Climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge

Ola Amigos!

Last night a couple of guys in our room (whom we were yet to meet) came back about 3am, surprisingly quietly, and then one of them - the one in the bottom bunk next to me - starting snoring. Really loud. I mean like a prolonged pig snort type of snore. His mate on the bunk above him was slapping him with a pillow trying to get him to roll over, but he woke us up about three times. His mate was like: "I'm Matt, by the way..." Not the best way to meet your new room mates!

Anyway, we managed to get up this morning and catch the bus down to The Rocks - the oldest part of Sydney. It took us a while to find the BridgeClimb office on Cumberland Street, fretting that we were gonna be late! When we did get there I was really impressed with how professional it all was. We saw loads of photos on the wall of famous people who've climbed the bridge (probably for free!) - Richard Branson, Nicole Kidman, the Harry Potter kid, the Malcolm in the Middle kid, the annoying Ashley Twins, Laurence Fishburne, Cate Blanchett, Brendan Fraser, Will Smith, Jodie Foster...

They had us sat in front of a TV Screen for a few minutes, then took us into another room to do a breathilizer test and fill out the usual waver forms. Then into another to receive our suits (yes, they made us wear horribly synthetic and awfully untrendy grey jump suits!). Then another to change into the suits. Then another to put our stuff in lockers. They won't let you up the bridge with anything on your person, except for glasses or sunglasses which you have to clip onto your suit, or medication which you give to your guide. They won't even let you take cameras.

We met our guide and our group properly next. There was a family from Heywood there which I thought was quite cool! All the rest of the people were 50yrs+, either on holiday or there for their birthday. We got strapped into harnesses (which was the point when I realised we were gonna be attached to the guide rails! Didn't know that before!), did a practice climb on a mini bridge, received radios and headsets so our guide could give us a commentary, and then we were ready to go!

Our guide, Dean, was really funny and always cracking jokes which made the experience more fun. He apologised once we left the office for making us walk outside in public 'dressed as Ghostbusters' to the bridge climb entrance, which I thought was funny cos that's exactly what we looked like - right geeks.

Anyway, the climb up was nowhere near as strenuous as I imagined. We walked straight for a while along catwalks under the road, then up about 3 or 4 sets of ladders, then we were on the arch, climbing for about 5 minutes until we reached the top. Dean was stopping us all the time as well to point things out as we went along, so it was a really easy effort. Despite it not being the most clear and sunny day, the view of the harbour - on both sides - was fantastic. We had a few photos taken of us (which we would later be charged for extortionately if we wanted them!) and a complimentary group one to compensate for the no-cameras-just-like-no-anything-else rule.

All in all it took us just over three hours for the whole thing, and it was a really good experience which I would urge any visitor to Sydney to take advantage of. To also compensate for the no cameras thing we got complimentary passes to the Pylon Lookout, the tower nearest to Circular Quay on the bridge, which you can walk up from the walkway across the bridge and look out over the harbour from. It's not as high as the bridge, and you couldn't see the North Shore, but we still took advantage and took lots of photos of the aerial view of the Harbour!

We walked back along George Street, shopping for souvenirs, and it's really struck me how weird it is being back in Sydney, especially in the absence of Stuart and Craig. I adore this city, and the thought of going home brought me to tears this morning, but it's still strange being here and not having anyone to go out with! We did run into Jodie though (whom we left in Byron Bay) as we were walking back to Wake Up. It was really odd - such a small world! We invited her to come to Darling Harbour tonight for bevvies but she's skint (as in not even an overdraft to get lost in denial with, like me). Me and Claire have decided that we're gonna have a really big night out at Home (a club on Darling Harbour) on Saturday so I guess we'll be partying on our own!

Tis all for now, except the small matter of us being really proud of buying nice teas for ourselves this week - we're having stir-fry and noodles tonight and filled pasta with a nice sauce (it's not Dolmio, but it'll do!) another night. We've not decided on Sunday night's tea yet, maybe curry - Friday's will be fish and chips at Coogee!

Now that really is all for now. Ciao!

Full Circle

Hey All!

Well we've arrived back in Sydney, and it's just dawned on me that we're not going to be going anywhere new in Australia now, this is our last port of call! It's a very sad feeling and I'm feeling slightly melancholy now, but I guess all good things must come to an end.

Anyway, we spent our last hours in Canberra strolling through Commonwealth Park to Blundells Cottage, but unfortunately it appeared to be closed. So we mooched around the shopping area near our dump of a hostel before catching the bus around 1pm.

Tonight we're going to go to the $5 Steakhouse that we went to with Craig and Billy when we were here last, and then nip into Side Bar for a few. Not gonna overdo it though cos we're doing the Harbour Bridge Climb at around 10:30 in the morning, and they do a breathalizer test on you. Scary!

Tis all for now, I'll post and let you know what we're up to during our last days down under.

Swearing in Oz

Hey All!

Just remembered something I forgot to tell you - on our last morning in Jindabyne we were watching Sunrise Morning TV on Channel 7, and they were discussng whether the "F word" was offensive anymore. The host was saying "Well it's not like 'damn' or 'bugger' that you hear all the time...". I couldn't believe he'd said 'bugger' on morning television! They'd be cutting to a break and he'd be send packing his bags in Britain! Dear me. We've also heard various swear words at different times of the day on the radio. It's quite funny really.

That's all!

Which World Leader are you?

Einstein??? What on earth???

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Which Classic Movie are you?

I never ever thought I would be Schindler's List! Why not something romantic like Gone With The Wind???

What Classic Movie Are You?
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Don't You Get All Parliamentary with Me!

Greetings, Right Honourable Members!

Today we spent most of our morning (in bed then) ringing Japan to try and sort out accommodation and how we're getting about. We've decided that, despite flying into Osaka-Kansai airport at around 8pm local time, we're going to stay our first night in Kyoto (over an hour away by train), because it's supposed to be a much nicer, more backpacker-friendly town than the hustly-bustly city of Osaka. We'll be spending Tuesday there exploring the temples, eating sushi and singing on karaoke probably! Then we'll get the train back to Osaka in the late afternoon/early evening and stay there Tuesday night - simply because it's close to the airport for our flight in the morning. We've managed to book a backpackers in Kyoto for Monday night but have yet to sort out Osaka, and I'll be fretting until it's done - I don't want to be sleeping on the airport's doorstep!

Anyway, today we got the bus around 2pm to the Parliament House, where parliament sits and all the decisions and laws are made. We walked around, looking at the House of Representatives' Chamber (like our House of Commons) and the Senate's Chamber (modelled on the US's Senate). I was really hoping to be there while parliament was in session, as some of the ministers have been known to turn sessions into slanging matches, coming out with unusual yet inventive insults and what not. Unfortunately, we'd come on an off day.

We also got the lift up to the infamous roof, which you used to be able to walk up from ground level, until they went all crazy about terrorism and such and put a fence across it. Most of it is covered in grass, and there's a pyramid-shaped flag pole on top. We got a really good view of Canberra from up here, and we were directly facing Anzac Parade. Unfortunately, there was loads of building work being done around the front, which made the scene slightly ugly, yet we got some good photos.

Next we walked down to the Old Parliament House, which is situated straight down from the new one, before you get to Lake Burley Griffin. It's absolutely impossible to get lost in Canberra, as everything is at an angle to something else, there is not a building out of line or place. I'm still not quite sure why this building came into disuse at the end of the 1980s and the new one was built. Claire thinks it's because it was too small. Anyway, this one was far more old fashioned, laden with wood rather than marble, yet they still had the House of Representatives in the same green colour and the Senates Chamber in red. They also had the private members' wings open so you could have a look at all the different board and cabinet committee rooms and minister's offices. They also had short histories of poignant members of parliament such as Neville Bonner, the first indigenous MP, and Dorothy Tangney, the first woman MP.

Most striking was the house's foyer, which beared huge portraits of past Prime Ministers and other key figures in Australia's political history. Most colourful was the one of John Howard (the current Prime Minister) and his wife Jeanette at their Sydney residence. On the far wall hung a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II residing as president in the second session of the 48th Senate in 1954. There was also a painting of one (quite festively named) Sir Earle Christmas Grafton Page. Despite him only being a caretaker Prime Minister for 19 days in 1949, I was still greatly impressed and touched!

We had a wander into the National Portrait Gallery next door, which owned lots of well-painted portraits of other people who illustrate Australia's history. Out of the dozens of portraits I only recognised two - Nick Cave and Captain Cook! I felt immensely ashamed to be so ignorant.

We didn't manage to get round to any museums or galleries or whatever due to being quite hindered with the issue of Japan being only next week, but I still think today has been a great way to explore Canberra. After all, with it being Aussie's capital city we've seen what we came here to see - the government buildings. I also think that, despite everyone we've met saying that it's boring and not worth bothering with, I actually think Canberra is a lovely place. The first thing that struck me about it when we got off the bus was how quiet it was! It's very spacious and green, and there's not a substantial amount of ugly, high-rise buildings like there is in Melbourne, Brisbane or Sydney. In this way it's more like Darwin or Cairns. I don't like I'd like to live here cos there's not much going on, but I wouldn't like to have missed out on it.

