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Australia - Sydney to Melbourne
Hello family and friends!
Sometimes when we say we have been busy as an excuse for not writing a blog it's because we are being slightly lazy, this time it's not, we genuinly have been filling our days, everyday. Since we last blogged we have seen so much more of Australia, moving all the way down from Sydney to Melbourne, along the great ocean road, upwards to the outback town of Broken Hill in NSW and then all the way back down to Melbourne this morning. Internet access has been extremely limited as a result!
The day after our last blog was devoted to converting Sam into a cricket lover. After a long and testing indoor session on a bouncy wooden track we headed out to the Big Bash 20/20 competition to see NSW play the Queensland bulls. Luckily Steve (The father of the family we were staying with) has absolutely fantastic parents, and John (his Dad) sorted us out with corporate box seats from which to catch the game. They were undoubtedly the best seats in the house and it was nice to enjoy the luxury after having my technique examined by young Sol's in swingers all afternoon. We had an absolutely great time watching the players slap it about in what became a 9 over contest due to the rain. I think the experience might have officialy converted Sam into a fan, if it hasn't rest assured i'll be sure to break him at somepoint! Unfortunatly after the game the car decided it had done enough for the day and wouldn't start, so we ended up staying with Jon and Toni (Steve's parents) in their 5* Sydney penthouse apartment. When your in crisis you can't be concerned with luxury can you.
The day after the game we said goodbye to Katherine and the kids and moved in with John and Toni for the upcoming days in order to have a more central location to see the city. Katherine, Moses, Allysia and Sol had made us so welcome in their home and it was sad to say goodbye after we had enjoyed ourselves so much in the delightful family home. The Spa, 2 pools, Saunas, tennis courts and other facilities that John and Toni's apartment offered did go some way to putting a smile on our faces though. Later that afternoon after settling in to our new surroundings we visited the Museum of Contemporary Arts to see an exhibition that had been highly reccomended to us. It was an interesting exhibition and the lego building excercise at the end ensured that i enjoyed myself, Sam's structure being definetly better than my own caused me some distress though. Action Man was always more interesting than building blocks anyway. The day after that we headed to Manly to catch some surf and brush up on our new found (low) skills. All was going brilliantly despite the very fresh conditions and lack of a wetsuit and we were riding some good waters until we were interrupted by what we know to be a bomb siren. Confused by the noise, I started gesturing that there was a shark in the waters to Sam on the shore who was taking some snaps. Me messing about pretending to be a shark in the water was cut short by the lifeguards announcement that everyone was to evacuate the water as a shark had actually been sighted in the water. Had i been eaten by a shark, i would like to think that in my closing moments the irony of the one boy pretending to be a shark in the waters being the one getting munched on would not have been lost on me. I was just glad to get back to shore in the end though and despite us having another hour left of the board rental we decided that losing out on 12 dollars in order to save some limbs from a cousin of Jaws was probably the right decision to make. The ferry back from Manly gave us stunning views of the iconic opera house and harbour bridge that we had climbed over earlier in the morning. The weather convened to be perfect for the return journey and Sydney really came alive for me that afternoon. That evening after a day in the waves we indulged in some delicious home cooked Maltese food courtesy of Toni who is an absolutely brilliant chef.
