Bus trips are a great way for solo travelers to see a country and meet new people in a short period of time. A lot of people explore Australia by renting a car or bus with a few friends or people they meet along the way and just driving through. I don’t have enough time, nor know enough people in Australia to do that quite yet, but I wanted to see the Great Ocean Road while in Melbourne, so I decided to go with Bunyip Tours.

Located on Flinders Street, the company is probably most well-known for its “Neighbors” tour. “Neighbors” is a soap opera that takes place in Australia and is popular around the country and abroad.

I went on the company’s three-day, all-inclusive Great Ocean Road tour. The tour was the best thing I have done in Australia yet. I have not done the same tour with other companies, so I can’t say if Bunyip is the best, but I can say I enjoyed going with them, thought the their trip was extremely affordable and felt it covered a lot of different sights and activities.

Transportation: Bunyip uses a 26-seat bus for its three-day tour of the Great Ocean Road. The seating and leg room was standard. It didn’t feel like we spent that much time in the bus, which is great considering how much ground we covered. The bus was very clean and stable. It also had a a small trailer attached to its back to store big luggage.

Accommodation: Attendees can camp on the tour, which cost $325 or share accommodation in a cabin, which is not much more depending on the season. The company provides tents and sleeping mats. Patrons can bring their own sleeping bags or rent it for a small fee. During my tour we stayed at Bimbi Park in Cape Otway and Asses Ears Lodge in the Grampians.

Photo by Bobbi Lee Hitchon

Bimbi Park give its guests a chance to sleep under the koalas. This is exciting, but definitely bring ear plugs as koalas makes the most horrendous mating calls throughout the night. The Park was beautiful and has the most incredible sunsets. The bathrooms were clean and modern, although showers cost $1 per four minutes so bring change. The kitchen facilities were also clean. People can also bring their own alcohol.

Asses Ears is home to heaps of kangaroos and other wildlife. Here people could ride quads for a small fee. This lodge was just as beautiful, but had a little bit more than Bimbi. Showers were free, there was a cozy lodge with a flat screen TV and board games and a fully stocked bar. The bathroom and kitchen facilities were clean. The night sky was more illuminated than I had ever seen it before.

2/11/10-Early morning at Asses Ears in the Grampians Victotia, Australia. Photo by Bobbi Lee Hitchon

Guide: Adam, my tour guide, was enthusiastic and knowledgeable about everything on the route. He’s worked as a guide all over Australia and on the Great Ocean Road for a long time. His stories and explanations were fun and interesting and he was always available to answer questions. He was also a great driver.

Food: I was fed more on this tour than I expected. Lunch and dinner was included on the first day, breakfast, lunch and dinner on the second day and breakfast and lunch on the third day. Everyone on the trip could have seconds of hardy portion meals and some even thirds. Breakfast and lunch was standard, but delicious, including breads, cheeses, veggies, deli cuts and condiments. Dinner was fantastic. The first night we ate burritos, second night we had a barbecue.

Sights: The tour was extremely comprehensive. We stopped at all the sights I heard about on the Great Ocean Road, such as Bells Beach and the 12 Apostles, plus more. Loch Ard Gorge and the Grampians were my favorite stops. I saw kangaroos and koalas and almost even saw a bush fire. There was never a dull moment, but I never felt rushed either. Check out their website to learn more about the tour.

Before booking with Bunyip, I researched a few other companies and this was one of the most affordable. I highly recommend it to anyone that wants to get out of the city and see the natural beauty of Australia. If you go and have some extra money to spare, take a helicopter ride over the 12 Apostles. It cost $70 for a ten-minute ride, but was totally worth it.

Melbourne Cricket Ground is a mecca for cricket-enthusiast. Home of the Australian Cricket, the modern stadium attracts people from around the country looking to be in the same space as legends and watch current super stars.

An avid baseball fan, one of the biggest things on my to-do list in Melbourne was to attend a match at the MCG. Like everyone else in the world, I was really confused by the game and misled by other’s unfair criticism.

2/5/10-Melbourne Cricket Grounds is an iconic stadium in Australia. Photo by Bobbi Lee Hitchon

There are a few versions of the game. A test match goes on for five days, which sounds like a lot but is perfect for cricket fanatics. I attended a newer, shorter version of the game called 20/20 on Friday, February 5 when Australia took on Pakistan. This version moves at a much faster pace and involves a lot of energy, unlike the longer versions, which are more strategic and patient. 20/20 cricket last about three to four hours, so it’s the closest version of cricket to American baseball in terms of time and speed.

