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The 3 B's (Birds, buddies and a breakdown)!
Well, where to start with this blog? Such a lot has happened since we left Bateman's Bay, NSW, but we have suddenly realised that a lot of it has been bird related - that is, birds of the feathered kind for those of you who were wondering??!! We have also met several of our 'buddies' and Winnie broke down and had to be towed. Hence the title - the 3 B's!
We left Bateman's Bay and decided to drive, as the weather was still not good. The only highlight of the grey and wet day (so much like England) was an unplanned stop for lunch at a winery. I spotted said winery on a map but we questioned its very existence when the sat nav sent us down an unsealed road into the middle of nowhere. However, 'we' (Bob was driving!) tried such gorgeous wines, and had such a lovely ploughman's lunch, in a very quirky location, that we are very glad we made the detour. A visit to Eden's Killer Whale Museum was the next must-do as we've never been to, or heard of, a Killer Whale Museum before! This was actually fascinating - in the late 1890's to 1930 the orcas trapped the whales in the Bay and then alerted the whalers by tail slapping in front of them and leading them to the whales. The fisherman towed the whales in, and rewarded the orcas by feeding them the tongues and lips, which are the delicacies apparently. One orca in particular, Old Tom, whose skeleton is preserved in the museum, seemed to be responsible as, when he died in 1930, the orcas stopped visiting the Bay for a while.
And then for the first of our 'bird' experiences. By now we had left New South Wales and had crossed the border into Victoria, our 3rd Aussie state visited so far. We were at Mallacoota, as recommended by 'buddy' Brenda, and were visited, as we sat by the van, by a kangaroo and it's joey and then by a red wattlebird, our first. It is quite bizarre how, as we have driven down from the top of Queensland, the birdlife has changed. We no longer see, for example, the brush turkeys (the only bird with a vertical tail) but why? They don't migrate, they live in bushes and undergrowth which is everywhere, so why don't they venture further south instead of stopping in Queensland and northern NSW? However, we are seeing loads of new species as we travel further south.
We left Mallacoota and were driving through the Bemm River area when a Superb Lyrebird just ran across the road in front of us, tail feathers displayed and flying everywhere. These birds are incredibly difficult to see apparently as they are very shy, so we were very lucky to see him and he was very lucky Winnie missed him! On to Bullock Island at Lakes Entrance where we saw our first Pacific Gulls with their babies. I have to admit that Bob and I are no 'twitchers' or 'birders' but we do take an interest in the wildlife around us, and like to know what we are seeing, so we have had to invest in a bird book to help us identify these new species! Our new-found interest may also have sprung from the fact that we are invariably woken at 4.30am by a cacophony of different bird calls. The calls vary depending on where we are but the Dawn Chorus in England just doesn't compare!! These are so noisy - ranging from laughing kookaburras, lorikeets and sulphur-crested cockatoos to the noisy magpies (not at all like English magpies!).
Raymond Island delighted with its resident koala population, which could be easily spotted lounging high in the trees and our site, at Paynesville, also delighted with its games room. We spent a happy evening playing pool, air hockey and table tennis (very gingerly because of my hip!) and all for free! We would have stayed longer, as these facilities are not provided everywhere, but we had a rendezvous the next day at Toora. En route we detoured, on the advice of a lady in the local Tourist Information office, to Port Albert where she had advised a fish and chip lunch on the quay. It didn't disappoint and we both agreed that the fish basket (fish, butterfly prawns, fish sticks and scallops) was awesome, along with the view and the fact that we were watched by literally hundreds of seagulls surrounding us waiting for scraps - there weren't any! It was also quite bizarre that we were the only people in the 'fisho' yet the girl still insisted on giving us an order number and actually called it out when the food was ready - Bob was in hysterics!! Our rendezvous, with our new sprung mattress, didn't occur though and we had to spend one more night on our increasingly uncomfortable foam one. However, this meant we had the chance to spend a day on Wilson's Promontory, where we saw our first gang-gang cockatoo and experienced the squeaky white sand of the aptly named Squeaky Beach.
Our next two bird encounters were on Phillip Island. First we came across the rare Cape Barren Geese, although there seemed to be quite a few, and then we went to the Penguin Parade as dusk fell. This was very commercialised, which we usually avoid like the plague, but this was deliberate to keep the public in one organised place and away from the rest of the nesting beaches behind the centre. It was actually very well managed and we watched the tiny Blue Penguins (also called Fairy Penguins) arrive just offshore, check out the beach for predators then waddle out of the sea and up the beach to their burrows. The boardwalks were so placed that you could get very close to the penguins as they waddled up the dunes but no photographs were allowed. The rangers were very informative. Despite the crowds we felt privileged to have seen this 'phenomenon' and were the last ones to be ushered out of the centre as it closed! The next day we ventured behind the centre and saw loads of nests on the cliff-tops, and a baby in its nest. These penguins actually climb up the cliffs!