Well then. Tomorrow is a key date in this globetrotter's diary, as it is that fateful day that we arrive back in Sydney, marking a full circle in our trip around Australia. Before we leave Canberra we hope to have enough time in the morning to visit Blundell's Cottage - a 'historic' house built in the 1890s, and then we leave Canberra for Opera-House-City around 1pm. I'm so sad that it's coming to an end. In some ways it does feel like we've been here 3 months, and in others it feels like it's just whizzed by. We're definitely going to make the most of our last days in Sydney (probably by sitting in Side Bar every night!) cos I know I'm really gonna miss being here. *Sob!*

What flavour Pocky are you?

I'm a chocolate pocky - lovely and normal!

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Canberra, ACT - The Nation's Capital

Hey Blog Fans!

Well today we landed in Canberra (derived from an Aboriginal word meaning 'meeting place'), Australia's capital city. I always love hearing about the story of the birth of this city, with it being so artificial and planned. They decided on the Yass-Camberra region as the area for the new federal capital, as it was in the middle of Melbourne and Sydney (and they couldn't decide on neither Melbourne nor Sydney as the new capital). Then in 1912 they held an international competition for someone to design the city, which was won by Walter Burley Griffin of Illinois, USA. He envisioned a capital with three corners; one for parliament, one for military establishments, and the other for commerce. A lake fashioned from the Molongo River would lie across the middle, and opposite the top corner of the triangle would be an avenue for the War Memorial. Unfortunately, Burley Griffin came to loggerheads with his bosses over the development of the city and did not renew his contact, leaving his city to be eventually finished without his influence.

Today we cruised in and hopped off at our accommodation. Our 'hostel' is a bit of a dive really - the room is nice enough but the kitchen is fou, and from the outside it looks like a cheap hotel (it actually has HOTEL in squares down the side of it!). We set out to have a mooch around the shopping area near our hostel, rang and booked Wake Up Hostel in Sydney, then caught the bus a short way to the Australian War Memorial. This building is situated at the top of an extremely grand avenue called Anzac Parade (very whitehouse-esque), and is a fitting tribute to those who died at war. Just out of interest, I scanned the honours list for WW2 and found at least 24 Pages amongst the thousands of names. And that was just WW2 - there was another list just as big for WW1, and then the Korean War, Vietnam War, and all the other post WW2 conflicts. Kinda brings it home to you.

Along Anzac Parade there were several memorials for all the post WW2 conflicts such as Vietnam, Korea, Greece, an others commemorating the different services like the serving nurses, RAAF, the Australian Navy and so forth. All of these were immensely thoughtful, symbolic and inspiring - all with different parts of their designs having meanings or representing something.

Next we walked through the Commonwealth Gardens and along Lake Burley Griffin (named after old Walter) to the National Capital Exhibition. This centre is an educational project which documents Canberra's beginning and development. Amongst its displays was a theatrette showing a short film of comments from Australian people about the city. This was highly amusing - especially the ones who slated the place! ("I've never been there... I'll never go!", "It's boring!"). There was also a model of the city incorporated with a laser show which highlighted all the main buildings, parks and other attractions for you.

Outside the National Capital Exhibition stands a large fountain of water sprayed upwards by about 30-40m, called the Captain Cook Memorial Water Jet. It's pretty cool, but it had a grey tinge to it today and I'm not sure that's normal.

Anyway, Me and Claire going to venture back into 'Smokey Joes Dodgy Motel' momentarily and utilise our pizza bases that we've just bought from 'Supabarn'. The plan for tomorrow is to visit the New and Old Parliament Houses, stroll down Adelaide Avenue and take a look at the embassy buildings, and then pack in a gallery or museum or two if we have time. We leave for Sydney on Wednesday, and then set off for home the following Monday, arriving on Wednesday 6th April. I can't believe we fly into Osaka, Japan a week today - that is immensely scary - let alone be home in 9 days. Anyhoo, the point of the matter is we only have tomorrow and Wednesday morning in Canberra so we're making the most of our time here.

Our plans for Sydney are the Harbour Bridge Climb (www.bridgeclimb.com.au) and the Sky Tower on Thursday, the Bondi to Coogee Coastal Walk (finishing at Coogee Fish and Chip Shop as recommended by Becky!), Luna Park, and muchos present and souvenir shopping! And hopefully whatever else we can fit in that we didn't do last time. It's sad that it's getting so close to the end now, but I'm really excited about coming home to see everyone too. It's a strange time!

White Water Rafting on the Murray River

Hello All!

Well today has been a thoroughly fantastic day! We had to get up early to meet the guys who were gonna take us rafting, Dizzy and Ben, and they drove us up through the Snowy Mountains to our river location at the Tom Groggin Rest Area, where we met the other people on the trip. They'd been camping there since Friday. We drove past the ski resorts of Thredbo ("I Like It!") and Perisher Blue, before reaching the Murray River, on the border of Victoria and New South Wales. The mountain pass was sadly lined with black trees, burnt from a recent bush fire which has left many of the mountain ashes dead.

I was really impressed with the amount of gear we were offered to wear as part of our trip. We had thermals (bearing a stylish green and purple horizontal stripe design), wet suits, paddle jackets, life jackets and helmets. Ben inflated the boats while we got kitted up, then we walked the boats down to the river. We had to wait for the parade of 4x4s to go past before we could get in them. Me and Claire shared one - we had 2-man sporting rafts since the river was so shallow, basically blow-up canoes, and it did worry me slightly that there would be no instructor on board!

Once we got going though, it was great, I paddled at first and Claire ruddered, then we swapped a little way down. The rapids were awesome - just like being on a theme park ride, but better because it's real! The only bummer was that because the river was so shallow we kept getting stuck and wedged on or between rocks! And it only seemed to be Me and Claire that this happened to!

Anyway, after a good 3-4 hours of hardcore extreme water sports (!) we retreated to the track for a late lunch of ham, tuna, salami, houmous and salad wraps, then back on to Jindabyne. We had enough time after getting back to nip to the IGA for tea, phone home and update our diaries, then we trekked over to the Lake Jindabyne Hotel to make sure the bus driver knew we were getting on in the morning. He was annoyingly spacey, but I think he got the message. Anyway, my legs are so achey and stiff from the waterskiiing yesterday I think an early night is in order!

Frolicking on Lake Jindabyne

Hey Hey!

So yeah we did spend this morning wandering around the town and doing some food shopping, then after dinner we went over to Tropic Snow Snowboards to meet up with the guy who was sorting out our watersports, a French guy called Nic (at least I think he was French, from his accent). He drove us down to Lake Jindabyne where we met up with a guy called Marty, and changed into wetsuits and life jackets. It was very cold though, about 8C because of the strong, cold wind. We were shivering in our wetsuits!

We went canoeing first - both of us in the same canoe - and because it was so choppy the canoe veered right no matter how hard left we paddled. So we headed for the island that was straight ahead of us and once we got there decided to circle it. We were having lots of fun pretending we were explorers of a new land and singing sea chanties and such (or at least I was - Claire wasn't much into the whole sailor/explorer game!), when suddenly we crashed into something underwater. Screaming, thinking we'd just disembowelled a water monster, I saw it was actually a submerged tree trunk. There was a few of them too, but in fairness we were quite close to the shore of the island.

We hit a point where we were head on to the wind, not able to move anywhere, when on cue Marty sailed around on his sailing boat to give us a tow back to shore. It was a little catamaran, basically with a big sail and a mesh canopy for a floor. This was the point where I regretted sitting at the front; I got sopping wet from the spray off the catamaran, which made me extremely cold after I got out of the canoe and was exposed to the wind.

We thought that this was a good point at which to get on the catamaran for a bit of a sail, you know, being freezing cold and wet and such. No need to go and dry and get warm, oh no. Anyhoo, we convinced Marty to sail the boat for us since we didn't have the first clue about how to do it and had absolutely no intention of getting stranded in the middle of the lake when it was this cold. It was pretty good, I just wish I hadn't have been so preoccupied with my arms turning blue!

We spent about two hours outside of the shack, out of the wind, trying to warm up. Marty was great - he gave us warm coats out of his car and tried to fashion a camp for us by driving the car to a 45 degree angle to the shack, then covering the open space by attaching a groundsheet to the car boot and the shack door. Then Nic turned up with tea and coffee which we utilised with the water we'd just boiled on a calor gas stove.

When we were just about warm, an Adventure Tours bus turned up, driven by the guy who took us from Lorne to Melbourne. We had a load of people wanting to sail (crazy idiots) and he wanted to waterski. We went out on the boat to watch him since we had nothing better to do, and it was great! He didn't get up the first couple of times, but after that he made it look too easy! And he was only using one ski, so I imagine it would've been much harder than usual. We caught up with the people who were sailing once he was done, and a boat of three Canadian guys were really struggling to get out of allignment with the wind. They were cold and frightened, the poor guys! We towed them in and got them on the boat, then once we were back ashore one of them fell in. We got a lift back with them and that guy headed straight for the sauna! I wished we had a sauna at our hostel - my pants were soaked through.

