Yesterday's Weather

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2nd May 2008 - 23rd May 2008

Holbrook - Milawa - Beechworth - Glenrowan - Benalla - Melbourne - Philip Island - Great Ocean Road - Grampians - McLaren vale - Kangaroo Island - Adelaide

The most direct route from Sydney to Melbourne is via the Hume Highway, or 'Ned Kelly Country'. Ned Kelly is the legendary bushranger who has been compared to Robin Hood in that he stole from the wealthy - but then he forgot to give to the poor. He also killed a few policemen but despite these indescretions he is still widely associated as a symbol of freedom and resistance against authority of the late 1800s. Each town along the highway seems to have some connection to him and exploits it to the maximum! One town that doesn't however, is Holbrook. They have stuck to the tried and tested Australian way of building something big! In this case a huge submarine welcomes you into town. There is a reason for it but I forget it - all I needed to know was, could you climb on it? Yes you can!!

Back to Ned. The first town that really earns its' living off him is Beachworth. It's at the courthouse here that he was tried and convicted for murder and sentenced to hang in 1880. It is no longer a working courthouse (closed 1989) but it has been expertly preserved and includes fixtures and fittings from Ned's time as well as lots of interesting information and memorabilia. Next to the courthouse is the Telegram Office (the most used one in the world!!!), we hadn't realised there were so many still in operation!? Anyway, I sent my Nan a telegram. We had just enough time afterwards to get to Brown Brothers Winery in the Milawa Gourmet Region to do some express quaffing and buy a bottle for dinner.

The next day we stopped at Glenrowan which is the piste' de la resistance' when it comes to Ned. It's here that Kelly and his gang were finally caught after a shootout at the Inn. There is a walking trail that highlights all the key events of 'Kelly's Last Stand which culminates in a hilarious wooden Ned in his trademark armour and painted with blood stains laying against a tree. The Ned Kelly Museum at Kate's Cottage was really interesting and played some great folk songs about Ned's life and of course there was a Big Ned on the main road!

The next town, Benalla, has a cemetary where many of the people involved in the shootout now rest (some as a direct result of the shootout). We chatted to an elderly guy here who said he was checking out his spot! Also worth checking out in Benalla is the art gallery. There were three separate exhibitions, one included a painting of Mr Potato Head getting an eyeful of a naked barbie and another had some really freakish real life scupltures of naked old people!

Next day we arrived at Melbourne and the first thing we did was watch a game of Aussie Rules Football at the Telstra Dome. Around 28,000 people (54,000 capacity) watched Port Adelaide give the local team Essendon a good pasting 158 - 94. It was a great game though, the referees (there are too many to count) bounce and throw the ball over their head and run like mad back to the centre after a goal is scored - it's very funny indeed! The following day we went to the library which had a small exhibition on Ned Kelly including his original armour. From here we visited Australia Museum (I'm sure they had one called the same in Canberra!?) as they have a kitchen from the set of Neighbours (possibly Harold's) but it was in storage when we went.

The last two days we had left the van at the campsite and hopped on either a tram or bus to get to the city. Today, Chubby was due his 15,000km service so we had to drive in. Driving in Melbourne with the trams is a little scary as there are so many and they have right of way plus there is a 'hook turn' rule that we never understood!? Once safely in we visited the Immigration Museum where Claire found her calling as a children's TV presenter (see picture), Victoria Market (an old victorian market) and a general wander around before collecting Chubby who hadn't been given a clean as part of the service.

Tom, Claire's brother, is flying into Melbourne in a few days to join us for a couple of weeks so we decided to leave Melbourne for a while. We'll be back for him after a few days at Philip Island. We had purchased some dice when we first arrived in Australia so we could play Yahtzee and amazingly on our first night in Philip Island the score in the first to 100 series was agonisingly tied at 99-99! Claire won the next game to take the title! The main thing to do, and the only thing we did of note for three days, was go to the Penguin Parade. The Little Penguins come out of the sea at nightfall by the hundreds and head for their nests in the dunes. They are funny to watch as they are nervous creatures when out of the sea (they are more vulnerable to predators) and often run back. However, as soon as one is brave enough to make a dash for it the rest follow in single file.

