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Published: April 14th 2008
Sydney
Coastal walk from Coogee to BondiHello everyone, hope you're all well and enjoying the snow in April!? We've spent the last few weeks in a van travelling up the east coast which means that we've been a bit lax on keeping our blog up to date. However we've arrived in a town called Bowen, unfortunately its too windy to snorkel and our only alternative entertainment is bingo at the church hall, so we've decided to do an update.
After leaving India, we arrived at Sydney airport looking forward to cleanliness, western food and anonymity. Dee picked us up with a packet of wine gums in hand and on the journey from the airport we knew we were back in the first world. The streets were clean, cars stopped at traffic lights, there wasn’t a cow or tout in sight and our ear drums had already started on the long road to recovery!
Dee & Dave live in a place called Coogee in Sydneys eastern suburbs and there is a beautiful beach within walking distance of their flat. It was a beautiful evening when we arrived and after having showers in Dee’s lovely clean bathroom (!) we met Dave at a pub on Coogee beach
Sydney
Bondi beach for a “schooner” of VB and a cold Chardonnay. It was bloody brilliant and well earned after the stresses of India. We watched joggers, fitness fanatics and dog walkers making their way along the promenade, and to complete the reintroduction to the developed world Dee cooked us a nice roast dinner!
As soon as we woke up the next day Andrew was down the shops to get some Crunchy Nut Cornflakes (Kim’s slightly worried and may need to enrol me in on Crunchy Nut Cornflake Anonymous because I’ve been consistently eating 3 bowls a day!). Whilst Andrew had a big smile on his face about the cereal purchase, he wasn’t so keen on the prices. A bit of a shock after living so cheaply in Asia.
The weather the next day was lovely, so we decided to take a 90 minute stroll along Sydney’s eastern coast from Coogee to the famous Bondi Beach. It’s a lovely walk with stunning scenery. You pass numerous coves and bays with beautiful golden sandy beaches. There is a laid back atmosphere and with the sea views it really doesn't feel like a big city. The walk gave us a sense of Australia’s
Sydney
The surf on Bondi Beach outdoors lifestyle, people were lying on the beaches, jogging and local schoolchildren were even getting diving tuition on the beach as part of a P.E lesson! Lucky swines! It beats catching beanbags on a wet Wednesday in Chelmsford.
We arrived at Bondi Beach where there were lots of surfers as you’d expect. This tempted me to give it a go a couple of days later. During the lesson I soon realised that surfing requires some coordination - something that doesn’t come naturally to me! I spent most of the lesson trying to stay afloat while laying face down on the board. I think the instructor could see I would need special help from the start as I walked out the changing rooms with my wet suit on back to front!
During the rest of the week we were a bit unlucky with the weather (apparently it’s been one of the wettest summers in recent years) but it didn’t stop us heading out to see the famous Harbour Bridge and Opera House. The weather improved at the weekend and we had a lovely walk round Watsons Bay and were able to enjoy a classic Aussie Barbie. Andrew was in
Sydney
Kim in the rain beside the Harbour Bridge charge of the prawns although you might not be surprised to hear that on his first attempt to throw a shrimp on the Barbie he somehow managed to miss the grill and the prawn ended up on the floor! We also discovered a new bbq food - haloumi cheese - that will be added to the list of imported food when we get home.
After chilling in Sydney for a week we got a flight to Melbourne and upon arrival we checked into a backpackers hostel. It wasn’t the best start as on the first night we were woken up by a nutter trying to break down the door of the room next door at 5am. His girlfriend had obviously locked him out and we didn’t blame her because for an hour he kept shouting “open the f***ing door, open the f***ing door!” waking up the whole floor. He’d obviously been watching too many Hollywood movies because we overheard him use the line “if you take this away from me, I’ll come back and take a lot more from you!” Very Daniel Day-Lewis-esque!
Anyway Melbourne was wicked and had a very different feel to Sydney. Sydney seems to
Sydney
Kim and Dee chillin at Watson's Bay get all the attention internationally but Melbourne has loads going on and we made the most of it by seeing a few bands in St Kilda and the trendy northern suburbs.
Melbourne is a sporting city (there seems to be gigantic stadiums everywhere) and Andrew was pretty keen to see the famous MCG, the worlds largest cricket ground. It was very impressive and we saw a few overs of a state match between Victoria and Queensland. It was a small crowd but it would be a great atmosphere when they’ve got 95,000 people in.
Melbourne (and Victoria) are the homelands of Australian Rules Football and we decided to catch a pre-season friendly between Carlton and Western Bulldogs. Apparently Carlton are a traditional club that have been successful historically, but are now rubbish - bit like Spurs really! It took us a while to get a grip of the basic rules (its 18 aside, with 6 referees) but Aussie Rules is a great game to watch, really fast with non-stop action and the players like to get stuck into each other. Although we found it hard to take any of the players attempts to be hard nuts seriously whilst
Melbourne
Kim with the Melbourne skyline they were wearing those silly sleeveless shirts (not that I would say it to their faces)!
There was a great atmosphere with lots of families, and unbelievably at halftime the crowd are allowed onto the ground to have a kickabout with their footy's! Can you imagine the pandemonium if this happened at a football match in England. Doesn't bear thinking about. On a sidenote, I was quite surprised that Rugby Union seems to be a distant third to Aussie Rules and Rugby League in popularity. Plus its quite hard to follow who's who with all these different football codes as most of the teams are named after an animal of some sort, i.e the Bronco's, the Rabbitohs, the Roosters, etc.
After exploring the city we decided to hire a camper van and drive down the Great Ocean Road and through the Grampians National Park which are both relatively close to Melbourne. Due to a lack of availability of budget campers we ended up with a classy van complete with a grill and 2 hobs! Kim was especially happy with the utensil storage facilities and there was even a microwave so she could have a jacket potato!
The
Melbourne
Kim at the beach in St Kilda scenery on the drive down the Great Ocean Road is spectacular and this was enhanced by the beautiful weather we enjoyed. Along the way we saw some native wildlife including wallabies and Emu's. One night we were having tea and a Kookaburra came down to join us which was a bit special. We were cooking sausages and apparently they're partial to a bit of meat.
We saw the famous 12 apostles and the rest of the beautiful coastline between Torquay and Port Fairy. We managed to catch the last song of the Port Fairy folk festival which had the chorus line of "I just want to die, I just want to die!" Nothing like sending the crowd home on a high.
We got well into the camping spirit during our trip - campers and caravanners are so civil. Every morning we would wake up to a chorus of "
Good morning's."
Something that has struck us about Australia is the quality of public services, this is especially noticeable coming from India. The public toilets are clean, the tourist information offices are brilliant and public barbeques are provided in parks for everyone to use. Its impressive stuff.
After
Melbourne
Andrew hanging out in St Kilda completing our trip in the van, we flew back to Sydney. The weather had improved so that we were able to see the Harbour Bridge and Opera House against a blue sky. We went to a houseparty where a large number of the guests were English - half the population seems to be over here. Even though Sydney is so far away from England, it felt like home. The cultures are so similar and it helped that Dee & Dave were such great hosts.
We're a bit late on this entry, so we'll do another blog soon on our drive up the east coast from Sydney to Cairns.
Take Care, lots of love
Kim & Andrew
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