November 13^th, 2024

(for a change this will be a rather short post with no map as we stuck around Melbourne)

As mentioned at the end of the second Tasmanian blog post, we arrived back in Melbourne late last night and went straight to bed at the hotel where we’d left Matilda.  We got in late, so reception was closed but luckily we’d thought of that and called ahead; they left the room key under the mat outside the room. 

Gotta say we loved that the flight was only 1 hour and five minutes; why can’t all travel go that quickly?!?!?

Next morning, it was pouring rain!

Back when we were in Mildura, Victoria in late August when we were still driving Tassie, we’d bought a 10m long spare grey hose as the one Tassie had was quite short. Well, we still have it and as we are not headed back over that way to be able to return it, several weeks ago Fran posted it on FB Marketplace changing the location a few times and today we finally sold. The buyer had contacted us the day we left and was willing to wait.  They picked it up this morning before we left the hotel. So that frees up a bit of space in the cubby [but probably not for long. ;-)].

We realized yesterday in Hobart, that we’d made a bit of a screw up; for some reason we thought our flight to Vietnam was on Thursday, so we’d book a hotel for Wednesday night only (a different one cause this first one is not very good other than the fact we were able to leave Matilda here for 9 days). Anyway, we realized our mistake in time and canceled that hotel and instead booked a campground for two nights closer to the airport than the hotel would have been.

Fran called the campground and asked about checking in early; they said “sure”’ so we went over there around 11 and got settled before the rain started again. We unpacked and had a chill afternoon and Fran did a load of laundry which caught us up in that department. It cleared up nicely and it was warm enough to sit outside and read in the afternoon.

Big 4 campground is part of a chain like the NRMA one we stayed at a few weeks ago in Merimbula. It is called a “holiday” park and offers camping, cabins, a pool, laundry, camp kitchens, ablution blocks, Wi-Fi, powered and unpowered sites (we tried to get the latter but there aren’t many and they were booked so we paid for a powered one) on good level ground. It cost us $150 AUD for two nights – so not cheap but convenient and we used their amenities.  It’s much nicer than the one we stayed at before flying to Tasmania.  

We thought about going into Melbourne to see the city, but after looking at things to see and do, nothing grabbed us; the scene here is about culture, arts and food – none of which is high priority to us as we prefer nature, wildlife and unique things. Later that day Fran saw an ad for a Banksy Exhibition in Melbourne – well that was something different.  She looked into it, and we could get tickets for tomorrow so we booked that.

Later in the afternoon, Fran remembered that we were supposed to reach out to a friend of a friend here in Melbourne. Fran reached out to Gaye (currently in Turkey) and she put us in touch with her longtime friend Michael who as it turns out lives 5 minutes from the campground we’re in. We chatted briefly and made a plan for he and his wife to come meet us for dinner tomorrow; they’ll pick us up.

We had ourselves a popcorn night and it was a dry night. We awoke Thursday to partly cloudy skies and did our usual morning routine.

Something we’ve noticed in many places here in Australia is the displaying of two and sometimes (in Canberra), three flags. We had to look into this.

The Australian National Flag

The Australian flag (that we all know and recognize) is blue, white and red. It has three important parts:

• The flag of Great Britain, known as the Union Jack, is in the top left corner. The flag represents our history of British settlement.
• The Commonwealth Star is under the Union Jack. This star has seven points, one point for each of the six states and one for the territories.
• The Southern Cross, on the right, is a group of stars we see in the southern sky.

The Australian Aboriginal Flag

• The Australian Aboriginal Flag is black, red and yellow. It has three important parts, and the most common interpretation of the colours is:
• The top half is black and represents the Aboriginal people of Australia.
• The bottom half is red and represents the earth and a spiritual relation to the land.
• The yellow circle represents the sun.

The Torres Strait Islander Flag (These are the islands in the strait between Australia & Papa New Guinea which are part of the state of Queensland, Australia. Who knew?)

The Torres Strait Islander Flag is green, blue, black and white.

• The green stripes represent the land.
• The blue panel in the centre represents the sea.
• The black lines represent the Torres Strait Islander people.
• The white dancer’s headdress in the centre is a symbol for all Torres Strait Islanders.
• The points of the white star represent the island groups in the Torres Strait.
• The colour white is a symbol of peace.

