Sydney – The End (or maybe not!)

Last few days in magnificent Sydney. The main question for us over the last few weeks was when to book a hotel as the prices always drop last minute but February is one of the busiest times of the year. Our major concern was booking for 4 consecutive nights especially with the Saturday rooms appeared to be disappearing every minute especially as our visit coincided with Mardi Gras fortnight. We took a gamble with the ‘Shangri La’ on the front in ‘The Rocks’ area of town. We were very cheeky and booked three nights in a cheap room (N.B. for Sydney!) and for the Saturday the only room available at the higher price level. This though would have meant moving twice but lets try doing a deal when we get there.

We win $50 and it got us an upgrade for all four nights saving a fortune!  (Although some might say they just wanted to contain us and our rather smelly luggage to a confined area).

So we ended up in a 50 sq metre room overlooking Sydney Harbour, The Bridge and the Opera House. Hoorah!

Window 1 View (including 'Oriana' who will be back in Southampton in 46 days!)

Window 2 view

Not bad eh!!!

Sydney - the City

A lovely city and being at the centre of everything we spent most of our time eating and drinking around the Opera House and ‘the Rocks’ area where at the weekend they have an excellent market along with fantastic shops and food!

Other trips included a visit to famous Manly beach, where only last week they had the Australian Surfing championships. Also a number of hops on and off ferries and a specific highlight going to the Zoo on Saturday night to watch a concert (Marina Prior – singing songs from theatre shows – she is the best in Australia apparently) on the lawns overlooking the harbour.

Ferries are best for Photo taking.

Our hotel is on the right, gold looking colour and a big square window near the top

Koala Korner

At last they have gone home – we can finally relax!

Finale

So we are now sat in the airport waiting to return home. All good fun! by the time some of you read this we may be home, but you do not have long to wait now to see the photos!

Thanks to all who have actually read these blogs and specifically those of you who have even sent emails and comments which have really helped us along the way.

Back to real life now.

Love

David and Dawn

Journeys End

Close Encounter

Last week in Bruce and it has been eventful, especially when one Swamp Wallaby left it until the last minute to bounce along in front of us whilst we were doing 80kmh – fortunately there were no cars coming the other way so a quick break and a slight swerve managed to avoid him (just missed his tail somehow) and nobody was harmed, although the car behind who was driving very close I am not so sure about – he did overtake us very shortly after though!

Yes Bruce has been returned and all our travelling kilometres (oh we are so International!) have been added up.

The two vans have managed 10800 Kilometres! Not bad eh. Well done ‘Victor’ and ‘Bruce’ and the two drivers (that’s us we didn’t hire anyone) who kept changing like the Le Mans 24 Hours to keep on the move. On top of this 1500 kms in the red centre and we have calculated about 500kms of walking through National Parks, Beaches and villages over the last 13 weeks totalling approx. 12800 kms or 8000 miles! Only a few more and we could have got to Australia ourselves.

One good bit of news for us though after 6 months – NO MORE DROP TOILETS OR SHARED AMENITIES (posh word for showers!) – Hoorah, although we are not sure how long it will take us to get used to it, so make sure if we visit you do not leave any shovels around!

Other eventful thing this week was I managed to find a picture we took of a Poteroo that we mentioned last week that is half decent (no it is not a giant Rat!). Well done us!

Poteroo

Rain

Ah more rain, thunderstorms, leaks etc etc but mostly at night or late evening so has not put a ‘dampener’ on things!

Just as proof though here is why we had to take a road diversion. You do not try and get across especially when the 4x4’s turn around!

Grand Pacific Drive

Try to be positive! Very Average – meant to be as good as the ‘Great Ocean Drive’ – its not – Ok to be fair most parts are excellent but you need to miss out the massive Steel factory that spans the road along with a couple of towns and cities and the bay with 18 oil tankers parked in it!

This is a real ‘S’ Bend

Good bits though really are Jervis Bay – a stunning huge Bay where we managed to see dolphins on three separate occasions just from the beach and also some of the whitest beaches (so they claim) in the world.

Again we stayed in a couple of National Parks and even had to cross a stream this time!

On our walking trips we even managed to see some Lyre Birds (no pics though as they were too quick)

Blue Mountains

Stunning! Most of the time: see below

‘The Three Sisters’ Before  (Sunglasses are obligatory in all weather conditions)

After (please note the Blue of the Blue Mountains)

Some great walks and we were lucky it had rained due to being able to see some of the waterfalls almost in full flood in the summer! At least we know that this is probably the worst Summer on record which is something we can be proud of!

