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Published: February 24th 2007
After the previous day’s excitement, we decided to have a lie in (again) - the rest of the day was spent doing the blog (6 hours), walking around Melbourne (where all the restaurants are) and where the gas torches ‘flame up’ on the hour when it gets dark - sadly we missed this as we were further in the city having a nice little Per-Peri chicken meal at Nando’s. We called it a night as we were shattered - we wanted to have a good night’s sleep as the next day we had planned to sit in a bar all day and watch the 2nd cricket final from Sydney.
The next morning arrived and we enjoyed yet another lie in! It was amazing how quiet it was - not birds anywhere! We set off at around lunch time for the city centre to get a good seat in a bar we had been told by a couple we met at the cricket would be in. We found the bar okay, The Charles Darwin Tavern, which was an old beer cellar type establishment with wood panelling, pub grub and plasma screens on every wall. The only problem was that we and
the bar staff made up the majority of the people who were in there, the place had zero atmosphere! We thought we would wait for this couple to meet us and had a couple of bar meals. Stu had good old bangers and mash while Kerry had the smallest cottage pie ever seen by mankind. The cricket got underway, England won the toss and went in to bat. The place was starting to get a couple more punters in, but they there more for the footy. The feeling was still really flat in there so after another drink we left for a stretch we had seen from the tram on the way in, Brunswick Street. There were loads and loads of cool cafes and bars but we only found a couple that showed the cricket. The first was a really nice wine bar but yet again, we were the only people there, the next place was really grimy, the atmosphere was equally poor there too - so we just cut our losses and headed back to the campsite. We popped into the site office to grab some milk and they said the cricket was on in the TV room. Stu
Ramsay Street
Joe Mangels Padwent to join a few other campers watching while Kerry had a bath, yes, a bath, and went to bed as the afternoon wines had caught up with her a bit. As a lot of you might already now know, England beat the Aussies again to clinch the Commonwealth Bank Tri-Series Cup, quite an achievement seeing as though our boys looked like they ‘d lose to a bunch of schoolgirls who couldn’t play cricket 3 weeks ago.!
Monday 12th February
We decided to leave Melbourne to do the Great Ocean Road, but not before we had taken in the wonders of “Ramsay Street”, yes that’s right, you can actually drive there and up it - its real! But its actually called “Pinoak Court” - Kez was totally made up with this and took loads of pictures. Stu even remembered a few of the houses from way back in 1985! We set off past Melbourne and Geelong and took in some breathtaking scenery of the Great Ocean Road from Abbotts bag to Anglesea - we saw the 12 Apostles - huge sand stone formations that sea erosion has sculpted and hundreds of kilometres of jaw dropping ocean views. We
Ramsay Street
Harold & Madge's decided it was mission time and hatched a plan to get ahead of schedule and make it to Phillip Island on the other side of the bay - about 300km away! We pulled up to our campsite at about 9.30pm and went straight to bed.
Next day - Feb 13th - time for us to do a few preliminary bits and bobs for Valentines Day. We drove to Cowes and booked ourselves in at a really nice restaurant for a set meal, drink and live music, the rest of the day went as follows; We drove to Phillip Island GP circuit - stu ahd been waiting for ages to get there to see it in person - he is a massive Moto GP and Superbike fan - we paid to go around the museum and saw the story of the island, then went to the viewing area which was miles aware from the track. Stu was a bit disappointed but the lady on the desk said we could upgrade for a couple of bucks to do the guided tour that took you around the paddock and the control tower and the pits. The tour was over an hour in
length and we still had an hour to wait. So Kez told Stu to go for it and she would go window shopping! Stu dropped Kez in Cowes and set off back to the track (but not before popping into the local newsagent to sort of Kez’s card and present). We agreed no more than $10 dollars each. Back at the track Stu got a bit of a surprise - the only tour left was the one with a class of year 7 students - all 11 and 12 year olds - inquisitive, nosey, bored, tired, hot and uninterested in being there at all - even the boys! Stu enjoyed it anyway as he got to get up close to the track - today was also the Worldwide Press Launch of the brand new 2007 Suzuki GSXR1000. There were about 15 journalists bombing round the track on the new machines plus a full range of different coloured bikes were on display in the paddock too. Stu had a wicked time - he even had a chance to stand on the top step of the podium where many of his motorbike racing heroes have stood in years gone by! The tour
came to an end and Stu went back to pick Kez up - she still had not found anything to buy - so we went to another town - Rhyll - there were about 10 buildings in the whole place! It was about closing time when we found a couple of places that might have something - a really nice t-shirt that Stu ahd seen in the airport over 6 weeks ago and had been kicking himself ever since for not getting it. We miraculously found it and bought it on the spot. Job done - although kerry now wanted something pretty to wear, typical girl!
