Final day in Melbourne

As I mentioned at the end of the last blog that we didn’t really have a plan of the day, I should’ve recognised that to be a problem. With a lack of a plan, getting out of bed in any form of a hurry didn’t really happen. By the time we were all ready to head out, our options were slightly more limited than I suggested last night so, after a quick discussion, the only real option left was to head to the beach on St. Kilda. Given that the weather had picked up (pushing 26oC with a cloudless sky), this wasn’t a bad shout at all.

So, we all hopped in the wagon and headed down to St. Kilda. I had been warned before i left the UK by friends who had been to Melbourne and driven around that, if you drive near to where the trams operate, you may have to carry out a manoeuvre called a ‘J turn’. This is to ensure you don’t block the tram lines when you are waiting to turn right at a junction but, effectively forces you to sit in the middle of a busy junction with cars flying around you…i’d seen the notorious J turn in Melbourne yesterday and even after seeing it, it didn’t fill me with a lot of excitement. So, as we reached St Kilda (driving though a town called ‘Balaclava’ – I should point out that there is also a train stop called ‘Batman’ so this is not that ridiculous a name), we started driving over and on, the tram rails. Unbeknown to my fellow passengers, if the sat nav or our tour guides had requested a right turn over the tram rails, I was already planning to go another way and letting the sat nav sort out the issues…as fate would have it though, we were all spared the ‘J turn’ and got to the beach in pretty good time.

As it was a Saturday and was the first real sun of the Spring, the beach was absolutely mobbed. That being said, it was a glorious day and really brought out the Aussie attitude of spending time outdoors. There were loads of people running, cycling, skateboarding…plus, interestingly and possibly contrarily to the UK, very few smokers which was really good to see.

Before we actually hit the beach, we headed into the amusement park but mostly just for a look (its similar to M&D’s…definitely not like Alton Towers – for example, the main roller-coaster still had ‘a brakeman’ on the carriage…a guy who stands up the whole way round deciding how much to braking is required…no thanks). We did however stop and get some Churros…a bit of a theme here.

Amy with the Churros

After the park, we actually headed onto the beachfront and walked along it until we got to the St Kilda pier. We headed along the pier and grabbed a wee ice cream/drink before heading back to the beach. It was really nice and a good opportunity to enjoy the sun along the South of Australia as it has been quite elusive until now.

St Kilda Beach

Not the best picture quality here but, the guy in the photo is using a ‘Aqua-jet’ system to effectively let him hover…looks amazing

After we got back to the car, instead of heading back to Berwick, there was a strong ‘suggestion’ that we take a ‘quick’ detour. On the outward journey, Jen had pointed out one of the larger shopping malls happened to be just off the road to St Kilda. Now, ordinarily, this would have resulted in a pretty large spike in Amy’s ‘interest-o-meter’ however, to turn that spike into a, ‘this is not up for debate, we need to visit this mall’ mentality, something major would have to have happened. Well, it did. Jen also happened to mention that there was a ‘Tiffany’s’ store in the mall….disastrous news. We therefore ‘had’ to visit and after weighing up the options (i still had a week left of holiday, 5 days with just the two of us and 24 hours sitting side by side), i reckoned it was not worth the fury of driving past it.

So, we went into the mall….and to Tiffany’s….and it was not ‘quick’. That being said, the mall did have one highlight…it had another Churro stand. So, with the saying of ‘ach, i’m on holiday’ wearing thin, i decided to opt for the, ‘well you got to go to Tiffany’s, i’m going to treat myself to a Churro’. It was very good…although i cant possibly begin to describe how bad that probably was for the old health…it had both chocolate and peanut butter. Paul, being the trooper that he is, joined me in the fitness destroying Churro but, like me, agreed that it was probably worth it.

After finally leaving the mall (and a quick stop at Woolworths to get some salad/veg), we headed back to Jen and Paul’s house and got to enjoy an amazing BBQ. It was amazing as they threw on a fairly fantastic spread – even after a day of eating Churro’s’, it went down a treat.

After dinner and before the unenviable task of repacking our ever-increasing rucksacks, we sat down to enjoy a couple of cups of tea and watch the final day of India vs Australia 5 day International Cricket match. Again, for those playing at home, Amy lasted about 20 minutes (or 1 cup of tea) before the ‘i’m just going to rest my eyes’ statement occurred.

After a while, putting off the packing had gone on too long and we both left the cricket (and Jen and Paul) to go and pack…which we finally completed after about 30 minutes of packing. As difficult as it was, we both have been holding off buying anything as we keep saying, ‘we’ll just buy stuff in Sydney’…i’m not looking forward to the next bag-packing saga.

