AUS Day 42 - Homeward Bound

At 09:15 we set off from our lovely apartment in Melbourne on the mammoth journey home, which ended up taking 34 hours door to door. 

We reversed our journey out, so flew first to Brunei Airport. Here they seem to have made a lot of improvements in six weeks - new sitting down toilets were a definite bonus for our four hour wait! Next was Dubai, yet again a purely dark experience, so we could just admire the lights of the tall skyscrapers. Finally in terms of air transport, we flew to London Heathrow. It's felt homely being back in the UK, where you can breeze through passport checks and not be bothered by ridiculous queues for bio security and having to declare that you may have worn your shoes outside. Sitting on the train I'm much warmer than the freezing underground, and admiring the snowy scenes outside the window.

It's odd to think that when we started the journey in sunny Melbourne, shorts and flip-flops/thongs/jandals were definitely the order of the day. However upon touch down in the UK it was clear that more substantial clothing was required, cue whipping out shoes trousers, coats, and jumpers which had all deliberately been packed at the top of the luggage, and were now very much welcome.

It is going to take a couple of days to acclimatise to the new time zone and the weather.

AUS Day 41 - Wine, wine and more wine!

Our last day involved a step up in class compared with the rest of the holiday. We had booked onto a wine tasting tour, and were collected outside St Paul's Cathedral at 08:50 by what can only be described as the Rolls-Royce of minibuses (it was actually a Mercedes) . OK that's a bit of an over exaduration (this is the second guest post by Peter) but it was pretty smart compared to our previous transport; automatically opening doors and seats that were so far reclined they were almost uncomfortable.

First stop on our tour of the Yarra valley was Yering Station, the oldest winery in the region to sample some local wines, which mainly turned out to be Chardonnay and Pinot Noir due to these grape varities being particularly well suited to the climate. All were very nice, although some more so than others. What surprised us most was that some of the people on the tour decided not to taste any wine. Seriously, who books onto a wine tour if you have no interest in trying some wine? The clue is in the title.

Stop 2 was at a local dairy to sample the cow and goat cheeses, then it was time to head to the next winery, Domain Chandon. This place makes champagne that isn't called champagne for geographical reasons. They also had a funny idea of a tasting, deciding to provide one full glass of a choice of four, to each person rather than smaller samples, oh well, Tash and I made sure we had different  champagnes (or Chandons, to be PC) and then swapped.

Next was Rockford wines for more tasting and lunch. Rockford wines apparently produced the worlds best Pinot Noir in 2006, and a Californian guy on the tour was very keen to try some (it wasn't included in the tasting as it was $80a bottle - about £50). He therefore kindly bought some for the group to taste. It was nice but not nicer than the other pinot noir they let us taste (the cheaper one). I didn't mention this!

We then went to a micro brewery for some beer and cider tasting, Tasha even tried the beers, athough she was wearing a 'this is disgusting' face most of the time. 

Next it was back to tasting wine at Coombe farm. If I am honest by this point  the wine was all tasting pretty similar to each other. The ladies at Coombe farm were very generous with their tasting samples and with the quantity of wine to taste (8!! different types). This didn't help the Californian guy who was clearly starting to feel the effects of the bottle of the worlds best Pinot noir that he had polished off.

Our final stop of the day was the chocolate factory, where I made sure I thoroughly sampled the white, milk and dark chocolate. These were served in chocolate drop form - huge bowls from which you could take spoonfuls at a time. (I made sure to recheck the samples were still ok "a couple" ie nine times per bowl).

Finally it was time to round off our last day in Melborne and head back to the appartment, via Carlton Park, Melbourne Musuem and the Old Gaol.

AUS Day 40 - Endless Dream

Another lie-in meant we found ourselves at Central Station around 10:00, attempting to buy a tram ticket. It turns out that to travel anywhere outside the free zone you have to buy the equivalent of an Oyster Card (called a MyKi Card) and top up. A bit annoying for visitors, here for literally a day or two, but we duly bought our cards and hopped onto the 96 to St. Kilda Beach.