Unfortunatly over those days i had been developing a cold and the cold waters of Manly hadn't helped so the day after i was reduced to spending a day in the pool and Sauna relaxing. Travelling can have it's tough days so i felt entitled to a day of utter relaxation. Sam and I spent the whole afternoon doing back flips into the pool before deciding to retire to the warmth of the Spa pool. We were storing up our energy for the Bondi excursion we undertook the next day, not so much that we didn't attend a Sydney Festival outdoors evening gig with a couple of cold beers, the atmosphere was really relaxed and everyone was just out enjoying the pleasant night and the great music on offer at the Domain which being an outdoor park in the shadow of Sydney's Highrise CBD has to be one of the finest venues about. The plan being to do the quite famous Coogee to Bondi coastal walk. Complications arose early in the morning and as a result Sam and I headed off seperate ways with a plan to meet up at Bondi later in the afternoon. One thing led to another and somehow, through a series of ridiculous events, e.g. missing buses, not having the right change we ended up on the same bus and with the same plan again, Sam also had Adam with him and Adam's friend so the 4 of us made a day of it and cracked on with the 2 hour scenic walk along Sydney's coastline. The weather was fantastic all the way and we revelled in the countless photo opportunities, by the time we had finally arrived at Bondi there was only one thing left to do and that was get into the water and enjoy the monster waves that the wind was generating. Despite a few wipe outs we had a good time jumping, swimming with and eventually just running straight for the surf. These tactics left us exhausted and having swallowed litres of sea water by this point Sam and I headed off and made for the second 20/20 big bash game of the week at the ANZ stadium. Once again we had corporate seats courtesy of John and if Sam hadn;t been fully converted by the first outing Dave Warner's 50 off 18 balls finally made the conversion complete.
Our last day in Sydney we went for a wander around Darling Harbour, visiting the free maritime museum (there's a good reason it's free) and walking around the parklands. We also met up with Gill from the old gap group and finally ticked the Opera house off the must do list as we strolled around there chatting away in the afternoon. Before we left Sydney for good we decided that to show our appreciation to John and Toni we would cook them up a Sam and Dave adaptation of the Laos Laap we had sampled on our previous travels. With myself assuming the role of sous chef and Sam taking the lead in his headchef capacity we really put ourselves to the task and made the most of our ingredients. The gesture was recieved very well and I'm glad we made the effort to show our thanks, John, Toni, Katherine, Steve and the kids had just been so brilliant to us, so kind and generous that to say goodbye as we were boarding the greyhound was done so with a heavy heart. The important thing is to learn from thier generosity and grow from that experience into a better person as a result. They made Sydney what it had been - incredible. I adored the city, it's character, it's diversity and it's opportunities, New South Wales had been memorable.
It was onwards to Victoria though, Melbourne bound on our last greyhound bus journey. Somewhat fittingly, the journey was terrible. It was far too cold due to sub zero aircon again, there was a french lady in front of me who decided to put her seat back to unreasonable and very uncomfortable angles (but then revealed herself to be nice and swapped with me) and to top it all off we stopped at 3am for a meal break. Doritos at that time of day are not good, take it from me. As i say though it was fitting, the last bus journey had to be a shocker, the buses have provided me with some of the funniest moments since coming away, this one was no different I just needed a couple of days to calm down from my lack of leg space induced rage. Sam and I checked into Nomads in Melbourne and set about organising our campervan which we were so desperate to rent for the next day. Once that was all finally sorted we had a good long powernap and enjoyed Melbourne in the early evening. Sampling croc and roo burgers at the nearby Queen Victoria Market and popping down to the imperious MCG for a look on the old fashioned tram system. It was a very easy paced day and evening, we were just happy to have a horizontal bed for the evening when we finally laid our heads down!
Since the 21st until this morning we have been in the van. Roadtripping through 3 states, 2500 kilometres in 8 days worth of driving and we have had such an awesome time doing it. The complications with sorting out payment of the van which resulted in me calling Mother in the wee hours of the morning and despite her obvious annoyance she pulled through as she always thankfully does, meant that we only really had time to see the Melbourne Museum in the afternoon and our trip to the Australian open was delayed by a day. No problem though as the delay meant that we got to see Andy Murray take on Florren Senna in the fourth round in the Hisense Arena. After going on my lifelong dream MCG tour in the morning, revelling in the cricketing history and memorabillia on show i met Sam for lunch and tennis in the afternoon. Melbourne is the home of sport in Australia and Sam and I certainly enjoyed the experiences on offer. The banterous crowd did little to raise Andy's poor mood, he is ever so grouchy but luckily we all carried on screaming for him and he cruised through, now he is into the semi's and looking like a good bet to reach the final! After our day at the tennis we headed out of Melbourne and made our way to the town of Geelong by the coast, where after a bbq dinner we slept by the coast, preparing for our roadtrip along the great ocean road and up to the outback that would properly start the following day.
