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Published: August 8th 2007
Holy Crap! We've been away 5 months already!!
No way does it feel that long, although if we think about all the things we've seen and done I suppose it's just about possible.
We've finally done with ASIA and we are now in AUSTRALIA. Western traditions, English speaking (just about) and best of all western food!
We flew from Beijing to Sydney on an aero plane with hardly anyone on it?? Victoria managed to grab a spare row of 4 seats all for herself, so had loads of room to lay down. I wasn't so lucky and ended up with 2 to myself. I did try getting onto her 4 as well but it seams the airline don't approve of that sort of thing...that's what the toilets are for!
Sydney
12 hours later we arrived in Sydney, we went straight to the tourist information desk and sorted out our guesthouse from a massive choice and a free phone to call them from. For anyone traveling this is definitely the best method if you’re flying. We ended up in the "Pink House" in Kings Cross the "colourful" bit of Sydney. The main street has cafes next
Me and Jess (Vicky's friend)
Wave your hands in the air... like a couple of idiotsdoor to sex shops next door to Mc Donalds next to another sex shop. I hear you can now get a Mc Prostitute with a side order of flies (I've copywrited that just incase they go for it!!)
The place isn't that bad though but we were in the guesthouse for less than 10mins when someone off the street walked in and nicked someone’s bag, there was a big chase and he was caught near the police station, of all places!
On the 2nd night we met up with one of my friends Matthew Trickett and one of Victoria's friends Jessica Eve. Before I continue that reminds me.... It seems some of my other friends want a mention on the blog so.... HELLO to Matt Neal, Chris Cresswell, Danny Scothorne and of course Scott and everyone else, Sorry it costs to sit here and write this so you lot know who you are, anyway....
I put down to the lack of booze of late and not that I am a big girl!!
We did some of the obligatory tourist things in Sydney, I.e: went to the Opera House, Harbour Bridge, The Rocks and Bondi Beach.
On
Our Reg Plate
"Victoria the Place to Be" how appropriate (Vicky wrote this) the 5th day we picked up our accommodation for the next 6 weeks... A Toyota Hi-Ace Campervan! It has a Microwave (Only operates when we are plugged into the mains, i.e at a campsite) + a stove, fridge and a seating area which then turns into a bed at night. WOW!
Blue...Everything
We decided our first night would be spent in the Blue Mountains, only a short 2 hour drive from Sydney, or it would have been if we could have found our way out the city....3 hours later we arrive. It's beautiful scenery up there with Bush and mountain ranges as far as the eye can see.
For the evening we camped at Emu Plains (Campsite), only paid for a place to park the vehicle and use the shower / toilet facilities but it was still $20. The Van comes with Linen and sleeping bags...designed for summer obviously though as it was F-F-F-Freezing! We
Matt offered us a free bed for a few nights which we gratefully accepted and which also then allowed us to spend some money on a good meal out and some booze with Matt and his mates in Bondi, a
Katoomba, Blue Mountains
"The Three Sisters" formation, and look, it looks like I'm touching them...nice one great night until I puked, which had to go out a few days later and buy a duvet (Or Doona as it's known over here) + some woolly hats to wear in bed!! fully clothed we still woke up cold! The Mountains weren't the only blue things!
We went on a bush walk to the Red Hands Cave. This is where Aborigines have left hand prints on a cave from about 1600 years ago. The site itself is a bit disappointing as its protected by wire mesh & plexi-glass but you can see the hand marks of adults & kids quite clearly, to make the marks they sprayed Ochre from their mouths over their hands to make hand imprints rather than actually painting them (See pic).
Wino's
A few days later we traveled from the Blue Mountains through to the Hunter Valley. This is where alot of Australian wine comes from and "Lindemans" have their site here. We were hoping to have a wine making tour but were just too late so settled for a bit of tasting at one and ended up buying a bottle as we felt slightly obliged after the woman had informed us of
the various differences. We are now experts and spit wine into buckets at every opportunity!
That night was our first night of freebie Camping, i.e not at a campsite but somewhere on the side of the road. We carefully chose our spot and then stayed awake most of the night wondering if the van was going to be tipped over by vandals or if the Police were coming to move us on. As it happened the only problem came when we needed a pee and Victoria pissed on her own shoes as she squatted next to the van in the dark. Ha Ha. As I’m typing this she is saying it was my fault for not shining the torch at the right spot...Eh??
Somebody fetch Miss Marple!...
The following morning we drove to Newcastle (which has Stockton nearby, it's like being back home again...If we lived in the North of the UK...which we don't)
There was bugger all going on there so we ended up driving through Charlestown and then to a place called Redhead which has a campsite on the beach.