Half an hour later and we were stood on the beach, looking one way down the coast towards Brighton, and the other way towards Melbourne city centre. We strolled along the fairly pleasant promenade towards Melbourne, watching the waves on the sand, as well as the many kite boarders enjoying the conditions. Once we reached the pier we walked along it, and at the end I was pleased to see a pelican! My only experience of a pelican is the one in Finding Nemo, so it was cool to see one (or in fact, three) in the flesh. They rally are big birds! And their beaks are quite long and a bit scary...

Having ogled the Pelicans and black swans for long enough, we left the pier and St. Kilda and walked across to the nearby Albert Park. I liked the park as it had a pretty lake and some grass. Peter liked it rather more as it is apparently an F1 race course. On our walk through we spotted the pit lanes and markings, as well as the start line. How exciting.

Albert Park led nicely through to the sturdy town war memorial, and that in turn led us along the road to Flinders Bridge and Federation square, where many people seemed to be enjoying playing African drums. We left the square for Hosier lane, which was covered in graffiti, but in an almost artistic way. This reminded me of a similar wall in Prague that we'd seen back in 2008...

All this walking made for a hungry pair so we one again headed to China town for lunch. This time we enjoyed a spicy fish dish and an apparently even spicer beef dish (it had *two* chillies on the menu).

On the way to our evening activity, I visited a Little Book Room to swap my book. My aunt gave me a book much earlier in the holiday, in Picton, and I've been swapping it ever since for some surprisingly good reads! This latest and likely last book is apparently about maths but does have a naked lady on the front cover which I didn't really notice until I'd chosen it as I only looked at the blurb on the back. I'm now a little worried about reading it in public...

Arriving at 180 Bourke Street, we were wondering how our evening would plan out - all we really knew is that we'd be paying someone to lock us in a room. We were briefed on arrival, stripped of our belongings, blindfolded and led into a dark "endless dream" room, with only a torch. Once inside, we ripped off our blindfolds and noticed the clock ticking down from 45 minutes. What followed was an hour spent solving clues to find a key and our way out! 

The OrzEscape experience was really fun overall. It took us an hour to escape in the end, and we did have a few hints, but apparently we'd still done well, especially for a two person group. You can have teams of up to six, and generally, the more the better...

AUS Day 39 - 1 for $1, 2 for $2 or 3 for $3

Back in Melbourne! We settled well into our studio apartment last night and enjoyed a pleasant sleep until late morning. The weather was looking a tad grey, but nevertheless we reacquainted ourselves with Melbourne CBD, wondering to the information point to suss out stuff to do. Since we left, the CBD has acquired a new free tram zone (rather than free circular tram) in the city centre - noted for future travels. The architecture and structural engineering around the city was certainly still as interesting as I remembered - each building seems to have its own character, and nothing has been forgotten.

Having collected information, we wondered back towards the Queen Victoria markets, which had various knivk knacks, as well as a thriving fruit and veg section, street food and deli items. We treated ourselves to some spicy lamb boreks for lunch, and then got enticed into buying some ridiculously cheap (but tasty!) strawberries, being advertised very loudly as "one punnet for $1, two punnets for $2 or three punnets for $3". Not sure the vendor had quite got the hang of economics of scale, but I was quite happy with my one punnet.

A nap beckoned in the afternoon; I seem to have been attacked by mosquitoes just before or on arrival into the city and many of the bites were swelling to huge discs, which was a bit grim. I figured at least if I were asleep I couldn't indulge in scratching them (wrong!). 

Feeling a little better, we set off in the evening in search of dinner. Our feet took us to Chinatown where we had a lovely meal of dumplings and ginger (haha) pork, followed by some cider back at the apartment.

AUS Day 38 - Great Ocean Road

We started the day with a trip to Maits Forest, which is a temperate rainforest. Although not particularly prevalent in mainland Australia, there are larger areas of these in Tasmania and New Zealand. Because of this, we were already very familiar with most of the bush growing there. New to us were the really tall Mountain Ash trees, which are the tallest flowering trees in the world. We also saw a black snail and listened to the cecadas - insects which make noise similar to rain hitting a conservatory roof.