2/5/10-Australia defeats Pakistan in 20/20 cricket at Melbourne Cricket Grounds. Photo by Bobbi Lee Hitchon

I can honestly say after watching a game in person and constantly asking my Aussie friend Chris Richardson, creator of The Aussie Nomad, questions throughout, that I now have a general knowledge of the game. Far from an expert I won’t even attempt to explain it. Rather, I want to compare and contrast the cultural differences of baseball and cricket, because inevitably, sport in general is about the crowd that attends and the spirit that prevails.

Photo by Bobbi Lee Hitchon

Some of the main things I learned on that cool Melbourne night is that Shaun Tait is the man (what an arm), Gatorade and “the wave” are universal (although Aussies call it the Mexican wave) and cricket is a lot easier to understand than people led me to believe.

As a life-long Phillies fan and constant attendee at Citizen’s Bank Park in Philadelphia, I know my fair share about Philadelphia sports, the stadium and the fun at games. This being my closest experience to cricket before actually attending a game, I used baseball to figure out cricket and the MCG culture.

2/5/10-Australia enters the field for a 20/20 match against Pakistan at Melbourne Cricket Grounds. Photo by Bobbi Lee Hitchon

While Philadelphia fans are known for being brutal (even chucking snowballs at Santa Clause during an Eagles game), Aussies are a bit nicer. Against Pakistan, the fans were constantly cheering and chanting for the home team, but rarely booed for the opposition. Although, they did start a “You’re a wanker,” as police escorted a fan that threw a beach ball onto the field out of the stadium.

Citizen’s Bank likes to shoot fire works and ring a massive fluorescent liberty bell when a Phillie hits a home run. Aussies are prefer fire. Two sides of the field would release fire torches whenever a player did something extraordinary.

Photo by Bobbi Lee Hitchon

People actually win stuff at halftime contest in Australia. Unlike every halftime contest I’ve seen in the States where nobody wins anything, an audience member at the MCG won a few grand for catching balls.

In 20/20 cricket, each team only goes up to bat once, but in that one time the team goes through an entire lineup. While each player only has one out, it is more difficult to get an out than in baseball. In baseball teams have the chance to go up to bat once every nine innings. Each team has three outs and players can go up multiple times throughout a game.

Philadelphia fans where t-shirts and jerseys. Aussies where polos and jerseys.

Aussies wave flags in the air and tie it to their backs like a cape. Phillies fans make corky signs and sometimes wave pennants.

Cricket players are pretty skinny on average. In the States, it’s the bigger the better (I’m looking at you Ryan Howard).

Cricket games are brought to you by Victoria Bitter (VB). Budweiser is the national beer of baseball.

We’ll have a cheesesteak wid wiz. They’ll have a meat pie with gravy.

In baseball, it’s cities that play each other, but in cricket it’s countries.

2/5/10-A fan waves a flag for Pakistan during a 20/20 cricket match against Australia at Melbourne Cricket Grounds.

While people definitely have a good time at games in Australia (judging by the two men that were peeing in front of my friend’s car when we left), they don’t tailgate. I was excited to hear tailgating is an American thing. A country of descendants from other cultures, there are not a lot things we can call completely our own, but the tailgate culture is one of them.

Love of the game and die-hard fan-ship translates across the world. Instead of just looking at the sites next time you visit a new city, get to know it’s people by getting to know its national passtime.

The past three days have been the best yet on my trip. Traveling is always refreshing and fantastic, but there are moments that are actually extraordinary. It happened when I stood face to face with Michelangelo’s The David in Florence, Italy and when I road a donkey in Santorini, Greece. Moments that I thought only existed in films and places I thought only existed in dreams.

This moment came on the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, Australia.

Almost every view from this southern coastal road is breathtaking, but my big moment came at Loch Ard Gorge. From the top, the tan cliffs amongst green and blue ocean are beautiful, but it was when I went down to the beach amongst these massive rocks that I thought to myself, “Is this real?”

2/10/10-I did a jump shot for Garrett and Erin at Loch Ard Gorge on Great Ocean Road in Victoria, Australia.

Australia keeps amazing me more and more each day, but the past three days seemed straight out of a novel. I flew in a helicopter over the 12 Apostles, swam at the bottom of the earth at Port Campbell (next landmass down is Antarctica) and walked amongst kangaroos in the Grampians.

Parts of the Grampians actually looked like images I saw in the cartoon, “The Land Before Time.” Walking through there I could actually imagine dinosaurs running through the bushes, while pterodactyls fly above.

The first night of my three-day-Bunyip bus tour of the Great Ocean Road, I camped at Bimbi Park with wild Koalas (which by the way are not as cool as I thought after sleeping through their irritating mating calls). I stayed in a tent with two girls from the Netherlands named Lienke and Evelien. The camp site looks like pictures I saw of safaris in Africa with sandy soil and winding trees with bush-like greenery. I watched the most spectacular sunset in the bush with a few people from my tour.

