Blogs from Australia, Oceania - page 10

Time to head home. We’ve had a great holiday, but it’s really not the best time to take a holiday with so many other people taking time off around Christmas and New Year and, of course, the school holidays. Everything is more crowded and more expensive than it would be at a less popular time of year. It has been great though with the birthday party providing the catalyst to spend NYE in Sydney. We have long talked about witnessing the Sydney fireworks firsthand just once in our lives but, until now, have not made it happen. With a celebration on in northern NSW on the 6th of Jan it provided the perfect opportunity to turn it into a road trip and do the fireworks and then continue north to the birthday party. We were up ... read more

We took another walk around town this morning and found ourselves completing part of Casino’s Federation Heritage Scenic Walk. We probably walked some of it yesterday too but failed to notice the information boards! This morning, we could have done without finding the fruit bat colony down near the river, ha, ha. Actually, it wasn’t too bad seeing as there has been rain recently; they weren’t too smelly! We learnt that Casino was established on the Richmond River in the 1830s by Henry Clay and George Stapleton when they laid claim to 30,000 acres in the Richmond Valley. The site was on/near the original crossing point on the Richmond River and had been colloquially known as ‘The Crossing Place’. Henry and George however decided to name their property ‘Cassino’ after the Italian town of Monte Cassino. ... read more

Back on the road, today we headed up the coast to Sawtell for lunch. After a walk on the beach to gain our exercise goal for the day we lunched at The Kiosk which we discovered when we visited Sawtell in June last year. We couldn’t go past the BLATs. Delicious! We watched a table of Karens who rearranged the tables to accommodate their group. The staff were OK with this, I think it happens all the time to fit different sized groups, but they were specifically asked for an area to be kept clear so that staff could circulate. Of course, the Karens ignored this request and effectively blocked the area they had been asked to keep clear … and then sang a cappella which was weird. Or maybe impromptu singing in public only seems ... read more

Eat, sleep, repeat! Today was pretty much the same as yesterday! We didn’t need anything from the supermarket, so the truck didn’t get to go out today. Otherwise, we walked again in the morning and swam in the afternoon. Walking back from our swim we spotted a sizeable water dragon sunning itself on a rock beside Saltwater Creek. While we were relaxing during the afternoon it was to news that there is rain in Victoria and rain has delayed play in the Third Test in Sydney. It is hard to imagine as the weather is glorious again today in South West Rocks! Lucky us. Tonight, we went to the Thai restaurant, Thai on the Rocks, for dinner before returning to Chillati Gelato for dessert. We had to find a new walking route back to the motel ... read more

Tour Day 85 – Melbourne hosts a starting point for a wide variety of attractions, but the New Year holiday found several attractions not operating for much of my short stay and the weather kept this “fair weather camper” at home for another day. Few of the attractions are close to or within Melbourne (ala the Opera House, the Sydney Bridge and Bondi Beach in Sydney), so a significant drive is required both before and after the attraction and the tour duration is long by the day trip norms I’ve encountered – generally 9 1/2 to 12 hours. Grampians National Park is a bit too rugged for me, sampling the wine and produce of the Yarra Valley just isn’t my flute of champagne and the drive home from the “as the sun is setting” penguin parade ... read more