Next we rejoined the Great Ocean Road, this time for the most notably scenic section. Twisting and winding our way along the coast, we enjoyed the stunning views. Our first stop was Apollo Bay, where we had a quick look at the rolling surf, and drank in the fresh (but pleasantly warm - fab weather) air. Further along the road was a small side street where koalas and king parrots were to be found. The parrots were vivid red and green, with the females having red heads, and the males green heads. I think Peter, with his red head, would leave them largely confused....

Lorne beach was our lunch stop, and after kangaroo-bolognese wraps, we headed straight for the crashing waves (yes I know, swimming straight after a meal etc etc but it was a small meal) and had a great time messing about in the water.

This was nearing the end of the Great Ocean Road for us. The road was built by ex-servicemen after WWI and was dedicated to those who had fallen, making it the longest war memorial in the world. A wooden arch marked the end of the road and had information about its construction, which took place at a very slow 3km per month.

AUS Day 36 - Waterfalls (with water) and a joey

We started the day by getting ready (in our dark but pleasant dorm) and awaiting pickup. It was time for our second Groovy Grape tour! This time our guide is called Altair, and originates from Kazakstan. Our fellow travellers include girls from Mexico and Finland (from the previous tours) and other travellers from Switzerland, Gernany and the UK. A slightly smaller group, we set off on the damp but civilised roads towards the Grampians.

On arrival, eight ours later, we did a short walk down some steps to the base of McKenzie Falls. These falls were impressive and it was a novelty to see a river with water in it! Next we went onto The Balconies lookout, where we saw a lake with water in it too! The lookout gave a hazy but atmospheric view over the Grampians, which are bushy to one side but quite bare on the other. This is due to the January 2014 bush fires, which tore across the face of the mountain towards the town of Halls Gap. Luckily, thanks to a mudslide three years earlier creating a barren strip above the town, the fire did not spread to the town, which we are staying in now.

On the outskirts of Halls Gap we found a group of wild kangaroos, and wandered over to have a closer look. These Kangaroos were Grey Southern ones, different to the red desert ones. Peering closely at one of the larger ones, I realised it had a joey in its pouch! The baby Kangaroo was poking its head and legs out, admiring the view. It even nibbled a bit of grass when its mother bent over to eat (although occasionally getting roughly shoved back into its pouch...). What an amazing sight to end the day with.

AUS Day 37 - Summit to Sea

A fairly late start had us ready to hike at 08:00. Our mission was a 4km return trail to The Pinnacle, one of the many summits in the Grampians. This took us first through the Grand Canyon, and then up through a cool and narrow 'tunnel' to the top. The summit was rocky and breezy, with views over the bush and of a man made lake in the distance. Once back down, we headed straight for the award-winning cultural centre, to learn a little more about aboriginal culture. Here we heard some locals playing the digeridoo too.

Lunch was had at Tower Hill - actually a 4 km diameter volcanic crater. Our lunch spot was pretty parkland with the luxury of a BBQ, which we used to cook sausages on. The park also boasted plenty of Emus, who were very interested in our BBQ. So much so that one of them managed to grab one for itself, straight of the hot plate! As I'd had my fill of sausages by then, I found this pretty funny. The best way to get rid of the emus was apparently to raise your hands in the air and run after them. I thought our guide was telling us this in order for us to look as stupid as possible, but it actually did seem the most effective way to get rid of them!

On the way to the loo I was excited to see a Koala. It looked very cuddly indeed, with grey fur and a really sweet face. Koalas have been known to slash open humans before - so however cuddly the look, don't cuddle one...

After lunch, we finally reached the ocean! Martyrs Bay was our first chance to stop and have a real look at the coastline, which boasted stunning cliffs, empty (closed) golden beaches and a rough but blue sea. The Grotto was next - a hole formed in a stack, giving a beautiful 'window' type view to the ocean and sky beyond. London Bridge was slightly different in character, formed from the water eroding through a cave in a longer stack, giving a bridge-type look.