Sunday 11th March (Mothers Day in Australia) we headed back to Melbourne. We took a slight detour on the way back as we had on the way out - not really mentioned before but Australian road signs are rubbish!! We later rode the tram to St. Kilda, a seaside resort just minutes from Melbourne's CBD. A couple of hours here strolling along the esplanade and then we left to collect Tom from the airport. As a welcome he received beans on toast at the campsite and a tiny tent to sleep in (that later proved not to be waterproof!). We had saved some of the best stuff to do in Melbourne until Tom's arrival. The first one on the agenda was a drive out to Pin Oak Court, or Ramsay Street as it's better known. It was quite busy with the Neighbours Tour bus already there but it was fortunate too as we borrowed their Ramsay St sign for a couple of photos. After they left it was just us and the security guard. We were surprised that the gardens weren't better kept. The whole experience is quite strange and underwhelming as its just a plain old street but definitely a must see!! Next on the list was Melbourne Gaol where Ned Kelly was hanged. As part of the tour you get the 'Watchtower Experience' which was just brilliant. A female (acting) sargeant arrested our tour group, booked us in and locked us up in a cell without breaking out of role. It was exceptionally well done, very funny and it fulfilled one of my fantasies! The Gaol itself was fascinating and we spent ages looking around. The best bit though was the opportunity for both Tom and I to dress up in Ned style armour. Back at the campsite we cooked a more respectable beef stew, well I say we cooked, we kind of left Tom to it while we made some phonecalls - great hosts huh!

Tom's second day in Melbourne we had a walk around the Docklands to see the 'Cow in a Tree' and other pieces of art and interesting buildings. In the afternoon we went to an exhibition called 'Game On'. It had over one hundred arcade, computer and console games you could play from over the last thirty years or so. All the classics were there like Space Invaders, Pong, Sonic, Mario plus others I personally remember like Lemmings and Secret of Monkey Island both for the Commodore Amiga. They also had more recent ones like baseball and bowling on the Wii and Guitar Heroe - our favourite! It was amazing fun and only $10 for students like us!!

We left Melbourne the next day and began our journey along the Great Ocean Road. After stopping at Torquay to visit the ever helpful Tourist Information (and I mean that!) we stopped at Bells Beach where surfing competitions are held and I believe where the end of Point Break is filmed where Swayze and Keanu have a fight in the rain before Swayze dies catching a big wave. A brief stop at Anglesey to see some grumpy old men play golf badly and disturbing the resident kangaroos then gorgeous cream teas at Airey Inlet Lighthouse (we think where kids programme 'Round The Twist' was filmed).

'Pretty Chilly last night', 'A bit misty today', 'Sunshine today but a cold wind', 'Raining on and off'. These are just a few opening daily extracts from Claire's journal. It became apparent during Tom's stay that Claire seemed to be compiling weather reports from around the world and 'Yesterdays Weather' became a bit of a joke.

'Lovely sunny day today (slight chilly wind)', was the entry for our second and final day on the Great Ocean road. We did a short rainforest walk at Mait's Rest and then it was on to the good stuff - Twelve Apostles, Loch Ard Gorge, Razorback Rock, The Arch, London Bridge and The Grotto. These are all various rock formations just off the 'Shipwreck Coast' which have been shaped by constant battering from the sea and is what the Great Ocean Road is all about. It was all good! A 'slab' of beer, some remaining port, table tennis, Home & Away and a few games of Yahtzee helped pass away the evening at Warrnambool campsite.

