The Great Ocean Road, Part Deux

After a busy first day's sightseeing from Apollo Bay, we spent our second day's trip at a more relaxed pace. After a lazy morning we headed into town where Danny and Andy decided to hire surfboards. In a case of the blind leading the blind, Andy decided to give Danny a surf lesson, after a grand total of an hour and a half surfing experience. Kerry and I stocked up magazines and lazed around the camp for an hour reading to give the boys time to work out how to stand up, before heading down to the beach to check them out. Well, they didn't do too badly, and to be fair the waves were massive... The main upset of the afternoon came when a freak wave managed to sweep our video camera into the sea. It is no more - insurance claim number 2 of the trip. That evening we'd got fed up of barbequeing and had Aussie Chippy versus UK Chippy: the re-match. A better batter than our first attempt, but still Aus loses out substantially to the UK Chippy (specifically, Mynydd Isa Fish Bar) due to the severe lack of mushy peas. Danny and Kerry aren't so sure, and are claiming that the presence of crumbed fish on the Aus menu makes up for this loss. As if.
So, we broke camp the next morning and headed West to the Twelve Apostles, some bits of rock sticking out of the sea. Sticking in our minds more than the (very impressive) lumps of rock were the other tourists - a truly odd bunch. Firstly, to examine the monoliths from sea level we decided to take a stroll along the beach at the foot of the cliff. We were confronted with the frankly unexpected sight of two fully grown men, each wearing matching white - what can only be described as - "briefs" with a large "07" across the bumcheeks, well lubed with baby oil. Shocking as this sight was, what was all the more unusual is that these two strapping men were holding a large piece of driftwood and doing some sort of "exercise". Kerry and I were surprised enough, but the look on Andy and Danny's faces was enough to force these clean cut fans of physical exercise to move along to a more concealed area of beach, right underneath the lookout where 500 tourists stood gawping at the Twelve Apostles. Hmm. We then used this vantage point to spy on them with the telephoto lens and take pictures, as any self respecting busybody would. So our Twelve Apostles experience one is certainly one that will stay with us, we suspect for all the wrong reasons...
After stopping at a few lookouts and interesting rock features along the coast we made our way to Port Fairy where we were staying in a holiday cabin for one night. We made sure we stocked up on food and drink as the next day was Australia Day and we were going to be bushcamping, with no nearby shops, showers or even drinking water. Unfortunately that night we were quite excited at finally being indoors and warm, and drank three quarters of our booze cache, and Andy ate enough Spaggy Bol for a family of five. Next day we set off for Tower Hill, a volcanic crater where we saw emu and yet more Koala - we've seen so many wild koala on this trip we're beginning to regard them as pests. After a nice walk we piled back in the car and set off for our bushcamp at Glenelg River. Our spot was next to a group of two families who we got on very well with, and sat around the camp fire sharing wine with in the evenings. Unfortunately the weather was not smiling on us and we were forced to cook under cover of the tent verandah - not the Australia Day weather we were expecting! We cooked enough lamb steaks and roo to feed the whole campsite, washed down with VB beer and wine. Our second day at the river was spent sightseeing at the Blue Lake in Mount Gambier (its very blue) and walking by the Glenelg, where we saw our first wild roo of the trip (one can be seen in the above photo), springing past us at close range and then stopping to forage and get a better look at us. We also had a camp cookaburra who was so tame he almost ate right out of Kerry's hand.
After a mammoth drive yesterday of 9 hours, with stops at an emu farm miles into the Outback and a lobster seller in Kingston who sold us the Loch Ness monster, we arrived at Danny and Kerry's house in Adelaide. After our first showers in three days (bliss) we settled down in front of "Team America" with a bottle of cold white wine and half a ton of fresh lobster. I love Australia!

Danny and I at Pickaninni Ponds...



Emus at Tower Hill...
Me at the Twelve Apostles...
A Cookaburra...
Scene from the Twelve Apostles...