So, with bags packed and an early flight tomorrow (flights at 10Am and the car is due back at 8Am, over an hour from Berwick), it was off to bed before the final leg of our month long holiday…

Note: I should also mention here that I made a pretty annoying error today. As Matt and Nick both live in St Kilda, the plan was to meet them there and spend the day with them as well. So, I text Matt and told him that, when we reached the beach, I would let him know. So, we reached the beach, I went into my phone and text the last unknown number (I didn’t have Matt’s Aussie number saved but he had phoned me from it on the Thursday before). Anyway, to cut a long story short, when i was having dinner with Matt and Nick on Thurs, I received a call from an unknown number and ignored it. So, when I went into my phone in a rush to text Matt and used the last unknown number… I used the wrong one. I even tried calling him but go no response…it wasn’t until I had just got back to Berwick and Matt got in touch with me that I realised my mistake but by then it was too late…what.a.muppet. To make it worse, Matt was on the beach all day as well so there is every likelihood we walked past him…gutted doesn’t come close to explaining it. Sorry again Matthew!

A Day in Melbourne City

As we had now arrived back in Melbourne after our adventure along the Great Ocean Road, we finally had a chance to explore the city properly.

We woke up at a relatively leisured pace ( as i didnt arrive back until appox. 01:00 that morning, I was quite content to get up slowly) and we had some breakfast and tea/coffee with our hosts (and tour guides!) for the weekend, Jen and Paul.

As we were staying in Berwick, it was approximately and hour long train journey to the city centre and ‘Flinders Street Station’ that we eventually embarked from. As I had commented from my first view of the city the night before, Melbourne is a fanstastic looking city. It’s a nice blend of old and new buldings – vey asthetic looking older buildings in every direction with new modern skyscrapers in the backdrop. As I write this I don’t feel like i’m really giving it justice – hopefully the pictures below the next paragraph will help illustrate my point.

After a quick tour of the city, we walked towards the Eureka Tower in the heart of the Melbourne CBD (Central Business District). The Eureka Tower is the largest tower in Melbourne and on the 82nd floor (i think it was 82nd – it was high!), there was a dedicated ‘skyview’ platform that showed unparrelled views of the city. Melbourne once again showed her splendor, this time from another perspective. It’s a pretty big city and from this height, you could see for miles. It also allowed us to see the Rod Laver Tennis Area and the imposing MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) which can hold over 100,000 people!

The Eureka tower also held one other treat…an experience called ‘the Edge’. Now, when you’re 82 (or so) floors up, when something is called ‘the Edge’ it can only really mean one thing…and you are probably able to guess roughly what that is. ‘The Edge’ is a small cube shaped room that is covered entirely by 4.5cm thick glass. The glass however is clouded so that you cant actually see through it. Anyway, as we stood in this opaque glass box (not much bigger than a standard toilet), it started to vibrate and move in an outward direction away from the building. As you couldnt see through the glass however, it was somewhat difficult to really understand if the glass box was actually moving. After about 30 seconds, the box stopped moving…quite an eerie feeling as you are quite dissorientated. Then, suddenly, the lovely opaque glass that was shielding us from everything around, turned to transparent glass…including the glass that we were standing on. And the moving sensation that we felt earlier was the box getting moved out about 10 feet from the edge of the building itself so that you could see straight down! Quite the experience!

Amy’s feet (in the Edge ‘socks’ that you need to wear) and the drop below…

Also, whilst we were wandering around the skyview floor, we noticed that there were quite a few people that were very well dressed. Of course we were imaculatly dressed as ever but some people were in black tie outfits. Then, just as we were heading to the ‘viewing deck’ (a balcony), we realised why they were all dressed up…they were getting married…in ‘the Edge’! Well, as it was quite unique and we happened to be on the viewing deck at the time, i took a couple photos…it also shows your exactly what the Edge looks like when you’re not inside!

After the excitement of the tower and ‘the Edge’, we met back up with Jen and Paul and headed for some lunch.

After lunch, it was onto the Queen Victoria Market (which is a market that has been around since the 1850’s!) but not before visiting a Christmas shop that is open 365 days a year. As you can probably imagine, the whole country is getting ready for Christmas (although its still far too early in my books) but this shop was ready from January…ridiculous. You may be thinking, ‘surely he cant write much about a Christmas shop…surely? Please?’ but alas, i can i’m afraid. Just a quick note however (you’ll be happy to hear)…. as Amy was inspecting one of the christmas ‘bauble’s’, she decided to conduct a test to see if Aussie glass could bounce. For all those who are asking a similar questions, the answer is, no, it cant. So, with a very red face, neck, ears (anywhere skin that was showing!), she had to go and explain her actions to the lovely shop owner…how very embarrassing…

After exploded-bauble-gate, we headed round the market which was really quite good. It was massive…row after row of people selling every Aussie stereotype you can think of from opals, to kangaroo leather wallets, to didgeridoo’s and boomerangs. It was amazing though…the only downside was that i was promised a Churro from one of the best market stalls in the whole of the Western Hemisphere however, when we got there, it was shut…i wont lie, it put a bit of a damper on the whole market (and potentially the whole holiday) – thanks Jen.

After the market we headed along ‘Lygon Steet’, a street that was famous as it was effectively run by mobsters ‘back in the day’. Subsequently, the street is now full of Italian restuarants and coffee shops. One of the shops however, we were told, stood out and after arriving and seeing the selection of cakes on offer, it was clear to see why. See the photos below…I may have had two, i’m on holiday after all…

After a short rest to allow the cakes to digest, we headed back in the direction of the train station and stopped at Federation Square (just outside the train station). The square is the entrance to a couple of Melbourne’s art galleries in the centre of the city and also has a giant tv screen (that shows daily movies with sun loungers to view it from) and a stage for performing…not entirely dissimilar to George Square in Glasgow but seemed a bit friendlier with the modern twist.

