Melbourne-Sydney

We left Melbourne with the feeling of not having spend enough time, but it's not really bad to have this feeling, because you always keep a good memories of these places. And the spot will be there for future trips...

My favourite suburb in Melbourne was Fitzroy, just a street with really good "vibs", some kind of "Barri de Gracia" in Barcelona.


Claire and Stacey, a local from Melbourne, in Sta. Kilda. We checked the "four seasons in one day" of Melbourne: Crazy wind started from an soft breeze in 10 min!!

From the observation deck. The south of the city centre.

A photo from inside a shopping centre. Old tower covered by glass and steel.

After Melbourne, we drove into the Snowy Mountains, the "roof" of Australia. Yeah! It is not a "BIG" mountain, but, mate, I wanted to climb Mt Koszciusko, the highest mountain of a whole continent!! ;-) The place really remind me the Pyrinees in Europe.

A picture in the top of a continent.

Beautiful landscape around. Lakes, rocks, grass,...

A couple of hours from the snowy Mountains you find Camberra, australian capital. In spite of being a young city, it's a quite interesing city to visit: Museums, galleries, amazing buildings...

In one of the galleries we found a selection of a photograph club. Some of the pictures were really good. Herewith an example...

In the Museum of Australia, a "must" for the Camberra visitor. Here you can learn heaps of things about the country: history, future, enviroment, culture,...

The parliament of Australia is one of emblematic buildings of the city. This is the view from it.

The end of the loop was close but before arriving to Sydney we decided to stop in the famous Blue Mountains. This is a great National Park too close to the metropoly, too easy to get there and too many people around. Anyway, if you walk a bit from the multitudes you can find awesome sites.

A typical view in the Blue Mountains...The walls between the forest.

Spots like this make you forget you're only 90 minutes driving from the city.

Back in Sydney with time enough to sell my beloved car and enjoy the Bondi lifestyle for some days.

My host Lloyd with a new friend...

I spent my last day in OZ climbing in the blue moutains with some cool people.

Esperance-Melbourne. The South

Esperance was the last "real" city before crossing the "Nullarbor" (from null arbor in latin, got it?) plain, so we just enjoy the last moments of civilization, get supplies, check the car, you know, these things you really get used to do before driving in OZ. But, before that we visited the awesome Cape Le Grand National Park: White sand, cristaline water (the best beaches in Australia says the advert...) and some small peak with capricius shapes.

Taking pictures for this blog!!!

Close to the French Peak summit with Le Grand beach in the background.

No big dramas crossing the Nullarbor, some overheat engine stop, but everything under normality with this hot. Here you can find the largest straight in Australia, close to 150 km. (yeah, a bit boring, but the music was good).
After the Nullarbor we looked for some place to stretch our legs and the Flinders Range is a bush walking paradise, so we spent a couple of days there, enjoying the landscape and the peace of these small towns.

Adelaide was the next stop in the road. A nice surprise, I must admit, I expected something diferent and the city received us with its best weather and we really had some good times. The botanical garden is a "must" in the city.

An artistic photo I took in the magnificient Botanic Garden. Man, I love that picture!

From Adelaide, we drove to Mt. Arapiles, the "Meca" of climbers in Australia. Too many pictures for the trip post, so I decided to create a special post for Arapiles. Have a look if you want to see big rocks, ropes, nuts, smiles... Just tell you that the initial plan was to spend there just one night and finally we stayed there three (and it's in my black list to come back and spend...)

So, as Mt. Arapiles is close to The Grampians National Park, this NP was our next stop, we did some normal tourism, hiked and climb a peak with great views.

From The Grampians if you drive 150 km south you find The Great Ocean Road, another "must" for the OZ tourist. I don't want to explain to much, but after the solitude of the west, the quantity of tourists of this place stressed me a bit. Anyway, I must say the place is spectacular, see the pictures...Yeah too many, but, it was so difficult to choose...

Great Ocean Road Coast. No comments.

Great Ocean Road Coast. No comments.

Great Ocean Road Coast. No comments.

Great Ocean Road Coast. No comments.

Great Ocean Road Coast. No comments.

Great Ocean Road Coast. No comments.

Great Ocean Road. Twelve Apostols.

The Great Ocean Road lead as to Melbourne, after a freak night in a service center 50 km of the city, I won't forget that free hot shower in my life...

What to say about Melbourne...mmm...difficult, but I can say that I feel great in this big city where you can have "four seasons in one day" (Now I know why!) Still some experiences to live here so I'll updated that when I'll leave the place.

The guys of the funny face :-P

Melbourne. Views from the Observation Deck.

The City from the South bank of the Banka river.

Climbing in Mount Arapiles

Yes!! This is the paradise of the traditional climbing: Strong rock, Heaps of gear to protect, no bolts and heaps and heaps of routes.
I arrived just wih my rock climbing shoes and an harness, so I neede to find someone to climb with. This is not problem in "The Pines" campground, plenty of climbers looking for partner.
We stayed there just a couple of days but the climbing was intense and I met some cool people to climb with.

Zack and Ander, a couple of americans I climbed with the first day. Nice and strogn young people, I hope to see them again...

Abseling from the end of the climb route D minor.

Ben, my climbing buddy from Brisbane. F. good climber, strong and wise. Awesome climbing day!! Non stopping.

That's the typical belaying station in Arapiles, not many blod on the rock, but plenty of gear, you see...

Awesome views from the Gnull Major top.

Climbing in a "3 stars" climb , mate, too much adrenaline! Great feelings.

Suffering to arrive...not fit enough...

Finally, at the top of route, really satisfied.

Happy end for an awesome climbing days!! Thanks Ben!!