There is nothing more beautiful than life ‘on the road’. And undoubtedly you will not visit this city as a weekend getaway! No, this city on the other side of the world is part of my big world trip. My last frikandel special seems like three years ago and if you were to ask me what color a Euro fiver is, I would probably say: ‘Wasn’t that that thick gold-colored coin?’. That’s what it feels like! After the wildest adventures in China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and New Zealand we have arrived in an equally adventurous country. We started backpacking in Australia by camper on the Great Ocean Road and have now arrived in a major metropolis! In this blog we explore what it is like to backpack in Melbourne.
Backpacking in the alto-capital of the world, Melbourne
Melbourne is neither the capital nor the largest city of Australia, but that’s what you would think when you first see this gigantic metropolis. The city is known for its tall skyscrapers, busy streets that make you quite crazy in the car, vast suburbs and beaches! But to say that the city immediately stands out for us travelers, no, not that. Is it worth backpacking in Melbourne? There are no striking sights, but we do notice a very nice, special atmosphere. Good food and especially real artisanal food is ‘a big thing’ here! So a little less Burger King and a little more Bob’s Bio-Burgers on a Stick, that idea.
We walk along the beach in the St. Kilda district, see the strangest art projects on the streets everywhere and drink a beer in a ‘rooftop beer garden’, where fresh wood-oven pizzas are given away practically for free! On the street we see that no one hesitates to look as strange as possible. Very cool, but if I see a hipster grandmother, dressed up in all pink as a twelve-year-old schoolgirl and with a matching sweater for her poodle-dachshund combination dog, I would say: just give me those beige C&A trousers and a walker. Melbourne is perhaps the freest and open-minded city in the world!
The wombat chase and the wild emus
When we drive away from Melbourne it feels wonderful to exchange the busy city for nature again. The next highlight on our list is Wilson’s Promontory National Park, also known as ‘The Prom’. On a peninsula in the middle of the bright blue waves lies an untouched wilderness of tropical rainforest. Perfect if you also want to see wild animals such as kangaroos, wombats, emus and koalas.
We park the car and take a fantastic walk along the most bizarre views of jungle and beach in one. While I’m taking a picture of a crazy colored spider, we have a chat with an older couple walking by and they tip us off that a wombat is eating somewhere nearby. We hadn’t seen it yet, so before the best man has finished talking, I fly over that path in search of the wombat, with a camera and zoom lens in my hands as a sniper. Found it! Far back on a rocky hill we see a fluffy brown pad prowling around. Unfortunately, it is far too far from the path, so I dive into the bushes to chase the animal and climb over the rocks after him. I must and will make a video for Wout of the World!
Rather die than miss a nice photo!
In the background I am always heart-warmingly encouraged by Suus, with motivating texts such as: ‘you are going to fall anyway’ and ‘you will be dead soon’. ‘Dutchman killed while backpacking after Wombat chase near Melbourne’. Oh well, at least they can show the Wombat video at my funeral! No, I always look out (mom)! The wombat now looks like a real mountain climber, but then he stops to eat some leaves somewhere. The animal is much bigger than I expected and suddenly isn’t afraid at all anymore. Really cool! I take about as many photos and videos of the beast as a fresh Facebook mom takes of her newborn. Then I slowly, carefully, climb down. While I proudly show Suus my hard-won footage, the wombat walks right next to us across the path and continues to chill for a while. Suus sees him even better than I did during my entire Mount Everest excursion. Typical stuff.
Backpacken in de natuur rond Melbourne
We continue through the jungle and see the most beautiful colored parrots around us. The most beautiful beach where our walk ends is called Squeeky Beach. The sand is so soft, white and powdery that you feel like dipping an oliebol in it. And when we walk over it we understand the name, with every step we hear the sand making a ‘squeeky’ sound. With a full camera and a look back on a fantastic travel day, we walk back to the car, which we parked next to a free shower building. Australia expensive? The sun still rises for nothing and we don’t need more than that.
We drive further along the east coast on the way to the capital Canberra. However, after less than ten minutes of driving we see that all the cars stop here and wonder why. We also park the car there and see a whole herd of ostriches walking around on a plain; very cool to see!
The night of a hundred dead kangaroos
The moment we picked up the camper we were already warned about it. A typical Aussie dude, with the looks of Johnny Bravo and an accent that would scare the ‘Crocodile Hunter’ Steve Irwin himself, said simply: ‘Driving at night? You’re gonna hit a kangaroo mate!’ So not even as a warning to ‘watch out’, but simply convinced that we can put a tasty kangaroo steak on the barbecue along the way. I have nothing against a road-kill sandwich, but maybe not so nice for the car and also for our safety. When we ask if it’s really that bad, he weakens his statement by saying: ‘just nine out of ten times’. Phew… Fortunately, that’s not too bad after all. Only 27 kangaroos splashed across our windshield instead of thirty!
As we drive from The Prom to Canberra, we see that Johnny Croc was right after all. So many dead animals that you just get used to it. The first time you say: ‘Jesus, did you see that?’, the second time: ‘wow, I saw one again’; We now say: ‘Did you see his intestines? No, I was looking at the one next to it without a head’. It’s starting to get a bit monotonous; although I must say that sometimes we are pleasantly surprised with a smeared fox or wombat. So quite depressing. And apparently they are still taken away every day, so this was just today’s harvest; hundreds! Let’s just hope that we don’t contribute to the great kangaroo slaughter.
Happy travels in the capital Canberra
Canberra is probably the most unique place in all of Australia; Unlike all the fantastic places in the country, here you will find.. nothing at all. You can’t imagine it, but even a bus full of Japanese tourist zombies would leave here with an empty camera roll.
When Australia gained independence from England, both Sydney and Melbourne wanted to be the capital, but a city was built in the middle as a compromise; here’s a hideous parliament building, a flag on it, we scatter some museums here and there, really suck out any kind of atmosphere and that’s it.
A camera in my buttox?
I must say that there is one bright spot in Canberra. There is a street where one artistic person decided to paint a whole collection of comic book heroes on the walls; a bit of color in the gray sea of concrete. But just as I’m about to take a picture of it, I get into trouble with a group of vagrants: ‘taking pictures of somebody is illegal. Fuck off, it’s illegal! He then kindly offers to store the camera in my butt unless I delete the photo. In short: having finally found something to even take my camera out of the bag, I first have to put together a tramp. Good to know about this city: there are a really large number of homeless people and that is not always pleasant.
We take a much too long walk of five minutes through the center. We also peek around the corner at the National Museum of Australia, but I will have forgotten about Canberra within a week. The fact is that some parts are more interesting than others when backpacking from Melbourne to Cairns.
To be continued in Sydney!
We have now arrived in the city of cities in the southern hemisphere: after backpacking in Melbourne, we now continue backpacking in Sydney! With more beaches than cobblestones, iconic buildings and bars where the lights never go out, this is a highlight along Australia’s east coast. We’ll dive into it in the coming days! We camp in the most beautiful places in this mega city and also travel to the backpackers hotspot Byron Bay, where we learn to surf, among other things!
Want to quickly read how this adventure continues? Read about it here Sydney, Fraser Island, Whitsundays and Magnetic Island en the Great Barrier Reef! And did you know that you can subscribe via YouTube to be the first to watch every new episode? Go to YouTube!
