Everybody Needs Good Neighbours

---

DAY 105


We are both feeling relaxed on this journey, it has probably taken some time to settle into a bit of a routine in what we are doing and get organised. I guess for the both of us working in Project Management we seem to keep thinking of ways to improve what we do and how we do things, but whichever way you look at it this journey is an exciting adventure and is to be enjoyed, albeit relaxed, one thing we do not want to do is lie around all day.

So a little late out of bed again this morning, not a problem, as we are not doing too much today, just a little bit of prep for Tasmania.

Last night Andy promised me a breakfast of Eggy Bread, it kept me awake all night with anticipation for this morning feast.

After our first cup of tea of the day, Andy produced the frying pan and made the breakfast. I have to say it was delicious, well I don’t have to say that but it was actually delicious especially smothered in HP Sauce.

I did two loads of washing yesterday, but the campsite seemed to be quite full of backpackers doing their laundry so I left one load until today. I could not get my washing on the lines by the laundry and we had limited drying space under our awning. I chuckled to myself when I saw one girl strip down to her bikini and everything else went in the washing machine, I guess that’s the way to do it! The machines were busy today, but the washing lines had less on them, still I managed to do my whites and before long they were hanging around to dry.

When I got back to our site Andy was chatting to someone, nothing new there then Andy is always talking to someone. Turns out that Shaun and his wife, Donna, are from England and they have residency visas, they will move out to Adelaide early next year and the purpose of this trip was to activate their visas as they had already had them for a while. Although the visa itself does not expire if you do not activate within 12 months, the medicals, the police certification, blood tests etc would need to be redone as a lot can change in 12 months.

Now they have activated the visas, they can leave it a little longer before coming over to set up home. Donna says that Sean is concerned about finding work here.

Popping out to the Golden Arches to do the blog and a little bit of internet research, we decided that while we were in Melbourne we should at least visit the set of another famous Aussie soap, well we had done Home and Away so we should visit Neighbours “Ramsey Street”.

I think the only reason why we actually decided to go there is that the directions to the so called “Ramsey Street” are printed on the back of the Big4 information leaflet along with directions to other important places like the Port for the Spirit of Tasmania, the Supermarket, the train station etc. I guess they either got fed up telling people or take pity on those embarrassed to ask.

One thing they should have said is how far it is from the camp site, we just seemed to keep driving. We started to see a different side of Melbourne, leaving some of the tacky areas behind we started to see bigger and better houses, however one thing did not change and that was the sprawl. All you can see for miles (or should I say Kilometres) are houses, shops, garages, shopping centres, offices, people, roads and traffic. Traffic what a nightmare, it reminds me of a busy day down the Avenue in Southampton - no wait it could be worse than that!

Finally into “Ramsey Street” we turned which is actually called “Pin Oaks Court” and we both said in unison “Is this it”? Yes Ladies and Gentleman that was it, a tiny little cul-de-sac with a few houses in it, looking much much smaller than it does on TV and obviously no filming today. Just two cars parked in the cul-de-sac, one containing a suspicious looking man filling out some paperwork, probably one of the writers looking for inspiration, I am not sure that I could find inspiration there.

Andy looked at me and said, “you get out and take a photo, I am not doing it”, so the embarrassing touristy thing was left to me to do. If anyone actually does live in these houses, there were cars in the driveway they must get tired of people taking pictures. I took a couple, but nothing to speak off, with that guy sat in his car watching I felt a complete plank, but of course we are obliged to take pictures for our blog readers.

In a nutshell, unless you are heading in that direction to do anything other than see Ramsey Street, then I would not waste your fuel.

Let me just say though, that given the time we have been here and that is only 2 days, we have not given Melbourne any justice, there are a lot of you out there that have been here and have savoured some of the delights, such as the arts and the eating, all of that will be here for another visit, we will do a “City Break” at some point so that we can spend time in the middle of the city to enjoy this side of Melbourne, but for now, we have a lot to see of Australia (& Tasmania) which will keep us busy for several months ahead.

