Halfway Finished

Well, I am about halfway through my trip. I will be leaving Australia for New Zealand in about a week.

(I have updated the previous two posts – “Tree Huggers” and “Hook Turn” – with photos. Scroll down to see the updates.)

I am driving from Melbourne to Brisbane. I am currently back in Sydney, on my way through.

From Melbourne, I first headed west along the “Great Ocean Road”. This was a very interesting place. It includes the famous Twelve Apostles.

The real interest here, though, is slightly inland. There are some nice rainforest areas, lakes, and waterfalls. It is a short drive from Melbourne, and thus it was quite crowded! However, most people seemed to stay on the coast and at the beaches. Going inland, there is solitude.

After the Great Oean Road, I headed back through Melbourne to Wilson’s Promontory. This is a nation park area, and has a “tidal river”, as well as more rainforests. Once again, an nice place.

My next destination was the Great Alpine Road, which traverses the highest mountain range in Australia (which is not very high). However, due to a huge grass and forest fire, the southern section of the road was closed, and I could not get in.

There have been a large number of large fires around Australia, this year. A multi-year drought has contributed to the problem. Reservoirs are down below 25%, and, in some places, severe water restrictions are in place.

Since my plans were spoiled, I decided to head to the Snowy River area, instead. This was a mistake. Snowy River was engulfed in the huge smoke cloud from the fire.

The smoke made for very little to do or see in Snowy River.

Next destination: The Blue Mountains. This is another mountain range east of Sydney. It is close enough that it appears commuter trains run from the towns into Sydney! Apparently, there are ski areas in the Blue Mountains, but I didn’t see any signs of them. These mountains are only around 1000m high, so they are quite short.

The Blue Mountains are more like a large, flat high plateau, with valley cut into it by erosion. In the valleys, there are more rainforests. The plateau itself is hotter and drier.

I have found the rainforest areas to be more interesting than many of the other natural areas in Australia. The way from Sydney to Brisbane should be mostly beaches and rainforests.