I always considered Australia as the main event of my travels. Asia was really just getting lost on the way, although other than India I had a fantastic time.

The flight to Australia was the first point when I realised things to be different. As opposed to the bus and train journeys through asia, and even the flight to singapore, this was the first real travel where I was surrounded by westerners. I could actively feel the asia defences that I'd built up over the last 2 months subsiding.

Arriving in Melbourne to 35C+ was another shock. Alot hotter than I'd experienced in Asia. Thankfully it's dry heat though, as opposed to the intense humidity particularly in Singapore. I made the bus journey to the city easily and set about contacting my friend Hayden in Melbourne. Turned out he was at the airport waiting/looking for me! I had just 1 afternoon in Melbourne to catch up with him before an overnight bus to Adelaide.
There was 1 main reason to go to Adelaide, to meet my great uncle Bill. Theoretically I had already met him in 1985 when he visited the family in the UK, but forgive me for not remembering as I wasn't even 1yr old! We did the family thing, Bill showed me alot of photo's from years gone by - people have certainly changed since some of them were taken! Spent a day in the Barossa wine region to the north of Adelaide. It is South Australia's main wine region and a huge contributor to trade in the state, including being the home of Jacob's Creek wines. It was incredible to see such an expanse of vinyards that is just a fraction of the country's output. Maybe because there's such a demand to ship it to the UK for a start! I opted to pass on the wine tasting though, as each sample cost the equivalent of a bottle back home! It was too hot to drink anyway, it's not often I say that!
The next day was the day that the Victoria bush fires started. On reflection it was hardly suprising. The heat was so intense but also the wind felt even hotter. Given this we restricted the sight seeing to the city and surrounding area, Mount lofty provided a view over the city - a strange sight with a relatively small CBD but sprawling suburbs surrounding it for miles, all organised neatly in blocks. In the afternoon we visited a conservation park which provided me with my first sight of Kangaroos, Wallabies, Koalas and Emus, to name a few. All vey tame in this protected environment, I wonder if those in the wild will be quite so approachable?

My time in Adelaide ended with an overnight bus to Warrnambool at the top of the Great Ocean Road. This gave me my 4th night without a bed in 7 days and by the morning it was starting to tell. The intention had been to cycle from Adelaide to Melbourne, some 900km, incorporating the Great Ocean Road along the way. however, given the heat I realised this was not the smartest idea! It took a couple of days to organise a bike in Warrnambool, in the meantime the fires burned in North East Victoria, Australia's worst bushfire disaster in history. From the UK it is difficult to understand the magnitute of the past fires when they've been reported in the news. But being here now, seeing the tinder box landscape and how easily it can all go up is quite an overwhelming realisation. The extensive news coverage demonstrated really how ruthless the fires are, outrunning fleeing cars and destroying towns in minutes. Definately a good thing to avoid by living in the UK!

And so now i write this while traversing the great ocean road by bike. It seemed a good idea at the time! The first day was a rushed 70km in an afternoon, only then was the enormity of the task plain to see. The following day was a whole different world of pain - 100km climbing 2 big hills in english autumn weather - that wasn't in the script. The scenery along the way made it well worthwhile though, particularly the 12 apostles, a series of rocks standing off the shoreline due to wind and tidal erosion, much like the needles off the isle of Wight.

Day 3 was a shorter day cycling to let the legs recover - the plan is to complete the 400km total in 5/6 days. The road ran right along the coast as I passed the halfway point, with shear cliff faces either side. Fortunately there was a substantial barrier on the sea side, although i was particularly watchful for falling rocks from the land side! Fortunately no evasive action was necessary.

Back onto the long days again tomorrow, approximately 200km to complete in 2 days so watch this space.