After a luscious hot shower and some tea we went to the cinema (which was, frankly, a little less than heaving) to see Miss Congeniality 2. Like all sequels, it didn't match the first, but it was still laugh-out-loud hilarious.

Today we got up around dinnertime, after being exhausted by the day before. We had a stroll into the town (which was a lot busier today) and down to the lake, where there was some sort of festival going on. They had dozens of 1950's Holdens (Australian Vauxhalls) on display, a couple of carnival rides, and a display of sculptures by the lake (which I'd discovered on Thursday and thought was a permanent fixture). We headed back for some dinner, then mooched over to Tropic Snow Snowboarding again to see about doing some waterskiing. We hadn't done it yesterday because the thought of getting back in the water and getting cold again was unthinkable. Today, however, was a gloriously sunny and warm day - perfect for waterskiing!

Nic drove us down and we met up with Marty again, got in our wetsuits then headed out. Claire had a go first, and although she didn't get up the first time she was golden after that - swerving over the wake and everything. When it came to my go, however, I really struggled to get up cos my legs kept doing the splits and then I would fall over and lose my skis almost every time! Unfortunately, by the time I was getting the hang of it, my legs were just knackered and trembling like mad so I couldn't stand up if I tried. So I reluctantly got back on the boat feeling very disappointed and very bitter towards Claire!

Anyway, after all that cafuffle we got out and got dry, then strolled along the lake back to our hostel. The evening was pretty much spent just chilling out and making tea, we were so tired!

Jindabyne, Snowy Mountains - a Lovely Little Mountain Village!

Yesterday in Gelantipy I set my alarm for 7am, but when nobody else got up for breakfast I thought maybe it was at 8am instead so I went back to sleep for a bit! Turned out it was at 7am, but we still managed to catch breakfast. We spent most of the day driving, stopping at Little River Gorge for a quick look and a photo. The other bus' trailer broke there so we sat there for about an hour slagging off Adventure Tours (mainly cos we didn't go to Ninety Mile Beach the day before when it's advertised in the brochure, and because they've reportedly taken Dingo out of their East Coast itinerary) while the drivers took a set of wheels off the trailer. The next stop was at Jack's Lookout, which had a picture-perfect view over the Snowy River. Apparently the Snowy River is a 'dying' river, and only 1% of it's potential capacity is flowing at the moment. So plans are in progress to leak some water into it from elsewhere. Good job too, cos it would be a damn shame to lose it.

We finally pulled into the delightful mountain village of Jindabyne at about 2pm, where after dumping our bags at the motel we made a beeline for the nearby kebab shop! The town is really cute and quaint - just what I'd imagine a little mountain village in either the US or Canada to look like, with its wood panelled buildings with little shelters over the ground level. And it's right by Lake Jindabyne, which is framed by the Snowy Mountains. I'm so glad we decided to stay here instead of Gelantipy, cos it's much nicer and there's a lot more going on. We passed up on the 10km hike up Mt Kosciuszko, Australia's highest peak, simply because I couldn't be bothered hiking uphill for 5km. That's too much. I know the views would've been worth it but, frankly, I just couldn't be arsed.

Instead, we had a mooch around the town. We found our hostel for the next couple of days and phoned around to try and find someone to take us abseiling down the Jindabyne Dam. I still don't know what's going on with that - a guy is supposed to be getting back to us. We've planned it for our last day anyway so we got time to sort it out. Then we went back to the motel and went in the pool and sauna with a few of the other guys who'd stayed behind. Our motel was great actually. We had a TV, fridge, tea and coffee making facilities, and - get this - a BATH. It was so good to get into a nice, hot bath for a change!

Practically everybody had the $6 chicken schnitzel in the motel bar for tea, with loads of gravy! Afterwards a few of us nipped to the bottle shop around the corner and spent the night in our room having deep conversations and getting slowly sozzled. It was very enjoyable! In fact, we had a really good group as a whole - it wasn't as cliquey as some groups have been - so it's a shame we weren't travelling any further with them.

This morning I felt slightly rotten (I'm thinking from the early start rather than the 5 glasses of wine but think what you will!). The breakfast at the motel was our first cooked one yet on a tour, so that was great. You gotta love hash browns! After waving everyone off we trundled over to our hostel, laiden down with heavy bags, and checked in once the reception opened. We also spotted a flyer on the counter for a local company, advertising three activities for $50, including wakeboarding, hot dog riding (which I think is like a banana boat), waterskiing, sailing, canoeing. So we've had a wander over and booked in to do all of the above except wakeboarding this afternoon (one of the crew on our Whitsundays trip nearly pierced his lung with a broken rib doing wakeboarding - scary).

We'll probably spend the rest of this morning doing some food shopping and having a wander down to the lake cos we haven't really seen it yet. We also spotted that Miss Congeniality 2 is on at the one-screen-cinema in the Visitors Centre tonight, so I'm thinking we'll see that tonight - can't wait! On our last night in Melbourne we did end up going to the flicks with Jenny and Becky, to see Hide and Seek with Robert De Niro. That was a freaky film. Anyway, plans for the rest of our time here include white water rafting tomorrow, and hopefully abseiling on Sunday. We'll see, and I'll let you all know how it goes.

That's all for now, so take care!

ps. Guess what - we'll be home a week on Wednesday. That's in 12 days. Aaaaaaaaaaaaagh!

Adventure Central - Karoonda Park, Gelantipy

Hey All!

We've had a very good - but very cold - couple of days since leaving Melbourne. On Wednesday we left our hostel early to get a taxi to Hotel Bakpak, cos Adventure Tours only do three pick ups in Melbourne. Even though we'd only been there 4 days I was actually quite relieved to be leaving the city cos it was starting to feel really claustrophobic. I liked Melbourne but in all honesty I think I prefer Sydney, because of the openness of the harbour and whatever. Anyway, we made our first stop at a little village off the highway called Yarragon, where I had a healthy breakfast of meat pie, ice bun and a hot chocolate! There was a Japanese girl on our bus who was asking the guide "When do we get back to Melbourne?" Turned out she was supposed to be on a day trip to the Great Ocean Road with a totally different tour group and she'd got on the wrong bus! Poor girl. We were about two hours out of the city too.

Next stop was at Bairnsdale for dinner, only about an hour and a half later so we weren't hungry, so that was a bit silly. Got some boardies from Jay Jays - they're really nice but I've got them dirty already. We stopped again at Lakes Entrance to drop some people off and take a picture of the estuary. Eventually, after much driving along winding roads through the Snowy Mountains (which, funnily enough, have snow on them in winter) we arrived in Gelantipy, which seemed to consist only of the farm we were staying at - Karoonda Park. The farm is also an adventure centre for local schools, so they had loads of things you could do. We opted for the 'Flying Fox', a pair of 30m high zipwires through the forest and over a lake, the 7m climbing wall and the Night Time Nature Tour. They also had two little pooches called Angus and Morgan - they were hilarious. When we went down to the zipwire in the minibus Angus was sat on the dashboard!

After we got settled into our rooms and had a brew we went down to the Flying Fox, and once we'd climbed the hill and saw how high it was I was cacking it. Especially after seeing how we were going to be strapped to the wire. It looked so unsafe! It was really good though, but despite trying my best I just couldn't land properly - I kept landing on my ass! After two trys of each wire we went back up to the centre to have a go on the climbing wall. I'd never realised climbing could be such hard work! It was fun, but at one point I was ready to come down and my spotter was laughing at someone else. I was whimpering: "Can I come down now please! Please let me down! Help!" First time I climbed to the top I looked round cos Claire wanted to take a photo and I screamed: "Man, this is high!" not realising how far up I'd climbed! That was scary. But it was all good fun.

After a pathetically dribbly shower we had a delicious three course dinner - potato and leek soup (I missed out on a bread roll cos I was late), roast dinner with beef AND turkey, creamy potatoes, caulifower cheese, pumpkin and gravy, and hot apple pie and ice cream for afters. It was lush and we both went back for seconds (even if we waited for someone else to go first!).

At about 8:30pm we donned our warmest gear and set out in the minibus to spot some nocturnal wildlife. Most of the tour was spent chatting with people on the bus, but we did see some kangaroos, koalas and a possum (which I've never seen in the wild before so that was cool). We didn't see any wombats so I was gutted about that, but it was lots of fun.

