Melbourne
3 octobre 2023, Australie ⋅ 🌧 17 °C
It rained all night and we both had disturbed sleep so we took a bit of time to get going. The temperature had also dropped overnight. Tuesday was set for cold, grey, wet and miserable just like English weather. We arrived at the rail station to find no staff. Tickets could not be purchased because they use a travel card system that is topped up with money in the same way as a London Oyster card works. After a couple of attempts, we managed to buy two cards and add sufficient funds for a return journey. When we arrived in Melbourne the card scanners at the exit gates didn’t read the cards so we had to go to the ticket attendant who told us that these new cards shouldn’t touch the reader - that sorted the problem. After a coffee and panko prawn sushi roll for Bun and something hideous for me, we set off wondering why we didn’t have an umbrella like everyone else in Melbourne. We walked to the Victoria Market, arriving at about 2, only to find that it was shutting at 3 p.m. The market wasn’t as exciting as it had been on our previous visit when we came during the evening and there were a lot of food stalls and musicians. We ventured out into the rain again and walked to the Melbourne Museum arriving soaked through. With only 1.5 hours before it shut, we didn't have time for a hot drink to warm us through. I was attracted to the areas dedicated to Aborigine culture and history that always leave me wondering about our humanity and how much knowledge we have lost and will further lose by not acknowledging the civilisation that lived in harmony with this country for more than 35,000 years - the longest known civilisation. One display was of a “scar tree” that had been found. These are trees that have scars left from having an area of bark removed for use in any number of ways - shields, canoes, utensils etc. The bark was harvested in a way that did not kill the tree. These days we appear to destroy anything just to get to something with no respect for living in harmony or balance. "This tree holds the knowledge of the past, the present and into tomorrow. It is related to my people, the Yalukit Weelam of the Boonwurrung. I invite you to learn from it with djil bruk (respect)." -Narweet Professor Carolyn Briggs AM.
There were many other displays about the wealth of resources found and being plundered in Australia, fossils, history etc. A lovely couple of hours but not long enough for it to have stopped raining - so back into the rain again, albeit slightly less heavy. We walked back down into the centre and found ourselves in Chinatown. On 18 Feb 2020, as Covid was being reported as having come from China, I wrote “We’ve been told that many Australians are boycotting Chinese areas, which is pretty sad. However, I still didn’t understand where everyone was given the huge Chinese population we have seen .... maybe they are boycotting the area too?”. Today the streets were bustling and the restaurants and stalls were busy. We found a food mall where Bun had a pretty mediocre Prawn Laksa and I had a delicious Chicken Pad Thai. We then left (it was drizzling) and I had a brainwave - if I bought an umbrella, it was bound to stop raining. I found a shop selling umbrellas, bought one and, hey-presto, the rain stopped. Why hadn’t I thought of that earlier? The rest of the journey was uneventful and we arrived back at the caravan park around 8:15, leaving sufficient time for a shower, get some washing on and dried, then off to bed. One surprise was a box of kitchen utensils including pans etc, that was left in the laundry. This sometimes happens when people have upgraded or are coming to the end of a camping holiday. We picked up two saucepans and a good-sized frying pan with a lid. It started raining again as we got into bed and we had another disturbed night. Tomorrow we must camp in the open!
We decided to give up on the idea that sightseeing in Melbourne would be better than walking a trail in the rain and decided that drinking coffee in a cafe, eating good food and generally not moving from the warmth would be better than the other two choices. We needed to be in Mount Evelyn (west of Melbourne) for a party on Sunday, so planned that tomorrow we’d head over to east Melbourne via a few stops.En savoir plus