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Published: January 3rd 2008
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Blue Mountains
The blue haze is caused by a fine mist of Eucalyptus oil. Now completely fed up with the rubbish weather we cut short our time on the coast and headed to the Blue Mountains. We drove through Stockton, Newcastle and Swansea, passing Cardiff, Dudley, Liverpool and Windsor, had a brief discussion regarding whether the Brett navigation system was working (it was) and eventually arrived in a very chilly campsite near Katoomba. We awoke surprised the next day to discover beautiful warm sunshine and clear blue skies (even more surprising given that the night before we could see our breath). We spent the day visiting the lookouts across the Blue Mountains and waving our arms around like lunatics in vain attempts tro get rid of the thousands of flies.
We then left the mountains and, armed with booze, headed back north of Sydney to Kariong where we had been invited to our friend Neil's girlfriend Lauren's early family Christmas celebrations (Neil & Lauren would be in England for actual Christmas). Having never met us before, Lauren's family made us feel so welcome and showed us the kind of hospitality we have become accustomed to down under. Andy spent most of the day drooling over the Weber - a spangly bbq that cooks whole
Blue Mountains
The Three Sisters roasts, and is now on his Christmas list for next year.
Adding some fuel to the old addage that it's a small world after all, we realised that Laura's friend from school, Emma, lived about 10 minutes away from Lauren's so we arranged a pre New Year visit. We arrived to find some serious DIY being undertaken by Emmas boyfriend Brett. Putting your single storey house on stilts while you build a second floor beneath it, while removing most existing internal walls and gutting the kitchen and living room makes our (very lengthy) bathroom project seem very insignificant! We had a lovely day which involved taking their savage beast of a dog, Max, (Emma had warned us that Max didn't like new people particularly men - Max spent the whole of the car journey licking Andy's ear!) for a walk and having dinner and we are looking forward to meeting up again around New Year.
The next day we set off on our marathon journey to Melbourne, a total of 12 hours in the van, and typically not a cloud in the sky. The following morning we set off along the Great Ocean Road where we found ourselves
Blue Mountains
Wentworth Falls. Laura made Andy hop across the safety barrier at the top to retrieve the camera lens she had dropped. now proving that it's a small world when, having pulled up at one of the many lookouts along the route, Andy was tapped on the shoulder by colleague, James from Faber's Exeter office. One of our first stops along the route was Anglesea Golf Club, which is famous for its large population of kangaroos who like to sun themselves on the fairway. Then, at Cape Otway (after a rather rubbish lighthouse experience) we were fortunate enough to spot a large colony of koalas the majority of whom were awake, which, considering they sleep for 20-22 hours every day, was quite impressive. At the end of the Great Ocean Road are the Twelve Apostles. These are stacks of sandstone left in the Ocean after the rest of the cliffs have been washed away around them, and although only six now remain were surprisingly impressive. After a brief Colin McRae moment, where Andy (unintentionally) managed to get all 4 wheels of the van off the ground at once (we were going to back up and do it again to get some photos but thought better of it) we got back to our Motel after another long day driving.
The next day,
Great Ocean Road
Anglesea Golf Club. Who said golf wasn't relaxing? having made the most of the free brekky at our motel, we drove around Melbourne to Philip Island. On the way we felt it would be rude not to visit Pin Oak Court (see photo to work out why). The reason for visiting Philip Island is the 'Penguin Parade', whereby a colony of Little Penguins (the smallest penguins in the world - about a foot high) comes ashore every night. We opted for the 'private penguin tour' where we got a ranger between 8 of us and got to sit right at the front on the beach as the penguins passed by. The penguins literally wash up on the shoreline (hilarious) and gather in groups before eventually a brave one leads them across the scary beach together. At one point a big scary seagull landed near them and sent them all scurrying back to the sea, which was very sweet. We weren't allowed to take photos but Laura can assure you that they were very cute (again Andy checked the bags as we left) as we got to see them very close. Despite being scared of seagulls, the beach and cameras, they are bizarrely used to thousands of humans watching
Great Ocean Road
Luckily this wasn't where Andy performed his rallying feat. them from a boardwalk only inches away.
The following day we drove into Melbourne, which was in drought, until we arrived. Where upon the heavens opened and it had its worst storm for 10 years, with 2 trams being struck by lightning! This didn't put a dampner on our evening though as we went to see the very Aussie production of 'Priscilla Queen of The Desert - The Musical' at the theatre. It was an innuendo filled camp-fest and was the funniest/most ridiculous/most entertaining show we've seen.
Then it was time to say goodbye to our van. Five weeks and 6,500kms after picking it up (just to put this into perspective we saw a map of Oz with the whole of Europe inside it and we've driven the equivalent of Finland to Greece) we dropped it off in Melbourne with only a few new dents and strange noises, ready for our next trip to Tasmania.
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ma and pa
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Fab pics
Happy new year. Penguin arrived safely Laura. Indie teaching it to catch frizby!!!!!!?????