The next day we exchanged cards and presents and set off for the beach - the rain clouds came racing in as soon as we set off so we went back to the campsite where it was still sunny - we did some work on the computer an then lost it all as there was a power cut (for hours). We chilled for the rest of the day until we went for our lovely meal. Stu had the tastiest beef steak and Kez had the most delicious salmon dish that she had ever
tasted! The wine was also very tasty too and so was the chocolat tart and strawberry dessert! We went back to the site and settled in for a romatic (;-)) night in the van and Stu could have a drink too!
The next day we bid farewell to Phillip Island and headed East to Lake Entrance about 300kms away…..
Lake Entrance was fairly nice. We lazed on their beach for a couple of hours. We had planned on saying in Late Entrance for a night so we headed off early the next day to drive East to our next destination, Eden. Again, we were not blown away by this small town. It was quite quaint but nothing special. Certainly not somewhere we would like to stay for a week! We found a campsite near the beach so we could spend a couple of hours sunning ourselves. Unfortunately shortly after spraying ourselves with oil the winds picked up and whipped us to death with sand. We chewed on granuals for about 20 minutes before leaving the beach, we had had enough. But at least we had a good exfoliation. The following day pretty much went as follows:
We
left Eden initially having the idea that we would only have to go about 30km to the next destination, Pambula. We stopped for a quick look at the not so great beach before heading north again. This happened at Merimbula, Tathra, Bermagui, Narooma and Moruya before eventually (100km later) deciding to stop at Batehaven Bay. I think we have been so spoilt with beautiful beaches that the ones along this part of the coast were not keeping up with the our expectations. Batehaven Bay is very pretty though but what made it especially nice was the BIG 4 campsite we found which had a lovely pool. It was so nice we decided to stay a couple of days. We only have roughly 250km left until we reach Sydney and we have a total of 11 days left in Oz so we can really take our time now.
Our next destination was somewhat different again. We stumbled across a very small town called Huskisson which was in Jervis Bay. The beaches here are stunning. White sand and beautiful blue/green sea. We relaxed here for a further two days. We think we are now just about ready to leave Oz and
are both looking forward to New Zealand. We are excited about seeing NZ as soooo many people have mentioned how beautiful it is there. I think we are also getting a little beached out - too much of a good thing maybe!
We travelled further along the coast to a lovely little spot called Kiama where we spent a further couple of days chilling by their beautiful pool complex. There is also a really nice beach here and the town is really quaint and pretty. We went to have a quick look at the legendary blow holes which are formed in the rocks of the sea wall. Unfortunately is was not rough enough for us to experience this! We also adopted a couple of little ducks called Fred and Harry - both were slightly disabled in one way or another. Fred had no bum as it looked like it had been chewed off by something and Harry only had one foot. Needless to say landings were considerably funny.
We left Kiama in the hope that we would stay further up the coast at Shellharbour but it wasnt particularly nice here so we headed straight on up to Sydney.
This became even more of a problem as all the camping sites are miles away from the city centre and are considerably expensive. We spent the night in Dural which was a little grotty but we only had a night there. The following day we drove down to Rockport which is the nearest campsite to the city. This was probably the WORST campsite we had come across so far but it was in a much better location. On arrival at our campsite we had a brief look around a Mauri festival which was just across the road and then made our way to Bondi Beach. Bondi was just as we had expected - overcrowded and a little like Blackpool! We had seen something on tv a while ago about the worlds top ten beaches and this beach was actually on the list. Besides the people watching there wasnt really much to this beach and so left after a couple of hours. It was also ridiculously expensive to park your car here, if you could find a spot. We are due to spent this Saturday evening at Stu's relatives whom he has never met before so that should be fun! We
will hopefully get one final blog in before we leave Oz on the 2 March for New Zealand!!!!! :-)
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Fi 'n' Al
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Kids Club
We love the picture of Stu and his new mates. It reminds us of Only Fools and Horses when Del wins the holiday and Rodney has to spend the week in Kids Club - beautiful!!!! You had a lucky escape Kerry :-) LOL