fuyu ryokou

冬旅行 (Travel of Winter)

I spent 5 days from 11 to 15 July on my Winter Trip, travelling across Eastern/South Eastern Australia. 30 people participate in this trip, of which 3 of them are non-Adelaidean (1 from Perth, 1 Melbourne and 1 Canberra). With the initial cost of $180 per person, 2 cars and 2 vans were reserved for this trip, and our destination includes Canberra, Sydney, Mount Buller and Melbourne.

Day 1 (Wednesday, July 11th) - Starting Point - Canberra
Nothing much happened here, it was a lenghty journey from Adelaide to Canberra (around 14+ hours), with 5 shift drivers and co-driver. I spent my day sleeping most of the time, since I didn't had any sleep the night before (recapping Zero no Tsukaima :333). I only stay put on the 4th shift, since I was scheduled to be the co-driver for one of the van. We arrive at Bro Aie' gramps bro house at Canberra around 4am.


Day 2 (Thursday, July 12th) - Canberra
After breakfast and some rejuvenator, we went straight to Malaysian Embassy building . I went to that place first ahead of everybody, along with both Ihsan and P-dut because of Ihsan passport renewal matter. Finish with that, we continue with Canberra exploration, starting with the Parliament house, Australian National University, and War Memorial. Nothing really interesting at Parliament House, and we're only stop by ANU Uni signboard, not even going inside lol. And, one place in war Memorial reminds me of Hall of Valhalla... We finish about 3 pm, we bid our farewell to Ehsan Canberra, because he'll be staying. Next stop: Sydney



Day 3 (Friday, July 13th) - Sydney
We arrive at Sydney as early as 10pm the day before at Puncbowl, New South Wales and manage to get a shelter at a local mosque. Since everyone is terribly exhausted, we decide to call it day and sleep early, so that today we'll have enough energy to explore Sydney. Before going to sleep, I was scheduled to prepare the meal for breakfast. Then I went to sleep, unfortunately it's not as peace as I thought. Someone' snoring really annoy me that I couldn't sleep properly...

OK, enough of that. In the morning, we decide not to go to the main city by out vehicles, instead we're using the train because of the possibility traffic congestion. First place that we went upon landed on the City is Market City, a place where I can call market in the mall, with various cheap goodies. Then we took a lenghty walk to the place where we can view the Sydney Bridge and the famous Opera House from a ferry. Looking at the construction of Sydney Opera House, in my point of view, there's nothing really attract me about this Opera House, aside from it's fancy domes design.

Finish with Sydney, next we're planning to play with snow (ski, snowboard etc) at Mount Buller. However, due to distance restriction, we decided to change location to Perishe Valley, near Cooma. Thus, we had a night somewhere near Cooma....



Day 4 (Saturday, July 14th) - Snowy Mountain, Perishe Valley
We start the day with sleeping inside the cars/vans, except for 3 people who are willingly sleep outside: me, Faku and Omar. It was a freezing field outside, yet I insist on sleeping outside due to certain reason :33 And when I woke up, my spectacle already frozen, as well as the sleeping bags. To make thing worse, the water available at nearby toilet is either extremely hot or extremely cold to the bone. I can't feel my hand anymore~ huhu

In the morning, we're preparing for snowy mountain, renting necessary equipment. I choose to rent Ski, since I thought it'll be similar to using roller-blade. Some others choose snowboard, while the rest go for tobaggoo. It takes around half an hour to reach the main point of the mountain...

I'm still noob at Ski, since this is my first time, but I didn't expect the Ski shoes to be that heavy that it heavily restrict my movement... In the end I still manage to pull out some cruise on the Ski, though eventually I lost balance and fell :33 Even though it's enjoyable, Skiing is very tiring, especially with this heavy boots. Then I had my lunch at nearby resting area, spending almost $20 on Kebabs, Burger and flame grilled chicken, huhu. We stop at around 2, before proceeding to our final stop, Melbourne

Before commencing our journey, we decided to take alternative route to Melbourne, without even knowing what it looks like. Only then we realize that that route is some mountain path which is very similar to Bukit Putus in N9, but is more extreme (a one way, nonproper road with no divider, very deep ravine on sideroad, no mobile phone line, wildlife such as rabbit, wombat and kangaroos trespassing...), it sure is a nightmare should we stranded on these route. Luckily we made it through the path safely...



Day 5 (Saturday, July 15th) - Melbourne
So what left now is going to Moe before arriving at Melbourne. I'm looking forward to capture some pictures in Moe (lol), unfortunately I fell asleep, huhu. We spend the night at nearby Mosque, before proceeding to one of the Malaysian student house to start our exploration. We start with going to Victoria Market, where I bought some clothes and souvenir, then going to DFO Spencer Street and Southern Cross, where I was bored and got nothing to do except enjoying the scenery (lol), eating some delicious flame chicken at Coburg Chicken & Chips, and finally, shopping at a surprisingly cheap store called "Savers". Too bad time really restrict me to explore more in Melbourne...Well it's not that I can't go to Melbourne on other day....

So that conclude my main Winter Trip. We start going back to Adelaide around 7pm by sending Shahir back to his hostel, and continue the 10 hour ride to Adelaide. I'm the co-driver for the last 3 hour shift. We arrive at Wandana mosque, Adelaide around 6 am Monday 16th June, before gathering at Hampstead Garden for some feedback session....



Overall, though it's an enjoyable trip, I still wish that I could explore more, since the time is very limited. Plus, I slept in the vans/cars most of the time, thus unable to enjoy much of the scenery along the journey :333 I hope next year trip will be more enjoyable...