2/9/10-The sunset from a hill at Bimbi Park, where my tour slept the first night. Photo by Bobbi Lee Hitchon

The sunset came with a price though.

We did not get into the camp until about 7 p.m. and had to set up our tents and eat dinner. After dinner we ran through fields that had some kind of prickly grass and up a hill with bushes, all with bottles of wine and Goon (box wine) in hand. My legs were covered with big bites, feet were a mess and there had to a few snakes in there I luckily missed.

I always find myself recalling the line “love the one your with” in a lot of moments in life. This was one of them. Up on the hill were people from Germany, Central America, France, Israel, England, Ireland, Sweden, Russia and the Netherlands and we were all taken back by this perfect melting sky.

The best part of any trip are the people. Things and places are beautiful, but sharing it with someone makes it even better. This bus tour was great and the 24 people on it, plus our fantastic guide/driver Adam, got on really well. It’s amazing to think that three days ago we were all just strangers waiting for a bus on the curb. Now we’ve all experienced such spectacular things and shared so many great moments together.

2/11/10-My camp mates Evelien, Lienke and I at McKenzie Falls in the Grampians in Victoria, Australia.

Bus trips are really nice in that regard, because you spend so much time with, therefore learn so much about others. There were a lot of single travelers on the trip and we all seemed to just mesh together within the first half of the day.

I was the only American, there were two women from England and four from Ireland, yet everyone spoke English. I am so grateful for that, because I always feel bad that I do not speak another language. I think it’s unfair that other people from countries in which English is not their first language seem to always be the ones speaking in a language that is not their own. It’s my fault, because I should just learn to speak another language.

It makes me feel dumb, but really privileged that they were willing to go out of their way to converse and let me get to know them.

2/10/10-I hightly recommend taking a helicopter ride above the 12 Apostles on Great Ocean Road in Victoria, Austrlia. It cost $70 for a ten minute ride, but the views are priceless. Photo by Bobbi Lee Hitchon

It’s always hard leaving a place or adventure where you are surrounded by people, only to be a solo traveler again. It’s amazing how comfortable and use to company you can get in only a few days. But after two nights of sleeping on the ground, and one night of cold showers that cost $1 per four minutes, I am pretty excited for a warm shower and a mattress.

I better enjoy it now though. Tomorrow morning I leave to work on a vineyard four hours outside Melbourne in Myrtleford. I’m not sure what the bedding or showers will be like, but I’m confident the experience will bring on more amazing moments in Oz.

Famed contortionist Bendy Em performed for a crowd of about 80 people near Circular Quay in Sydney, Australia Sunday, January 31, 2010. The flexible Aussie has performed around the world and opts to keep her high level act on the streets. Audience members laughed at her witty jokes and gasp at her limber body.

For the final act of her Sunday show, she fit herself into a 16″ perspex box. With the help of two male audience members and the crowds applaud she folds her back, cocks her arms and shrivels her legs until successfully inside. After the show she said she receives an average of about $10 per person at her street performances.

Photo by Bobbi Lee Hitchon

Photo by Bobbi Lee Hitchon

Photo by Bobbi Lee Hitchon

Photo by Bobbi Lee Hitchon

Photo by Bobbi Lee Hitchon

Photo by Bobbi Lee Hitchon

Photo by Bobbi Lee Hitchon

Photo by Bobbi Lee Hitchon

Photo by Bobbi Lee Hitchon

Photo by Bobbi Lee Hitchon

Photo by Bobbi Lee Hitchon

Photo by Bobbi Lee Hitchon

On a warm January afternoon, two men go head to head in a game of chess in Hyde Park in Sydney, Australia. A crowd in suits surrounds the players. Competitor one is more vocal in challenging the opposition. Competitor two remains silent as he moves across the board. The game is fierce and only one can win.

1/29/10-Two men go head to head in a game of chess in Hyde Park in Sydney Australia.Photo by Bobbi Lee Hitchon

1/29/10-Competitor one. Photo by Bobbi Lee Hitchon

1/29/10-Competitor two. Photo by Bobbi Lee Hitchon

1/29/10-The competition gets fierce. Photo by Bobbi Lee Hitchon

1/29/10-The crowd chimes in. Photo by Bobbi Lee Hitchon

1/29/10-As the game progressives the moves are quicker. Photo by Bobbi Lee Hitchon

1/29/10-As the game progressives the moves are quicker. Photo by Bobbi Lee Hitchon

1/29/10-Competitor one talks a big game. Photo by Bobbi Lee Hitchon

1/29/10-Competitor two quietly strategizes. Photo by Bobbi Lee Hitchon

1/29/10-Check mate. The silent killer wins the match. Photo by Bobbi Lee Hitchon

1/29/10-Good game. Photo by Bobbi Lee Hitchon

1/29/10-Maybe next time.