Still in Oz

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Its been a while since Ive done this so no doubt Im going to miss a whole load of information bit here goes.

We had gotten into a bit of a routine of driving to our next destination then finding a place to stay when we got there. Somewhat naively we did not attempt to introduce a different routine when entering Melbourne. Therefore what we effectively did was drove into the centre of London in rush hour. However thanks to my co drivers navigational skills we were soon out of the city and at our camp site. this is where we found the first of many miserable Australians, its so fascinating to see that in the rural areas you will only meet happy friendly people yet as soon as you reach the larger cities no one seems to enjoy their jobs and common courtesy appears to be in short supply. Thats not to say that there aren still plenty of friendly people in Melbourne.

We mastered the transport system with a bus and a train to the city centre and had a walk around. Our day consisted of a spontaneous piano solo by a hooded stranger which still amazes me today, some coat shopping, some gardens and some art (which we have both decided we don really appreciate).

To our dislike we spent another night in the same campsite because there was nowhere else nearby. It was possibly the strangest place we have stayed yet as we were the only ones who didn actually live there permanently. The next day we set off for Philip island.

Philip island was a magical place with Koalas, wallabys, seals and penguins. The penguin parade was most definately a highlight with one small exception. There was one penguin (Clifford) who was stood out for sometime waiting for his girlfriend to come home. It was freezing cold but I felt compelled to make sure they were re-united until eventually we had to give up. I have chosen to believe that she had a mountain of paperwork to get through and just hadn realised the time although it is also very possible that she was eaten by a shark and Clifford is still stood on his doorstep waiting.

The following day Rachel fell in love with a calf on Churchill island then we boarded Humphrey to start the journey to Canberra. After around 6 hours driving we stopped to make some calls and quite conveniently found a campsite so we spent the night in Orbost.

We continued our journey up the Monaro highway and through the snowy mountains. I must confess that I did not expect to see snow in Australia but the world is full of surprises. We made it to Canberra and even more impressively managed to find Rachels Auntie and Uncles house.

The entire family were absolutely perfect hosts. On our first night Rachels cousin Alex kindly invited me round for a boys night in of barbecue and poker. The following day we hit the market for some much needed shopping (local beer, chilli macadamia nuts and mint chocolate crisps) before watching people fall out of boats in the cold and starting our educational tour of Canberra.

Canberra is a fascinating place as unlike any capital city it was not a busy populated place before being named a capital. When the different states in Australia voted and agreed to become the federation of Australia it was decided that Canberra (an Aboriginal word for meeting place) would be the location and a competition would be held to design the city (a competition which was won by an American named Sir Walter Burley Griffin. The design was based on geometric shapes around the centrepeice of the city which is now named lake Burley Griffin). Suffice to say we learned a lot not only about Canberra but about Australia in general. I have noted some shocking quotes from early English settlers who had basically decided that the animals were primative and would soon be extinct and that the people could do with a good bit of Christianity and losing that dark colour from their skin.

After 3 nights with the family we were treated (again) to a farewell dinner at their favourite restaurant then we said our sad goodbyes in the morning and rejoined Humphrey for a trip to Sydney.

We found our camp site which did not have power but was next to the station which allowed us to spend longer in Sydney than we could in Melbourne as the last train back was past midnight. That night we had some perspective (beer) in an Irish pub then got some drunken sleep.

Sydney was a good day! We saw loads of the city and treated ourselves to a jet boat ride with Rachels treat money. In hindsight when asked if we wanted a wet ride or o dry ride i would have stopped Rachel fr scraming wet please with a big grin on her face. My pants still weren dry when we got home. 

We finished the evening in a nice restaurant with nice wine and got our train home.

The day did have one small hiccup which is a rather long story involving a missing train ticket. To cut it short the upshot is that we may not be able to leave the country without paying a $200 fine.

After another powerless night we went for fish and chips on Bondi beach before heading to the Blue Mountains. Navigating our way back out of Sydney was somewhat testing (and there may be more fines coming our way in the form of unpaid tolls) but it was worth it to be able to say that we drove Humphrey over the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

The mountains are a stunning sight. So stunning in fact that we have agreed to take another look in the morning before heading to Newcastle.

This evening we dined on Ray rays beef honkeytonk served with mashed potato, carrots, broccoli and a nice Cabernet Merlot. Its a new recipie and a bloody good one.

All in all this backpacking lark ain half bad.

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