We spent more time at Loch Ard Gorge. Many years ago, a ship was wrecked there, and two survivors managed to clamber their way out of this vast but spectacular gorge. I suppose it must have looked different in their day, but it would still have been quite a feat!

The Twelve Apostles are one of the main draws of the Great Ocean Road, and are a line of eight stacks of rock. There were originally nine stacks (odd, I would have thought from the name that there would be twelve!), but one collapsed into the sea a few years ago. We got a good view of the stacks from the lookout, before descending Gibsons steps to the beach to watch a cloudless sunset behind the most eastern apostle.

AUS Day 35 - Alligator Gorge

A massive lie in of 07:00 brought us yawning and breakfasted into the bus. For the first time we unhitched the trailer, as it was too heavy too be driven to our morning hike spot. We drove in the bus to Alligator Gorge, set fairly high up in Fliders Ranges national park. On the drive we saw many kangaroos and emus, both doing their characteristic runs across the fields. Our guide also picked a living a Stumpy-tailed lizard off the road in front of us. This lizard has a tail that looks exactly like its head - a protective characteristics to confuse Dingos.

The land here is more undulating and arable, making a change from the arid area North of Port Augusta. We hiked a 2km loop around and then through the deep but water-less (and thankfully alligator-less) gorge. Then we went onto a couple of lookouts, although with the clouds rolled over the mountains it was tricky to see much!

Our tour bus then went onto its final final destination: Adelaide. The city was much larger and more uptogether than I'd thought it would be. There are three main shopping and eating streets, along with a few green squares. We walked down Rundle Mall, one of the streets, and ate Indian food on the end of it. Whilst we were eating, the heavens opened and the streets cleared whilst Adelaide got a good soaking. Thankfully this passed by the time we had finished, so we made our way back to the youth hostel, wandering back down the street (and accidentally venturing a street too far and into the red light district - oops!).

AUS Day 34 - Road (t)rain

After the luxury of a 06:00 lie-in, we breakfasted in Coober Pedy and set off South. At this point we weren't really sure where we were going, as the bush fires in the surrounding area of Adelaide were threatening our plans. The aim of the day was to get to Flinders Range, where we would camp under the gun trees.

Some time beyond Coober Pedy we paused to take some photos of the road (yes, the road!) and whilst we were standing there, a large vehicle came past, creating quite a side-draft. On the Stuart Highway, we've seen many large vehicles called 'Road Trains', which are basically huge lorries with three or four trailers on the back, as opposed to the usual single trailers common in the UK. The next stop for us was at 'Lake Hart'. This turned out to currently be a very fly-infected salt lake. Huge, flat and eye-wateringly white, this certainly was a sight to behold.

Back on the the road, we were lucky enough to see some Emus crossing - they're pretty tall! I think they should work on their 'Stop, Look and Listen' skills though. We worked on our 'Stop' skills by breaking for lunch, which consisted of Kangaroo meat in wraps. These were nice but made me think about Lelani a little, which was weird.

After lunch I was thankful to be back in the bus, away from the horrid flies, who also appear to like Kangaroo. Unfortuantely, it takes just one fly to be an annoyance, as I discovered when one flew right up my nose. I happened to simultaneously sniff then choke, cough and deliver the fly into my hand. Wholly unpleasant to think that fly did the full circle through my airway!

Glad to have survived the fly incident (much to Peter's amusement - he's still giggling about it now - humph) I concentrated on staying awake and taking in the scenery. Although still quite flat and desert-like, the weather was setting up some interesting effects. In one direction some very black clouds and heavy rain loomed. These were preceded by a 'whirly-whirly', or 'dust funnel', which looked like a red column on the black cloud, and was basically a mini dust cyclone. We missed the whirly-whirly but did drive through a short patch of heavy rain and wind, which certainly made a change.

When we reached our campsite at the base of Flinders Ranges, it wasn't raining. However, storms were forecast so we were put up in what seemed like luxurious dorm cabins. This meant we needed to empty our belongings out of our rolled up swags in order to pack them up tomorrow. Admin done, we settled down to an evening of food, cider and chatting in the kitchen - a lovely corragated iron spot. We were also joined by the resident dog, Stone.