Scenic World

Very touristy, Yes, but still well done – The steepest railway in the world 52 degrees! Followed by a 2.5km boardwalk in the rainforest (yes it did rain) then up by cable car (A first for David – very brave boy!). The see through floor cable car across the valley was missed though. This was mainly due to the memory of Dawn having to go on the rickety old version when she was younger. (We could see why though as they have the car that was decommissioned in 2004, it is now a museum piece!).

A trip with a view

Zig a Zig Ah!

Well ‘Zig Zag Railway’ actually. A steam or Historic Diesel engine that zigs and zags through the Blue Mountains. As normal with Australia and more specifically our trip a couple of weeks ago the Steam train was taken out of service to be renovated and is not running at present! We therefore had the Diesel engine but was still excellent fun with some great views. Dawn was chosen (after chatting up the driver beforehand) to sit in the front!

The surprise however came later when we went through the half kilometre tunnel and for fun they turn all the lights off and its pitch black!

Just a quick note though for all those Train and Bus enthusiasts out there (and we know there are some who read this blog!) the engine is a 7 litre British Leyland diesel that was used in the old London Buses.

It was a super few hours and not only did we cross some fantastic viaducts but we also helped change signals, and were shown around the shed where they had all the spare engines.

Koala Korner

Yoga for Men

Last part of our trip next week Sydney for 4 days staying in the luxurious ‘Shangri La’ near the sea front close to the Opera House and Bridge (well deserved we say!). Dawn is thinking of a spray tan there though as due to the weather we have started to fade fast!

Less than a week to go so see some of you next week!!

Love

David and Dawn

My Family and other Animals

Complaints week

It has to be a disappointing start to the blog this week due to a number of emails received from friends and family.

Apparently we have mentioned the fact of it being cold here when it got down to the early twenties whilst it is a little bit colder at home. We were lucky enough to have a number of pieces of proof sent to us including pictures of snow, a Skype with Andy Kershaw who had snow in the garden and by no means least with probably the winner, a picture taken by David’s brother Chris from his mobile phone of his car dashboard showing -13.5C on his way back from Norwich. That will teach him to go to Norwich!!

Thanks for all your feedback it is appreciated.

Other complaints also consisted of not enough pictures of ‘Bruce’ the van so this will be rectified this week.

Luxury

We realised a little late that the best way to stay in a campervan is as follows:-

• ·         Phone a friend
• ·         Say you are travelling in their general direction at some time in the future
• ·         Keep in contact and advise date of travel
• ·         Get invited to stay
• ·         Park your van in the drive
• ·         Have a fantastic two day stay in luxury with a real bed and home cooked food.

Probably the best camp site in the world!

We stayed at Sheila’s for a couple of nights where she lives along the Mornington Peninsula south of Melbourne which is a very beautiful area mainly made up of beaches and cafes. It is also the place where Dawn used to live for three years when she was much younger. It has changed significantly but the beaches were still there although with a few more people and shops!

Sheila was absolutely fantastic at showing us around and really making us feel very welcome and had an excellent schedule organised for us, which after us having to organise campsites, where to visit etc on a daily basis made us feel very relaxed.

Thank you Sheila (and we will be back!).

Bruce’s week

I have had a fantastic week meeting lots of friends and doing some new things on my travels.

After meeting Sheila and taking her out for a few trips which I am sure she enjoyed, we headed off to Phillip Island which I was really looking forward to. David and Dawn went to watch the Penguin Parade where every night about 1000 little penguins (you saw a photo of them last week) come up the beach to roost. This was very good as you can really get up close and personal and some even have eaten so much they can hardly walk and have to push themselves up the beach (some have to go up to 1km!).

I myself was looking forward to going around the motor circuit which is famous for the Australian Superbike round taking place within the week. Unfortunately although I had my photo taken outside I was not allowed on the track as I might damage myself (I think it was David who refused to pay Aus$195 for 3 laps).

Wilsons Promontory

Off we then went to a very beautiful area of Australia ‘Wilsons Prom’ which is also the most southerly tip of mainland Australia.

Here we were to look for Wombats, Echidnas and see some superb scenery including ‘Squeaky Beach’.

David and Dawn went out in the dark looking for Wombats and managed to see 7 on the first night really up close and personal. Unfortunately in all the excitement of the first five all running around them, all the photos came out pretty poorly although it might of helped if for the first half dozen shots David could have remembered to take the lens cap off!!

Also we managed to see an Echidna wandering along the side of the road and managed to get a reasonable shot below. I had a good relax for two days with no driving.