Afterwards we headed inside and set up a game of Australian Trivial Pursuit, which started out with four teams but dissolved into two after the non-dedicated and sleepy people dropped out! Me and a guy called Dave vowed to play til the death! Me and Claire ended up on a team with a guy called Andy, and once both teams merged their cheeses we both had four cheeses each. So we played next cheese wins. Of course, we won. The question was "Who swapped the Sudetenland for 'peace in our time'"? and it took us about ten minutes as a group effort to figure out it was Neville Chamberlain. We hadn't even had a drink! Mind you, with 2 history A Levels and 1 BA history between us, it would've been pretty shameful if we hadn't got it.

Sightseeing in Melbourne

Hey Y'All!

We've spent all of today packing in the sights that we missed out on Saturday. We set out about 12 and got the tram to the Shrine of Rememberance, a collection of War Memorials for the first and second world wars, and all the post WW2 conflicts. Inside the sanctuary of the WW1 Memorial they have a hole in the roof, and on 11 November every year a ray of sunlight shines through it and hits a shrine in the middle of the floor which bears the inscription "Greater Love Hath No Man". At exactly 11am the word 'love' is illuminated by the ray of light. It's quite remarkable really. They did a simulation for us which moved me to tears, probably because I'd just spent the last few minutes looking at all the books filled with names of enlisted men and women, no rank detailed, so they were all equal. The shrine itself was designed with a wall around it, so that you have to bow your head to read the inscription, which was quite appropriate. It was all very humbling.

Next we sat and had some dinner by the Yarra River, watching some jammy Australian kids having a rowing PE lesson on the river! Walking back through the city I picked my photos up, which are all quite dark. I'm not having much luck with my photos really! Then we nipped into Big W and bought some warm clothes - after last night's freeze-fest at the penguin parade I'm not taking any more chances!

Then we had a wander up to the Mebourne Old Gaol, Melbourne's oldest prison, and where they remanded and executed the legendary Hero/Villain Ned Kelly. It was mighty spooky, reading all the stories about various criminals and their crimes, seeing the tiny cells, looking at the punishment methods, and the mysterious Cell 17, where a woman inmate is meant to have commited suicide and where various tour guides and visitors have had ghostly experiences. They also had loads of 'death masks' - plaster cast heads of executed criminals - which was really disturbing. They used to make them for phrenology purposes, to figure out why this person turned to crime. Weird.

Afterwards we walked up to Queen Victoria Market, but it actually closed at 2pm today, which, unfortunately, we had no knowledge of. So here we are on the internet!

I wanted to go and see 'Be Cool' at the cinema tonight, but I don't think we've got time now as it starts in 45 minutes! So I guess the remainder of the evening will be spent making tea and chilling out, unless Becky and Jenny want to meet up for a last drink before we leave!

So that's all for now, I'll probably post again from Jinabyne and let you know how our extreme sport getaway goes! From there we'll be stopping in Canberra for a day and then it's back on to Sydney. It's strange to think that two weeks today we'll be in Japan, and two weeks tomorrow we'll be home. How scary is that!

The Penguin Parade on Phillip Island

I got up as late as possible today, having had a good night at the bar last night playing some pool (although that weird guy turned up again, but luckily enough didn't have the stupidity to try and talk to us). Had a quick shower and a delicious but hurried breakfast of coco pops and a cheese toasty, then sat outside at about 11:20 to meet our Phillip Island tour bus. It didn't come until much later, which set us back for the day really. Apparently the first pick up were given the wrong time by their agent and they weren't ready. They would have to still be in bed really wouldn't they? Lazy gets.

Anyway, once out of the city we made our way down the South Gippsland Highway, stopping at Wildlife Wonderland for dinner which, to my delight, was also the site of the Giant Worm Attraction, something I'd read so much about in Bill Bryson's Down Under. I scoffed down meat pie and chips for dinner (when am I gonna get meat pie and chips again on this trip??? Might as well savour the taste!).

Next we had a wander around. We walked through Wombat World, where there was only one wombat, hidden in darkness. They're incredible creatures really. You can tame them as babies but as soon as they hit around 2.5 years old they go wild, and if you try to pet them they'll bite your hand off. Their only defence mechanism is their cartilidge plate on their rump. If a predator such as a cat, dog or dingo chases them into their burrow, they'll stop and square up so that the predator will run into and headbutt their hard backside, hopefully think it's a dead end and go away. Alternatively, if it's not fooled, The wombat will lower itself so that the predator sticks it's head further down the burrow, then stand up, crushing the predators skull against the burrow or suffocating it. Pretty gruesome stuff. Wildlife Wonderland actually rescues baby wombats from the pouches of dead parents who have been victims of road accidents, as wombats tend to freeze in the path of oncoming headlights. Being nocturnal, they are afraid of bright lights. We actually got to hold one who was about 20 months old. Her name was Wilma and she was gorgeous!

At the wildlife centre we also got to feed kangaroos, saw emus, dingos and koalas, and also came across some weird llama type creatures, which looked like brown-wool sheep-giraffe hybrids. They were called Alpacas, and although not native Australian animals they're bred for their wool. We also met Sam, the Talking Cockatoo. At first he was pretty silent, probably with stage fright at the sight of so many faces! Then as our tour guide, Jude, walked away saying: "Bye, Sam", it came out with this little "Bye!". It was amazing. He also had some choice phrases including "Hi", "How are ya?", and "Come back!" which he squarked when you walked off, sounding just like Kate Winslet in Titanic when the lifeboat's sailing away. It was adorable - you didn't want to leave him when he said that! We also saw the Giant Worm Exhibition, which was weird. They basically had a tank full of dirt, with a few tunnels in it, and some preserved worms which, in fairness, were pretty big at around 50cm long and 2cm fat. You could also walk through a model worm gut and hear the gurgling noises of a worms stomach, and poke your head up into a hole and see what life is like for a worm. Unfortunately, there were no live worms on display. The last exhibit was a preserved Great White Shark, which was put down after it ventured into a tuna farm, and attempts to release it back into the wild were unsuccessful.

Next we got back on the highway and made our way over the bridge to Phillip Island, home of thousands of seals, little (fairy) penguins and the Superbikes at the Grand Prix Circuit on April the 1st. We miss everything!

We drove first to Pyramid Rock, which does exactly what it says on the tin. It's a rock in the shape of a pyramid. We had to walk along the coast a bit to see it, and it was incredibly breezy! I was freezing in my t-shirt and shorts! There was also an abundance of Shearwaters living there, birds which migrate16,000km every winter from Alaska to breed in Australia. It's amazing how they know where they're going. We could've walked to our next stop, Berry's Beach, but since we were running late we had to drive. The beach was lovely, if a bit windy and cold. We explored the rock pools but I didn't see any crabs or anything. Then we drove to The Nobbies, which was another rock formation in the sea. However, this was not the main attraction. Firstly there was an eyesore of a visitors centre, being an unfinished project it really did look a mess. Then, more pleasingly, there was the moulting penguins hiding underneath the boardwalk. They were so cute! Also, you could put $2 into the binoculars and take a look at the seal colony living on a nearby rock. There was hundreds of them, and some of them were playing in the sea!

We drove over to the main township, Cowes, for a takeaway pizza tea by the beach, which was absolutely delish! I only managed three pieces they were that big. At around 6:45 we made our way to the Penguin Parade, where hundreds of Little (or Fairy) Penguins emerge from the sea at dusk and waddle up the beach to their burrows. They actually close the road between sunset and sunrise to stop motorists running over the little critters. We got front row seats on the beach, then walked up to the visitors centre. We purchased a couple of photos -despite their extortionate price - because there is absolutely no photography allowed at the parade. This is because the flash photography causes damage to the penguins' eyes.

Once we came back down we were saddened to hear that we'd missed one, but soon enough they started coming out in groups of about six. It was really funny, cos if there was only two of them, they would wait in the surf until a couple more turned up and they plucked up enough courage to walk past the seagulls. And they would start waddling up the beach, then the one at the back would get spooked, run on back to the surf and the rest would follow! One group got halfway up then changed it's mind, another took about eight attempts to get across! Then there was one lone, fearless penguin that walked straight across our viewing area, about a metre away from us. It was incredible.

At around 9pm we set off walking back up the boardwalk and followed some of the penguins up. Because it's moulting season at the moment, some of the penguins had fattened themselves up to prepare for long stints on the land. Watching them walk up was hilarious. They would waddle for about ten steps then flop onto their fat bellies for a rest, resting for longer than they waddled for! Unfortunately we had to pull ourselves away at about 9:30 for our two hour trip back to Melbourne. It's been an absolutely cracking day!

Day Out to St Kilda

Hello All!

Today we spent most of the morning on the phone, trying to sort out our stay in the Snowy Mountains. We've decided to spend some time in the township of Jindabyne instead of Gelantipy, simply because we can do both white water rafting and abseiling in Jindabyne with no problems or conditions. Or so we think - we haven't rang the abseiling place yet! But we shouldn't really have a problem. We hope. We'll still be staying in Gelantipy one night anyway cos it's an overnight stop, and the cool thing is we can still do the package for $40 where you get your overnight stay, evening meal, night time wildlife tour and a go on the 7m climbing wall!