AUS Day 33 - Roo in the headlights

I 'awoke' at 03:15 for a quick shower, after which we rolled up our swags, loaded the trailer, and were gone well before 04:00. The sleep in the bus that followed was harshly punctuate by emergency stops, and the sight of Kangaroos or cows staring back from the middle of the road. Kangaroos have a rather erratic hop too, so it was difficult to predict whether they were going to then get more in the way, or hop away...

Breakfast was had at 07:00 at Kulgara, just north of the border. For me this consisted of a lot of cornflakes (I don't find them very filling) and trying to minimise fluid intake and hence the uncomfortable situation of needing the loo for chunks of our 9 hour drive today! More awake now, I saw a Dingo fence, which is apparently the longest man-made structure, and built to keep Dingos out of Southern Australia. In SA, sheep farming is more common than cattle farming, and sheep and Dingos do not mix...

The border came soon after, and we briefly hopped out to admire the white line and change our non-existent watches forward an hour. Driving into South Australia, we covered the remaining distance to Coober Pedy. On the approach to the town, I noticed lots of odd looking conical mounds of loose material. As we got closer, these areas were marked as 'Opal Mines', Coober Pedy being one of four major opal mining areas in Australia.

Eager to learn more, when we arrived in Coober Pedy we went into one of the now disused town mines. This is now a museum, and a short film told us how opal was formed from silicates and water remaining from the sea that used to cover the Australian interior. We also learned about different types of opal - from the non-precious white 'potch', to glistening coloured stones worth thousands of dollars.

The museum itself was attached to a 'dug-out', which is a dwelling dug out of the rock using small tunnelling machines an shaft borers. These dugouts maintain a comfy 20-25 degrees all year round and are therefore the homes of choice for locals. Indeed that night we stayed in a dorm dug-out, providing me with my best night's sleep since Alice Springs!

Before bed though, we wondered up to the lookout to take in what could be seen of the underground town. A lot of strange looking machinery was parked up as well as all the usual amenities such as a bar, which we went to later. 

Something less normal was the Kangaroo Sanctuary we then visited. Here, a lovely couple take in injured animals (mainly brought to them from the roadside) and treat and look after them. Once healthy, the animals are distributed amongst other centres and homes, although if too badly injured they may remain in the centre as permenant residents. We met three of the permenant residents, some very friendly Kangaroos. All about six years old, and of the red variety, these kangaroos hopped about in the garden, enjoying our food offerings, and cooling themselves by licking their 'arms'. Finally, we got to meet Lelani, a baby kangaroo. Lelani is currently living in an artificial pouch, but we watched her being fed (lactose-free) milk from a bottle, then take a few wobbly hops, before being put to bed. She really was incredibly cute and soft.

AUS Day 32 - Thirty-six boulders

05:00 started our day - with a hasty walk (chair in hand) up to the lookout to catch sunrise over Ayers Rock. It looked great, and made me look forward to watching the sunrise later (and also look forward to breakfast). Breakfast was a great combination of cereal, bacon, eggs and bread, and this was to last us through our trip to Kata Tjuta.

Kata Tjuta is the collection of rocks over which we'd watched the sunset last night. It's tallest boulder is taller than Uluru, at over 500 m. Still red, the rock is a little more vegetated which adds variety. Our track took us through a few o the boulders, then round in a loop of part of the outside. The track involved walking over many loose red boulders, which was challenging but fun. The lookout gave views out from between two boulders which was cool too.

Peter saw Euro-wallaby.

Lunch back at the campsite consisted of cold meat and salad, perfect for the conditions. Which thankfully have cooled down to a breezy and cloudy 30-35 degrees - yay!

After lunch we had 'chill time' for a couple of hours. This has never happened for us before so I was a little puzzled as to what to do. I decided to go for a quick dip and then read a little of my John Grisham book, which I'd book swapped for in Alice Springs.