After the hour long journey back on the train, we arrived back at Chateaux de Clement. And after such a long day where we had been particularly healthy throughout, we decided that the only possible option for dinner was a takeaway….again, we’re on holiday after all (don’t know how long I can keep using this excuse!). Then after dinner, we settled down to watch the James Bond film ‘Skyfall’ before heading to bed. I should point out that, for anyone keeping a running total, Amy was awake for the first 25 minutes of the film before sleeping through it until the end…the words of, ‘i’m just gonna shut my wee eyes for a minute’ becoming a fairly common occurrence…

Tomorrow’s plan is still somewhat undecided…the plan will be to either head up to the mountainous area north of Melbourne called ‘Baw Baw’, head to the beach at St. Kilda or head down Phillip Island to see some to the local penguins in their natural habitat…we’ll make that call when we get up tomorrow…

Apollo Bay to Melbourne

Waking up in the penthouse was not particularly easy…at least for me. The bed, much like the rest of the apartment, did not disappoint. However, after waking up at the back of 9, there was a reasonably rushed morning of packing and cleaning before check out at 10.

After leaving the penthouse, we decided to have a wee walk along the Beach at Apollo Bay. With the late arrival and the desire to get the absolute most from the house, we had not had a chance to visit the beach. So, after moving the car 30m down the street to the beach, we had a wee wander.

After leaving Apollo Bay, we drove for about an hour along one of the most scenic and enjoyable roads roads I’ve ever been on. Every bend gave a new look at the Southern Ocean with amazing expanses of rock and beaches, each as fantastic as the last. The bends were also a lot of fun to drive with about 50 km of bend after bend…Amy didn’t have quite as much fun as all the twists and turns started to disagree with her…nobody mentioned that these roads may require a motion sickness tablet!

We stopped at a number of little towns on our journey back to Melbourne. The first stop was at the town of Lorne, about 30km down from Apollo Bay. Before we left Paul and Jen’s house, Jen’s parents had visited the Great Ocean Road and stayed in Lorne. So, as the mature adults that we are, we pulled up on the Main Street in Lorne and, instead of exploring the town, we headed straight for the play-park…you’ll be happy to know it was amazing fun however, on the swings, I had a minor issue with stopping as flip-flops dont hold a lot of grip, especially on bark…

After a quick wander round the shops, we headed back to the car and onto the small town of Anglesea. Pretty nice wee place with a huge beach. Also, the waves were picking up here and a number of surf school vans were parked along the waterfront. After a wee walk along the beach and a stop for some lunch, we headed onto a place called ‘Bells Beach’. This was the famous setting for the film ‘Point Break’ and, as a bit of surfing hotspot, we were able to catch a few guys ‘catching some waves’. Im starting to get a bit jealous so, the first real opportunity we get, i’m going to give it a bash. As its still only Spring, i’ll unfortunately still need to wear a wetsuit…

Us overlooking the surf at Bells Beach – if you look closely you can see some of the surfers behind us

Bells Beach itself

After leaving Bells Beach we headed off to our final stop along the Great Ocean Road, Torquay. Torquay is a renowned surfing town (both Billabong and Rip Curl were started here) and when the waves are good, it’s clear to see why. Large open beach with plenty of bay for surfing and spectating alike. It was a really nice wee town so, after a quick perusal of the shops, we headed down to ‘Frenchy’s’ ice cream parlour for a wee treat (given the good weather) before heading on.

After we left Torquay, we headed back along the road until we reached a sign for the Mornington Peninsula ferry. As we were due to return to the East side of Melbourne (the Great Ocean Road is due West of the city) and chose to drive through the centre on the way out, the Mornington Peninsula ferry allows you to leave the Great Ocean Road at the end and finish up in the South East of Melbourne. With us due to drive through the Melbourne rush hour if we didn’t get the ferry, this was a better plan all round.

After the ferry journey (which we were lucky to catch as were the last car on!), we had an hour and 15 minute car journey north which saw us reach Jen and Paul’s house a little after 6. After a quick turn around for me, I left the house at 6.20 and after a sprint along the quiet berwick streets (I’d changed to bare foot as running in flip-flops is near on impossible), I caught the 6.30 train by about a minute – the train would take me into Melbourne city centre where i would meet Matt and Nick, some school pals who had just moved to Aus for a year. After a small technical glitch, I was able to get in touch with Matthew eventually and met up with the boys a little after 8 (the train journey was over an hour to Melbourne).

Melbourne at sunset

As none of us had had any dinner yet, we grabbed some dinner and a beer not far away from the train station in a pedestrianised side-street. After a some dinner and a good catch up, Nick and Matt took me on a bit of scenic tour of Melbourne , with the first stop leading down ‘graffiti alley’ to a small bar. They’ve both only been in Melbourne for 6 weeks and, as they live in a place out of town called St Kilda, they are still discovering Melbourne as much as I am. The pub was pretty good however, with the barman indicating that he had pints on sale for $5 (which we were more than happy to purchase), we quickly realised that paying a bit more for a pint wasn’t a bad thing sometimes.