The Torres Strait Islands are an archipelago of at least 274 small islands in the Torres Strait, a waterway separating far northern continental Australia’s  Cape York Peninsula and the island of New Guinea. They span an area of 48,000 km2 (19,000 sq mi), but their total land area is 566 km2 (219 sq mi). Only 17 of the islands are inhabited with a population of 4514 recorded in the  2016 Australian census.

The Islands are inhabited by the indigenous Torres Strait Islanders. Lieutenant James Cook first claimed British sovereignty over the eastern part of Australia at Possession Island in 1770, but British administrative control only began in the Torres Strait Islands in 1862. The islands are now mostly part of Queensland, but are administered by the Torres Strait Regional Authority. 

We had a bit of an early brunch so we could catch an Uber into the city for our 1pm scheduled time slot for the Banksy Exhibition. We did look into public transport but it was a 4km walk to the nearest station and another klick after to the venue.

We both enjoyed this exhibit and as suggested by the website, you can see it in under an hour. There were a lot of originals and copies on display with lots of information on the background and timeline.

Now there are WAY too many photos of this exhibit, but here are a few and if you’d like to see more, check right here.   We’ve left these all full size so the captions are legible.  

There are many more photos of this exhibit here.

We caught an Uber back to the campground and enroute took a few shots of the city: 

When we used to travel in Latin America, we used to take pills for the prevention of worms from fruits and vegetables and the like. Since we are going to Vietnam for a month, we thought they might not be a bad idea; luckily we had two unexpired pills left and took them – they are good for about 6 months. We are looking forward to all the wonderful fruit a tropical country can provide!

Friday we were both awake early as often happens when it’s a “flying day” and Fran got another load of laundry down – this time bedding and a few other things so when we get back in December, we’ll have clean, fresh sheets. The fridge needed defrosting before leaving and we spent some time packing. We had asked for a late checkout time and had an early breakfast at 10:30 in order to get all the dishes done before leaving.

We left the suburb of Coburg and headed to the airport stopping to fill the tank since we’ll be gone a month, it’s better for it to be full. We didn’t want to get parked at the Value Lot until after 12 noon as we expect to get back around that time and it makes for better 24 hour periods of parking. We got there early so we parked in the free cell phone waiting area for a while, Fran got changed into travel clothes and then we drove to the Value Lot. It’s ticket-less so you just wave your credit card and you get charged when you leave. The price is $12 AUD (less than $8 USD) a day; not super cheap but the best we could find (many long term lots won’t take anything but cars as we called around).  It’s convenient to have the free shuttle. When we first pulled in with drove around for more than 7 minutes looking for a spot and then we decided to head to the the furthest corner and there we found plenty of spots and even one that was a bit longer than others due to a light pole in the spot behind so Matilda could overhang the concrete curb there.

We grabbed our suitcases and backpacks and walked over to catch the shuttle that is supposed to run every 15 minutes and we only had to wait one minute.

Our flight was at 4:40 pm and the baggage drop/check in was supposed to open at 1:40 – well there was a queue already when we got there at 1 and it opened five minutes early. However, the baggage belts wouldn’t work so it took quite a while to get that sorted out and we finally got checked in just after 2 and we only about 7^th in line. They weighed our carry on bags first (can have 2 items but the combined weight cannot exceed 7 kg / 15 lbs). We had already paid for a checked bag each online and that had be be under 22 kg / 48 lbs which they both were as they are only carry on size anyway. Flying to a warm country with cheap laundry means less luggage!

Due to the above issue, the boarding that was supposed to start at 4:10 did not start until much later and we actually took off at 5:55! Fran messaged the apartment we’d booked and the taxi we’d arranged that we were going to be late before we lost our Ozzie data and off we went to Vietnam for a month!

Side bar: we find many similarities to Canada here in Australia:

• the vast, open remote areas
• indigenous peoples and the problems that stem from that; double naming places in order to respect the past 
• colonization by the British
• most spoken language: English
• gun laws (which we drastically changed in 1990’s after the mass shooting in Port Arthur – the citizens agreed to this restriction)
• both are federal states and constitutional monarchies
• both nations have relatively small populations that occupy physically large areas
• both are commodities producers
• both have a highly diverse population with Australia having 26% of its peoples born in other countries while Canada has 22%.