Anyway, today, we stayed at the hostel long enough to get our free pancakes (with lemon and sugar just like at home - yum!), then got the 12:30 tram to St Kilda - Melbourne's hip and happening beach suburb.

We alighted at the Esplanade where the Sunday Craft Market was going on, so we had a wander down. One of the first stalls we came to was selling animal models made out of coloured wire, and next to them were labels stating their names. They were most bizaare - names like: "Promiscuous Cheque Forging Kitten", "Turd Munching Halitosis Hound", "Decaffeinated Bikini Waxing Dragonfly" and "Chihuahua Abducting Pelican". How strange!

We had a stroll down the pier, and I have to say I was expecting St Kilda to be like Byron Bay or Glenelg, but it really wasn't. It was more like an upmarket Blackpool. There was this horrible brown haze on the horizon, both towards the city and down the coast. In fairness, we didn't come across the main shopping street, Acland Street, where all the nice shops probably were, because we walked down Fitzroy Street instead thinking that was the main street. So we may not have done it justice. But never mind.

We had our packed lunch by the beach then sat sunning ourselves for a while, not going in the sea because of it's ominous brownness. After, we had a wander over to Luna Park, the small theme park with the hideously scary face at the entrance - Mr Moonface - who's mouth you have to walk through to get inside the park. We didn't go on any rides because, well, apart from the fact that it was $7 a ride, we're going to spend a night at the one in Sydney.

On our return to the city we had the strongest craving for a good kebab, so we set out to scour the streets for a kebab shop. In our efforts we happened upon the Antipodes Festival in Melbourne's Greek Precinct. I swear we were the only Non-Greeks present! There were carnival rides in the street, stalls selling Euro 2004 Greek Memorabilia, stalls selling kebabs with mile-long queues, and a big stage at one end with some Greek dancing show going on. It was pretty good, but in our hunger we had to leave earlier than desired really. We did find a kebab shop in the end, but it was the most disappointing kebab I've eaten while I've been here. Utterly tasteless.

Now we're off to meet up with Becky and Jenny and go to the Fluid Oz bar for a couple of rounds of pool. Frankly I just feel like sitting at a nice cafe with a good hot chocolate, but I guess a couple of Baileys will do!

Melbourne - Australia's Cultural Centre

Hey Blog Fans!

I'm sure you'll all be very pleased to know me and Claire arrived safely in Melbourne on Friday, without having been to Torquay, as our driver was nearly two hours late. So by the time we got to Torquay all the outlets had shut. After grabbing a room at our hostel we met up with Jenny and Becky (who've been in Melbourne since Tuesday and have managed to bag jobs AND a flat already!). It feels really weird to be back in a big city again. I suppose Adelaide was the last city really, but it didn't feel that daunting. Melbourne feels just as daunting as Brisbane did. I think it's cos I'm somewhat vertically challenged, but big cities tend to make me feel uneasy. It doesn't seem to bother anyone else! Also, Melbourne is weird for drivers. Because of the tram system, you have to get in the lane furthest to the left at some intersections if you want to turn right. I still can't figure that out.

Anyway, we headed to Chinatown to get some food, and settled for a Taiwanese Cafe as it was only about $10 a meal. I had black-bean beef noodles with salty egg roll pancakes on the side. It was interesting, but not as interesting as Becky's pork ball soup, which looked like grey spam balls floating in green water! After bloating ourselves on the unusual cuisine we headed to a bar near Becky and Jenny's hostel, where some dodgy local made a big deal of coming to sit next to us, to which we moved quickly to the free pool table! We had a game of doubles, then a guy from a nearby table challenged me and Becky to play him and his mate at doubles. That was a very tedious and strung-out game. A drunken Japanese guy at a nearby table had a bet going with his mate that we would lose, and everytime the guys potted one he would do this hilarious victory dance. We actually won cos one of the guys potted the white as he potted the black. Hee hee. Then the drunken Japanese guy wanted me and Becky to play doubles with him, which they won. Soon after that a big argument broke out as to who's table it was next - another couple of Japanese guys, the drunken ones, and a pair of Indian guys who'd been eyeing us to hurry up. As soon as it started to look ugly we ran off! Silly men.

I had a broken sleep last night cos someone had left a light on in our room and I can only sleep when it's really dark. Got up about 10:30 and set out to explore the city. First we went to the Rialto Towers Observation Deck, where you can pay $11 to go up the lift 55 floors and be rewarded with a 360 degree view of Melbourne. Got some good photos (I think) but I was a bit pre-occupied with the busted zip on my rucksack to enjoy it to it's fullest. Next we went into town to do some shopping (with the intention of coming away with some warm clothes but we did nothing of the sort!). I bought a new rucksack as the zip on my little blue one has been broken for days - it won't zip up - and reluctantly threw my old one in the bin. I hate throwing stuff out! My new one is a baby pink Puma one. We also bought a Jack Johnson album each from HMV (different ones so we can swap!) cos they were on sale. Jack Johnson is a Hawaiian artist who plays easy listening music which is pretty good, and I don't think you can get his music in England.

After a Subway dinner we made our way to the Fitzroy Gardens on the free tram to see Cook's Cottage. This is a small house that belonged to Captain James Cook's mother and father and was first built in the small Yorkshire village of Great Ayton in 1755. It was bought by a Melbourne man, Sir Russell Grimwade, in 1933, dismantled brick by brick and moved to Melbourne for it's reassemblement ceremony in 1934. We also found a Model Tudor Village in the gardens, which was a present from the people of Lambeth, England, to thank Victoria for the food they shipped to England during food shortages in WW2.

To be honest, that's pretty much everything we've done all day! We've pretty much scrapped the idea of travelling down to the Mornington Peninsula (or at least I have) as there's far too much to see in Melbourne alone and we've only got four days. We're a bit gutted as well as the pre-season matches of Aussie Rules Football have finished and the new season doesn't start until Saturday. So the only way we can see a match now is if we catch one in Sydney. Also, we rang Gelantipy today, our stop in the Snowy Mountains, and it doesn't look like we'll be able to do white water rafting as we need a group of 8. Our only hope was to get in with a school group but they only come on Tuesdays. It seems that we're out by a couple of days for everything! So feeling a bit disillusioned at present really.

Plans for the rest of our time in Melbourne are to go to St Kilda tomorrow, Melbourne's beach suburb which is supposed to be really nice and where there's a craft market on tomorrow night, and on to Phillip Island on Monday where we'll be seeing penguins and supposedly have the chance to cuddle a wombat! Then on Tuesday we'll either go to the Mornington Peninsula or, most likely, do the parts of Melbourne that we've not managed to fit in today - the Queen Victoria Market, Old Melbourne Gaol and the War Memorial (from which you're supposed to get a good view of the city).

So yeah, feeling a bit gutted today about various things - my bag breaking, not being able to see a footy game and possibility of not rafting (cos I was really looking forward to that). So I guess I'm hoping a day out to St Kilda tomorrow will cheer me up. So far though, I like Melbourne a lot, but if I'm honest I don't think it's really much better than Sydney. I guess I'll have to wait and see until I've seen a bit more of it.

That's all for now, I'll post again when I've a bit more to report. Take care!

PS. Afternote - After posting this me and Claire went to find a supermarket, but on the way noticed hordes of people gravitating towards the Telstra Dome. Upon enquiry we found out that there was a Christian Rock Outreach Concert on, so we ventured in with curiosity. There was one guy playing who was a legend - he played guitar at the speed of lightning! Anyway we stayed for an hour then went to buy some tea. That's the most exciting thing that's happened to us in the past few days! Dear me.

Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside!

Toreet?

Man, it's been absolutely freezing these past couple of days! Probably not what you lot back home would call freezing, but it's been between 15 and 20C. Cold! And, just as luck would have it, the day that we leave Lorne (today), the good old weather has decided to brighten up. Typical!

Anyway, so what have we been up to. Well on Tuesday when we arrived (I'm not sure I mentioned this in my last post) I was feeling totally rotten with a migraine. We strolled down the main street in Lorne after blogging, and the little shops on the front are mainly trinketty, clothes, cafes and souvenirs. It's a cute little town and really reminds me of places like Tenby, Beer or that other place in Devon with a funny name that I can't remember. We stopped at the supermarket, and decided that while we're here we're going to have nice teas. So we bought some skewered kebabs and some mushrooms, peppers (which, by the way, are HUGE over here - mammoth capsicums!), an onion and a couple of small potatoes. We had grilled kebabs and stirfry veg for tea and it was lovely. I sat and watched The O.C. (a rare treat for the backpacker!) then went straight to bed cos I felt really ill! Then when I got up to go to the loo, feeling very groggy, I stood on something that felt really odd, then when the light came on I saw this GIANT spider running off - about 2 inches across! That certainly woke me up.