Now, we had heard of this campsite already as the night before on the radio
Red Hands Cave
Some of the ochre stencil handprints left by aborigines about 1600yrs ago it had said an old woman been found murdered there and a man was in custody!!!!....So naturally we ended up stopping there, mainly for two reasons: 1. It rates very high on the novelty value scoreboard, it's not often you get to stop in murder central! 2. My theory was that it was probably the safest place on earth as it is highly unlikely to happen again the next night....hopefully?
When we got to our plot (5 doors away from the scene) the Police were still there with the house cordoned off with police tape, all very exciting. Even better was that our plot had an ensuite toilet...This campsite has everything!
That night we went to the house of two of the girls we met on the China trip (Kate and Jess) and were fed some nice home-made lasagne, the first home-cooked food in 5 months!
After returning to Camp Death we awoke to find that we hadn't had our throats slit in our sleep.
Thank-God! We don't get a refund on the van if we finish using it early!
The wrong side of 30...
That day we left murderville for Port Macquarie and after a night
Hunter Valley Wino
Why do I keep on doing these stupid poses??? of sleeping in a sneaky roadside spot I woke up to find I had turned 36...It's my Birthday!
We drove to a nearby public toilet to brush our teeth and have a wash (shit... I'm 36 and washing in public toilets!! Life doesn't get any better!)
The rest-area overlooked the ocean and as we looked out we saw dolphins in the bay below, then as we looked to the horizon we saw Hump Back whales breaching and spouting water, an hour later on our drive to our next stop in Coffs Harbour we saw our first Kangaroo's (Live ones anyway, we'd already seen dead ones). In the excitement we jumped out of the van to take pictures and I left the handbrake off! If it wasn't for Victoria turning around at the right moment we may have had an accommodation problem that night!
That night we went out for a rare meal...well medium rare, we both had steak. At the end of the meal we thought we'd share a dessert and 4 waitresses brought it out with a sparkler in it and sang me happy birthday courtesy of my cheesy but thoughtful girlfriend, fortunately there was no-one else in
Campervan
Roadside picnic, just like you see sad old people do in England! the restaurant at the time so it wasn't too embarrassing.
After that we went to the cinema and watched the new Pirates of the Caribbean film which, call me stupid, but i didn't really get...either way it was a good night and nice to get away from the same four wheels!
Byron Bay
The next day we drove to Byron Bay. This is one of the most popular places on the East Coast. There are loads of campervans and travelers everywhere despite it being off-season. We booked in to a campsite at Clarke Beach for 2 nights. The second day I went on my 1st dive in Oz, courtesy of Trudi, Dave (Vicky's parents) and Arthur & Audrey (Vicky's Grand-Parents). I was going to wait until further up the coast nearer to the barrier reef but a dive shop tempted me with sights of turtles and sharks. The dive itself was fairly average until out of the gloom came a couple of 2m Grey Nurse Sharks! This shark looks how sharks should, It's also known as the ragged tooth shark and when I found myself a few meters away from it I did start to wonder if they
Kangaroo Warning
Ironically there was a dead one next to the sign...bit too gruesome to photograph though were right about it not attacking people, it looks evil!( See pics) I also saw a massive Loggerhead turtle...asleep, still a nice sight though.
After the dive we went for a walk up the cliff's to Cook's Lookout, the most Easterly point in Oz. Victoria looked over the edge into the water and spotted a turtle swimming. She did admit to me afterwards she thought it was a rabbit at first......No comment.
After the two nights in the campsite we did another night on the side of the road but then went back to the campsite in the morning to sneak in and use the showers as we still had the code Ha Ha!
We seem to be getting quite good and this sneaky camping lark. When we return to the UK we've decided to start squatting instead of paying for somewhere!!...or not.
We continued our journey North and stopped at what would probably be some really nice coastal places but the weather has turned dull and rainy so to be honest we've been struggling to do anything of interest.
Australia Zoo
We made it to a place called Beerwah, which doesn't really
hold any interest apart from the fact it's where Australia Zoo is, the (Ex) home of Steve Irwin!
Victoria’s had one mission on her mind when we entered; a picture holding a Koala. I was quite happy with this as well, apart from that she wanted the "Professional" picture with the fake background etc. I'm not saying I don't like the results but it does look scarily like "Our first baby" photo! I don't mean literally...it's obviously a bit hairy for that...although having met some of Victoria’s family.....
The zoo is fantastic. We both thought Singapore zoo is set out better but the Motto here is "getting close to animals" and you can certainly do that, we petted baby alligators, Skinks, a wombat, obviously the koala and finally kangaroos which you can feed, pat and lay down comfortably behind, (please see the photo before passing comment at that).
Tomorrow we head to Tin Can Bay to get close to nature again when we (hopefully) get to feed wild Dolphins that swim into the harbour!
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Scott
non-member comment
Short fat and hairy!!!
Actually, the Koala does look like Russell, short fat and hairy!!