The Great Ocean road was immense, the road was visually stunning and we whizzed along listening to our favourite tunes, stopping now and then to catch the scenes with our cameras. We stopped for lunch and a swim in the beautiful little town of Apollo Bay and relaxed in the afternoon sun before heading along again along the coast towards Mt Gambier by nightfall. Our trip along the road had started with frustration at the hordes of fellow tourists blocking incredible photo opportunities but ended with us smiling widely. We had seen the famous 12 apostles, Bells Beach (site of the quicksilver pro world surf competition) along with a host of other landmarks and coastal formations, the weather had been most kind to us and it was certainly one of the best days we've had to date. Add into the scenery the amusement factor of Sam's whole body turning a fierce pink in the cold sea water and it had the recipe for a cracker! The journey along the coast had confirmed to us the value of having the van, being able to do it at our own pace, stopping as little or as often as we liked certainly made the experience infinitely better than it could have been on any tour bus.
Over the next 2 days we pretty much just drove and racked up the kilometres in an attempt to get to Broken Hill in time for the Australia day festivities, we saw some cool stuff along the way though such as the Umpherston Sinkhole cave formation and Blue Lake in the town of Mt gambier and endless South Australian farms. The best bit of those two solid days driving though had to be the night spent in Pinaroo, halfway to Broken Hill. Pinaroo is a farming outback town of 700, so imagine our suprise when entering the local establishment for a quiet schooner we met an Irishman and a fellow from Sussex! We got chatting away to the man from Sussex about home and all the things related to that, buying each other beers along the way and revelling in the company of fellow Englishmen. Before we parted ways we went halves on a 24 pack of beers in preparation for the Australia day party. Very very odd that so far away from home in a very remote outback town we met someone who for most of his life lived in Blackheath, I think meeting people from your little part of the world when your so far from home is one of the strangest experiences just for the fact that you feel so peculiarly connected to them, if only by the knowledge of shared places.
We arrived in Broken Hill after a long day driving on the 25th and after using the public swimming pool to cool down and wash seeing as we hadn't in a good few days we headed up to the living desert sculptures right in the heart of outback territory. The sculptures were placed there as testament to the aboriginal roots of Australia and there stature & grace certainly do justice to the colourful and vibrant history of the inidigenous people of this land. Carrying the esky all the way up the hill in 35 degree heat wasn't too pleasing but looking out on the marvellous panoramic views from the top with ice cold drinks certainly was. We stayed up on top of the hill to watch the sunset over the red desert, the sculptures changing shapes as the sun descended, everything turned immensely red just as the sun was fading into the horizon and the old tales of the outback being a very spiritual place really resonated with me at the sight. There is something very unique and special about the outback which is very difficult to describe, it has a peculiar and mesmerising aura. Unlike on the ride in we didn't see any kangaroos on the way back to town but we did get to watch the sky turn from red to pink before finally the stars emerged in the darkness, we sung all the way back to town to the radio and enjoyed the freedom of the open road.
Australia Day! We had a grand day out. It started with a cooked breakfast at the local entertainment centre after which we sat and watched as the citizen of the year award and other community activities occurred. There was plenty of nationalistic verse flowing and being from Blighty we copped a fair bit of banter. The day was mainly spent in Silverton, a small ghost like town outside of Broken Hill which was originally a booming mining settlement. When everyone relocated to Broken hill few remained and with a population of 41 it has become a tourist attraction due to its uniqueness. 41 is big compared to Coombah though, Coombah being basically just a roadhouse with a population of a single lady, 120 kilometres from towns either side, outback living can be quiet! Anyway, we walked around Silverton, talking with the locals about the 4 year long drought, wandering through the local museum and old jail which now houses plenty of old relics left from earlier inhabitants, we even took the time to look into a few local galleries, the artwork was of such high standard and the price reflected it but one day I hope to go back and pick up a piece or two. Before leaving I invested in some Jam and Scones at the local cafe to fuel up for the nights potential, a smart move in the end as after watching the sunset from the spectacular Mundi Mundi lookout we headed into town for a night of celebrating. 7 beers down in 40 degree heat left us defaced by marker pen (writing on one another pommie and england etc), referring to the staff as barkeep on a regular basis and getting overly excited about Andy Murray beating Nadal in the tennis. Being English and pretty much the only tourists in town we went down quite a treat though and we enjoyed the hearty banter with the Aussies guys and girls. More than anything we just had a hilarious evening in a stereotypical outback Australian town. The Australian's famously love to have a good time and Australia day didn't dissapoint, we have found on our ventures out of the cities that rural Australian's seem to be even friendlier than the amiable city folk, everyone is keen to know where we have been and what we think of places and send you thier wishes as they say goodbye. The Australian spirit and smile is alive and well.
