旅行は私の人生なのだ

Today is my first day driving in Tasmania. In order not to find the parking space around the YH, I bring all my luggages and two packages of ingredients walking toward the office of Europcar. Unfortunately, it's raining now and the way to the office is the ascent. It's not a good start of the driving trip.

Because the driving direction in Australia is opposite to the direction in my country, the car is also a little different. First, the rain brush and headlight control is on your left, and the direction light control is on your right. Of course, the dirver's seat is on the right side, not the left. Except for these differences, there is nothing special to the car in my country.

I check the car very carefully to make sure that I won't make any mistake as driving on the road. In fact, I have to say that I don't like to drive in the area I'm not familar. Even I've walked around the Hobart city yesterday, I'm still a little nervious when I drive. Therefore, it's recommended that rentint a GPS with your car. It's not so easy to park anywhere for watching the road map, especially you travel alone.

My route today is heading for Richmod as my first stop, and then I will drive toward Port Arthur via Sorell. The total distance is about 120 km that is good for a new starter. However, the itinerary is changed as I saw the information on the plane yesterday. Besides, the price of the accommodations in Port Arthur is not cheap. Thus, I plan to stay at Tribunna or Swansea after visiting Port Arthur. If possible, I want to find the ferry information for Maria Island. For this change, the total distance becomes about 170 km.

At the night before flying to Tasmania, I didn't sleep well. The main reason is I didn't put all my luggages in the lockers but in the room.

"Trust and Safty" is an important issue when you travel alone in a strange country.

Could you trust anyone you meet at the first time? Yes, or No? That is not an easy choice.

Therefore, I'm a little nervous when I sleep with all my luggages in the room just for saving some money. I've spent too much on resotring my luggages.

Although I've made an itinerary for the journey in Australia, I would change the attractions I will go just according to the information I collected somewhere. That's why I love to travel alone. If I don't like shopping, I don't have waste my time and go anywhere as I wish.

Featherdale Wildlife Park is such a case that is not included in my itinerary until I saw some articles which recommend this place before I came to Australia. Otherwise, maybe I will go to Taronga Zoo where is close to Sydney downtown.

Actually, in my first plan, I seems to miss the zoo until my colleague reminds me to watch the Koala and Kangaroo.

Why do I forget this? I think that is due to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Brisbane which is my first choice for visiting the zoo. However, I skip Brisbane for the time and season issue, so I also forget to find another zoo. 

Six o'clock in the early morning, the sky is still dark and there is an hour before the sunrise.

I walk to the Echo Point for the second time to watch the sunrise of Three Sisters.

Sunrise or sunset is not only a moment in a day, but a serial of time. Thus, you have to wait and watch the slight differences of the light and shadow. So I stay at the Echo Point for at least thirty minutes.

But I have to say that, the sun and the Tree Sisters are at the same direction in the morning, so it's not a good time to take a good photo of the Three Sisters. The sunset of Three Sisters is much better than the sunrise.

Blue Mountains, is an attraction tourists will visit as they travel in Sydney. There are also some day tours that depature from Sydney in the early morning and come back in the late night, but I don't like to join such tours unless I could not handle the transportation such as the tour of great ocean road in Melbourne.

Therefore, I arrange one and half days staying at Katoomba and come back to Sydney in the early evening or night on the second day. I think I could look around here freely, and maybe have a long walk with many beautiful scenes.

In the very early morning today, I store my luggages in the Sydney hostel and go with my backpack and camara bag. Because I'm not familiar with the oubound train, I stay at the wrong platform until 10 minutes before the departure time.

At 6:30, the train to Katoomba departs from the 12th platform.

Sydney, my first stop in Ausltralia. The weather here is not so cold as I think.

Maybe I look like a middle-age man or I already have ETA and some stamps from other countries, I only wait for my luggage for a while, and then pass the gates without too much inquiring and inspecting. Just like the Heathrow airport of London, you could take the train from the Sydney airport directly to the city center.

The design of the train is interesting. It's a two levels cabin with some seats in the middle level connecting the upper level and lower level in front and back of the cabin. So, the train could carry more people but also prvide the conveninece for the elders and the disables.

~ Prolog ~

I always forget the feeling of travelling as I keep living quite boringly in my city too long.

The time I finished one travel in a country is also the time for preparing the next trip.

I would like to spend a lot time to prepare everying well just one month before I departure or earlier.

Grayline 在八點半左右回到了墨爾本市區，我的旅行也宣告進入尾聲

搭電車的時候，今晚居然莫名其妙的變更了路線，繞往我根本不熟悉的街道

即使最後仍回歸到原始的路線上，但維多利亞市場似乎被跳過了

我緊張的在不知道是哪一號站牌的情況下下了電車，幸虧這裡離 YHA 並沒有很遠

 什麼！大洋路行程是我的最後一天？

今天早上依然在同樣的路口等待著遊覽車，此時的我拿起了國際機票的記錄看了看

不知為何的，我察覺到一絲的不對勁，再仔細的想一想，才豁然開朗的驚覺不妙

哇，今天的午夜就是我要搭機返國的時間，而我居然一直記成明天的午夜

今天早上五點，我終於正常的準時起床，因為不想弄東弄西的，從自動販賣機買了一包 m & m 巧克力，以及一杯熱巧克力，早餐就這麼暫時解決了

經歷過昨天的事件，我已經相當清楚是 Grayline 的車子會來接我，沒什麼意外的，我順利的搭上了車，準備前往 Mt. Buller

我來了澳洲這麼久，旅程幾乎已快到了尾聲，然而我卻從來沒有機會踩在雪地上頭

記得二年前在紐西蘭旅行的時候，有部份的高山地區就有雪，蒂卡波湖的湖邊也有雪景，然後還在 Cardrona 學了一天的滑雪

我覺得，我應該要堅持自己任何事情都事先作好計畫與預定的精神才對

太過相信淡季，而導致過於隨性，下場就是可能選擇到資訊不明的Tour，引發一連串的迷糊事件

今天的我，是傻里傻氣的觀光客......