The Great Ocean Road, Part One

Suddenly the tourist pace has been upped! We were delivered from backpacker hell in Melbourne on Monday morning by Danny and Kerry, two good friends who we first met while travelling in Africa. They live in Adelaide, and we have now started a a road trip with them, down the Great Ocean Road from Victoria to South Australia.
Rach and I were inserted like so much baggage into the back of their wagon and sat like contented schoolchildren while we were whisked out of the city and onto the road, in the hands of eager and responsible people with their own car AND EVERYTHING!
First on the itinerary was Torquay and the famous Bells Beach, where there were plenty of rad dudes catching tubes but sadly no sign of the fifty-foot swell or any ex-presidents ("Point Break", for the uninitiated...).
After catching too much sun and getting wet, we followed the coast west. In Africa, Rach and I had always been cowed by this pair's uncanny ability to spot stuff; on our Carlsberg-sponsored tour, we were immediately reminded of it when they spotted an echidna and a koala by the side of the road! Other marsupial, mythical and generally poisonous stuff, the like of which shouldn't exist, followed with suspicious regularity, as if they'd set them up along the road the day before...
So now we're set up in our home from home in Apollo Bay, with a huge tent and barbie for all your survival needs. The site is next to the sea, with opportunities for surf and early morning runs (for some) though the water is antarctic-cold. Kerry has been planning this trip for about 6 months, and has put together an information pack would impress Alan Sugar, so you can imagine the pace we've set on our sightseeing. Our first full day was spent crunching round the local parks, to lakes, tree-top walkways and a waterfall within the Great Otway reserve. Unreasonably, our hopes are up for a platypus, but even with these two we've had no luck so far...
By the way, check out the photo of the elegant Miss Bochenski after she tried walking along a fallen tree.

Gay Pride March, St Kilda

Here are a few of the more colourful characters from the parade in bohemian St Kilda...

More Melbourne

Here are a couple of pics of Melbourne Gaol, where Ned Kelly met his end courtesy of the hangmans noose. We watched a really good little play about his life and then wandered around the gaol. It had lots of good exhibits about life in Oz just after it was settled, and a break down of all 130 odd who were hanged - 80% Irish which is perhaps not a surprise!

Will the real Ned Kelly please stand up?

Andy won the chess re-match...

Today we're in St Kilda by the beach, where a beach volleyball championship is being held. Andy watched the girls while I watched the guys. I think if you are ugly they disqualify you straight off...

Moribund Melbourne

Yes, a shock title I know and one that may upset/cause offence. Many have extolled Melbourne's virtues as we have travelled this land, but really, there is not an awful lot to do in Melbourne except eat a lot and spend lots of money on drink, both of which we are trying to avoid... Our aim yesterday was to see if we could fill our day sightseeing only free stuff, and we did pretty well. After taking the free City Circle tram for an exciting forty minutes, the friendly voiceover informed us that the "Ian Potter Gallery" was free, so we jumped off and in we went - and no, we have no idea who Ian Potter is either. We got inside just in time for the (free) 11am tour, and as we were the only takers got a (free) private guided tour of the Aboriginal art exhibits on the ground floor. Very nice they were too. Afterwards we thought we had better see the (free) upper floors with other Aus art, just so we could say we'd seen it but unfortunately it was rubbish. Sorry Aussies but once you've been to the National Gallery in London, or the Prado or Uffizi, the Ian Potter Melbourne Art Gallery filled with pastoral scenes of pioneers and their missuses in the Outback just doesn't cut it. After spending ten minutes quick-marching past the exhibits we left to have a (free) look round St Paul's Cathedral. Nice stained glass. The last pope went there once. That was about it.
Next the day's highlight, for me at least, was the (not free) lunch at Sushi Train (perch on stool, sushi goes around the middle of the bench on a conveyor belt). Anyone who lives in a decently sized city is probably au fait with these, but if you're from North Wales and you love sushi they are the height of excitement. After I'd eaten all the raw fish I could possibly cram in we headed for the (free) State Library of Victoria. This really was nice, actually. It has a beautiful reading room under a huge dome, full of leather bound worthy tomes and special stands and lights for reading them. There is a chess room, where Andy and I had a hotly contested game, until we realised Andy had been in check for the last three moves and neither of us had noticed... We declared a draw and plan to go back for a re-match today. On the upper levels of the library, around the dome are some interesting exhibitions on the history of Victoria and the rare book collection, which contains some very old works including a King James Bible and some works by Chaucer and Dickens. The library's prized possession is the original Ned Kelly's armour, although the helmet is on holiday somewhere else at the moment so the one you see in the picture is a mock-up. All very interesting, and a good and cheap couple of hours were spent. Our evening was spent in the cinema, watching "Babel", which was excellent, and being ignored at an Italian restaurant, we think it could have been something to do with the way we were dressed... The main reason for this unprecedented monetary outlay is our hostel - a vast prison-like structure with tiny airless rooms and bunk beds. The communal areas are filled with drunken 18 year olds trying to pull each other and the bathroom is a ten minute walk from the bedroom. Not somewhere to relax and enjoy your evening. We're expecting tonight to be a bit more comfortable as this morning I managed to steal, through bravery and cunning, a fan from a vacant room.