The day after Australia day, feeling the pinch of the night before we set off on an epic 800km journey which took us to the verge of Melbourne. We drove all day, only stopping once to eat and once at a small town milk bar for refreshment. By the time we arrived in Castlemaine by night it was time for bed. Yesterday we visited the mornington peninsula and drove along the Victoria coastline in the afternoon. We visited the Arthurs seat lookout and got some great views of the peninsula and we also managed to charm the tourist information lady into charging our cameras for us as we meandered around town. The van had been superb, we simply would never have been able to see the things we have in the last few days had we not invested in it. Despite the fact we had slept in it every night and gone long stretches of time without showers or any reasonable wash we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. As we sat down to watch sunset in St Kilda with our bbq dinner we reflected on what had been an immense road trip and were talking excitedly about the potential of having a van in Nz for an extended time. That evening we played some ultimate frisbie in the park before realising that our budget dinner simply wasn't going to allow us to live up to our usual standards of play so we wandered around a little market instead. The funniest moment had to be Sam struggling to deal with the back to the future all singing all dancing flashing toilet block while i stood laughing like a crazyman in the middle of the street much to the amusement of the locals.
This morning we arrived back in melbourne and dropped the van back. Since then we have been washing, recharging and showering away in glee because it's been a while since we have had use of such facilities. Tommorrow we head off for 10 days sunning ourselves in Fiji, 7 of which will be spent cruising around the Yasawas Islands via boat.
Australia has been so much fun, the people have been incredible, the memories the country have given me will be looked back at forever fondly. We have done so much in our 6 weeks here, travelling thousands of kilometres and yet so much remains to be seen. A second and multiple visits subsequently are a must and future excursions here are already being planned.
The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of thier dreams.
David
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I am actually dreading doing justice to this entry. We have packed so much into the last two weeks that I have failed to describe it all before I've already begun!
Sydney was excellent. We left Katherine and Steve's, which was really sad; we were drunk from the care, attention and family atmosphere we've been missing for so long, but getting to know them more was well worth it, and I've come away with a new, not-so-long-lost auntie, some awesome Aussie cousins and a real fondness for Steve's music. We were treated to two free cricket 20/Twenty matches at the ANZ Olympic Stadium by John, my auntie's father-in-law; after the first one, I was fairly tanked up as a result of John's unlimited generousity with buying beers, and we couldn't start the car when we got back, so a night's crashing at John & Toni's ended up being a week-long move into their apartment on Sydney harbour, complete with tennis court, indoor and outdoor swimming pool, gym and view of Sydney. What I want to brag about the most, though, is the fact that people actually cared about us. Toni cooked us dinner every night, John took us out and let us use the computer, they gave us advice on where to go, put trust in us and gave us loads of freedom and responsibility with their house and their keys. Our week with them was superb, and when they next come to England the beers will be on me. We did have a go at saying thank you, cooking up a Laos dish with chicken and spices (Dave is a reliable sous-chef), and it was good to get back into enjoying food after a long string of basic Smartprice budgeting and roadhouse fast food.