All too soon, we were back on the bus and off to the cultural centre. Here I learned about the aboriginal myths surrounding Uluru and Kata Tjuta. The information also helped explain some of the cave paintings we saw yesterday. There was also a really interesting film about the history of the rock and the surrounding land. This showed how the land had been taken by the white men to form a National Park, and was only given back to the aboriginal people in the 80s. They then leased it back to the National Park Authority. A short cultural walk followed, where we saw more caves in the rock, as well as waterholes and another set of paintings, which were used by the aboriginals for teaching.

Almost time for sunset, we settled ourselves on stools in a viewing area, with cider (for me, Peter is feeling a bit meh) and nibbles. The sunset was pretty well non-existent due to the cloud and welcome rain showers, but we had a fun time socialising and taking photos anyway.

We returned to camp for dinner of spag bol, and an early bedtime. I arranged my swag outside as per yesterday night, and actually slept for a couple of hours! This was soon thwarted by rain, which awoke me to a necessary loo trip, after which I moved my swag undercover. Here I enjoyed the breeze that came with the storm, but didn't manage any more sleep. I was more successful at big swatting though, not picking up a single new bite all night - win. I reckon I've been bitten by a spider on my leg as there is a double bite mark. Peter also saw a candidate spider lurking around in the evening.

AUS Day 31 - Close-up of the rock

At the sociable time of 04:00 (I wasn't asleep anyway, so was grateful for this) we got up, breakfasted and retraced our steps to Kings Canyon. This time, because it was before 09:00, we knew we'd be able to do the rim walk whatever the weather.

The walk began with maybe a couple of hundred red rocky steps (a breeze after our 2000-step marathon last week) up to the rim of the almost crater-like canyon. There are actually two main canyon, one frequented by aboriginal men, and one by the women.

Continuing onwards we went down into a canyon and found a large waterhole, where the large water reflected the red rock sides, now lit up by the sun. A quick snack later and we were climbing the steps up the other side to a stunning plateau area. This plateau was rather 'bobbly' in texture, with the weather having eroded initial cracks in the rock formation structure.

We spent a couple of hours wandering the plateau, looking at fossilised jellyfish and sand ripples. At all times we made sure to keep away from the edge of the 'cliffs' as the rock is extremely week, evidence by the large sections of the rock face that had sheared off.

Leaving the Canyon after our 3 hour, 4 mile walk, we returned to the campsite. I was surprised to find that it was only 08:30, especially as we were then fed a second breakfast of leftover thai green curry! This eaten, we clambered back into the bus, swags in tow, and made the  4 hour journey to Yulara.

Yulara is the nearest town to Uluru, or Ayers Rock, which is apparently the busiest national park in Australia. By the time we arrived we'd seen a fair wild Australian animals, both from the bus and from the trails. These included Dingos, dragon lizards and a huge wedge-tailed eagle (wingspan up to 2.75 m!).

Once at the rock, we were dropped off at its base and warned of the dangers of climbing (35 had died trying) and let loose on a 6-mile walk that almost circumnavigated the entire rock. Temperature: 38 degrees. Sun: strong. Shade: none. Rock: an incredibly impressive 350 m high (taller than the Eiffel Tower!).

Hiking around the base definitely demonstrates the sheer scale of the rock. It was a dusty red, with a mottled, scaly type surface. Huge chunks had fallen off giving it some lip-shaped scars. En route we stopped at a waterhole, which I guess at some times is fed by a waterfall off the rock. The peacefulness of this spot was slightly marred by a mild dust storm that threw itself up at this moment. However, the cloud of dust passed quickly with some strong winds, and we were soon back to admiring the rock on the home leg of the journey.

At the Mala car park we refreshed ourselves whilst waiting for the others, then made our way onto the bus and back to the campsite. Here I took a dip in the pool and then watched the sun set on the horizon, before a delicious dinner of BBQed meat and salad. After that, my swag awaited...

AUS Day 30 - Groovy Graping through the outback

Wistfully leaving our air conditioned backpackers spot, we were picked up in a timely fashion by Dan, our Groovy Grape tour guide. With first pick of seats on the bus, we picked the pair directly behind the driver (for legroom and the tinted windows - the floor gets pretty hot from the engine though!) and wrote our names and country of origin on the window.

