Narooma II

Hello world. We decided to say goodbye and thanks to Jason and Jacqui and the family, and to leave Melbourne and start making our way north to chase some sunshine.

On Monday we had a wander to the Docklands area which is all new and done up with lots of weird arty sculptures. Then on the Tuesday we hung around to watch the Anzac day parade in the city until lunchtime and then hit the highway (after 45 minutes trying to get out of the city - Melbourne roadsigns are useless) for the long drive back.

We haven't taken the fastest route back to Sydney. Instead we're going back the way we came along the south east coast. A 3.5 hour drive got us to Lakes Entrance where we stopped the night and then gathered some photos (which we failed to do the first time round for some reason). Then on Wednesday lunchtime it was another 4 hour drive to Narooma, one of our favourite places so far.

An absolute lack of confidence in the car means that we're checking it constantly for problems, and sure enough we found an oil leak. We had a garage in Narooma look at it and it needs a new fuel pump, so we're now stranded once again as they can't get one in until Tuesday. We always have car trouble on a Thursday so that day will now be limited to short journeys.

This place is impossibly beautiful, however, so we're not too downhearted, and we're being very well looked after by Chris and Wendy at the YHA here. They might even be able to get us a bit of work round the hostel to help us out. There isn't a lot to do here though, so we might be watching a lot of films over the next few days to kill some time. We can also try and make a decision about selling the car too. The bloody thing has turned out to be a liability.

It's a bit warmer up here than it was in Melbourne although we've got a bit of rain today so we'll probably just relax here for the weekend, popping down to the plaza occasionally to pick up some ludicrously cheap wine.

We're well but will be keen to move on by the time the car's fixed. There's a chance we'll stop in Sydney for a few weeks to sell the car but we might try and drag it all the way up to Cairns. Surely we can't have any more bad luck with it.

...can we?

The Anzac Day Parade in Melbourne with Flinders St. Station on the right:


90 Mile Beach at Lakes Entrance:


Narooma, where we're currently stranded (damn):


Some fisherman feeding the Pelicans in the bay at Narooma:


If you ever doubted Oz's claim to be the BBQ capital of the world, just pop down to any public park or even rest stops on the major roads and you'll find a BBQ sitting there waiting to be fired up:


Charlotte writing:

Asian Furniture and Designer Clothes

Well we've been back to work this week. Not at the sweety factory but in another suburb near St. Kilda called Prahan. Kev was at an Asian antique furniture warehouse, lugging $2500 chest of drawers around, and Charlotte has been at a European designer clothing sale. Unlike the sweet factory, we weren't allowed to take samples home, sadly, so don't expect a huge Chinese wardrobe or a Prada handbag on our return.

The unfortunate downside to working this week was that Kev was forced to go to the pub after work with his new colleagues, and subsequently spent half the wages on beer. So we spent Friday evening with a local bloke who insisted on buying us lots of beer and gin and tonics. We had a good night and a shocking hangover for Saturday.

So we've spent the week in St. Kilda and generally kept it low key trying to save money. This was a good plan until we found another parking ticket on the car this morning. That's one for each state so far, let's see if we can get the whole collection!

We're not entirely sure of our next move but we will either pack the van up and get back up to the north, or stay and try and work to pay off the parking fine. Either way, we'll be in touch soon so we'll leave you with some of our photos from Halls Gap, and one of Melbourne just to prove we were here:

Charlotte feeds her new friends:


A shot of the Grampians from a lookout, with Halls Gap visible at the bottom. You can see how close the bush fires got to the town where the colour of the trees goes from green to brown:


Us with Jason and Jacqui, taken by Jason's mum:


Kev at the edge of the cliff getting some dramatic footage:


Roo and Joey, who both looked up at the exact moment we took the shot:


The caravan park where we were staying (we slept in the van):


Kev takes Jason's car off-road (with permission):


A little dance at the top of Mt. William:


It was a 2km walk to the top, so we were happy to make it:


...and the view was spectacular:


Our home city for the past month - Melbourne:

Freaky Frankston

We've finished working at the sweet factory now and are quite sick of Bertie Beetles so the collection we've accumulated might be with us for a few weeks. We had a quiet week, trying to save up money so that we can finish Melbourne and head north for some sunnier weather. The van dislikes the cold as much as we do (when we say cold, we mean we have to wear a jumper in the evenings).