I've always found cricket to be worse than eating kangeroo testicles, but I can't say that now; something to do with Dave's inability to stay in his seat, his constant barrage of irrelevent cricket facts and a great excitement whenever anything crickety appears in shop windows, on telly or even tenuous links like fields, balls and people wearing suncream all over their faces seems to have rubbed off on me.
Thankfully, cricket only dominated about 1/4 of our time in Sydney, and the day after our first match we walked to circular quay across the Sydney harbour bridge. It was a grim, grim day; we were getting rained on and the price for the ferry to the beach was twice what we'd been quoted so I was grumbling until the sun exploded out of the clouds - the Opera House went a shiny pearl colour as we trundled past and I realised life wasn't so bad. The clouds encroached again when we went surfing on the North Manly beach, and we both nearly soiled ourselves when a friendly lifeguard announced over the tannoy "Alright guys, could everyone pelase make their way out of the water? there's been a shark sighted just off the beach". Only in Australia! Dave pegged it out with our board and we went home.
Since Vietnam, four friends from our old group have flown to Sydney and gotten themselves jobs - we arranged a get-together in King's Cross, the cheap backpackery scumhole on the east side. Dave's cold was getting quite bad so he missed a good night out involving Irish bars, French girls, Australian drinking rules and good old fashioned English raving. This was followed by a day of spa, swimming, sauna and banter, and I really appreciate that both of us have grown into our own skin; that we've got our own independence and personal plans and have our own adventures, but still love each other's company and keep motivation levels exhaustingly high. We went for an explore that night on the advice of Toni, and walked into a massive festival with an African orchestra on stage whipping everyone into a frenzy. Sydney is alive - there's such a community and lifestyle there, it leaves a really distinctive impression - whilst sucking the money out of you gleefully.
Other things we did in Sydney; met up with Adam and his French pal, saw an Aborigine band, walked along the Sydney coast to Bondi beach, a place which statistically proves that Australians are more attractive than any other population on the world; found two surf lifesavers and took their silly skullcaps for photos, only to accidently snap my sunglasses in two whilst I was mocking their valiant volunteering; saw some more cricket, go New South!; ran out of money and had to beg for help before I can try and find work in New Zealand (thank you thank you); left John and Toni's which was really sad, and I found I had a stone in my throat at the end because of how generous they'd been. Inspiring people!
From Sydney it was a long journey to Melbourne, capital of Victoria. Getting a hostel was a nightmare because of the Australian Open; I also spent nearly $20 of credit trying to get a job for the 2 weeks but failed miserably. When we did find one, some travelling vagabond stole my food, and my first reaction was to go blubbing to my mum, which made me chuckle on reflection. On the bright side, the spare time enabled us to hire a campervan and kickstart a roadtrip that was only outdone by the actual film 'Roadtrip'. Before we picked up our wheels, we had a night walking around Melbourne, taking in the sights and going to Victoria market where we picked up gourmet Roo & Croc burger meals courtesy of Toni (we were spoiled!). The next day, we went through the rigmorol of renting a vehicle, which included a Russian Roulette-esque decision on which parent in the UK to brutally wake up at 2am to secure a credit excess payment on the insurance... I'm really grateful for Anne's selfless midnight toiling for us. Mum & Dad, Jonathan & Alison, count yourselves lucky you don't own a scanner...
We got a beasty Mitsubishi Express camper with a massive grafitti dragon on each side, and decided to christen him Derek. We slept in a park, which saved us money to buy tickets to see Justine Henin & Andy Murray in the Australian Open. I've never seen a live tennis game before, but it's brilliant! The atmosphere was electric and the standards were sickeningly high. Most importantly, we relished the British cheeky hooligan experience, for as soon as Murray came on court, the Union Jacks came out and the chants started (Que Serra, Serra... whatever will be will be... you're not gonna beat Murray... que Serra, Serra). Our camping stove was given to us empty which made me miserable for a while but such small things were dwarfed by the enormity of our adventure, beginning the next day; our trip along the Great Ocean Road. Anyone that goes to Australia has to do this; miles and miles of cliffdrops into pure blue Ocean, geographical abormalities like giant rock stacks, arches, enormous sinkholes and endless beach. We started off juvenile, speeding past Japanese tourists and wolf-whistling the surfers who were either getting dressed or getting wiped out by 8ft monster waves at places like Bell's Beach and Torquay (a slight improvement on English Torquay) but became a lot more mellow after a few hours, just soaking up the view and the air. Such is the BBQ culture in Australia that in most public places there is a free electric barbeque plate, which we used nearly every day, grilling burgers, sausages, toasting buns and tomatoes, sloshing it all in sweet chilli or smoky sauce and filling up. We perfected our bargain-hunting and ended up being able to eat like this for AUS$2.50 each a meal.
