Sydney - Canberra - Melbourne (4557km driven with car)

There are two main routes to Melbourne from Sydney. One is faster and goes trough the outback and the town of Wagga Wagga. The other goes trough Canberra, Snowy Mountains and the south east coast. The latter is longer, slower and way more beautiful. It was this route we chose for our journey to Melbourne. We camped at a lovely camp site just south of Wollongong, about two hours south of Sydney. The last part of the road was crazy, winding up the hillside in true Norwegian style. It turned out the campsite was full of Wombats. They look like a breed between a bear and a pig and are very cute.

Canberra

The next day we passed Canberra, the Capitol of Australia. We made a short stop to look at the Capitol Hill where the Parliament house is. I have to say it's one of the more ugly buildings I have seen. In fact I have been told before that Canberra is an ugly and boring city. My own impressions were that it's not ugly, in fact most of Canberra is quite beautiful. The problem is that the city is lifeless. It has no soul. It's hard to describe in words, but it was just like others have tried to explain me before. Still, Canberra is an obligatory stop in any real Australian adventure, it is the Capitol after all.

We kept driving south after Canberra and entered the Snowy Mountains. In winter they are one of the few places with snow in Australia, but now there was no snow. It's autumn after all. We camped at a rest stop along the highway. The highway down the south side of the Snowy Mountains was really beautiful. Great forests with the road winding back and forth trough it. It was here we entered the state of Victoria. Then suddenly the Tasman Sea came into view and we were in Lakes Entrance. We camped that night at Ninety Miles Beach (144km). The plan was to spend a whole day at the beach, but of course a freak storm arrived with rain most of the day and gray skies the rest. We were told that further west in Melbourne they had a hail storm with hail the size of golf balls.

Melbourne

Annina's former kindergarten teacher lives in Melbourne and she was so nice and let us stay at her house for the days we visited Melbourne. It was a pleasant change from sleeping in the car. We also had access to hot showers and a real toilet. The first day while Annina was visiting her grand ant (she also lives in Melbourne) I showed the city to Matthias and Kristin. It was nice to come back, as you may remember I was in Melbourne one of my first weeks in Australia. We checked out Federation Square, walked around in the city center and visited the Crown Casino. Federation Square is a square with buildings with very special architecture. We also jumped on the free city tram and went for a half loop around the CBD.

The second day all four of us went into the city to further sightsee. The Melbourne Library had a free exhibition about the faces of Australia, including a section on Ned Kelly. Ned Kelly was a famous bushranger in Australia and is said to have done similar things like Robin Hood. He is famous for his metal armor that protected him against bullets and this armor was among the things on display. There was also an exhibition on the origins of Melbourne which was very interesting. Lastly there was a large display of old books and texts that the Library has in it's collection. The oldest book was from the 11th century. After the Library we went to watch Tim Burtons new movie: Alice In Wonderland 3D. I liked the movie. For a full review read my movie blog!

We started off our last day in Melbourne by going to the Victoria Market. You can find close to everything here and the prices are normally lower than anywhere else. I bought a pack of clove cigarettes. I haven't been able to find them since I was in America last time. After the Market Annina took us on a chocolate tour. When she was in Melbourne the last time she went on the same thing and now she showed us the five different chocolate stores. "Haighs" and "Chocolait" where the best ones. Sigrid, the kindergarten teacher we were staying at, told us about a free way to get a good view of the city. In a hotel called Sofitel on the 35th floor they have bathrooms with the wall against the outside of the building in glass. It was very cool! You could literally take a piss while looking out over Melbourne. That evening we cooked dinner for Sigrid and her boyfriend Charlie as a thank you for letting us stay there.