The Land Down Under

It didn't take long after my return from Europe for me to start longing for another adventure. I once again tried to organise a trip overseas with a friend, this time to China, but bad timing and my parents worries prevented it from happening. Instead I made a decision that I have come to be very grateful for. I decided that before I went off overseas again, I would explore some of my own country.

I have seen a fair bit of eastern Australia, having been part of numerous family field trips around Queensland and once, down to Sydney. I had family up north in Townsville and Cairns and so was familiar with the northern half of my state. But I had never been down south, or much further west that Warwick. When I wrote the three places I most wanted to see in Australia, I came back with the Great Ocean Road, Uluru and Darwin. So I set off for a big trip coving half of my country, taking three weeks and covering the best part of 6000km.

My first stop was Melbourne. I have often complained that our cities do not compare to Europe for their variety of activities, nor their culture. Melbourne is excused from this. It is a very pretty city, though being Winter, I didn't see it at its best. The trams make a convenient way to get around the city and there is a lot of sandstone. Even by Australian standards, Brisbane is a young city, and I think suffers for it.

I spent three days in Melbourne. It was the first time I had ever travelled alone. I was in a strange city hundreds of k's away from anyone I knew and a little out of my comfort zone. But I had a great few days. And then I continued my travels, joining a tour that would take me from Melbourne, all the way up to Darwin.

The first few days of that tour were amazing. We took the Great Ocean Road and were just in time to catch sunset over the Twelve Apostles. I did my first proper hike the next day. I have done hiking in the past, and that has always meant to me, following a well worn path, usually through rainforest, usually up or down a hill. This was a different kind of hiking. We were climbing rocks, with no real path but a arrow painted sporadically on rocks pointing the way. We passed close to dangerous looking drop offs and precariously balanced boulders. It was almost dark on the way up, and even worse on the way down. But it was the start of my real adventure tour, one which would leave me with a deep respect for my country and an even greater thirst for adventure