On Wednesday morning I had an almost perfect lie-in, but it was tainted by being woken up between 7 and 8am by a profusion of loud, foul-mouthed Brazilian teenagers in the room next to us. They were international students travelling with a school that was staying the one night, so they were checking out, and very noisily too. I've never heard such foul language so early in the morning in my whole life (despite going to Rivi!). I actually got up and hammered on the wall for them to shut the hell up, not that it made the slightest ounce of difference. When the teacher turned up I nearly got up again and demanded the address of the school so I could send a complaint letter, I was that riled. But I just couldn't be bothered getting out of bed again cos it was so cold! Anyway, despite the whole fracas, I managed to sleep in til about 11:45am. Hee hee.

After breakfast we walked down the main street and then along the coastal path to the pier, where you got a good view of the whole of Lorne. It was extremely windy there though, we nearly got blown off! Then we walked back into town, copied Claire's photos and sent them home, and browsed the shops. We stopped in a trendy-looking cafe called Reifs, and sat outside in the cold with our hot chocolates, refusing to sit inside, and bitching about how with this weather we might as well be at home. At about 3:30pm we trekked on back to the hostel for some dinner of cheese and salami toasties! Our hostel has this toastie machine that is two hotplates on a hinge (so I've forbidden Claire from using it) and we've been making good use of the novelty!

That afternoon we just chilled out (literally!) and read. I've nearly finished Dan Brown's Deception Point, and I must say don't believe people when they tell you his other books aren't as good as The Da Vinci Code. This one is just as good. We also spent the afternoon attracting the plethora of birdlife with some seeds out of the kitchen. The forest around our hostel is home to dozens of Sulphur-Crested Cockatoos (the white parrot-looking bird with a yellow fan atop it's head) and Crimson Rosellas (a beautiful red and blue parakeet). The Cockatoos are like scavengers! They swarm you as soon as you even walk out of the kitchen with the seed jar, and push the Rosellas out of feeding time. They're well mean!

Anyway, by teatime our room was freezing cos the German couple we were sharing with had left the door open all day, so we tried to get the air conditioner to work on a hot setting but with no joy. So we hid out in the kitchen with the TV. We had a lovely tea of Indian Veggie Burgers and Broccoli/Cauliflower Cheese. Yum! Then we had strawberries and cream for afters while we watched American Idol. See, this is what backpacking Australia is all about!

The next day, everyone we were sharing a dorm with left - the cold-loving German couple, the English guy and the Brazilian skater dudes, so the night that we couldn't have a lie-in we had the room to ourselves! Typical. Anyway, we got up, had a breakfast of coco pops and cheese toasties, then set off walking to Teddy's Lookout, a walk recommended to us buy a German girl in our room on the first night here. I reluctantly dropped off 5 of my 9 films that needed developing in the pharmacy on the way, convinced I would never see them again!

The walk was all uphill through the houses that lined the hills behind the coast, and we were amazed by the view of the coast that some of these houses had - jammy things! We passed one house with a very bizaare garden - the type of situation where you don't want to look but you can't tear your eyes away. They had models of cows, bulls, giant ostriches, and mannequins oddly arranged around the garden. Strange. Could've been artists.

By the time we got to the lookout, we spotted an Aussie couple who'd been at our hostel, and they had driven up! In a car! How lazy! The lookout was minutely disappointing, only because I thought you would get a view of both Lorne and the Great Ocean Road, but it was only of a bay and part of the road. But it was still good, you could see miles out to sea. If only it wasn't so cloudy and windy and cold! I got Claire to take a picture of me in my full attire so we could portray to the folks back home just how cold we were compared to the heat of the outback - I was wearing a t-shirt, long sleeved top over that, rain-proof jacket over that, long trousers, hiking boots and socks. And my hair was blustering about all over the place!

Anyway, after walking back down we did a bit of shopping in the town and went back to the hostel for dinner. Then I came down to the town again, very apprehensively, to pick up my photos, which actually all came out fine, except for a thin black line on the top edge of them all. Frankly, I was just glad to be clutching them! That afternoon the Crimson Rosella came and sat on the railing outside our room, where we were sat reading. I went downstairs to the kitchen to get some seeds, and it ate them out of my hand! It was well cool - well, for about a minute or so. Then dozens of Cockatoos swooped in, squarking, wanting the same treatment, and we had to run and take cover in our room. The poor Crimson Rosella was probably wondering what it had done wrong! That afternoon we also saw a couple of Kookaburras, which was a first in the wild. Don't worry, we'll be emailing details of our upcoming ornothology course shortly!

For tea that night, we went all out, and I must say I'm so proud of our culinary expertise! We saved some broccoli and cauliflower from the night before, bought a roast chicken, carrots, potatoes and a packet of gravy mix from the supermarket, and had us a roast dinner! It was great - we only managed mashed spuds and carrots instead of roast spuds, but we were extremely proud. Our first roast dinner in three months! We even got a tinned plum pudding and a sachet of custard to have for afters. Delish! Then it started raining, so after phoning home we settled in the kitchen and, since we had it to ourselves, watched Medical Investigation. We had planned to go out to the pub and drink loads of Guiness and dance a jig or two, but there was nothing going on for St Patricks Day in the whole of Lorne! How disappointing!

The plan for today isn't too taxing, we leave for Melbourne on the good old Adventure Tours bus in about 2 hours, so we'll just browse the shops for last minute buys and have some dinner of roast chicken and cheese toasties before then! We'll be going to Melbourne via Torquay, I think, which is the home of the first Rip Curl Surf Shop, and where we may be able to pick up some surfwear bargains!

I'm excited about getting into Melbourne, but it's so scary to think that we've come this far, and we'll be back in Sydney in less than two weeks. I am looking forward to coming home, but it seems that our time here has just whizzed by. At least we've made the most of it here in Lorne, doing absolutely nothing! But seriously, it is scary to think we'll be home in no time. I'm excited about the prospect of seeing everyone again, being able to drive and seeing my family's new caravan! But I know that after a week or so I'll wish I was back here, doing whatever the hell I please everyday! But I guess we can't have it all.

Tis all for now, I'll post again from Melbourne. We'll be pretty busy as we've got loads of exciting things planned, including a day out to Phillip Island to watch the parade of fairy penguins at sunset, a day out to the Mornington Peninsula if the weather's nice, and hopefully an Aussie Rules Football Game at the MCG, if we can get tickets as they've only got pre-season matches on at the moment.

So it's all go from now on! Take care all.

Hiking the Grampians and Cruising the Great Ocean Road

Hello Blog Fans!

Just before I start on the goings-on in the past couple of days I just have to say that our last night in Adelaide was absolutely wicked! Claire knows a family through swimming who moved out here about a year ago; Carolyn, Johnathan, Jamie and Sam, and they invited us round for tea on our last night. Since they're from Horwich, it was really good to get all nostalgic and talk about Horwich, Rivington, our schools, Nightbar, Thyme Deli, Panda House Chippy, Mick and Glenda's Corner Shop and everything. I felt well homesick! And then it really kicked in after a fantastic and hearty barbeque when we retreated inside to avoid the bugs and sat down to watch Footballers' Wives! Also, since Bolton were playing Arsenal, Johnathan somehow managed to get the commentary from Tower FM over the internet so we had that on in the background, and it was great to hear a good, broad Bolton accent! Great stuff.
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'Scrambling' up the Grampians

On Sunday morning we got up early to get on the Adventure Tours bus with Becky and Jenny towards Melbourne. Our driver was crap - the most unenthusiastic, unfriendliest guy we've ever had the misfortune to encounter, and to make matters worse he had no water on board, unlike any of our other drivers. Our first stop was a roadhouse at Tintinara, where I indulged in a pie since I'd had breakfast so early. Next we stopped briefly in Bordertown (next to the South Australia/Victoria Border, funnily enough) where they had an enclosure full of white kangaroos. They looked like albinos but apparently they're not - they're just a funny colour! When we did cross the border we thought the driver might stop and let us take a photo, or at least unleash some ceremonial trumpets, but no joy. He just kept on driving. Miserable sod.
We stopped in the small town of Horsham for lunch, where we nipped into the supermarket then found a nice, shady picnic bench to make some sandwiches on. We were joined by Jenny, Marija and Machteld (Dutch Girls from Alice to Adelaide) and stuffed ourselves with raspberry tartlets and grapes!

When we finally arrived at the Grampians area our first walk was up Hollow Mountain, and boy was I glad that I'd bothered to buy some more hiking boots! It was a 2.4km walk return, and closer to a clamber-up-a-rockface than a walk to be fair! It was absolutely knackering and very hot, but the views at the top were very rewarding - you could see for miles. I used up all my water on the walk though, and was parched by the time I came back down with no water on the bus to save me! Our next stop was Mackenzie Falls, and this was a 1.16km walk down some steps to the base. It was really cool you could see a rainbow in it, but the walk back up was really hard, especially after what we'd done earlier. I walked past an Australian girl walking with her mum, moaning for a piggy-back. I suddenly felt a pang of guilt at moaning for piggy backs when I was younger! You never really stop to think that the incline might actually be killing your parents' legs too! Last stop (after a drink and an ice lolly to recouperate!) was at Reeds Lookout, where me, Claire and Jenny walked the 2km walk to Balconies Lookout and got the exact same view that we got at the car park! Great!