After that pub, we headed into ‘China Town’ where the boys had heard of another bar…this one down another side alley. With a bit of trepidation, we ventured down but, similar to the last pub, the boys were on the money and we were able to grab a final drink before home time called. With an hour long train ride ahead of me, we said our good byes at about 11.20 so I could grab the 11.30 train. As we have another couple days in Melbourne, there may be another chance to catch up with them…watch this space.

Catching up with Matt and Nick

Whilst I was galavanting in Melbourne, Amy was off….

I’ve been instructed to ‘write about my evening’ which consisted of dinner with Jen at a local Thai restaurant and lots of tea and chat. It was great to have a chance to catch up properly after such a long time!

Port Fairy to Apollo Bay

What I forgot to mention about Port Fairy in my last post was that, due to it being the off-peak season, we had the whole floor to ourselves….there is also only one floor in the hotel (the rest of the rooms are individual lodges). And, as the hotel already had a ‘spooky feel’, having the whole floor of an old hotel (with creaky floorboards) didnt help…

Anyway, as you can guess, we survived the night and headed down for breakfast at about 8.45 (early for us). Breakfast was pretty good however I felt slightly out of place…as i’ve basically only packed shorts and t-shirts, i headed down in just that. The only other people sharing the breakfast buffet with us had; jackets, boots, woollen jumpers and the mother of the family was also sporting a body warmer…Amy even let me down by wearing a cardigan and the familiar sight of ‘leggings’…thats the legs covered up again until the next summer holiday (in 2016 after the cost of this month…).

After breakfast, we got back in the wagon and headed off for the Great Ocean Road. As we’d gone a little further down the track, we had to return to Warrnambool first before we could find the road. However, as time was on our side, we dedcided to turn off the sat-nav and put away the travel book and just drive…I know, we’re crazy. This allowed us to explore the town of Warrnambool a little and then also see the area ‘off the beaten track’. As enjoyable as the town was to see, it had one major highlight that we wouldnt have found if we’d stuck to the main roads….the Warrnambool Cheese Factory! I’d been talking about trying to stop at the Timboon Cheese Factory on the way to Port Fairy but due to the late departure from Melbourne, we didnt really have time. So, with some no real plans apart from driving the Great Ocean Road, we stopped in for a visit.

The factory was amazing…pretty much everything you’d hope for in a cheese factory I guess. There was lots of local produce on show (including a ‘cow-based’ horoscope which nearly depicted all of Amy’s traits, called ‘Daisy’ i think) and, of course, a cheese tasting stall. As fate would have it, we missed the ‘tasting session’ by about 5 minutes so had to wander around for half an hour until the next session. Upon our wander, at the back of the shop, was a museum dedicated to all the old farm equipment that was used on the farm from 1800-1960. Some of it was pretty impressive kit, especially the old engines that they had to import from the UK. In the museum was a team of ‘proper engineers’ (old fellas with a love for some hands on engineering) who got all the engines running, a couple of them nearly a 100 years old, still working as good as new. As our accents clearly stuck out, we had the pleasure of chatting to two Aussie guys (who were called Graeme and Graham – good guys), one (Graeme McLeod) who had just returned from Scotland. He had a pretty good trip all round but missed out going to Bearsden….the jewel in the crown of Scottish sightseeing i thought…

After leaving the engine museum it was back to the cheese factory where we arrived (a minute or so late surprinsingly) but got to enjoy all the the Warrnambool Cheese Factory had to offer.

After the cheese tasting, it was back on the road and onto the Great Ocean Road properly. The weather wasnt particularly good but the scenery was amazing. Of particular highlight was the 12 apostles (or I think it’s now 7 as 5 have been eroded away) and also an outcrop of rock called ‘London bridge’. London bridge was so named as the larger rock formation was bridged to the mainland by a rock bridge…I’m sure it would’ve looked amazing had the bridge not collapsed in 1990. The funny/unfortunate thing about it was however that, when the bridge collapsed, two tourists were then stranded on the worlds newest island! As much as I would’ve enjoyed it if we found another ‘bridge’, I doubt Amy would’ve joined me in the crossing….given the history of the London bridge formation, probably not unwise.

‘London Bridge’ rock formation

Whats left of the 12 Apostles

After the rock formations it was on towards Apollo Bay but, as the Navigator was having her daily siesta, I decided to take a wee detour to the 2nd most southerly point in Australia, the Cape Otway lighthouse. Unbeknown to me it was a $17 pp cost to visit the lighthouse (if I’d known this it may have changed my decision) however, on the way to the lighthouse, we had to stop behind a large queue of cars…an odd sight on a relatively empty side road. As I was getting ready to overtake however, we noticed that the other car owners were outside their cars taking pictures of the trees…upon closer inspection, the trees were eucalyptus trees and they were in fact taking snaps of wild Koalas! As you can imagine, as Amy’s new favourite animal, she instinctively knew and woke up straight away. Although we’d seen some Koala’s in Kuranda, it was really good getting to see them in the wild. A nice treat given that we may have passed right by!