I think Andy mentioned yesterday that it is a city without a “buzz”, I do agree with that we really felt the buzz with Sydney and Brisbane, I am sure Melbourne’s “Buzz” is there somewhere.

Back at the camp I set about looking for a campsite on Tasmania, knowing that we would not arrive on Tasmania until at least 6.00pm we needed to know that we had somewhere to park for the night.

I found a Big 4 at Ulverstone, about 20 minutes away from the where the ship docks and telephoned for information. During the conversation I find out that they charge 20 cents for a shower. Asking why she explained that during their busy periods it stops the kids from having long hot showers as their parents usually will only give them 20 cents and after a few minutes the hot water runs out, I think that Andy and I will be able to allow ourselves the luxury of putting another 20 cents in for a little more hot water.

They have the usual Big4 (Net4) Internet access, which is the expensive way to get onto the Internet so we will not be using that.

A valid warning for getting onto Tasmania, we will have to go through quarantine at which point they will check if you are carrying fruit and veg, if so they will make you bin it. So tonight for dinner we will make sure that we have eaten every scrap of fruit and veg that we have in the fridge, I suspect by tomorrow that Andy and I will start to look like a salad.

We lolled around for a couple of hours then set to getting the truck ready for departure. We were a short way through then we got talking to the people over the way, Shaun and Donna, from Norfolk. As we were deep in to conversation, the chap that was parked next to us but one sidled up and got in to the conversation.

Les Graham had been away from home for 607 days travelling around the world, he had done all of Canada and the USA and told us of some amazing situation and events that had happened to him on his travels. He was a Scouser so could give me a run for my money in talking the hind legs off a donkey.

There was a kindness to Les that you could feel and a guy that had travelled so much had so much to tell you. His motivation for travel was his wife Maureen who had passed away at the age of 57 when Les was 55, she had battled with cancer and it seems she had won but fate has that habit of kicking you in the nuts as soon as you think you have got the better of it.

He said to us that we were the first people he had talked to today, embarrassed that I did not engage him earlier, I had seen him sitting writing, he is left handed, it was then I noticed that he was travelling alone.

Les told us that we was documenting his travel and was on journal number 7, he wrote beautifully and said that he had sent journals 1-6 back to his boys back in the UK which I guess would be priceless to him, we asked when he was going home, he explained that he was due back on Christmas eve 2009.

After he lost his wife Les went through a big bout of depression, understandably, and travel seems to have been good for his soul, there was a honesty about him that I liked, not bulls+*t, he just told you how he felt. My heart sank when he was regaling us with the adventures he had had, and said when he got to a particular lookout, overlooking the Mississippi he cried, as Maureen his wife was not there to share it with him.

Les is taking the night crossing to Tasmania on Sunday 22 February and I do hope we meet him again.

We had to curtail our discussions as we were not getting anything done, so we packed up as much of the trailer as we could, made a quick sandwich, then shot out to the Golden Arches to Skype Caroline’s Mum and Dad.

After getting back about 10.40 we went straight to bed as we had a 5.00am alarm call to finalise packing away and heading for the ferry.

Just before getting into bed we noticed that the couple next door to us that had problems with their campervan had a little, no scratch that, tiny 2 man tent to sleep in it seems that their campervan was still in the garage having problems, it was a little smokey as it left site this morning. I felt sorry and wished we could have offered them some help, but most of our kit was packed away. I am sure they will be fine, they are young and have been travelling for some 7 months now, which has probably hardened them to this kind of thing. They hope to sell their camper in the next week or so and head up to Darwin to find some work for their remaining 5 months.

---

Photos

City Street
Just one shot of many of Melbournes busy streets.

Peterbuilt
For all you truckies our first Peterbuilt, I tried to photgraph the whole dam thing but it was always too close.

Ramsey Street
Actually Pin Oak Court

Looks Small
This street is tiny in real life

TV Set
Does not look much like a television set.

Les Graham's Journal
Les Graham's Fantastic Journal

Look at this
Day 607

Les's Van
This is Les's 4th Van, he has had 2 in New Zealand and 2 in Oz