That night we stayed in the small township of Halls Gap, at the base of the mountains. We'd all chipped in $5 at lunch so we could have something different to eat for tea, and our driver expressed exactly what he'd rather be doing (namely being a chef rather than a driver) by cooking us a fantastic tea! We had garlic bread, chicken in a gorgeous sauce, roast carrots potatoes and pumpkin, pasta bake and broccoli and cauliflower, with apple pie and cream for dessert. Delish! We went to bed pretty much straight after tea since we were so full and tired!
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The Pinnacle Death March and The Great Ocean Road

Yesterday we got up and did a lovely hike up to The Pinnacle first thing after breakfast. Actually no, I lie. It wasn't lovely. It was the most taxing walk I've ever had the displeasure to do! I felt like death-warmed-up in the morning as it was - full of a cold with a nasty sore throat - but I felt that if I didn't do the walk I wouldn't be making the most of the Grampians and my new boots. The walk was apparently 2.4km, but I reckon it was more. In any case, it was very hard and very knackering - nothing like Hollow Mountain. I was just thankful that some of it was through gorges and stuff so we were in the shade. To be fair, it was a lovely walk, scenery-wise, and the views at the top were amazing. I felt very good about myself for doing it - a great sense of achievement! Until I went over on my ankle on the way back down to the Sundial Car Park (we started at the Wonderland Car Park) and I was cursing the whole mountain! Nah not really. It was ok.

Next, we visited the Halls Gap Cultural Centre, (every national park seems to have one of these 'come in and we'll charge you to hear the aboriginal legend behind this area!' buildings), where we watched a very entertaining video about a Giant Emu and Aboriginal ancestor beings, and then another one which was really just an advert for the Grampians. After Me and Becky sneaked some chips and a sausage roll from the cafe we were back on the bus again.

Our lunch stop was at Warrnumbool, where we sat and made butties again (outside a public bog - how scenic!), and I sneaked a piece of chicken from KFC (today has been a day for junk food!). Soon after, we arrived on the Great Ocean Road. We stopped at such photo opportunities as the Bay of Islands, Bay of Martyrs and London Bridge. The story behind the London Bridge is funny. It's basically a block of rock with a semi circle hole in the bottom so it looks like a bridge, but back in the day this rock was attached to the mainland by some linking rock. Then one evening in 1990, as a couple were enjoying a romantic evening out on London Bridge, the linking rock fell into the ocean without warning, leaving the couple stranded on top of London Bridge. So they had news crews, fire brigades, ambulances... the lot out to rescue them and record the fiasco for the evening news. Turned out that the couple were actually both married to other people and having an affair, presumably on business trips at the time! Idiots.

Finally we arrived at the Twelve Apostles, the vertical rock structures out in the ocean, and our last Australian Landmark that we hit before home! We decided to be extravagant (or maybe not so, since everyone else on the coach did one too!) and did a 10 minute helicopter flight over the Apostles and a bit of the Ocean Road. It was so exciting! I'd never been in a helicopter before, and I must say it's a lot more amiable than a plane! So James Bond-esque! The flight seemed far too short, but it was great fun and hopefully I got some good photos. The Ocean Road looked amazing from the air.

After that we cruised on down to our accommodation at the nothing town of Princetown, where there was a pub, a shop, and caravan park, and our hostel. We got settled and had some tea (we had rice and tuna while everyone else went to the pub cos I'm down to my last 100 pounds!). We drove back down to the Twelve Apostles for sunset but unfortunately it was thick with cloud. We did, however, see a Fairy Penguin waddling ashore to retreat into the shrubs for night time, which made my day! I didn't get a photo though, cos it was so far away it would've just looked like a fleck of black on the sand! That evening I sat in front of The Biggest Loser and then Desperate Housewives for the first time, with a mug of hot chocolate, then followed the others across to the pub for some pool.
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English Seaside Towns in Victoria!

Today I really didn't want to get up, so I think I well deserved lie-in is in order during the next few days! Our first stop was at Loch Ard Gorge on the Great Ocean Road where the British ship, the Loch Ard shipwrecked in the late 1800s. Out of 54 passengers and crew only 2 survived, an 18yr old Irish immigrant called Eva and a young ship's apprentice called Tom. They named the gorge in memory of the shipwreck, but they were not uncommon. The coast is actually nicknamed the 'Shipwreck Coast', since they didn't know Tasmania wasn't linked to the mainland they sailed past here instead and got caught in the rocks.

Our next port of call was in the Otway Ranges, a temperate rainforest area. We were to accomplish the Otway Fly Treetop Walk, an elevated metal walkway above the rainforest. It was quite interesting, and the towers, overhangs and walkways had an uneasy habit of swaying, but it was cool. It was extremely cloudy and foggy so some of the trees looked really ghostly!

After a hot chocolate (it has been so cold recently that it required a hot beverage!), we got back on the bus and made our way to Apollo Bay, our lunch stop. Me and Claire nearly planned to get off here, but I'm glad we didn't cos there wasn't much there. It was just like an English seaside town though, which apparently are what the towns were actually modelled on! They did a good job. Just to extend the feeling even more we had lunch in a chippy with Jenny and Becky. You can't beat a good portion of chips, gravy, barm and mini spring roll for making you feel bloated! Next stop was outside a lonely caravn park, and for one heart-stopping moment me and Claire thought it was Lorne - our concluding stop for the day - but it wasn't! It was our 'koala-spotting stop'. And spot the koalas we did! There were loads of them, all curled up into balls high up in the trees! They were absolutely gorgeous! I desperately wanted to take one home, so much so that we were stood under a tree with our arms out waiting for one to fall! Aww.

Eventually we arrived in Lorne. This is a British-esque seaside town, larger than Apollo Bay, and from our stroll down to the internet cafe what we've seen so far looks pretty good! There's plenty of eateries and clothes shops, and you get the feeling that it's more of a locals' holiday town than a backpacker mecca. It'll be good to spend a couple of days chilling (and having some lie-ins!) even if the weather isn't really too good. So I'm glad we've stopped somewhere nice but quiet before we move on to Melbourne on Friday.

So that's all for now! I'll post again either later in the week or from Melbourne (cos it's mega expensive here - this post has cost me about $10!). Take care!

Exploring South Australia's Capital, the city of Adelaide

I've quite enjoyed my time in Adelaide! It's been nice to spend some time in a proper city again, and it's very similar to Sydney, without, of course, the Opera House, and it's a bit more quiet. Here's what I've been up to!
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Thursday 10th - Christina and the Chocolate Factory

I got up about 11am on Thursday to compensate for my late night, and had noodles for breakfast as it was the only food we had left. Who says I won't fit right in at uni?! I went on the internet for a bit and then we set off (late) for our 2pm free tour of Haigh's Chocolate Factory! I wanted to get the bus because it was a 25 min walk away and we didn't really know where it was, but the others (Claire, Jenny, Becky and Paula) insisted that we should walk so we could take in the sights of Adelaide along the way, which was fair enough. It turned out to be further than we anticipated so we ended up power-walking the whole way, and made it just in time as the tour before us was running late. The guide told us all about the Haigh family (all 4 generations of them with a fifth in training) and how they make their chocolate. It's quite an unheard-of brand as they only have 11 outlets - 6 in Adelaide, 5 in Melbourne, and are opening a twelfth in Sydney in May. And they only have the one factory.

During our tour the guide gave us some crushed cocoa beans to taste, to show what chocolate starts out tasting like. It tasted like solid coffee - not too appealing really! Then she took us to the viewing area where I expected to see an array of Uumpa-Lumpas decorating and wrapping and mixing, but unfortunately they were just your ordinary factory workers, and they were cleaning up for the end of their shift as our tour was running late. We still got to see a couple of ladies decorating some bars that were going along a conveyor belt and some chocolate being turned about in a giant cement-mixer type of contraption, which apparently was polishing it.

Then we got some free samples - a mandarin cream and four apricot chocolates, and we browsed round the gift shop. I bought a postcard and a couple of chocolate frogs as did Claire, and Becky bought an Easter Bilby. See, in Australia, they have a weird hatred of rabbits, as some early settler brought them over from Europe and released them into the wild for hunting purposes. Next thing he knew they'd multiplied profusely, creating competition for native creatures' food sources and subsequently causing many native species to become extinct or endangered, including the bilby (which is a small rodent with rabbitesque ears). Now the country is absolutely ridden with rabbits. So for Easter they decided to shun the well-loved Easter Bunny and promote the 'Easter Bilby' instead. Bizaare.

