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Published: November 24th 2008
Before I start writing about what we've been up to, I'd like a moment to feel sorry for myself...I've been bitten by either mosquitos or sandflies all over my face! It looks like I've got some sort of weird disease, or as the man at the market stall said to me - "I see you have a pimple problem" ( he later convinced me into buying this salt rock which apparently will make them go away!).
Okay, so what have we been up to...well we left you in Sydney after our night out on the ghost tour. The next day we decided to take the ferry to nearby Manly and hired bikes to cycle round. It was a gorgous sunny day and the cycle was quite fun as there weren't too many up hill bits. It was also quite fun as it was by the beach so when we got hot we were able to just get off our bikes and jump into the sea (the guy in the bike shop assured me that there were no deadly jelly fish)!
Continuing the beach theme, the next day we set off to Bondi beach to see the surfers. The beach
wasn't as pretty as Manly, but the surfers were awesome, especially as the waves seemed pretty big. It was too hot to walk, so we really just spent the day sleeping on the beach! How will we ever go back to not being able to sleep during the day?! In the evening, we got dressed up and went to see the ballet at the Sydney Opera House! Drinking white wine while waiting to watch the ballet...not really your typical back packer holiday I suppose! The ballet was amazing, even though I'll admit that I really didn't have a clue as to what it was about at all. It was a modern abstract one, so I don't think anyone had a clue really.
After spending a week chilling in Sydney we decided to hire a car and drive into the Blue Mountains to see some of Australia! We were also joined by Ib who was just starting her travels in Australia. We did a few walks round the blue mountains and saw the famous "three sisters" and "wentworth falls". We also went on the scenic railway near there which seemed like more of a theme park ride than a railway
as it sped through the rocks at what seemed like a 90 degree angle.
After the strenuous two days walking round the mountains, we decided to take it easy and go wine tasting round the Hunter valley region. Wine tasting was such a fun day. We hired bicycles and cycled round various wineries where they offered us free wine tastings. They basically just keep letting you try different types of wine until you tell them to stop, so after the first one I was tipsy. I especially like the Chardonnay there and we even bought a few bottles to drink that evening. Oh and the place we were staying in was very nice. It was a whole apartment with a living room and outdoor terrace with a barbeque. So in the evening we had a bbq and drank the wine we had bought. It was a good day.
After Hunter Valley, we dropped Ib back in Sydney and said farewell, hoping to catch up with her again in Melbourne and got on the flight to Melbourne. On arriving at Melbourne we took a taxi to Lizzie's house, who I hadn't seen properly for about 7 years since leaving
university so it was great to see her. Just as excited to see us were her two dogs Cassie and Iggy. Now, I'm not too good with dogs. I really just don't know what to do when they come up to me, but I was sort of thrown into the deep end with Lizzie's two dogs. They are massive and just want to jump on you. Particularly Cassie who aims to lick the nose. By the end of it though, we did love the dogs. The funniest was when they jumped into our bed one morning and woke us up! We didn't have a clue what was going on, but were suddenly awoken by this thing jumping on us and licking our faces!
Melbourne was hot! 31 degrees on the first few days, so we were too hot to really do anything that required too much energy. So..we spent the first day watching the cricket at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and then spending the evening with Lizzie and Trevor having a bbq. The next day we went to the Queen Victoria market and bought loads of food for lunch. We imagined a romantic picnic lunch in the park nearby
with the prawns, olives, bread etc..we had bought, but the dream was ruined by all the flies! There are so many flies in Australia and they come right up to your face or go in your hear. I'm almost tempted to buy one of those hats with the corks to keep them away. We also went to the Melbourne gaol (were Ned Kelly was hanged). We passed on the ghost tour after the creepiness of the one in Sydney, and just went for the day time tour. This was quite amusing though as the "tour guide" actually pretends to be a warden and treats you as if you were a prisonner. Our guide took it quite seriously and swore at us and made us line up and everything! They also lock you in a cell for about 5 mins and turn off the lights which was a little scary!