今天是離開烏魯魯，前往墨爾本的日子，其實如果可以的話，我會選擇清晨的班機儘早抵達墨爾本，也許就能立即開始遊走市區

旅行越接近尾聲，我就越珍惜所剩的時間，一分一秒都不想浪費

不過早上最早的班機也要等到十點之後，在離開之前，我有相當充裕的時間能走到 Uluru Lookout 的小山丘頂

仔仔細細的再看 Uluru 及 Kata Tjuta 一遍，好好的向他們告別

一大清早，我們又是在天未亮之前就整裝出發，幸好 Swag 已經睡得很習慣，而 Ayers Rock 的露營地也沒之前的冷

回到了昨天看夕陽的場所，唯一的目標，就是等著太陽從烏魯魯那端的地平線升起

在不同時刻的不同光線下，相機可以嘗試的拍攝組合很多，尤其又不希望因為太陽而拍到黑鴉鴉的烏魯魯

我已經算不清究竟自己按了幾次快門，只能夠不停的拍，等回國之後再來篩選

Wanyu Ulurunya tatintja wiyangku wantima | Ulurula tatintjaku tjinguru nguluringanyi

Please don’t climb Uluru | The Uluru climb can be dangerous

請不要攀登烏魯魯 | 攀登烏魯魯是危險的

早上五點，我拎著大包小包的行李箱、登山包、相機包及腳架，先「自動」Check Out 完畢，再利用剩餘的時間稍為吃了點昨晚的義大利麵

因為要把不需要的物品放在行李箱裡、把要用到的物品放在登山包裡，原本看起來應該很精簡的行李，像分身一般的變成了好幾件，弄得我有一點手忙腳亂

約六點左右，The Rock Tour 的車子到了 YHA 之前，有不少的背包客都在門口前等待著接他們的車子

Alice Spring 就像是個短暫的遊客集中場所，在天未明的清晨匆忙的前往其他地方旅行

早上七點，阿德雷得依舊在下雨，害我連搭往機場的公車都很狼狽，要拿行李又要撐傘，一副的手忙腳亂

延續著昨天感冒引發的遲頓症狀，使用自助登機的機器時，居然誤選了有攜帶禁止物品的選項，幸好還是可以去櫃台再處理一次

進入了候機區之後，我趕緊再買了感冒藥，坐在椅子上等著九點四十五分往愛麗絲泉的飛機

抵達愛麗絲泉，已經接近中午，天氣與阿德雷得完全相反，一整個的大晴天，而且非常的熱

 德國村 Hahndorf

今天是比較悠閒的一天，再遠一點的景點，也很難都擠在這短短的一天來完成

在阿德雷得的週邊地區，就我認為，大概有三個地方較有名、較值得前往

不過，這並不代表這些地方都像袋鼠島這麼的棒，需要看個人喜好了

第一個是 Barossa Valley，此地是以酒莊聞名，位於阿德雷得東北方；Barrossa 的名稱是 William Light 上校為了紀念英國在西班牙的巴羅莎戰役打贏了法國而以此命名

早上五點半，我的生理時鐘響了，通常前一晚喝太多水，連帶的就會讓我很早起。。。上廁所

只穿一件短袖，外加沒帶夾腳拖鞋之下的二隻腳丫，上一趟廁所，跟闖進冰庫裡沒什麼差別

七點左右，眾人陸陸續續的起床，在更換自己床上的被單及枕頭套的同時，Bob 已經準備好了早餐

噹噹噹噹噹，五個燈。。。這個煎餅實在是美味啊，口感柔軟卻不軟爛，再淋上一些楓糖，有夠好吃的

今天是前往袋鼠島進行二天一夜行程的日子，我比較相信有人參加過而且沒有負面評價的旅行社

於是我也選擇了跟妳相同的 Surf and Sun 來跑行程

早上四點半，我預留了很寬裕的時間讓我的胃能夠消化跟昨晚同等份量的肉醬麵，然後把大小行李箱都寄存到行李間裡

為了像這類一日以上的行程，例如之前的藍山，我塞了一個中型登山包在我的行李裡頭

我回想起在雪梨的氣溫，沒有冷到需要穿 Goretex 外套，阿德雷得想必也是如此吧

然而，凌晨四點的 Hobart 居然是零下 2 度，只穿著長袖實在擋不住陣陣而來的寒風

前往阿德雷得的班機，會在墨爾本轉機一次才抵達，在降落之前，看到了一座形狀奇怪的湖泊被建築物包圍著

比對了一下地圖，應該是位於阿德雷得市區東北方的 Hope Valley Reservoir