melbourne - sydney

Hi everybody, Here is another report of my journey. It tells what I did between Melbourne and Sydney. I must admit that I have made a mistake. I already send my maps and diary home so I will do this from memory. After my trip to Tasmania I did go back to Melbourne and stayed there for a few days. It was out of necessity because some of my equipment badly needed a repair. this time it was not my bicycle but my hiking boots and my tent. I also stayed longer because of bad weather and not in the least because I found some excellent hosts in Scott and Tamara. They are a new citizen here. A couple from New Sealand that lived for years in Japan and now had just finished a 6 month bike trip in Europe. They had some nice stories to tell and Tamara was spoiling me with some great coocking and excellent homemade biscuits. Scott even knows some local beers who almost can match the belgian beers. They have been in Belgian and so he knows how spoiled I am on that field. Scott, Tamara thank you for hosting me. I really had a great time with you. My first goal after Melbourne is Mount Kosciuskzko. The highest mountain in Australia. You are allowed to cycle almost all the way to the summit but I had to stop. A storm came and with heave winds that pushed me to the middle of the road and snow and freezing temperatures above 1500m I could not else do but stop. I ended up staying in a empty skiresort. Even had a hot shower. The next day I made it to the summit and saw absolutely nothing. Because of the fog I could not see more than 5m. On lower altitudes the sun was shining and even before I was in the valley I was cycling in shirt and shorts again. In a few days I made it to Canberra where I stayed with Jay. Someone i had met while crossing the nullarbor. We visited several museums but I had also a look how they lived on off grid little farm. They needed several dams and very large rainwater tanks to get through some droughts. In the National War memorial I learned about the importance of Anzac and Gallipoli for the australian people. Later I watched the movie Gallipoli with Mel Gibson at the start of his movie career. I also saw another classical australian movie : the man from snowy river. Thanks Jay for all of that. I hope to see you again WA. After Canberra I cycled to Sydney through the Blue mountains. A very beautiful region but with the busy traffic and the large number of roadworks is was hard to cycle. Sydney as a city is no fun for a cyclist but it has a good vibe with the harbor. Here I learned that easter is a bigger holiday than in Belgium. This resulted in waiting several days longer before my bicycle was fixed. I made the best of it and did a 3 day hike in the blue mountains. Absolutely a high light. Of course I did cycle over the Sydney harbour bridge and had the picture with the operahouse but Sydney will not be a highlight to me. But than again a city hardly ever is. Certainly not when you have 3 major cities in a month. this was it for now. greetings, nico