The next day we hired a car (the first time either of us had driven an automatic) and drove to Phillips Island. Now on the way there the most bizarre thing happend to us. We were halfway to the Island and decided to stop for a lunch break. When we
were getting out of the car we starting talking to this couple who had arrived at the same time. It was just a short chat and we talked about their son who had lived in London for a while. Anyway, we got to the place and we both sat at different table and we ordered lunch and didn't think any more of it. Then when they were leaving they came up to our table and said it was nice to meet us and said goodbye and we thought.."ah, they seem nice". Then when we got up to pay our bill, the waitress told us that the couple had paid for us and said it was lovely to meet us! It was very nice of them, but we were taken aback a bit. Wish we could remember what we said!
Ok, got a bit side tracked there. Well, we arrived at Phillips Island and went to the Koala sanctuary, where we saw...Koalas! They are the cutest animals, especially as they just spend the whole day sleeping! Next stop, was to see the Penguins. At sunset each day, they arrive from their swim in the sea and walk back up the
and then there was one more....
Ib joining us for a few days to tour the Blue mountainsbeach to their homes to sleep. So at sunset, we waited and suddenly when it started to get dark they started arriving in their masses. They are so cute as they waddle up the beach. They walk right next to you so you really get to see them up close.
(Amy stops, Simon starts)
The following morning we visited Philips Island Heritage farm and then headed on our way around the coast to catch the ferry to the Great Ocean Road where slightly rudely we had to pay for our own lunch this time. As the name suggests, the road takes you right next the ocean, actually quite scarily close given the steep drops from the cliffs, and has some of Melbourne’s best competition surfing beaches. I consider myself a bit of a surfer these days after my lesson in Costa Rica (I’ve also bought some new laser made, no seam, very cool surfing shorts which even have a plastic surfing tool built into them and so must make me an expert) but still the water looked far too rough so instead we just watched the pros do their jumps and get completely swamped by enormous waves -
somehow they still managed to come flying out of them on their boards - one day!
After a night by the beach in Lorne we drove on to see the 12 Apostles, actually only 7 of the still remain, but they’re really cool rock formations just off the coast in an area famous for the number of ship wrecks. So having seen some of the beautiful areas around Melbourne we then had to rush back to the city for its most famous attraction, Ramsey Street and the Neighbours studios tour. A fantastically cheesy Neighbours tour bus took us round various suburbs to see the sights of Erisbrough High School, Carpenter’s Garage and of course the actual street with Harolds and Karl Kennedy’s house, etc. All quite fun and the chance to meet a “star”, well in our case it was the girl who played Michelle Scully a few years ago, not strictly a star I think but at least she was from our university era and so we recognized her unlike most of the current cast.
We were sad to leave Melbourne, huge thanks to Lizzie, Trevor, Cassie and Iggy for their incredible hospitality (I think Amy is
now almost converted to dogs - well at least two of them), and after the excitement of Ramsey Street it was always going to be hard for Uluru, or Ayer’s Rock as it used to be, to compete but it gave it a good go. We flew straight from Melbourne into the heat and desert at Ayer’s Rock resort and set off to see the sun set over the red rock. Like Sydney Opera House, it was strange to actually see such an iconic sight, particularly as it is just a big rock, but the sunset was beautiful and it was amazing to see the colours of the rock and red desert change as the sun went down. We spent a couple of days at the rock seeing the sunrise (that was an early start!), learning about its aboriginal significance, visiting Kata Tjuta, the rocks slightly less famous but equally beautiful rock neighbour, and feeding Mosquitoes with Amy’s face. And so to the ridiculously hot Cairns which is where we currently are. Actually, this entry is already far too long so I’ll save the highlights of Cairns for next time.
I hope everyone in the UK is well. We’ve
now written emails to work about our return which is kind of scary but still 6 weeks or something to go which is ages! I’m also trying to persuade Amy to let us buy a Christmas cd for the next few days of driving, strangely shes resisting so far.
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