Dave managed to drive about 2500kms in 5 days, which was a heroic and not underappreciated effort. We saw some really great places, like Geelong, Mount Gambier, Pinaroo and Castlemaine; in between these settlements was mostly NOTHING, and about 200kms of nothing at points... literally orange dirt, red sand, green-grey shrubs and hoards of evil sandflies. Had we broken down between Pinaroo and Broken Hill, we might have been stuck out there in the 40 degree heat all day with no settlements for 100kms and nobody driving past. Luckily, this did not happen - we broke down 2kms away from a petrol station after a 260km stretch. What are the odds? A friendly roadhouse lady got her daughter to take Dave to the station, fill up a can and come back, purely out of a willingness to help other people. I found this to be true of everyone living in the outback - they arn't wrapped up in their lives like most of us, and most Australians are - to a man, they all seemed friendly, jovial, banterous and generous. We arrived in Broken Hill on the 25th, a big mining town with a population of over 20,000 despite being in the back of beyond. We spent Australia Day there, a massive display of family values, flag-waving, "mateship", saying G'Day and getting drunk. We went to a Australia Day citizenship ceremony where some Chinese guys were made Australians, then escaped before an old choir group starting warbling about butterflies and flowers; an old Kiwi bloke took us under his wing and started introducing us to all of his friends as "lost Pommies", and the banter flowed. We were a bit left out by the family fun later on so we explored the ghost town of Silverton, ravaged by water shortages and the success of the mining in nearby Broken Hill. What we did find there was a bizarre museum full of random items collected from the past; everything from old cutlery and military uniforms to baths used to store corpses in the Silverton prison. Dave, maddened from the heat, bought scones and jam, and convinced himself he wanted to buy a bag full of smashed up ceramic pots before the milkshake calmed him down. On the way back we had one more place to see, a lookout point called Mundi Mundi. I wasn't expecting much - the landscape was barren and went on forever. But at Mundi Mundi the ground fell away sharply into a beige and red desert that went on as far as we could see. It was as far into the outback as we ever got. We cracked open some beers from our esky fridge and made good headway on our drinking, which continued into the night when we got into a pub, decided to draw "ENGLAND" and "POMMIE" all over ourselves and make a right scene of it, loudly cheering on Murray vs. Nadal in the Quarter Finals. We didn't get into a fight, except for when I deadarmed Dave so hard that he collapsed, then puched me repeatedly later on; and got back to Derek safe.
We made it back to Melbourne, saw some cool beaches in the Mornington Peninsula then stopped at St. Kilda. If anyone goes to Melbourne, I'd recommend staying there; it's full of stylish, interesting people, beach, bistros, clubs and markets! we only spent a night there, then got back to Melbourne to drop off faithful Derek. And here we are.
I feel like I've rushed over everything, and bored everyone to death at the same time. The price of having no internet for more than 4 days - I'm not as hardcore and detatched from my own life as I'd like to be!
We fly to Fiji tomorrow, and then New Zealand. I'm looking forward to a change, and definitely looking forward to leaving the most expensive country I've ever been to in my life, but Australia's been a real growing up experience. I think the two of us have been together for long enough to start learning about ourselves. I've started realising that a lot of things I used to say, the way I behaved and some of the things I did at home will be different when I'm back. I'm looking forward to see how I settle in!
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