We walked back through the park and through Central Market to do some food shopping, and then came back to update my blog on the goings on in the past week (which I'm sure you'll all have read!). In the evening we walked down to the main shopping streets to find somewhere to eat, and ended up settling at the first pizzeria we could find since we were so hungry! The chef looked a bit dodgy, but the pizza me and Claire shared was delicious, the first bit of proper food we've had in ages! After that it was early to bed as I was so tired from the night before.
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Friday 11th - Catching the Tram to Glenelg

We spent most of this morning on hold to Oz Experience, trying to book our buses from here to Sydney (we organised the rest of our time last night, fitting in quality time on the Great Ocean Road, Melbourne and the Snowy Mountains, with about 4 full days left in Sydney before we leave, and we worked out that including today we only have 24 days left in Australia! Sob!). Eventually we asked the tour desk at the hostel to ring them, who was saying that the sooner Adventure Tours take over Oz Experience the better. Personally, I don't agree. But whatever.

At around dinnertime we made a packed lunch and caught the tram through the southern suburbs of Adelaide to the seaside village of Glenelg. Rolling down the main street, it reminded me a lot of Byron Bay, but once at the end of the line, which was on the front, it looked more like a British seaside town, much like what you would find in South Wales or Devon and Cornwall. I loved it. We walked to the end of the pier where a couple of people were fishing, and spotted a stingray and a giant crab. Then we ate our sandwiches under the shade of a large pine tree (I have never before seen a beach lined with oversized Christmas Trees!) and hit the beach straight after. The sea was gorgeous! There was absolutely no surf, so we were wondering whether we'd been jipped and it was actually a lake, and the water was crystal-clear, just like in a swimming pool. You would have to taste it to know it was sea-water. Despite it being quite cold I had a bit of a relax and a swim, then lay on the sand for a while to dry off and read my book (Dan Brown's Deception Point - becoming hooked on the Dan Brown now!).

The tide actually came in surprisingly quickly, so after a half hour or so we met up with Becky and Jenny and had a stroll down the main street to check out the shops. We found one of the six Haigh's Chocolate Shops, excluding the factory gift shop, in which I bought some creams to replace the chocolate frogs I'd already scoffed! We got a Boost too, who are now running a competition where if your straw turns pink you get a free one - Claire won one yesterday so she claimed her free one - and Becky won one now! Surely my time will come! Then we found the best shop I've seen yet - apart from Australia, The Gift. It was called The Lolly Shop, and sold loads of imported British and American products, mostly condiments (including Branston Pickle and Marmite), snacks (eg. Walkers Crisps, Twiglets and Monster Munch) and confectionary (like Rowntrees and Cadburys Double Deckers). I bought some Monster Munch, Fruit Pastilles and an American Peanut Butter chocolate bar (which turned out to be very tasty) just for the shear novelty of it. Becky bought two jars of marmite too, as she can't be doing with Australia's 'imitation' Vegemite. Personally I don't mind either.

We got the tram back to the hostel in time for the Adventure Tours bus to arrive, and the idiot driver didn't have my hiking boots. He said that he couldn't find them, and when I said that I'd spoken to the hostel in Parachilna and they said that they'd found them and were going to hand them over he said "Well they didn't" and just walked off. The nobhead. Turned out he'd bare-faced lied to me cos when I rang the hostel to find out what the hell had gone on, they said they'd handed them over and the driver rang the next day en-route to Adelaide to say he'd forgotten them. Git. So after much debating of my options, ie. whether or not to wait in Adelaide for another 3 days and have them sent down on the next southbound bus, or have them sent by post to wherever we're staying in Melbourne (but I'd need them in between anyway), I just thought "Whatever, I'll buy some more tomorrow and put them on my credit card". Cos quite frankly I can't be bothered with the hassle.

After tea I felt much better about having resolved my problem, even if it did mean that I'd spent $100 on shoes I'd only worn twice! We walked over to Central Market again cos it was open until 9pm, but it was mostly a food market with fish, cheese, fruit, meats etc. So we just came back at 9 and had an early night again! All very boring really!
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Saturday 12th - Boot Hunting and Sight Seeing!

This morning we set out to Adelaide's main shopping streets - Rundle Mall and Rundle Street on the hunt for some new, reasonably-priced hiking boots for me. After sifting through every camping shop and turning our noses up at the extortion we found one pair of boots that were exactly like mine, which was lucky since they were on sale when I first bought them. Unfortunately they were a tad too small, so we abandoned the enterprise for the time being to retire to Adelaide's North Terrace, the 'cultural' street where all the museums, libraries and art galleries dwell. We investigated the South Australian Museum, which had a pretty cool display of animals and exhibition of Pacific Cultures. Then we moved on to the Botanic Gardens, where they seemed to have some sort of live music festival going on, so we sat and ate our packed lunch in the shade of a nice tree with the groove in the background, amused by the pigeon with the mohican that kept pacing in front of us. We got up and left as soon as that grey/yellow pesky species of bird (that we've now nick-named 'The Rat with Wings') turned up.

On the way back we nipped into Trim's, which is a camping and outdoor Army Stores type of shop, and is ironically about 5 mins walk from our hostel. We could've gone there first today instead of trapsing all the way around Adelaide, but hey. They had some boots in there the same style as Claire's, for only $60 (about 25 quid). So I bought them hastily, probably mostly out of relief and shear exasperation! But I am relieved now. It's bugged me that I've had to fork out about 60 quid in total for shoes, but I'll need them for the Grampians and the Snowy Mountains really, cos my trainers are far too flimsy. And I'll be able to use them at home whilst walking the pooches (which Ma and Pa will probably argue as a rare occasion!) instead of getting my trainers caked in mud. And I'll be able to take them to America, and round Europe when we do our European tour. So there you go. So long as I don't leave them anywhere else!
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What next?

So there's my time in Adelaide! Whatever next? Well tomorrow we're back on the good old Adventure Tours bus (snide groan) and we'll be spending tomorrow night in the town of Halls Gap, in the Grampian Mountains. Not sure what we'll be doing regarding walks, hikes and sightseeing, but I'm sure that as Adventure Tours go we won't have much freedom! The brochure says we'll be spending the afternoon hiking at Hollow Mountain and Mackenzie Falls, with sunset at Reeds Lookout. Should be ok really. On Monday we move on to Princetown, where we hike the Pinnacle in the morning then enjoy the views of the Great Ocean Road. We get off at Lorne in between Princetown and Melbourne (cos we're priviledged Oz Exp customers!), to spend some quality time on the Great Ocean Road, and it's a little seaside village too so it should be cool. Then on Friday we head to Melbourne. I'll keep you posted along the way anyway!

That's all for now, take care everyone and I'll try and post as often as I can between here and Melbourne to keep the reading lengths down!

PS. In other news, we saw that silly cow Kitten, from Big Brother 5, whilst walking back from Trim's today. It was either her or her twin sister. Mind you, Australia would be a good place for her to hide out since no one knows who she is! Silly cow.

Adelaide - City of Churches

This morning I didn't really check my bag before we left, and once we got to Adelaide I realised I'd left my beautiful hiking boots outside the door at Parachilna. Gutted. The next south-bound bus should be bringing them down for me though, hopefully.

Our first stop in the morning was Yourambulla Caves, a preserved site bearing Aboriginal Cave paintings, which are basically utilised for learning and recording purposes. Before we set off walking towards them from the car park Celia gave us a fairly interesting talk about Aboriginal culture, and somebody farted during it. The cheek! She said the walk wasn't hard so I went in my flip-flops, but it was actually really rocky so it hurt a bit! It only took us about 20 mins to get there and back so it wasn't too bad, but the paintings were drawn with charcoal so they weren't really that impressive.

Next stop was Kanyaka Ruins, the ruins of an old homestead which flooded and were abandoned, and they date back to 1863 (so they're not really all that considering my house is more than 60 years older than that! But it's old for Australia).

After that we stopped for some dinner in the town of Murray, where they had a hot plate for us to do toasties on, and we basically just used up all the food we had left. On the way through the Clare Region we stopped at Knappstein Winery to do some wine tasting, but the lady there was so overwhelmed with a coach-full of 20 that she only let us try two! And she wasn't too friendly either!

Once in Adelaide we settled in at the hostel, showered, and went downstairs for our free meal! Turned out we had a choice between Fish Fingers (fresh from the freezer!), Lasagne or Nachos. I went for lasagne but I think it'd been sat there for a while as it was cold, as was my mash and veg. Oh well! Then we sat in the bar for a while. Jarrod turned up (our driver from Darwin to Alice) and he managed to do his party trick! Then we moved on to a club called Heaven (which took much deliberation to find!) and partied the night away to their 'Timewarp' theme - it was all 70s, 80s and cheesy music so it was all good fun. Claire went home earlier than me by about a half hour, and I stopped at Subway on the way back for a Cheese Steak Sub with the guys who stayed until the end (us hardcore party-goers!). Eventually rolled into bed about 4:30am.

So there's my week! Today we've been to a chocolate factory, but I shall tell you about that in a later post as my eyes are going funny and I'm starving! So I'll post again soon and let you know what I've been up to in Adelaide. Take care all!