When I was a young adolescent I climbed all the way to the top diving board at the local swimming pool. My thinking at the time was that to climb back down would be so embarrassing that I would have to jump. After about 10 minutes it became clear to me that my capacity for humiliation was far greater than my resolve to throw myself off an unfeasibly high platform, and I climbed back down. Fast forward 25 years or so and it turns out that my humiliation threshold has dropped by about 9 minutes. The climb back into the boat [View Full Entry]

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Sadly we can not afford an aircraft big enough to accommodate the team of wild horses that would be necessary to drag us out of a perfectly serviceable aeroplane in mid flight, so we’ll be foregoing the skydiving experience. Fortunately there are plenty of other opportunities for recreational daring-do to keep us occupied in the tropical playground that is Cairns and its surrounding area. Swimming in the sea at Cairns, whilst apparently cheaper than the myriad of barrier reef diving and snorkelling options available, is not one such opportunity. It’s not so much the grubby looki [View Full Entry]

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Another early start to catch the shuttle to the airport. C is nursing a nasty back ache which has me questioning the wisdom of travelling today. After all, I have to carry all the bags. Our flight was delayed and it became obvious that the crew were hussling to make up time. We didn't so much taxi to the runway as make a mad dash for it. Hurried departures are never good. Things can get missed, like the time in the US that the crew tried to take off without setting the flaps. It all ended disastrously for them and their [View Full Entry]

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Having got this far by renting vehicles it became time to dip our toes into the world of backpacking and, lugging our bags to the bus stop at a time of day that frankly should not be allowed to exist outside of the rat race, we caught the bus to Melbourne. The distance is around 460km, something we had become accustomed to covering in 3 or 4 hours when we had our own transport. With public transport it took 9 hours, two buses, one train and, on the credit side, considerably less money out of our bank account. The journey itself [View Full Entry]

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Still not feeling it for Melbourne. This evening we caught a tram to St Kilda, a suburb south of the city on the bay. This was something of a criminal activity. The tickets are purchased on the tram and only coins are accepted. We could pay for one ticket not two, being short by just 2 bucks. I hope the South American musicians appreciate the value of the contribution I made earlier in the day. The leaflet we picked up about St Kilda told us that it was "...Melbourne's favorite playground..." (and you know I've just noticed that they spell as [View Full Entry]

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The last three days have been spent in Mt Gambier, the closest we could get to Melbourne whilst still remaining in South Australia as required by the special deal we got on the car rental. Of course, getting a great price on a full size vehicle is all very laudible financially, but 6 cylinders of internal combustion engine don't half eat up the fuel and is consequently less wallet friendly. It's a lazy end to a whirlwind drive down through the outback, and apart from a visit to the Blue Lake (and they weren't kidding when they named that one) on [View Full Entry]

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The last two days have been spent in Robe on the coast. We made a brief detour on the way to take in Cape Jaffa, but see the Flinders information under the Clare entry above for details. The Southern Ocean is a beautiful blue and we have the added splendour of a cliff coastline made magnificent by high winds and consequently spectacular breakers against the rocks. It’s easy to see how such heavy sees are eroding the coastline so quickly here, though I wish we had realised this before we discovered that the cliff edge we were at one point stood [View Full Entry]

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From our brief stay I felt that Adelaide was a fine place the equal of Perth, but we’re on a mission now. We travelled via the Murraylands, the name for the region through which the Murray River runs, but the towns of both Mannum and Murray Bridge proved as inspiring as the Flinders did and we ended up in the small lakeside town of Meningie. I did find out here though that pelicans bite, knowledge that would have seen me treating the Monkey Mia pelicans with a great deal more respect. Fortunately the heatwave broke today and temperatures dropped 10 degrees. [View Full Entry]

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We headed for the bright lights of Adelaide and sweltered there in a 42 degree C heatwave. Fortunately, after some initial concerns the aircon proved adequate to the task, though the smoking balcony, whilst free of lethal arachnids, was exposed to the full glare of the sun. We passed the evening amicably in a nearby pub drinking far too many pints to the extent that a few rounds of Keno became all absorbing entertainment. A couple of lucky rounds ensured that we didn’t lose all of our original stake, though the effort spent trying to figure out which were the best [View Full Entry]

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From Port Augusta we drove up into the Flinders mountain ranges. As these weren’t visible during the previous days drive they retain their original, though not I suspect their aboriginal, name. Spoiled by our beloved desert and coastal views, the forested mountain scenery did nothing for us and the area was all too quickly relegated to a loo stop. Sorry Flinders but we’re just not forest people and we prefer our mountains to be more dramatic and clear of vegetation. We ended the day at a delightful motel sat on the side of a hill in the wine region of Clare. [View Full Entry]

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