We were soon joined by 19 others from around the world, with countries of origin including Finland, USA, Australia, Belgium, Switzerland, Mexico, UK and Germany. Introducing ourselves we found that a third of us were engineers, with a few teachers in the mix too.

We set off on our tour and the first stop was a camel farm. Here Peter and I had a short camel ride, which was quite comfy until the camels started running, at which point I became glad I am not a boy... My camel was golden brown and called Cirly, and Peter's was white and called Sparky. Curly occasionally tried to kick me off and sat down rather violently, Sparky seemed a little more docile.

Kings Creek station was next on the agenda, and this is where we were to camp for the night. A dusty spot, we had our own lean-to shelter, with a plug socket (which soon got very overloaded), fridge and hobs. We unloaded the trailer and had a quick lunch of wraps and the like before driving onto our destination of Kings Canyon. Here, we found that due to the heat, the main rim walk was closed. It appears that in the area, if the weather is forecast to be above 36 degrees, exposed tracks are closed by Rangers, for safety. For this reason, we found ourselves on the low level Kongs Creek track, which was a short walk leading us up one side of the gorge to a viewing point where we were surrounded by the red sides of the canyon.

Having enjoyed this walk (in spite of the large number of very annoying flies - I errored and wore black, which they like!) we returned to the amosite for a quick dip before dinner. The cool water was extremely welcome and that was probably the most comfy I felt all day.

Dinner was a green thai curry, which although not very cooling, was delicious. After dinner we learned how to use our swags, which are like big canvas sleeping bags with a thin sponge mattress inside. After watching a demonstration, we retired to our own swags for the night. The swags were nice and roomy, but just far too hot! I soon ditched my sleeping bag but still struggled to sleep in 30+ degrees in my black cocoon. I reckon in winter these would be lovely and cosy...

AUS Day 29 - Hot Springs

The morning news reads "Shark ruins perfect day at Bondi Beach". Turns out it was a Bull shark, spotted 200 m from the shore. It had been lulled there by a bait ball of small fish, and was trying to trap these against the shore - scaring a fair few swimmers in the process. The shark alarm must've gone off just before we got to the beach.

Breaking news: Jandals are thongs! (Or flip flops as we know them...)

Today was my dever domestic flight! It was weird being able to take as much liquid as I wanted onto the flight. The Quantas plane was great though, I squashed two films into the three hour flight and made a big mess of a chicken and leek pie, which was nice but basically purée inside and impossible to eat!

Taking my jumper off to exit the plane (the air conditioning was pretty fierce) I walked down the stairs into 35 degree heat. A cloudy and apparently cool day in Alice Springs. The town itself seems fairly small and residential. We got a good tour of it, being almost last to be dropped off from the airport, and saw an interesting mix of generally white tourists and local aboriginal people wandering the streets.

The streets themselves were warm, and the town is split by a 'river' (pictured below) which was more like a red-desert type sand - no sign of any water. Just looking at it made me thirsty!

AUS Day 28 - Shark!

Making it to the ferry station (10 mins walk) this morning and realising we had a half hour wait (we do have a timetable, but we didn't look - lesson learned), we nipped into The Baker's Oven for some tasty pastries for breakfast. These were eaten on the beach next to the wharf, which is apparently frequented by 30 or so penguins! Although if I were a penguin, I'd be headed to Abel Tasman, or somewhere pretty, rather than te seaside town of Manly.

After the ferry journey, during which the sun came out in all its glory and the sun cream went on (15 on legs and arms, 50+ on the face..), we made the smooth transition to the 374 bus service. This wound around Sydney for a while, before going pretty directly to Coogee Beach, where we disembarked. 

Coogee Beach is a sandy beach, with rolling waves and cliffs either side. The next beach at Clovelly was more of a rocky cove, with a surprising number of boats pulled up for its small size! There were paddle boarders enjoying the water within the cove. 