Our First Winery Tour

Well, the no-drinking rule didn't last long... Yesterday we embarked on a wine cruise to Wyanga Winery in the hills behind Lake's Entrance. Our tour started at 11am, at which early hour we had our first glass of chardonnay pressed into our hands. Our guide was Luke, who took us through some of the area's colourful history and poured nice large measures of wine, all whilst wandering around the boat allowing it to take its own course along the river. Three glasses later we docked at a beautiful inlet where our bus to the winery awaited. We were greeted by several more bottles of wine, variously advertised as "responsible for more unplanned pregnancies than any other drink in Australia", "tastes as good coming up as it does going down" and "pinot more". All very delicious and by this time we were throwing them down our necks. We stopped for a bite to eat, which came with a glass of our favourite wine so far. Our group on the tour were all good fun, and lunch was a raucous affair. We were eventually guided back to our waiting bus and boat and, rather subdued, were dropped back at the harbour.

Today we have had a much quieter day, hiring bicycles in order to explore the area and then cooling off at the beach, with the local "lifeys" to keep an eye on us. Tomorrow we journey to Melbourne, where we are expecting hot and humid weather, and noisy expensive hostels - we'll keep you posted!

Mountains and Surf in the Care of the Lord

Yes dear readers we know, its been a while since we posted. Having finally arrived in an English speaking country, the telly and the Internet access are the worst yet...these developing countries, we don't know! After escaping Sydney with 2 riotous hangovers, we headed to the Blue Mountains for some good clean air and promised views. Arriving at the town of Katoomba and tramping through the single high street, we quickly exhausted all the backpacker accommodation options before settling on a Norman Bates-style motel. There we hibernated for 24 hours with videos and take away, emerging the next day fresh as daises and ready for some scenery. The photos you can see are views of the iconic Three Sisters at Echo Point and our restorative ramble through the Jamison Valley. Nothing much else to say about the Blue Mountains except for my purchase of a splendidly outback Bushwhacker hat, mate.
Onwards and downwards we had to blast briefly back into Sydney to make our way down the eastern coast on the long road to Melbourne, and towards all those bush fires... Our route took us via places with great outback names like Parramatta, Wollongong, Bendalong, Tilba Tilba and Ulladulla to the conventionally named Bateman's Bay. After trains, buses and automobiles we were met at "Batey" by a chap called Lindsey(!?) who whisked us off to our hastily booked Kooringa Coastal Retreat. As the car doors centrally locked he revealed that we were to be guests of the Scripture Union, and we were surely now in the hands of The Lord!!! The place was perfect otherwise, with our own kitchen to save those spiralling costs, but not without its price; these appear to be the only residents of Australia who don't booze. I was forced to ask for a couple of wine glasses and suffer the mossies eating my feet while the woman explained how God had told her and her husband to give up their successful business, kiss goodbye to $20,000 and run the hostel for Him (and the church authorities who oddly seemed to have similar supporting visions). Inevitably every time they saw us we'd just walked miles into the village in search of wine! Anyway, we're sure it was Jesus who liked to tipple at weddings?
We filled a couple of days there swimming, surfing and catching some rays. During our surf lesson, Rachel uniquely developed a side saddle style to wave riding and managed to reduce the level of the oceans every time she plunged into the briney off her board, head first and gob open with concentration. Between us we managed a combined thirty six seconds on our feet.
We're now even further south in Victoria at the literally-named Lake's Entrance where some fishing calls, before we hit the cultural and culinary delights of Melbourne.
We'll be keeping our eyes out for the towns of Bingontoolong and Singalong!

A Quick Quiz...

Ok, can anyone guess which of these lovely ladies finished lunch, went to the pub, and ended the evening by falling off a bus in King's Cross?
To expand a little - thank you very much Derek and Shan for treating us to an amazing Sunday lunch at Otto restaurant on finger wharf, Wooloomooloo. We had a wonderful meal, lots of wine and Derek and I finished off with an enormous cheese board, which was divine. Then someone (I think this may have been Ali's fault) suggested Derek, Ali, Andy and I retire to the pub across the road for "one or two". I've no idea what happened next, but remember a tiny old Aussie woman, some girls dressed in pink sequins, getting lost while crossing the road and being very upset as I thought Andy had gone home without me (he was actually about 10 yards away queuing at the pie stall!) and then crowning off the day by falling out of the bus on the main road in King's Cross, skinning my knees in the process. I'm never drinking again....