An Echidna running away!

The scenery here is stunning and the campsite is right next to the below beach

Normans Beach (slightly damp to prove it is not always sunny here)

Up north

Travelling north we stopped at a couple of towns called ‘Lakes Entrance’ and ‘Eden’ very strange names around here but I suppose when they have run out of all the English towns they have to make things up! One very amusing river though was named ‘Fat Cow Creek’.

To be fair though the area is very pretty mainly made up of many inlets from the sea opening up to very large lakes all the way up the coast. A fishermans paradise and I think 50% of all vehicles travelling have a boat trailing behind.

‘Eden’ however was not my favourite place though as David parked me on a bit of a slope and when it rained I sprung two leaks, one was at the back so when Dawn woke up in the morning her pillow was soaked with water and David’s spare camera batteries were submerged in a bowl of water. Not amusing and I was told off!

All forgiven

I was then treated to a special trip due to my let down on the motor circuit being a 4x4 experience.

This took us 5km to an amazing camp site right on a deserted beach in Mimosa Rocks National Park. I met many new friends as you can see. David even lit a fire for the evening to dry me out. We even managed to see two Potoroos, which are very rare indeed (Pictures have been taken but are not quite up to the standard you require and have not been posted).

Next week

We are now nearing the end of the campervan experience with only one week left so off on the last 300kms towards Sydney on the ‘Grand Pacific Highway’ with many more twists and turns similar to  the ‘Great Ocean Road’ and then for a couple of nights in the ‘Blue Mountains’ to try and push me to my limits. Then for the last 4 nights in Sydney.

Happy Birthday

A special note this week for birthdays for friends and family. Sorry we will not be with you but please ensure a piece of cake has been saved. You may have also received a card!

Chris Whent, Neil Marriott, Phil Castell, Sean Kershaw and Louise Bushby (Special birthday).

Koala Korner

Baby Bear Hug

Love

David and Dawn

Welcome to ‘Victoria’

Ah lovely Victoria – named after Queen Victoria and apparently we will like it as in most of the State it is quite a lot like England.

Yes it is like England – Especially the summer weather! – rain, gale force winds and cold!  

Oh well hopefully that has made all friends and family at home feel a little better after putting up with snow and sub zero temperatures recently. Honestly it has done all the above, it is just the temperature has still managed to remain in the 20’s.

We think though we must be getting used to the heat as 22C seems very cold! We have not had to put long trousers on all day yet, but wearing shorts and short sleeve shirts gives us away as a tourist on the really cold days!

Mount Gambia

Lots seen and achieved over the last 5 months, so lets go camping on top of a set of volcanos. It has though been dormant for a few years but it really was quite spectacular with the colour of the water being brilliant blue at this time of the year.

Great Ocean Road

What a stunning place – lots of amazing views, twists and turns along the coast, great ocean breakers onto cliffs and beaches.  Unfortunately it is the Great Southern Ocean and rather cold but you need to remember that next stop is Antarctica!

This was then made more impressive when you finally reach the’12 Apostles’ stretch of beach and cliffs (well actually there are only 8 as the rest have fallen into the sea!).

Force 8 gale pictures are not good for the hair!! (you should have seen the ones David wanted to put in!)

If you stand down there and wave I will take your photo,  a little further back, That’s it! now Run!

100km later. I feel dizzy - no more turns please!

There’s Gold in them there Hills!

Off to Gold land we did travel to find our fortune (well we have to pay for this trip somehow!)

On the edge of a town called Ballarat is a place you can visit called ‘Sovereign Hill’. An old style town completely renovated from old drawings and maps, on the original site of one of the major Goldfields, with all the staff dressed in 1900 costume. Great for kids and adults alike. Designed very ‘Disney’ style but really works with their own bakery, tea shop, theatre, mine and gold smelting etc.

Panning for our fortune!

Melbourne

Trams, Cricket and shops. Ah Reality! – a big city and soon you realise that at some stage you have to come back to real life.

A lovely City though with some great views from the 88th floor of the ‘Eureka’ Tower.

Note the ‘MCG’ and the Tennis courts for the recent Australian Open in the background

It must be summer – Cricket in the rain!

A good evenings entertainment though watching the first one day international between Australia and India although we are pretty sure there were more Indian supporters than Australian but against all the odds the Aussies somehow managed to win.

Hooray no children

At last the children have gone back to school and we can now make full use of the facilities at camp including the ‘jumping pillow’. This is a massive air inflated pillow and wherever we have been before, it is usually full of 20/30 children but not now, just David!

