From: "Philip Merryman" <phil_merryman@hotmail.com>

Date: Fri Mar 01, 2002 12:18:37 PM Etc/GMT

Subject: Melbourne

Hi everyone,

I have now reached the Blue mountains, and will update you on those in a later mail. But here are the events in Melbourne:

Monday morning got off to a very bad start. I checked the news in the internet in the morning to find that Spurs had LOST the Worthington Cup Final! (To my non-UK friends, Spurs are the soccer team I support). I had met two other supporters so far on my trip, one on the platorm at Adelaide station and another was in the same backpackers hostel in Alice Springs. This latter chap was going on an outback trip over that weekend and was not going to be able to know the result for several days. He will have been most P*ss*d off when he found out! The night before I left on this trip Spurs had stuffed Chelsea 5-1 in the semi-final and played the best I had seen for many a year, so we were all hopeful! But it was not to be :-(

Anyway, back to events down under. Melbourne is the second biggest city in Oz (after Sydney) and is in fact the former capital until Canberra was established. It has a seaside suburb called St. Kilda which defintely has the look of an English seaside resort with Beach, Pier and Amusement park. When originally established in Victorian times it was quite fashionable but had gone to seed rather in later years. However it is now better again, if not quite its former fashionable status. Now you may have seen that I have referred to St. Kilda at least once before in these mails. However that is NOT this place, though there is a connection. The St. Kilda I have been to before is a small mountainous island about 40 miles (65km) out in the North Atlantic beyond the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. This island was inhabited up until 1930 when the community had shrunk to a number which was too few to be viable and evacuated. I go there from time to time to help in the restoration and maintenence of the few remaining village buildings on the island. At its height there were at most a couple of hundred or so inhabitants. In the 1800's some of the islanders left the island and settled in other far flung parts of the world, and this is how St. Kilda, Melbourne was founded. So Having been to the original place, a visit to the Melbourne version was a must!

Later I went back to the main city and a visit to the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground). This is one of the World's major sports stadiums and was originally the stadium for the 1956 Olympics. However it is vastly different now as it is a modern stadium with a capacity in excess of 90,000. Other sports are played their too, most notably Australian Rules Football, and to avoid the cricket pitch from being damaged during these other events the relevant 22 yards of the wicket is lifted out by crane in a removable section!

From there I want to the Rialto tower. This is the tallest office building in Melbourne, in fact the tallest in the southern hemisphere. It is of the order of 850 feet high (250-ish metres), so is just a little taller (I think) than Canary Wharf in London, the tallest building in the UK. Up here you get a panoramic view of the city. However while I was there I thunderstorm approached from the West! One or two bolts of lightning were hitting the ground in the distance. It continued to get closer and finally passed right over. However although there was still a lot of lightning none hit the building. As it receded it still seemed to be gaining strength and there were several powerful bolts continuing to hit the ground around the edges of the city. During all this I had the video camera running and managed to capture several of these bolts, most notable a double pulse along the same bolt just beyond the MCG!

By the time I came down from the tower it had passed, but by the time I had got back to the Hostel another one approached. I just got back in time because this was a bigger one! However, due to the protective shading (keep the excessive sun out!) over my room window I could not get a good view of it!

However, this had cleared the air, for the next day was much fresher, the haevy humidity having gone. Tuesday was the first chance on the trip to indulge one of my other interests: steam trains! A few km outside Melbourne, at the end of one of the commuter railways, is the Puffing Billy Steam railway. Claimed to ne "Australia's Premier Steam Railway". As I got there the first train was about to depart. This was an extra laid on for a cruise company, my train was not for an other half hour. However when this train was ready, the first in the published timetable, every carraige had a reserved notice for some group or other! One or two of us individuals wanted to know where we could get on. I managed to get in with a school party! In the end they had to put an extra carriage on! Some of these carriages are completely open so you can lean out to see the train as it goes along. So in the end with two engines and about 9 carriges all packed full it headed off up the valley. In fact so many people were hanging out (arms & legs!) it was reminiscent of the images of trains in India with people on the roof and hanging on the side (they don't do it so much these days with 25kV Overhead electic power!!). It was quite a sight as it chuffed along. However at the first stop half of the tour parties got off and at the second stop the remainder did! There were 4 or 5 big tour busses at each stop!! So for the latter half of the trip they left behind about 6 carraiges and one engine, and a more normal looking train continued to the far end of the line. This time I had the entire carriage to myself, plus the Guard, so we had a bit of a chat! Following a pleasant lunch in the local boozer at the end of the line, washed down with a couple of pints, I got the train back. However it was also a pleasant lunch for the local insect population in the pub garden, who took full advantage of any uncovered part of my arms and legs!!!

Wednesday morning was a fairly early start to get the train to Sydney. In fact I had to leave just as the Hostel was opening the cafe for breakfast! However, asd always seems to be the way when you get up early for a plane or train, it is late! (Happened in India too!) The incoming train from Sydney was stuck behing a broken down freight train, and finally got in 2 and a half hours late! They managed a quick turnaround, in fact remarkably so, and so we left one and three quarters hours late. The journey began through much the same wheat fields that I had seen on prvious journeys, however the latter half the terrain changed to more rolling green hills. These were a bit reminiscent of the higher moors in England (Dartmoor, Yorkshire Dales, etc) only with the addition of trees. As we crossed these hills we caught up with the reason they were green! The rain! In fact first it was more like hill fog. The train, the XPT is derivative of the British Inter City 125 trains. So on a UK designed train, travelling through rolling green hills, in the fog and rain, over an hour late, it felt just like home!! :-)

Sydney was jus a quick sleep over before getting the train out to here. In fact the Sydney Central YHA is literally across the road from the station, so all I have seen of Sydney so far is the station and hostel!

Anyway, its getting towards my bedtime again, so I'll sign off for now.

Cheers

Phil