Some of the wild Koala’s

After finding out the cost of the lighthouse added to the fact that we still had to find a place to stay and it was pushing 16:00, we decided to pass and head on to Apollo Bay.

We reached Apollo Bay not long after 16:00 and as we were refuelling, Amy spotted a very nice looking collection of beachfront apartments. As we had no place to stay, it wouldn’t hurt to ask if they had anything for one night, even though clearly we only needed a room not an apartment…worth asking as we were there. Anyway, after checking, Amy returned to the car with the news that they only had the Penthouse apartment left. After a very brief discussion and a quick look at the place, with the phrases ‘ach, we’re on holiday, why not’ and, ‘when in Rome…’ Being mentioned a couple times, we decided to take it. As it effectively doubled the cost of the last room in port fairy, we decided to eat in (given that we now had ample space for a family of 4, never mind the two of us with rucksacks) and got some fish and chips. Fish (or ‘flake’ – aka shark) and chips is really very good. I’m sure it’s as bad health wise as back home but the batter is a lot lighter and the fish is likely a bit fresher…anyway, it was very good and as we paid for such a nice apartment, we wanted to get full use of it.

The night was nice and chilled out with me catching up on some of the essays (sorry, I meant blogs) and Amy getting the chance to have a wee bath in the jacuzzi. I should point out here that she did have a minor accident with said jacuzzi by not filling it completely meaning that when she pressed the ‘on button’ for the jets, instead of offering a gentle massage, it fired water past her and across the bathroom for a good 5 seconds before she resolved the situation…as you can imagine, the bathroom was quite a mess…

However, with the exception of the bath incident, the night was very chilled out and ended up in a relatively early nights sleep. Tomorrow’s plan was to finish the great ocean road and head back to Melbourne…I would also get to catch up with two of my oldest mates (Matt and Nick) who had just moved to Australia…presuming we could keep to a good enough time scale…

Quick note: I’ve honestly got no idea how i could write so much about visiting a cheese factory…sorry about that…and by writing so much, i’ve allowed Lairdo back into the book race…it’s now 2-2 for those counting!!

Our car for the Melbourne leg, posing outside Port Fairy

Start of the Great Ocean Road

I know i’ve mentioned in a lot of these blogs that we have had a few ‘lazy mornings’ (we are on holiday after all)…well, this morning takes the biscuit. I’m not saying that it was all down to Amy but…i had said the night before that we should be ready to leave at 10am and i would have made that…

So, after getting out of bed at about 9 and a brief chat about the Great Ocean Road (GOR) journey, we left about 13:00….

We decided that, as the weather was not particularly great for the early part of the week and was due to pick up Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, we would head inland from Melbourne to the end of the GOR and head along the GOR back to Melbourne, hoping to get some of the better weather.

The road inland was pretty nice. Quite a different scene to what we saw up North with the South being not too dissimilar to Scotland…although there is a lot more space and fewer hills. It’s very green with a lot of livestock as oppose to the sugar cane fields that we saw on the road up to Cairns.

We decided before we left that we would head towards Warrnambool which is at the end of GOR however, if we had time, we would head to the next town called Port Fairy. The reason for this was;

a) the bay at Port Fairy is a lot nicer
b) the town is a lot smaller so would be quite quaint
c) the name is fairly (fairy?) ridiculous

Anyway, as we made quite good time and reached Warrnambool at approx. 16:00, we decided to head to Port Fairy. It was a good decision in the end, the town was really nice and Warrnambool, with a population of 35,000, was really quite big relatively speaking.

When we reached Port Fairy, we had a quick drive around the town and decided to stay at a nice little ‘comfort inn’. After dropping the bags off, we went for a wander and stumbled across the ‘Caledonian Inn’ – the oldest licensed hotel in Victoria. Given the name and the heritage that the place had, we decided to go in for dinner and stay for a couple extra drinks. The bar, where we decided to have our dinner (there is a restaurant but when we arrived there was only a couple of granny’s having a cup of tea and the barman suggested having dinner in the bar area) was really good, classic ‘old man pub’ feel to it with the local Aussie’s enjoying a few post work ‘pots’ – the name given to the small half pints that i’ve seen quite a lot of Aussie’s drink.

After our dinner and drinks, we headed back to the hotel to catch a wee film and hit the hay. As we’ve been away from the ‘flashing box’ for a few weeks whilst we drove around in Vanessa, this was a bit of a treat. We had seen in the pub that ‘Inception’ was on TV that night so we headed back to see that…Amy got about 30 to maybe 35 minutes into it before she crashed out for the night. Not quite the record for staying awake (that was a total of 43 minutes) but a good innings given the exertion of the day…….

Tomorrow’s plan is to hit the Great Ocean Road properly and take in some of the views, specifically the 12 Apostles!