Koala Korner

“Don’t look, they’ll go away”

Next week we are off down the coast visiting Sheila, Dawn’s Australian “family” from when she was originally here, and will hopefully be provided with a real bed and home cooked food for a couple of nights, which will be a very special treat. Then off to Phillip Island to see the ‘Penguin Parade’ and to find Wombats and Echidnas at Wilsons Prom (A large National Park on the bottom of mainland Australia).

Unfortunately we now have to start saying ‘See you all soon’ but don’t worry we now have over 5000 pictures to entertain you with when we do!

Love

David and Dawn

Cute, Cuddly and the Rest!

Another part of our adventure began this week as we hopped onto ‘The Ghan’ for 24 hours on a train. The train actually crosses Australia starting in Darwin, so we actually join for the second half of the journey, Alice Springs to Adelaide (1500kms).

It was great watching the world go by at a slow pace, whilst someone else was doing the driving, although nothing too exciting happened and you realise why only a small area of Australia is actually inhabited, although someone must have owned the cattle and sheep we get passing! A great experience though and good to chat to other passengers who gave us some hints and tips for the rest of our journey.

Once at Adelaide we went straight to pick our new campervan up. Ah I hear you cry ‘we have another opportunity to name their van’.  Unfortunately there is a slight problem with regard to this unique opportunity - it has already been named – although David has already called it a number of unofficial names that can’t be mentioned, as it is slightly older than the other one and is not quite as agile. The new name is ‘Bruce’ named by Paul (Dawn’s brother) as he has not only taken us back and forth from the airport twice (one more trip pending hopefully) but is also our most prolific blog poster aka anonymous.

‘Bruce’ getting on the ferry to Kangaroo Island

Kangaroo Island

Basically Kangaroo Island is a massive wildlife reserve 155km x 55km.  Home to lots of Kangaroos, Wallabies, Koalas (bad news everyone Koala Korner is back and David’s Land cruisers have been sent to the bottom of the pile!), Sea lions, Possums, birds etc, etc  are just about everywhere. So here are some pictures from around the Island.

An endangered Australian Sea Lion

A Possum (probably bushtailed but can’t see the tail!)

A Tammar Wallaby (you can’t see me!)

A Little (Fairy) Penguin  (that is its real name as it is only 33cm tall)

A Koala.

Our favourite photo to date and this is certainly going to be hard to beat.  This shot was taken from about 10 metres from behind the campervan in camp and we were stood about 1 metre away as it walked right up to the tree next to us and climbed it – it is worth getting up at 6:30 am every day!.

A giant Lobster – found at Kingston – it was an advertising piece for a restaurant – it was meant to be big but the designer mistook the measurements as metres instead of feet!

A picture for Alison Kershaw – unfortunately this ’Huntsman ’was found whilst getting David’s swimmers out of the van!(It was the size of his hand and he screamed like a girl!! – Dawn managed to capture it and return it to the wild)

After Kangaroo Island we have started to make our way down towards the Great Ocean Road visiting towns such as Kingston, Victor Harbour and Southend!  All pretty little seaside towns along the coast. Trouble is however we have noticed more and more people wearing wetsuits! – We have unfortunately gone from the Indian Ocean to the Southern Ocean and about 10c of water temperature.

Lunch view whilst sat on the beach just outside a small town called Beachport

We are then off to Melbourne where we are to watch an Australia v India, 1 day cricket game at the MCG which we are both obviously looking forward to immensely.  (Note from Editor – one of us is more excited than the other.)

Hope you are all well

Love

David and Dawn  xx

Alice in a Wonderland

The Lucky Few

We managed to arrive with no problems into Alice Springs transported straight to air conditioning and a lovely pool (civilisation at last!). Dawn did though have to have her credit cards confiscated in case she decided to book for a further 4 nights instead of going on our trip into the wilderness! Not only was it a decent hotel but the restaurant was Indian and the first curry for over 6 weeks was consumed!

Our transport for the 14 victims turned up at 5.45am and off we travelled, 400km to Uluru.

We had a great mix of people with us from Mexico, America, Australia, Germany, New Zealand, Czechoslovakia and England.

Dawn after helping with the firewood collection

Ah the lure of Uluru about 4 hours later we were doing the base walk around the rock with our superb guide Chris who is a fitness fanatic – he guides the walk across the mountain range here covering over 200km in 10 days and a fun afternoon bike ride for him is 80kms!  As for the main title, apparently we were so lucky with a betting odds of approximately 100/1 – the reason why - to be at Uluru for 24 hours covering both the sunrise and sunset in the rain and drizzle!