Swan Lake was home to…. You guessed it, quite a few black swans but we also saw a Royal Spoonbill, a Musk Duck, a Purple Swamp Hen and a Straw-necked Ibis for the first time. And then we encountered another Purple Hen - it was actually the Purple Hen Winery but there was a purple hen on the bottle, lol!
We left Phillip Island the next day and headed to Melbourne. We had been having trouble with Winnie since Sydney and knew she needed a new throttle pressure valve, which the Sydney garage didn't have. She hadn't stuttered for a few days but, on our way to Phillip Island, it was quite bad so we had booked her into a garage in Melbourne. We were on our way to said garage when the stuttering started and, all of a sudden, Winnie jerked to a complete halt and wouldn't start again. I couldn't even pull off the road, it happened that quickly. Unfortunately we were on the single lane approach to a major roundabout, the junction with the motorway! With all the appropriate phone calls for assistance made we watched and waited helplessly as the traffic queue built and the vehicles edged around us. Cars were ok and just went up on the central verge, but lorries had two awkwardly placed road signs to contend with as well and ended up having to go up on the traffic island and back around. The Aussie lorries are much bigger than ours, most of them two trailer and a lot of oversize and heavy loads. One with a concrete 'arch' on board missed us by millimetres as the 'arch' rocked towards us as he went up the kerb and edged between us and the first road sign. Similarly the whole load lurched towards us again as he negotiated the second road sign. It was nervewracking and I had trouble watching! Unlike in England, where we would have been told to vacate the vehicle, we were told to stay in the van, presumably because of the heat, so we tried to remain calm as these huge loads passed by millimetres from our side window! Twice Bob had to go and stop traffic coming the other way so the largest loads could go the wrong way around the roundabout. We were there two hours, whilst a big enough tow truck was found, and we saw the best and worst in people as the queue and delays built. Four people stopped to see if we were ok, including one lorry driver who told us the load in his double trailer was 43 tonnes, and that was without his cab! One person tried to tow Winnie off the road, but the wheels were locked and she wasn't moving despite the smoke coming from his tyres! Other people tooted, stared, shook their heads and shook their fists while one woman reduced me to tears as she stopped, wound down her window and shouted abuse at me. Did she really think we wanted to stop there, with lorries squeezing by and only just missing us, deliberately? Did she think we wouldn't have moved if we could?! Well, it all turned out surprisingly well as the garage we were towed to had the spare part and, knowing Winnie was our home, did the work there and then. Bob and I slunk over the road for some food and a coffee while we waited, trying to regroup and calm our frazzled nerves!
The next day we caught up with some friends, Sophie and Dan, who spoiled us, with an Aussie barbie and some beautiful wines, at their flat which had stunning views out over Melbourne. We had a lovely afternoon catching up, which was just what we needed. That evening we met up with more 'buddies' from England, Carl and Lindsay, who are themselves on a bit of a world tour at the moment. We spent a lovely evening with them and then caught up with them again the next day for a relaxing drink at a bar on the banks of the Yarra River. Melbourne is a great city and we managed to see most of it, even though replacement buses replaced the trains in for the whole weekend! The highlight was probably the tour we did of the MCG cricket ground and the sports museum, where they were also filming for a new Masterchef series, although I enjoyed Docklands and our lunch overlooking the marina. We still have time to explore more when we return after Christmas. However, the recent incident in Melbourne, where the car mowed down people at a tram station, was a bit too close for comfort. We had walked along that street many times as we came in and out of Flinders Street station!
Now we are back at Bob's brothers on the Gold Coast, getting ready for Christmas. Apart from the weather, which just doesn't feel right for Christmas, we both prefer the more relaxed approach here. There are fewer decorations, and they have only just gone up - not on the 1st November as in England. The shops are busy but not packed, the sales are on now instead of after Christmas (which makes far more sense), there is not the same hype or panic, and no-one seems stressed about it. Or maybe it just seems that way because we are not stressed?!
Unfortunately we had to leave Waltham on guard in Winnie back in Melbourne, but he is in a field surrounded by his mates so we think he will have a good Christmas too!
Anyway, we hope you all have an amazing Christmas and wish you all a very healthy and Happy New Year. We hope you will continue to share, and keep in touch with us, and our experiences in 2018!
- comments
Jane Wow. How eventful. I'm so glad that the garage had your parts and that you have a keen eye for all the wildlife, half of which I've never heard of but sound amazing! Happy Christmas to you both and wishing you health, wealth and more wonderful experiences for 2018. Your keen armchair fan Jane. X X
Denise My goodness you’ve had a busy time! Feel for you with the breakdown incident I think I would’ve run & hid! Hope you both have a fab stress free Christmas (think I have enough stress for both of you) & look forward to reading about your 2018 adventures!
Virginia darling So glad you got to Wilson's prom and squeaky beach,such a beautiful place,that's where William spotted our first wild wombat,happy memories xxxxx
Sheila Miller Just caught up with last couple of entries. So enjoyed reading them . Your descriptions are fab xx