Port Fairy’s Main Street

Cairns to Melbourne

Today saw the actual end to our first leg of the holiday. As i’ve mentioned before, as we were packing our bags up properly and heading for an airport, it genuinely felt like it was the end of the holiday…as if the plane was going to be taking us home rather than to the next 2 week segment of the holiday. Once again, I could get used to this 4 week holiday stuff…

The day started off with another breakfast buffet in the Holiday Inn – fruit, cereal and, as it was the last morning, treated ourselves to a cheeky cooked breakfast. We also ended the breakfast in a similar mood to the previous day with some pain au chocolats and Danish pastries…we are on holiday after all.

With all the bags packed, it was a relatively simple case of going up stairs and grabbing the final bits and bobs. Well, I say relatively simple…of course the bags were not completely packed so there was some last minute ‘cramming’ (which included sitting on the bags to get them to close properly!) and we were checked out before the deadline of 10am.

After our final taxi in Cairns, we were through the checkin/security malarky in plenty of time and found that we had over an hour to wait before our flight….for either of us to have a spare hour is incredibly surprising, for the both of us, its relatively unheard of. So, with the extra time, a quick perusal of the shops was afforded to us and also another wee book read…Amy had now finished her 1st book so the race is on to complete the next one.

The flight was quite uneventful – although I should point out one thing. If anyone is planning on flying Virgin Australia, download their app. I still havent but, they have onboard wifi and if you want to experience any of their onboard entertainment, you need to do it via this app. I did not have this app. So, for a change Amy slept and I got a chance to read some more of my book.

We arrived in Melbourne just before 4, walked outside to be greeted by clouds, 14oC and a nice cold wind. Now, I appreciate that I shouldn’t really comment as 14oC in November for a Brit is fantastic and as the winds are ripping through the UK at the moment, I should be grateful that the cold breeze was all we recieved. However, we just left 31oC and I was still wearing a t-shirt, shorts and flip-flops…I did stand out a bit as the majority or Melbourne-ites were all in their winter coats.

We grabbed our car from Hertz eventually…cue McKinley’s 2nd piece of advice. As there is no legal requirement for Aussie’s to have car insurance (with the exception of 3rd party, fire and theft), as you can imagine, there are quite a few uninsured drivers. Therefore, if you get ‘a bump’, you (or your insurer), will need to pay for it. Due to this, Hertz are somewhat wary of letting people take their cars away without adequate cover so, without taking onboard one of their (quite pricey) insurance deals, the excess was going to be $5500. And, as there is a significant possibility that, if someone hits you, they don’t have insurance, you will have to fork out the $5.5k…

So, what i’m trying to say is, they have you over a barrel really. You cant really drive around with a potential excess of $5.5k when there is a significantly increased likelihood that you’ll have to fork it out…for someone else’s mistake. Especially as we will be driving ‘in the boonies’ a little, its best to be safer than sorry we felt.

After the Hertz debacle, it was on to the Prince’s Highway to ‘Berwick’ to meet Amy’s friends, Jen and Paul. They live in a fantastic 5 Bedroom home about an hour out of Melbourne city centre and had happily agreed to put us up. Lucky for us that they had so many bedrooms as they were also playing hosts to Jen’s parents!

After dropping off the bags, we all sat down to a lovely dinner and a catch up. After a cheeky cup of tea (and a couple biscuits), it was off to bed as we were due to hit the Great Ocean Road tomorrow. Back on the road again…

Last day in Paradise

This was our last day in Cairns, and, being the only Sunday of the trip we would be in a city and not travelling, we decided to pay a little visit to the local church, in the form of the Salvation Army. A lively, non-traditional service, we even had a wee song in the language of Papua New Guinea, and as always enjoyed a wee cup of tea (or diet coke in this case) after the service. We were greeted warmly by the congregation and it was a very pleasant way to spend Sunday morning. On the way back to the hotel, in a slightly less traditional fashion we stopped by the shops to buy Attenborough his latest technological must-have, a keyboard for the ipad (making this blogging stuff a whole bunch easier). By this time it was early afternoon and time for a last afternoon at the pool. Dinner this evening involved a quick visit to a kind of food court on the sea-front, it was buffet style Chinese with lots of seafood. A quick dash round the night markets and then it was back to the hotel to Skype team McKinley to wish Averil a happy birthday. Then all that was left to do was pack up our stuff (no mean feat) and get ready to fly to Melbourne in the morning to begin the next leg of the adventure. Jen and Paul have the washing machine ready!

The Cairns Salvation Army Church

Graeme eating some Baby Octopus on a stick

Another day in sunny Cairns and the final day with Nessy…

Before I start, I should warn you…I’ve had quite a bit of time to write this and I’ve just bought myself a keyboard for my iPad…this will hopefully be the end of the essay’s you’ll be glad to hear…and, all going to plan, there will be a couple of extra photos (you’ll be happy to hear dad!)

Today was the final day of the first leg of our Aussie adventure…the final day of the camping section of the holiday. It was going to be sad, probably emotional but, as i mentioned before, all good things must come to an end.

As we’d done a bit of the packing the night before, we awoke with some spare time on our hands. Also, as we were checking into the hotel at 14:00, we had the morning to burn effectively. We had planned to have a fairly relaxed day today as we had to drop Nessy off and check in to our new hotel, we couldnt really go too far.