The infamous sunset photo here therefore was pretty much a right off but we did get a shot before the drizzle set in (David was going to take a photo of a postcard and put it in here but was stopped by the Editor!)

To be fair it was still a great experience walking around the base especially as it was fairly cool at about 27C and was still enjoyable. Downhearted us NO – apparently we have to come back here again!

Kata Tjuta

This is where the more adventurous part of the trip kicked in due to the area around Uluru being very strict on camp areas we were now heading to the Olgas for anther 7km walk (sounds easy but 3.5km is up steep rocks and 3.5km is down steep rocks!) The views were amazing across the landscape around us though.

10 minutes later we were at the bottom of the valley behind us.

Off to campsite two (plenty of wild Camel, Horses and Roo spotting was had on the trip though) which was way out in the bush and was rather basic – e.g. one toilet and one shower for all, (the wimps however had an opportunity to shower in a campsite half an hour before we got to camp) out of 7 people who took the REAL shower we were up for it. By the way the front of the shower was open for you to view the scenery.

David stoking the fire for the shower

Kings Canyon

So day 3 begins with the rim top walk, the feet are starting to hurt linked into the heat that is now starting to be turned up (mid 30’s) as well as a slight lack of sleep.

To start the walk this morning a climb to the top (it is a rim top walk!) about 150 rocks strategically placed into sort of steps. At least we only have to get to the top once – unfortunately it was not mentioned that the swim in the lake is at the middle of the walk not the end so we had climb back down later, only to climb back up again in another part of the walk! Lots more history of rock formations linked into movement 250 million years ago and the views really were spectacular and everyone agreed how impressed with the last two days they were and although Uluru was great we almost all preferred the walking in the mountain ranges.

Ah, this is where we were aware that we may lose some of our colleagues as some were on a three day trip and we were on the five! So how many were left on the truck to go back to Alice Springs at the most amazing pub in the middle of nowhere called Glen Helen. Basically they all were, which left us to be transferred to my now favourite vehicle (Toyota Land Cruiser 4.2 TD V8) along with Chris the guide and his trainee Lochlan.

Good bye all the tourists and into the pub we go! An hour or so later we were off to campsite number three, in a dried up riverbed in the real outback.

Ormiston Gorge

An amazing wake up call though as we sat up, a Dingo was trotting along the riverbed about 20 metres away – he saw us turned around and trotted off back where he came from and met up with his mate – 2 dingos in one go, a brilliant sight at 6.00 in the morning.

6.00 in the morning and David is still asleep!

Please note this photo is not staged these swags were our beds for the 5 day trip, still nice and handy for the morning coffee direct from the campfire!  Off for another walk at Ormiston Gorge another 7km three and half hour walk, with the killer last 1 km over sand and large rocks – this really ended up being serious hard work although Chris did mention this was part of the 20Km walk that he would do with the others on his 10 day walking trip!

The best bit a large fresh water pool all to ourselves – we were straight in no questions asked!

Although it should be mentioned that this was our only bathing option available – no showers whilst proper bush camping.  Limited footage of Dawn, therefore, from this point onwards as no hair straighteners for 5 days is beginning it takes its toll.

Pure luxury

Next camp site was 1hour along a dirt and stone track up the Hugh River.

The road is here somewhere honest!

Rainbow valley

Last day up early again for full cooked breakfast today – trouble is we could not finish off the home made chocolate cake as we were too full, but hey we were allowed to keep it with us for elevenses.

Spent two and half hours getting to Rainbow Valley and saw 1 vehicle! This is where we met up with Ricky an Aboriginal guide who was to spend a couple of hours with us talking about the area and his homeland. Visited a number of sites with paintings and stone carvings. He gave a really good insight into the culture but it is always difficult noting that probably 80% of their Religion and laws are not allowed to be told to us as it is secret. This all makes the whole experience more fascinating.

Finally we managed to return back to a real hotel where we managed to fall into bed totally exhausted.

Koala Korner has been suspended due to David demanding a slightly different ending to the blog after our recent experiences.

Cruiser Corner! (As in Land Cruiser!)

We are now off on the ‘Ghan’ train which runs the whole length of Australia from Darwin to Adelaide although we are only doing the final bit from Alice Springs to Adelaide, just over 1000 kms and takes 24 hours. From there we are off to Kangaroo Island in our new campervan which will hopefully manage to get us to Sydney near the end of February.

Beware! Cute and Cuddly will return next week!

Hope you are all well

David and Dawn