Melbourne and driving north to Sydney

Arrived in Melbourne on Friday night and it was a bit of a shock to be in a big city again and to be staying in a hostel. Hostels in Australia seem to be different from everywhere else as most of the people using them are staying there for a few months and working so they have a different kind of atmosphere which reminded me too much of being in halls of residence in the 1st year of university. Spent the weekend in Melbourne, looking around the city on Saturday and then on Sunday I went to a new climbing wall that has just opened there. Haven't been climbing for months, so that was good fun.

Have hired a car for a couple of weeks to drive up to Sydney along the Great Dividing range for the chance to do a bit of walking. So left Melbourne on Monday and drove North to a place called Seymour to stay with my mum's friends for a couple of days. They have a small cattle farm in the hills just outside the town. I had a very nice couple of days there as after 4 months traveling it was just nice to be in a normal house again and have some very good home cooked food. Spent most of my time there being taken for walks by their dog, which had far to much energy as it was just a few months old.

From there I carried on North to Mount Buffalo national park where I started camping again. Had a nice couple of days there doing a bit of walking. Enjoyed being out in the hills again as I haven't really done any proper walking since getting to Australia.

Next I went to Mount Kosciuzko national park in the Snowy Mountains, where I was surprised to find there was actually still some patches of snow on the tops. I had planned to stay there to do a bit of walking but the next day it was raining and the cloud was very low so I decided just to carry on heading north to the Blue Mountains.