Dispatches : BostonCube

	2 Feb '03, G'day Bruce
After four days I've yet to see anyone wearing a hat with corks hanging off it, meet anyone called Bruce, drink any Castlemaine XXXX (or Fosters), even hear the word G'day, see any spiders or snakes or anyone eating Vegemite. So much for the country that is no. 3 on the top ten list of places to take the piss out of. But I did see a Koala so that's all right. Australians are a friendly people. At customs they'll even clean your boots, rucksack, tent and anything else with mud on it, for free! Although this is more to do with keeping out seeds and diseases than good old-fashioned antipodean hospitality. Melbourne is a modern city with tall high-rise buildings, modern architecture although it looks like some of the architects were smoking something really potent (and probably illegal), mixed in with old-style churches, lots of trees and even trams in the street. And starting just outside the city is the Great Ocean Road which runs west for 300km along the coast through State and National Parks of temperate rain forest, bush, eucalyptus and farm land towards Warrnambool. The Twelve Apostles are sandstone stacks eroded by the sea. Actually there are only nine of them at the moment and even the arch formerly known as London Bridge fell down in the early 90's trapping two people on the far side for several hours. Which was quite embarrassing for them as her husband thought she was in Adelaide and his wife thought he was in Sydney. Oops! My only regret about Melbourne is that I'm a month too early for the F1 Grand Prix at Albert Park.
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