St. Kilda is our current location but we've just been staying in a place called Frankston. Frankston is hard to describe but if you can imagine a town where everyone is a village idiot, that's about it. We walked into town on our first day and watched a lady trying to push open an automatic door.

We've just arrived in St. Kilda which is by the sea not far from the centre of Melbourne. The beach is a bit like Bournemouth but not as busy (at this time of year at least) and the town is a bit backpacker and a bit trendy. So far it seems OK although we've been here for a few hours and three people have asked us for spare change. This week we're going to try and arrange a bit more work and also see some more of the city so that we can tick it off properly.

Hope you all had a nice Easter weekend and we'll update the blog soon...

Back to work

Hello world, hope you're still reading!

We managed to arrange some work this week, and so have a small income to keep us going. We're going to try and save a little and then get on up to Queensland as it's getting quite chilly down here in Victoria.

Since we last updated the blog we've had a fantastic weekend up in the Grampians, spending the days taking the 4x4s off-road (but not our car), watching and feeding the kangaroos that just bounce around the campsite and eating some magnificent fresh meat from Nathan the butcher who joined us on Saturday. No, Nathan the butcher isn't a serial killer, he's a butcher.

We saw our first Redback Spider wander out from underneath the bbq as we sat around the fire. We thought, "Holy crap! The fearsome Redback Spider, one of the most poisonous spiders in the world, we're all going to die!!!" and the Aussies thought "oh, a spider" before Jason's son Jake squashed it with a fiery stick. Yes it might bite you and bring a lot of pain, but it's no match for an Aussie with a fiery stick.

We were staying in a town called Halls Gap which, at the end of January narrowly escaped a huge bush fire which swept the region. And it was huge, covering an area that must have been the size of Nottinghamshire at least. A stroke of good luck when the weather changed saved the town and we could see just a few hundred metres from our camp how close it came. Although it limited our ability to see the area a bit as many of the roads are still closed, we still had a cracking weekend.

On Sunday, Jason, Jacqui and ourselves climbed to the top of Mount William which gives a fantastic, 360 degree view of the Grampians where the scale of the devastation is starkly apparent.

Kev also had a bit of an introduction to Aussie Rules Football, or as it's known here, football. The family decided that Kev looks and kicks like this bloke.

The evenings were spent freezing in the van, trying to sleep on our continuously deflating air mattress and getting up occasionally to pump it up. We've since bought a proper camping mattress that should last the year.

On our way back we decided to stop in Ballarat for a night before arranging some work in Melbourne which we're doing every night this week. I'm sure you're all pleased to hear that we're back earning a wage rather than living it up. You may not be quite so pleased to hear we've ended up working in a sweet factory and they don't seem to mind us taking a few samples. We're ensuring we wear the trousers that have the most pockets.

That'll only last until Friday though so who knows what we'll be doing next...

She purrs

We've had a quiet week this week, trying to save money to help towards the cost of repairing the car, which is a bit of a bugger but unfortunately a necessity. It began with the Grand Prix. We arrived at the circuit nice and early, not least because nobody had told us that the clocks had gone back so we should have had an extra hour in bed. We didn't suffer too much though and got to have a look round the classic car paddock before it got too busy.

During the day, we walked around the Albert Park circuit which is set around a nice lake and park. So in one direction you have the lake, a fountain, swans, flowers and grass, then you turn your head and see a field of V8 Supercars thundering past. Superb.

The F1 race was pretty entertaining from our point of view, lots of action and stuff blowing up - not that we managed to see much of that. And if you're wondering, yes Charlotte enjoyed the day too.

After the race was over, we stuck around for a while and managed to see Fernando Alonso come out of the pits to do some photo ops with his team and then left the circuit to find a bar. We got chatting to a couple of drunken Aussies and one of them gave us his number in case we needed somewhere to stay on the other side of Melbourne. That just seems to be how the Aussies are, even when sober.

He did fancy Charlotte though so perhaps it wasn't all just good will...