As mentioned, the day (surprisingly) was relativly chilled out. As there was still some packing to do, Amy got up and went to the bathroom whilst I started packing away the rest of my stuff and started to get the van in order (putting away the bed, putting the table back where it was hidden etc). By the time Amy had returned, I was packed (pretty much) as was Nessy (again, pretty much) so it was only Amy who needed to sort her things out whilst I showered. As we’d done this ‘camping-malarkey’ for a couple weeks now, we had a pretty slick routine, even when it came to finally packing up all our stuff.

At about 9.45, we had packed everything up, filled up at the campsite fuelling pump and checked out. As we had 3 hours to burn before we took Nessy home, we decided to head to the largest shopping ‘mall’ in Cairns (much to Amy’s delight). Normally I wouldn’t dwell on a jounrey as small as the campsite to the mall, but, given that I write essay’s now, why not add a bit more in. Just before we reached the mall, there was nearly a minor incident between Nessy and a pedestrian. Thankfully this was only a ‘near miss’ but, as it turns out, even when the lights are green, you still need to be aware that the green man can also be green…some would think this was ridiculous…similar to having exactly the same car setup as the UK (left hand drive etc) then, for a laugh, swapping the indicators (which are on the left side of the steering wheel) with the windscreen wipers (which are on the right)…needless to say, if I was ever flustered and had to make a quick turn left or right, our lovely windows got an extra little clean/smearing of all the bugs that had accumulated! Anyway, back to the main point, why would the green man be on as the same time that the traffic’s green man is on?? No one knows…its just Aussie. In this circumstance, as i mentioned, there were no accidents, just a polite gesticulation between driver and pedestrian…

You’ll be happy to know that the mall was quite uneventful in comparison. We walked around, we had some lunch, looked in a lot of shops…quite a lot…and, after just over 2 hours (where Amy bought herself some face wipes), we decided to head back to Vanessa for the final leg.

We got to the camper rental place at about 12.30, unloaded all the bags, did a quick walkround with the rental guy (who then phoned us a taxi) and we were out of the door by 12.55. And that was it. 2 weeks with Vanessa and it was over in 25 minutes. There was hardly even enough time to say good bye…but, on the brightside, we had 2 crackin’ weeks with Vanessa and we were very glad for the safe passage. We’d travelled approximately 2500Km by then end, a pretty good innings for a 2 week adventure.

We reached the Holiday Inn (which was situated right on the waterfront), got into our room and basically fell onto the bed. It’s only when you lie on a large comfy bed that you realise properly that for 2 weeks you’ve been sleeping on a dinner table and a couple of wooden slats. Still, it was still the middle of the day so we decided that resting could wait….until we were outside sitting beside the pool at least. Now, moving from hotel room to hotel pool is normally a relativly simple affair; unpack swimwear, put on swimwear, grab towel/book/sunscreen, head to pool. However, there was a slight issue….

Before i go into detail about the issue, there is a slight dispute as to reason it occured. I will provide my views (the most accurate)…

I came out of the toilet to find Amy surrounded by all her clothes. As we are travelling around with large rucksacks, we try not to open them fully as it takes a bit of time to repack…this would have to happen on Sunday night/Monday morning before we left for Melbourne but it was a bit extreme opening it up on Saturday afternoon. After asking what the problem was, the response i got was, ‘I cant find my kindle’. For the record, I would also like to point out that I bought her the kindle for her Birthday…cue my response of, ‘I’m sure you’ve packed it…I hope you havent lost my birthday gift to you!?’. Anyway, joking aside, she couldnt find it. So, i joined in…my bag was tipped upside down so now, our large hotel room was filled with a month of clothes…the claustrophobic enviroment started to remind me of Vanessa already. But, alas, my bag was ‘kindle-less’ also. So, we racked our brains….Amy had it this morning when she woke up and read a bit in bed but hadnt seen it since (nor remembers packing it – key to the story). So, we had an issue…we didnt have it, the only places it could be; the campsite or Vanessa. We gave Vanessa a pretty thorough check before we left but, to ease our minds, I phoned the van hire place and asked them to have a quick look and call me back. They did and after going through the bed linen as requested (the only place we reckoned it could be), he phoned back with a, ‘sorry mate, checked the whole van and it’s not there’. So, slightly down-heartened, we gave the bag/pile-of-our-lives another look but again, nothing.

(you can take a breather here / a tissue to wipe away the tears for Amy’s kindle, i need to rest my fingers after this essay…)

Anyway, i convinced Amy that, for a $30 AUS round taxi trip, we may as well go to the van rental and check ourselves. It was surely the only place that it could be, even if the bloke had checked himself…for peace of mind at least. After arriving, the bloke I spoke to on the phone went and got the keys for the van and took us to it…however, he took us to the wrong van! (queue a surge of hope). After apologising, he went back and got Vanessa’s keys…didn’t expect to see the old girl again so soon but, within about 2 minutes of entering the van, Amy came out holding the Kindle aloft…genuinely not too dissimilar to how the World Cup winners captains hold the World Cup after the final. What are the chances! So, turns out to be the best $30 we spent. In the taxi, we decided to quiz how this has happened…turns out, Amy had hid the kindle in the bedsheets so that I couldn’t see it before I packed it away (you may remember I mentioned this 30 minutes ago when you started reading this blog). Therefore, as she hid it and specifically remembers NOT packing the Kindle, the blame rests with her…about 9% with Vanessa, maybe 1% with me. Anyway, Kindle was found so it was back to the hotel.