'Bit chilly today' - sorry, will stop with that now - as we headed to the Grampian Mountains. We stayed at a campsite in Halls Gap and while we were cooking our dinner we noticed two kangaroos eating grass about ten yards away. Tom and I went for a closer look and after taking a few photos a couple of young lads said there were more around the corner. We investigated and they weren't kidding - there were loads! After dinner it started to rain hard and it was then we discovered the tents fault and all I will say is that it was cosy that night! We attempted a couple of walks the next day including a waterfall and a lookout but the rain, cold and cloud were a slight hinderance so we got a move on. We stayed in a drive through/self serve campsite in a remote place called Horsham where a lady dressed up in an evening gown came to collect our fees - she said she was the caretaker and not collecting beer money for the local netball do! There was only one other camper, we thought for a while it was going to be all ours!

Most of the next day was driving so we could spend a few days at Kangaroo Island before Tom catches his flight from Adelaide. On the way we stopped at McLaren Vale another wine region, where I showed Tom the art of express quaffing at three different wineries - he got the hang of it pretty quick! We arrived at our campsite at Second Valley ready to catch the nearby ferry in the morning to Kangaroo Island (remembering the thirty minute time difference as we are now in South Australia).

Kangaroo Island is Australia's third largest island and yet has only two main sealed roads to speak of and is relatively lacking in development despite the abundance of attractions here - most notably the amazing array of wildlife. We visited Seal Bay first which has a purpose built board walk allowing brilliant viewing of the seals in their natural beachfront habitat and for an even closer look we went on the excellent guided beach walk. The next day we visited Paul's Place, a wildlife sanctuary about 10kms off the main road along a very uneven, wet and dusty dirt road - it was worth every bump! This place is the best thing we have done in Australia and possibly our enitire year travelling - it was pretty good! It's not an educational tour but it's the most fun and hands on wildlife experience you are likely to get courtesy of the hilarious Paul himself. We hand fed kangaroos, wallabies, emus, deer, ducks, sheep, a llama and a koala - a real mixture of animals mostly roaming free within the sanctuary. Other highlights included Claire holding a 'yabbie' (a small lobster type creature), an emu eating seed of Tom's head, holding a baby possum which pee'd on Claire and poo'd on Tom, and all of us had a large carpet snake around our necks despite our initial fears. We also saw exotic birds, echidnas, a pony, sheep shearing and a kookaburra that laughed on cue! All of this for just $12, although the fourteen of us on the tour all gave more. We stayed at a different campsite in the evening at the opposite end of the island and we had our own resident koala in the tree on our pitch and a roaring fire in the camp kitchen to ourselves. Our third day we visited Flinders National Park where there are more seals at Admirals Arch where they were a lot more active than the ones before. The nearby 'Remarkable Rocks' provided our next stop of the day and they were quite remarkable and then we drove to 'Little Sahara', a large sand dune area where you wouldn't really expect one! In the evening we went on a penguin tour in the main town of Kingscote but it being a full moon there were not many around (they are so nervous). The guide used a red light so as not to cause alarm to the penguins but it made your photos look like Penguin Porn!

The next morning we went to catch our ferry but were told they have now finished for the winter and will start services again in October. It took a while to comprehend this, especially as we had already paid and booked for today. Anyway, they refunded us (still waiting for it actually) and we then booked a later ferry through the more expensive but clearly more reliable Sealink. I'd give KI Ferries a miss if and when they start business again if I were you! Although, saying that, Sealink called my name and Tom's about ten minutes after leaving port to make sure we had boarded - not sure what they would have done if we hadn't!

We drove to Adelaide, briefly stopping at seaside Glenelg for fish and chips and spent our last evening together drinking white wine (kindly donated by a family at Kangaroo Island campsite) and taking photos of drawings with a torch. It's amazing how much fun you can have with a tripod, long exposure, a couple of lights and lots of wine - it kept us amused for hours!

We dropped Tom off at the airport the next morning. We were waiting with him until a nasty fragrance developed around us which hastened our goodbyes. We were a little lost after he left as we had got used to having him around and ended up in Ikea of all places having a $2 breakfast. We had a wander around the city, visited the Bradman Museum (famous Aussie cricketer) and the botannical gardens before returning to the campsite to plan our next part of the journey through the middle and the outback!

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Photos

Julian and Tom's masterpiece
Tom's writing is so much more legible by torchlight (Tom wrote 'weather').