We organised a bit of work during the week but it fell through at the last minute, so instead of earning money we went to the Aquarium to spend some. It was good, with a superb walkway under a big pool crammed full of sharks and stingrays and then loads of other fish that somehow avoid being eaten by them.

Our hostel this week isn't at the top of the list so far. To put it one way, we're looking forward to sleeping in the van tomorrow night. We're sharing a dorm with a Canadian lad who's pleasant enough, and what we think is a French-Canadian girl who won't even say hello and spends almost the entire day sleeping. Tonight is our last night there so we managed to survive the whole week.

We got the train back to Colac this afternoon to pick the car up and had a trouble-free drive back to Hoppers Crossing where we've popped in on Jason to use all his electricty and Internet connection.

Tomorrow we follow him and his family to Halls Gap in the Grampians national park for the weekend and we can't wait. It's going to be cold but fun and we should see plenty of wildlife. Hopefully none of it will sting, bite, kill or eat us.

Shedloads of photos to upload now!

Kev saw this, and thought of Stoke:

(incidentally, when we pulled over the take this photo another nice Aussie stopped us and asked if we were OK. They're so nice they even stop for nutcases!)

Lorne, and dinner with some Cockatoo's:


Jesse, Charlotte and Michaela:


Great Ocean Road - This sign made Kev miss his car (we didn't get the photo of the one that said wiggly roads for 60km):


No, we didn't try to fix the car with suntan lotion:


Not a pleasant sight:


Also not a pleasant sight - a Daihatsu Sirian - but we finished the Great Ocean Road in it and it was quite good fun:


The Otway Fly - a network of walkways up in the trees:


The 12 Apostles at sunset. One of those things you really should do:


Kev reunites with his brothers, Ste and David aka Gog and Magog:


Charlotte at Flagstaff Hill, the recreated 19th Century maritime village:


Our first Koala up close in the wild:


At Tower Hill wildlife reserve on the edge of an old volcano crater:


Albert Park Grand Prix post-race track invasion!


Federation Square in Melbourne where a giant ear chases people around:


Duuh-duh, duuh-duh, dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun (Melbourne Aquarium):


The outside of the hostel. Mmmmmm, appealing:

Melbourne!

Hello world.

Our car is still dead but we have left it in the capable hands of the Toyota mechanics in Colac. We hope they're capable hands. We won't be seeing it again until next Thursday when we need it to head up to the Grampians with Jason's family for next weekend, which we're looking forward to.

In the meantime, we'll elaborate on the previous post which was somewhat rushed. On our Great Ocean Road 'holiday' we also stopped at the 12 apostles; a rock formation along the coast. We stayed there to watch the sun set so that was nice. Be prepared for about 150 photos of that evening.

The whole coastline is littered with these formations where the cliffs have been battered by the sea. The area is known as 'shipwreck coast' because loads of ships have hit the rocks over the years, and bits of wreckages can even be found at some places. A bit of a tribute to that is at Warrnambool (which we can pronounce, even if you can't) at a place called Flagstaff Hill. It's a little setting all done up to look like an old maritime village, very neat. They do a night show there similar to the one we saw on Sentosa, where images are projected onto a fountain. This one told the story of one of the more famous ships to go down, the Loch Ard, so it was a bit more interesting.

Our last stop before taking the hire car back was Tower Hill, an old volcano which is now a sort of wildlife park. As soon as we arrived we were welcomed by some emus, and then as we parked up, a koala was wandering around. There are some kangaroos there as well but we didn't hang around for too long so missed them.

We stopped in Colac for the next few days, saving money by sitting in a cheap hotel watching telly, and then jumped on a train to Melbourne which is our current residence. We're staying in a place which is like student halls but more international and less smelly.

Last night we went up to the observation deck, a big skyscraper giving you a view of the city and ended the night with a oyster farmer from South Australia trying to convince us to go and work at his place. He tried to convince us by buying us Sam Buca all night though, so we took his business cards and will get back to him later. For Jo, Mick and co., he's about an hour south of Adelaide if you get stuck for work...

This morning we did a spot of shopping and tomorrow it's off to Albert Park for the GRAND PRIX!

No chance of posting pics here unfortunately - we'll sort that out when we can.