So…we had a lovely time back at Hervey bay, it was great to see them again - and we got our first chance to try kangaroo meat! Mike liked it, said it was ‘gamey’, I wasn’t a huge fan but mainly cos it tasted of meat! lol.
From HB we continued down the coast, had lunch at Byron bay one day, which was a nice little place, quite touristy tho - pretty views up a coastal hill to the lighthouse. Port Stephens, where we had lunch the next day, was much nicer and had some gorgeous coast and sand dunes. Sat on the rocks we could just about see the whales blowing and splashing about out to sea, which was very cool.
We soon got down to Sydney where we were greeted by Kathryn, my brothers lovely girlfriend. (Apparently she’d had a campervan parked outside for the last few days and my bro said we’d probably arrived early and were too scared to go in!!) We stayed with Kathryn, David, Dee and of course the little munchkin Lily for several days, and it was so lovely - like being at home! We went into the city on the ferry from Manly, and waited in anticipation for the opera house and bridge to come into sight…and were very surprised to see how small the opera housed looked against the skyline! But it was still a very cool sight - the image of Australia - quite surreal. K also took us to Palm beach, better know as…Summer Bay from Home and Away!! So that was very exciting, lol.
After a few days we headed off into the Blue Mountains, where we saw some awesome views, including the three sisters, which had many variations of tales behind them! We did a few short walks, my back was falling apart tho so unfortunately we couldn’t do anything too strenuous. We camped for a couple of nights in several places, slightly concerned about the ‘extreme bush fire risk’ and camping in a wood….but all was well.
After a few days in the mountains we were looking for another camp spot when Lola suddenly started putting on warning lights, that then started flashing, and only stopped flashing when you put the headlights on. Awesome. So deciding we didn’t really want to break down in the middle of nowhere we willed Lola with all our might to make it to Mike’s cousins house, where they took pity on us and we spent the night broken down on the lawn!! We stayed several days with Mark and his family, who very kindly looked after us, including the day we were actually meant to be there when they organised a big family bbq for Mike to meet everyone. That evening, Mikes great aunt skyped his grandma and other great aunt back home….I wish it had been recorded so I could put it on you tube - funniest thing ever! It was lovely for everyone to see each other again tho.
From here we went back to Kathryn’s, where we rented out Dave’s couch for a week or so (we had broken down again, good times! Turned out our ‘brand new alternator was actually made for a fork lift!!!) and then finally got back on the road. Our next stop was Canberra, where we went and met Nessa & Jack who we met in Vietnam. Is was so great to see them again! We went and made use of Aus’s nationwide free community bbqs down by the lake, and also had a dvd night which was nice, good to chill out with friends. Mike and I (trying to be proper, and all) went and had a look round parliament for a day - its very tourist/local friendly which is nice! Anyone can go in and watch the discussions etc. I also answered a question about the Australian emblem which I was quite proud of myself for!!!
From Canberra we headed east until we hit the coast, where we went to a wildlife rescue centre at Batemans bay. Now as most of you will know I usually avoid animals in cages for public pleasure, but this place was really nice - most things were rescued from pouches of road kill, or birds from old ladies who’d died….and anything that could be put back into the wild, was.
I’m also wary of places that let you hold animals - like the places where you can ’cuddle a koala’ cos apparently it actually really stresses them out. But luckily for us wombats love people! But only at certain times in their lifespan. When a baby wombat is rescued, if it doesn’t have fur yet it will have to be bottle fed every 2 hours, and it will have one surrogate (human) mum and wont like anyone else. When they get to their ‘teenage’ stage (like Trixxy in the photos) they love anyone, run around like mad things jumping over you and head butting you…and then roll over for you to rub their belly!!!! Then as they get older they are given less human contact, and eventually the surrogate mum takes them out into the wild and walks around until eventually they toddle off on their own. So that was very cool!!!
After wombat fun (and it was intriguing how many aspects Trixxy and Mike actually had in common…) we carried on our journey south along the coast, camping at a very cool spot with lots of weeping willow trees, which was gorgeous, and had the luxury of portaloos! Which were much nicer than the compost loos which are basically a toilet over a massive pit…yum!!
We then made our way thru Melbourne and out the other side where we proceeded to follow the Great Ocean Road. Seeing the infamous apostles was very cool, even if there’s only like 4 now!! And we caught a glimpse of 2 more koalas - so cute. The one night we camped in an awesome place, a big meadow by a lake in the middle of nowhere, and watched a gorgeous sunset, sad knowing this would be one of our last nights in Lola. After 5 days of not showering (yup, smelly!!) we headed into town to check out the van selling options. This was a very stressful day. Somewhat defeated and deflated we headed back for another night at the bp garage (this time, however, I wore earplugs!!!!)
Back to the city and we stayed a few nights with Kathryn’s friend Bronwyn, who was oh so lovely. That night we met up with my brother - so lovely to see him after 8 months - and we went to a very random ‘bike film festival’ that his company had sponsored. It was great! We watched a film about the ‘tour d’afrique’ where people cycle from cairo to cape town…mental! It looked amazing tho,…reckon me n mike should start training!! There was also a company there who took in peoples old bikes and sent them to Africa where they are desperately needed for transport purposes - which I thought was a brilliant idea!
After Bronwyn’s we stayed with LJ, the fellow couch surfer you may remember from Perth, who showed us ‘Possum park’ with possums so tame you could practically stroke them! Now we are staying with rich, who showed us round his (very cool) office and took us out for a day of exploration…including some very cool retro shops and a game of bicycle polo!!
Unfortunately, our last couple of days have been even more stressful and disheartening than we first feared, as Lola failed her roadworthy. This means it would have been virtually impossible to sell, and needed more work done than we could afford. So, instead of the 75% we were hoping to make back…we got $300 for scrap metal!! Which also means that she will be squished into a cube and sent to a big scrap yard in the sky L . And yes, I cried.
And so the trilogy concludes somewhat sadly, but her spirit will live on. We leave the land down under tomorrow at 4am (I am NOT amused!) and will then be landing in New Zealand, hoping to get a house in Christchurch for a while, if all goes to plan.
So I guess the ‘travel blog’ ends there, technically, but I will keep you updated on our progress and various antics of interest in NZ. Cant wait to meet some penguins!!! Hope you have enjoyed the tales and photos, lots of love and take care - and start saving for your plane tickets to NZ!!!!