Day 5 - 11 - Melbourne, Phillip Island

I have fallen behind with the updates so here goes.

2 December - I caught the V-Line (state-owned country rail and bus service) to Melbourne to see the spectacular Australian band George live in concert at Federation Square (a new complex which still manages to remind me of a failed university art project). When I get back to Perth I'll make a full posting about the concert, but it was absolutely awesome to see them again. They're one of those few bands I'd drop anything (or cut short a visit to Apollo Bay) to see. En route to Melbourne, we went through Geelong, which is much bigger and busier than I expected. I'll have to check it out at some point.

I stayed at the Queensberry Hill YHA, which was like a large motel but with dorm beds instead of your standard motel room layout. It was extremely clean, and actually quite nice for an inner city hostel - I hope it preludes what I'm going to experience in Canada. Walking home from the concert provided the most amazing show of lightning (about 3 a second for about half an hour) - I later heard some eastern suburbs were completely flooded and it was the biggest storm Melbourne had had in 100 years.

3 December - Moved into the Miami Motor Inn and found the same level of friendly customer service I'm accustomed to there after 3 visits in 3 years, but sadly suffered from a flu I'd caught somewhere in around Apollo Bay.

5 December - Off to Phillip Island, about 130km SE of Melbourne and home of the famous Penguin Parade, aboard Duck Truck Tours, run by the Amaroo YHA on the island. This tour, for A$70, is one of the best I've ever been on anywhere and I would not hesitate to recommend it. I think the local, knowledgeable guides have a lot to do with it. We got to see a lot of wildlife (koalas, wombats, dingoes, penguins) up close during the course of the day and the group of people was also great. (After doing many tours, I can say for sure that the group you're with can really make or break the tour). I found out while on the tour that my proposal to line it up with the Wilson's Promontory tour was not going to happen as that tour had been cancelled, but I was able to book onto one on 9-10 December.

6 December - I stayed overnight at Amaroo YHA after the penguin parade, and spent most of the morning walking around the township of Cowes and its beaches, which for a town of 3,000 is very well equipped to handle the millions of tourists it gets every year. I enjoyed some fresh treats from the bakery before returning to Melbourne.

Now I'd like a Melbournite to explain to me what is so amazing about St Kilda that everybody raves about it and insists I must see it. After spending an hour on Fitzroy Street, I concluded that it was a nice looking street with a tram line down the middle, lots of cafes on either side and a beach at the end of it. This is not unlike many areas in Melbourne, including one or two near where I am staying. Even the English backpackers I talked to, when I asked them, could only think to recommend its profusion of pubs.

8 December - In what turned out to be a 36°C day (the weather predicted 23°C - not bad going!), I walked up Lygon Street in Carlton and right around the Royal Park/University areas north of the city. Lygon Street is somewhere I'll have to go back to one day to explore what it offers - plenty of cafes and a great range of them, but no tram line down the middle.