melbourne

Arrived in Melbourne a few days ago and took up the offer to stay with a guy we met while camping. The appeal of a house and the free use of a washing machine was overwhelming, as the most difficult task in a van when it is cold and wet and many layers are being worn is drying laundry.

He took us for a night drive around the city which was great even though he was an unusual tour guide- men who work in the cast concrete industry seem to take a great pride in their work so we had to look at many concrete buildings and admire the craftsmanship of acid washed blocks.

We decided after the tour that driving the large van around the city would be suicidal insanity- too many trams, narrow lanes, height restriction bridges and the bizarre unique to Melbourne 'hook turn'. This involves turning right from the left lane and despite a demo or two seemed utterly incomprehensible and rather dangerous.

Click on the link below to play hook turns:

http://www.path.unimelb.edu.au/~bernardk/victoria/melb/hook_turn.html

Also we learned that accepting gifts from strangers always has a price, and our host proceeded to spend the next two days relating in excruciating detail his life history from the post car crash coma at 17 years old through to his acrimonious split with his ex and the ensuing custody battles for his 3 year old ( the family law courts have fine examples of pre cast concrete detailing). He was a text book case of why bipolar sufferers should not stop taking their meds.In a kind and caring way we made our excuses and ran away.



We trundled along the coast and got as close to the city as we dared in the van. The beach huts at Brighton are funky.



Caught up with Georgie's sister and her partner while we were passing through and it was a relief to spend time with stable people!