We continued our cliff top walk (along with a fair few others) to Bronte Beach, which is where a number of surfers could be found. Sitting on the rocks on the cliff, we watched them catch (or fail to catch) waves or a while, before strolling on to Bondi Beach - the most famous of the area's beaches.

Apart from it being huge, golden, and quite busy, the main thing that struck me about Bondi Beach was that no one was actually swimming. Odd I thought, given the sea just around the headland was full of surfers, and the water temperature was advertised as a positively tropical 21 degrees... We carried on around to meet the beach, pointing out the three helicopters hovering above, which were soon joined by a fourth. When we reached the beach we were greeted by a lifeguard with a loud speaker, saying "The sea is closed, we are doing our best to remediate the situation". What we gathered from that, the numerous news cameras, four helicopters and a vacant sea was that a shark had been spotted in the bay! I had a quick scout for a tell-tale fin, but no luck. 

Glad that we hadn't fancied a swim anyway (due to the large salt intake from the Olympic Pool yesterday) we hopped onto the 380 bus and took ourselves to the shops near Bondi Junction rail station. This proved convenient for travel as we then took one of the swish double decker trains the rest of the way into the city centre - certainly preferable to the rather busy bus!

Back in the city our stomachs took us straight to Chinatown where we ate ramen and udon. On the way back to the quay from Darling Habour we took in the sights of the city, including the Sydney Tower. The quay itself had been dominated by a cruise ship, which really changed the look and feel of the harbour.

At our hotel we treated ourselves to a Coles dinner, consisting of cheese and bacon rolls and some bargain Pfeffernüsse. These are delicious, and unlike other things ginger, seem very resistant to the sun and heat! I can't say the same of the last KitKat chunky, which hasn't been a solid since leaving New Zealand...

AUS Day 27 - Would you like to put your thongs on right now?

This morning we awoke exactly at UK New Year - 11am. Another beautiful day in Sydney, we decided to head into town as soon as we were ready, having a small breakfast as it was basically lunchtime!

The ferry that would take us across came into the wharf crowded with people. Manly appears to be a popular bank holiday destination, so we were glad that we were going against the flow of the crowds. We nabbed a spot right on the bow of the boat and enjoyed the breeze on the way over.

Once in town, we headed north west out of the quay towards harbour bridge. This took us to The Rocks, where there are some nice shops and cafes, from which we first procured a steak sandwich for lunch. Next I went into a shop and picked some flip-flops, as I'd managed to leave my old ones at a triathlon a while ago and could do with some more. When I took them to the till, the guy asked me "Would you like me to take the label off so you can put your thongs on now?". Thankfully I took a while to process this odd sentence, so rather than an "*Excuse* me?!?" he got a blank and slightly confused look...

Thong incident averted, we carried on towards Harbour Bridge, and went up the steps onto it. The bridge was an amazing feat of construction - more rivets than I've ever seen on one structure! The view of the Opera House was pretty good too!

By the time we'd crossed we fancied a dip, so we headed to the North Sydney Olympic swimming pool. The water looked blue and inviting, and the swimming lanes not too busy. We paid to go in, changed, and I then plonked myself in the deep end. Bleurgh!! The water was salty! A great temperature, but truly horrid to taste. 1300 m later an is demonstrated how good my swimming position can be with added buoyancy (it was as good as wearing a wetsuit) but also how much water goes into my mouth whilst swimming...

Thankfully the showers were fresh, so feeling revived we wandered back over Harbour Bridge and this time went easy from the quay to Mrs Macquires' Point. Here we found the botanical gardens and remnants of the previous night. We decided our view was better, although where you could see through all the trees the glimpses of the Opera House framed by the bridge were good. We then went on to the Opera House, admiring its tiled curves and splendid setting, before catching the ferry back to Manly (again pleased that the masses were headed the opposite way).

In Manly, we sourced a tasty Thai/Vietnamese place for dinner and then strolled along the beach, watching the surfers and reading pictorial signs on surfing etiquette. There was also a sign saying "Rowers wanted - surf or stillwater, experience preferred - male or female aged 18 - 35", evidently it's a transferable skill to have.