Hi All

January 26, Saturday, I caught the bus to Melbourne but got off at a small town just south of it called Geelong. As usual I started looking for a room at an older hotel/pub.
The first was all booked, tried another, all booked, tried a third, all booked. Hmmm a pattern here. I soon found out that it was Australia day long weekend, Monday was also a holiday. All rooms in town were booked. Ended up at a Caravan park that mostly consisted of small cabins, again all booked. So I pitched my tent on a small piece of grass. That was when I realized I forgot to pack a towel, and since I got in after ALL the shops were closed I couldn't buy one anywhere. Oh well.

Walked 4km into town where they had a small fair and a regatta for the weekend celebrations. I ate at a German club. There was a function going on but they let me in anyways and I got to hear the Chicken Dance song requested AND played in New Zealand.

The next morning I caught a bus that went to Apollo Bay along the Ocean Road. It is suppose to be the most scenic road in Oz, and was pretty nice. There is also a HG site there. Arrived but it was raining. Returned after a 4 hours stay but went all the way to Melbourne this time, seeing as Geelong hotels were all booked.

In Melbourne I was going to take a cab to The Duke of Wellington, but the first cabbie in the queue (who had a thick unknown foreign accent) didn't know where it was and asked which borough it was in. I said I didn't know (a couple of times) and said it was downtown not far from here. My map was in the boot. Well he got a little annoyed and got out of his cab. So I got out and asked the next cabbie in line, who was black but not an abo. He looked at me with a blank stare. Good god, was I in Taxi Cab Hell. Luckly a "local" cabbie walked over and rescued me.
Needles to say most hotels were booked, but we finally found one.

Next morning I was going to take the train to a place called Bright to check out another HG site. At morning breakfast I read that there was an all day concert in the fair grounds called "A Big Day Out" with about 30 bands, many of them local. Anyways I made some inquires and phone calls and was directed to a place not far from the hotel to buy tickets. Checkout was 10am, it was 9:30am. I walked downtown but couldn't find the place. I asked two police officers who were in their car. I explained that I was just passing through town and that voice mail directed me to this ticket outlet. They said that the office was probably closed since it was Holiday Monday. Then the one cop said to "hop in", that they would take me down to the main gate to check if I could get tickets at the gate. Cool. So I got a "ride" with Ross and David to the main gates, about 10 minutes down the road. David was going to the shows at 3pm, after his shift. There were lots of tickets left, got dropped off back at the hotel and re-made my way down to the fair grounds. Met a guy on the tram going back down to the gates named Peter. Found out he was going to buy a ticket at the gates also. He knew quite a few of the local bands so I hung out with him. Luckily he enjoyed drinking beer on a sunny day as much as I did. The main bands at the end of the night were Silverchair, Garbage, New Order
(yes, New Order and a little older) and Prodigy. I left early at 11pm as I had to get up at 6am for the train to Bright.

And As usual I got sunburnt again.

Martin