see.   Honestly, the City of Melbourne was not what I was expecting.  It is relatively small with small skyscrapers and a lot of older buildings. With nothing else to explore we hit the pub for a quick pint (yes an actual pint not a schooner) and back home to meet up with Shaun.  In the evening we headed back into the city to meet up with Grimo and Pam.  They have come on a little 'holiday' from New Zealand to go to the Formula One and see us.  We are really looking forward to catching up with them.  We haven't seen them since Bali. The city by evening is a different beast.  It was busy with lots of people, a lot more than during the day.  After meeting Grimo and Pam we headed off to find a restaurant and settled for Taxi, just in the Exhibition Centre.  Unbeknown to us it was fine dining.  With a name like Taxi and the rustic decor we thought it would be your average burger joint.  The food was divine though. Back in the pub for a few more drinks and mum and dad headed home, a bit too old for the loud music!  The rest of us only had a few more before heading back for an early night.  Formula One tomorrow.

15 March - Melbourne  For breakfast we walked in the opposite direction and found another awesome cafe, Sprout.  They had a Turkish twist on breakfast which was delicious.  Well, until I nearly cracked my tooth in half biting into a shard of metal in my chorizo sausage.  The staff were very apologetic and took my food off the bill and gave us a free coffee to go. We decided to get the tram to the track. Driving around Melbourne is a nightmare with the tram.  I can't understand the logic.  The tram travels on the road which is also used by cars.  Therefore they still get stuck in traffic and at traffic lights.  Not only would this be exactly the same as getting a bus it also makes driving dangerous for other cars.  The cars drive on the road with the tram tracks, this can't be good for your tyres and just stupid for motorbikes.  Not only do you undertake trams but you also have to go left to turn right.  You have to pull into the left lane and wait for the traffic lights before you can turn right.  It's crazy! Not really knowing where we were going we followed the guys all dressed up in their racing shirts and hats and finally made it to the track.  We were located in the Schumacher stand.  Unfortunately, when I booked the tickets I thought being low down would be good to see the track, like at the Malaysian Moto GP.  Here, they have a big fence so we had to look through the fence to the track.  The stand itself was in a great location with 2 corners.

The great thing about these events is that it's not just the race of F1 cars, don't get me wrong they are stunning and thrilling to watch but there is something here for everybody. Before the main event, the F1 race, we saw cars from the 80s and 90s battle it out for the pure fun of it. Even though these cars are almost 20 to 30 years old they sure aren't slow. The V8 supercars have to be my favourite with the roar of the massive V8s being pushed to the limit. These cars sound better than any of todays F1 cars. We also saw a stage of the Porche Carrera cup, equally as impressive as the V8s and they sound just as good. The F1 is not just an event for the 4 wheeled petrol head. At various intervals throughout the day they had a harrier jump jet creep up on the crowd doing low fly overs, breaking the sound barrier. The Qantas air display was very impressive. The Qantas Boeing 747 did an impossibly low fly over whilst still manoeuvring smoothly with such ease as low as the jump jet, amazing to see. They also had the Australian version of the red arrows which are equally as impressive.   The main event of the day was the actual F1 race which was a very uneventful race but amazing to see these cars going so quick only a short distance away. Hamilton took the honours and was presented a trophy from none other than Mr Arnold Schwarzenegger himself. We all stormed the track after the race to get a few photos of the cars. An amazing experience, can't wait to see the next. After the race had finished we had to queue for a good hour to board the train back into the city.  Feeling pretty worn out we headed to Nando's for tea and another early night. A la perchoine, Jodie and Shaun x

Leave Blank:Do Not Change:

Your email: