--------------------- In the initial planning my itinerary It was planned that I made a stop in Melbourne to visit Damien, a French friend working in Australia for 1 year (and soon leaving the country). Although I had already had occasion to visit this city during my last trip
in Australia, my motivation to return was to be able to make a trip to the Grampians National Park (place it seems to observe kangaroos in the wild) ... something I had not been able to do last year due to lack of time. Originally, I planned to spend 3 or 4 days in Melbourne, but the offset of my route (due to the extension of my trip to Fraser Island and the Whitsundays) forced me to reduce this time in two days.
Thursday morning, so I left the heat of Cairns to arrive, after nearly 4 hours by plane, under rainy skies of Melbourne. Once at the center, mid-afternoon, I went to an Italian neighborhood pizzeria is the workplace of Damien. The latter was on a break of 2 hours, between 15h and 17h, so we could discuss for a while. I even been entitled to a free pizza, courtesy of his co-worker! Late afternoon, I went to the tourist office in Melbourne to see if there was a tour leaving tomorrow for a trip to the Grampians. Information after I had resigned myself to abandon this project (this is for another time?) As guided tours to the park only operate on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays! In the evening, Damien had finished his work day, I went to Footscray, a suburb of Melbourne, where he shared a house with roommates. I had the opportunity to meet with his roommates quite nice.
Friday, October 15
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Under a cold rain as I begin my last day of vacation in Australia. In the end, it was perhaps wiser not to have had the chance to go to the Grampians with such a temperature. Moreover, the drastic change in temperature very quickly gave me a cold which lasted a few days! Melbourne is a great city for museums and all the cultural side, but horrible for the weather (they say he can have 4 seasons in one day). So I started my day with a tour of the old Melbourne jail
; prison closed in 1924 and was the scene of 135 executions by hanging ! Those sentenced to death, there was the famous outlaw Ned Kelly
whose story is told in the museum. In addition to this former prison, there is the possibility of visiting the old city jail that closed in 1993. It was used for police custody pending the submission of the accused before the court. His visit is made via a staging impressive visitors play the role of an accused and imprisoned in a cell for 1 minute, thereby recreating the atmosphere of the time. In my case, I played the role of a man accused of endangering lives of passengers a train!
By mid-afternoon, before returning to Footscray, I was visiting the Melbourne Museum, which had, until early November, a temporary exhibit on the Titanic with a quantity various important objects have been recovered from the wreckage. The exhibition was very impressive and it was worth the cost. Saturday, October 16
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After 3 weeks vacation in Australia, it was time for me to return to France . Vo my return was from Brisbane with connections to Singapore (I was traveling with Singapore Airlines). Melbourne is a city with two airports. First, there is Tullamarine Airport, the main airport is well served by various buses. Then there is Avalon Airport, more distant (55 km from downtown), which is the starting point for some flights operated by low-cost airline Jetstar. My flight to Brisbane is about the middle of the afternoon, the cheapest flight (which was a convenient time) to go from Melbourne to Brisbane was from Avalon Airport. Since the airport of Beauvais, in France there is only one shuttle for a flight departing from Avalon. If although you have no interest to run (I've learned to my cost).
So I left home to Damien 6am on Saturday. Unfortunately, I am the wrong way to go to the Footscray railway station, so I missed the 6:34 train! The next train was at 6:48 but I did get to Southern Cross Station in Melbourne at 7:10 or 10 minutes after the departure of the shuttle to Avalon Airport. I had no choice but to take a taxi to the airport ... taxi which cost me $ 105! Finally, I would have done better to pay slightly more for my ticket and from Tullamarine Airport instead of going to Avalon.
Around 10am, my flight left for Brisbane, where I arrived about 2 hours later. Because when I arrive in Brisbane three weeks ago, I was allowed a few situations "unpleasant" to the airport. To begin, while saving my flight, I presented my Canadian passport. Seeing that my final destination was Paris, an employee of the counter asked me why I had no visa for Europe. I had to submit my passport to Switzerland to explain that I did not need a residence permit ... apparently, I came across a zealous employee! Then, when I passed out X-rays, I had the right to a "random-check" additional screening, which consisted of manual palpation and verify that I had any liquids in my bag.
Until the departure of my flight to Singapore, I spent some time in the lounge of the company. My flight left at mid-afternoon, about 7:30 later, I arrived in Singapore in correspondence. A few hours later, I went to Paris where I finally arrived at its destination after nearly 20 hours of flight (23h travel if I include the connection time). This puts an end to the story of my 3 weeks Holiday in Australia. Overall, I enjoyed my stay! In general, Australians are nice people with a good sense of service (it changes the mentality of French ...). The few negative points that I noted in my living room are:
- The display and the presence of systematic rules suggest that Australia should be a police state very similar to Switzerland. This is probably explained by the country's convict past?!
- When traveling in Australia, do not make any drink or food (even canned) to avoid potential problems with Customs.
- The cost of living is relatively high on the east coast. It is lower than in France but higher than in Canada.
- The east coast Australian tourism is often hyper can you promise to observe various species of wildlife in parks or during dives while, in reality, you have as much chance of observing an original in the Laurentian in Canada a Koala in an Australian park (that is, it must really be very lucky).
Without doubt I will return one day in Australia (I'd love to go diving elsewhere on the wreck of the Yongala) but for Next year I plan to go more like maybe a ride in New Zealand! Damien is also going to maybe go work there for a year so it would give me extra motivation to visit the land of Lord of the Rings!