The remainder of the day/night was quite relaxed. We did in the end go to the pool for a few hours then headed out on the town for some dinner along the promenade.

We’d spent two weeks along the coast but, due to the ‘barby culture’, hadn’t really had much seafood (with the exceptions of ‘prawns on the barby’, obviously). So, with this in mind, we stopped at ‘Barnacle Bills’ where we both enjoyed some of the local ‘fruits de mare’ – fantastic.

We got back to the room about 22:00 and, after an eventful day, hit the hay pretty fast. Tomorrow’s plan is for a relatively chilled out day…after today, I think we need one…

Kuranda Rainforest

Amy and the Koala

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Kuranda rainforest

Today was a great day – up bright and early for a trip to the Kuranda Rainforest! As our current campsite is a bit out of Cairns (but well worth it, great campsite) we were te first to be picked up by the tour bus at 8.10. The bus dropped us off at the train station where we would board for a 2 hour scenic journey high into the rainforest. Built over a 100 years ago, it was an amazing feat of engineering as well as being a beautiful journey – there were 15 tunnels (one just under 500m long) that were all dug by hand! Trusty Attenborough has his camera as ever so lots of pics to bore you with later! Kuranda is a kind of rainforest market town, with lots of quaint shops and restaurants. The days highlights was a visit to a Koala park where I cuddles a Koala – it was definitely the cutest thing ever and I wanted to take it home. After a bit of shopping (don’t dread your gifts, we hopefully ignored the rubbish and found the nice things!) and some lunch it was time to descend the mountain again – this time via cable car! Called the skyrail, it was an amazing view of the rainforest above the canopy. Back to the campsite and a quick game of crazy golf (for the record, I won, sorry Mckinley) and then just some packing up of dear Nessy, dinner, and preparing for the last night in the van 😦 She has been lovely but I shall be pleased for some aircon and a bit of trashy tv. X

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Mission Beach to Cairns

Vanessa, pride of place on Cairns Main Street…yes, outside Gucci

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Mission beach to Cairns

We woke up this morning with a bit of a somber attitude…today was the final leg of the ‘campervan section’ of our trip and the final day properly driving Vanessa round this part of Aus. A sad day but the show must go on.

Surprisingly, we has another lazy morning…given that Cairns was only 2 hours away and there was no real push to be there at a certain time, we could take it easy and enjoy a slow breakfast with plenty of time to pack the van.

The 2 hour journey was relatively uneventful. Some amazing scenery as we entered the region of Aus where ‘the rainforest meets the reef’. Amazing colours and scenery all round but, as Amy likes to remind me that I’m trying to be Attenbourgh, it’ll be easy to demonstrate with photos when we are back.

After we arrived at our campsite, we decided to give Cairns a bit of a tour. This strategy worked well when we were in Noosa – after our small town tour, we found a much closer campsite and booked ourselves in rather than the original one. Our Cairns adventure didn’t provide the same success however, it did allow us to swing by the Holiday Inn to pick up Lady Shambles shoes that Tom had kindly dropped off when he was in Cairns (fortunately for us (mostly Amy), Tom and Debs were flying to Cairns for a wee holiday the weekend before us as so could drop off the shoes). After a quick stop at the Holiday Inn (our hotel in Cairns after we drop Nessy off), we decided to go for a wee wander round and also book our adventure for tomorrow – the Kuranda rainforest trip.

After the wander and the booking, we decided to retire to the campsite – and what a campsite it is (when you spend two weeks in a camper, it’s amazing what becomes exciting)! There are two pools, a 18 hole Mini Golf course, shop, fuelling station, buggie hire and a state of the art gym…the latter clearly just a feature of the site, not high on our list of attractions. Still, the site is a cracker and so, after parking up, we decided to hit one of the pools – with both hot and cold jacuzzis.

After the splash we reckoned that, as we’re in a ‘big’ city, why not do something really Australian…something that we cant do in the UK..going to a cinema. To be fair, it was a nice change and we saw quite a good film called ‘Captain Phillips’. After the film, we popped down to the food court where we grabbed a late bite to eat – Amy enjoyed hers so much that she decided to take some with her…on her new white jumper! Hopefully Jen and Paul all have some vanish or the Aussie equivalent!

With the exception of the tomato sauce/jumper incident, the evening was pretty subdued with a quick set up of Nessy before getting our heads down. An early start for the Kuranda trip tomorrow (pick up at 8.10) so bed early was a good way to end the trip.

Ps. I technically finished my 2nd book of the trip today (‘a time to die’ – book on the sinking of the Kursk)…Amy is still on her first. It’s not a competition but…

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