Aus News

Okay so we don't feel like we've written much since we've been in Oz... We've been having too much fun! Here's a few pictures of what we've seen so far. Each day we have made an effort to head out and see something cool - first to Sydney Aquarium (on a Saturday afternoon during school holidays, great advert for family planning!!) then up the AMP tower for a panoramic view of Sydney, during a brief hour when it wasn't raining. After New Year the weather picked up considerably and we headed out to Manly beach for a stroll and some lunch, and to Balmain for a look round the market. A new attraction on Darling Harbour since I was last here is Sydney Wildlife World, which showcases Aussie fauna and is done really well. One of the first exhibits is a floor to ceiling glass case with about 15 different species of enormous Aus spider - made my skin crawl and I've been having stressful spider dreams for the last two days! We also saw wallaby, wombat, bandicoot and koala together with a whole bunch of marsupials and mammals which the 6 year old kids around us could name on sight but we'd never heard of... This country really has some freakish wildlife!
Of course we've also caught up with some friends since we've been here. We spent a relaxing evening with Andy's friend Gemma and her family getting drunk in front of the Wiggles (for any Brits who haven't heard of them they are a human equivalent of the Teletubbies and are so popular they earn more per annum than Kylie), and a lovely sunny afternoon at Sydney Yacht Club where we met Jean, a close friend of the Elmeses, who plied us with champers on the deck of a yacht. Its a tough old life, as we keep saying!
On top of this I've been going a bit mad at the shops, as being dressed like a homeless person goes down fine in Asia but doesn't really cut the mustard in body beautiful Sydney. The girls here have no compunction in showing it all off, and it took me a full week to find some shorts than didn't resemble Kylie's gold hotpants.... Andy has been getting down with the local kitesurfing dudes and is now at the stage where he needs his own gear to keep improving, obviously a bit bulky to drag round out here but its something he'll keep up once we're home, if at all possible.
The hangover situation hasn't been too bad, but we were out on Friday night at The Rocks where we met a whole bunch of people and had a few drinks... The Barmy Army was out in force drowning their sorrows for losing the Ashes. Excitingly, as we were having a couple of sundowners outside The Australian pub the Aussie cricket team strolled past on their way to celebrate their victory. There was mass excitement from the Aussie supporters and the Brits and even I was quite thrilled, despite the fact that I wouldn't recognise any of them in a line-up...
We rounded off our Sydney sojourn by climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge at sunset yesterday. It was a really memorable experience as we were the only group that got the full sunset view, and it was spectacular.

New Years Eve

A short clip of our little NY Eve fireworks show that we had in the back yard...

New Year in the Emerald City

Our travels are only just over halfway through, but it feels like we're on the home strait now that we've arrived in our penultimate country, and the comforts of Oceania, hitting Sydney bang on time to catch New Year.
The overnight flight from Singapore delivered two bleary-eyed backpackers to Oz on morning of 29 December and we made our way through the dawn to the Central Station area, where we were certain a reservation awaited us in the YHA. The clean-looking hostel has a pool, gym and great amenities, so imagine our joy to find this wasn't where we had a booking; our home was to be some similarly named bohemian affair in Sydney's red-light district, Kings Cross. We've now settled in to what appears to be a Teutonic gulag, a 5-storey warehouse of a hostel, full of German travellers and equipped with the most intrusive tannoy system to keep us all on our toes. All that's missing is the slogan "Arbeit Macht Frei" over the door. Due to our European neighbours, it's a fight to get to the bread and milk in the morning, but we've managed to explore the city somewhat in between exercising in the yard and lock down.
Without wasting time, we've had a good old trawl around the city to take in the ususal suspects of opera house, harbour bridge, the famous aquarium and the telecom tower, though for the latter we queued for 4 hours altogether to take in the view of the city and sit on a virtual country tour where Rach felt a little "nauseous".

The immediate highlight of the last few days has of course been New Year's Eve, for which we were secured front row seats courtesy of Rachel's family friends, Derek and Shan. As such we were able to ignore the frantic tannoy organisation of our hostel residents, joining the queue for the Botanic Gardens at 10am to assure a paltry view; instead, we sauntered to Derek and Shan's Woolloomooloo apartment for tea-time, had a swift drink with the rest of the group and then the 10 of us wandered to Government house to pick up our picnic hampers, darlings. Occupying our places with a raised view of the opera house 200m away and overlooking the boats and harbour bridge, we cracked open the bubbly and threw the odd piece of cake to the hoi-polloi.
All too soon it was midnight and we were able to bring in 2007 with the fireworks in front of that iconic view, the bridge's 75th anniversary and therefore a diamond jubilee for the Emerald City's "coathanger".
Happy New Year to all of you out there from both of us down here. To those we'll be seeing in Oz and NZ, we can' wait to meet up; for those keeping the home fires burning, see you soon enough!
We're off back to the hostel; it's lockdown in half an hour and I don't wanna get caught in the shower without my shank!