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G'day everyone!
Currently we are sitting on an overnight Greyhound bus travelling from Sydney to Byron Bay, our first stop on the East Coast leg of our adventure around Oz. I thought this was a good time to catch up on our blog and our trip along the Great Ocean Road and most importantly, Holly's 30th.
The previous week we both completed our last days of work and then after a manic packing and cleaning session we said goodbye to our lovely house in Maroubra. Leaving all the remaining stuff with our friends, Rich and Bex, we took the overnight train to Melbourne and 10 hrs later we arrived.
We had given ourselves a couple of days to wander through the shopping arcades, visit galleries and enjoy the cafe lifestyle Melbourne is so famed for. However, the highlight of our time in the city was found in a quaint pub in St Kilda, where we enjoyed 'neighbours night.' When we arrived we were allocated a table to sit at and found ourselves with probably the only Aussie in the room - around 99% were British! Very soon it became clear she had a rather unhealthy obsession with one of the actors who was appearing that night. In fact, I don't think obsession covers it. It was a great night, especially as we got a picture of us with none other than Dr Karl Kennedy! Woohoo! Steph Scully also made an appearance fresh out of jail but was more bothered about getting out of there pronto, however Dr Karl was loving the legendary status he seemed to have and belted out a few classics. The evening ended with a special appearance by Stefen dennis (yep Paul Robinson) singing with Dr Karls band, the appropriately named "Waiting Room." So who remembers his hit "don't it make you feel good?" .... No, me neither, but he did have 2 worrying obsessed male groupies who were loving it, one of which did look weirdly like Orlando Bloom! Just an average Monday night in Melbourne!
The next day we explored more of the city and found this very bohemian suburb called Fitzroy and had lunch. In the afternoon, whilst wandering through Fitzroy Gardens we saw signs for a mock Tudor Village! Yes, so random and so we had to find it. Eventually we did quite literally stumble across it. Our initial reaction was shock at the massive historical inaccuracies! (sorry, 2 history grads, but im sure The Tudors didn't have brick fronted property with tiled roofs did they!) Anyway, after slating the Aussies for 10 mins we found a sign saying that this was actually made by the people of Croydon for the people of Melbourne following their support during the 2nd world war! So, not only was it incorrect but we only went and designed it ourselves!
The next day we pick up our hire car and drove all the way along the Great Ocean Road to Port Campbell. We left a little late which meant we missed sunset which we were hoping to see at the Twelve Apostles and meant we had to drive the last part in the dark. Never good over here in Oz and fortunately we missed a kangaroo that decided to hop into my path when driving through the Otway National Park. The next day, leaving Holly in bed I decided to get up and see the sunrise at the Twelve Apostles. After our failures at the Grand Canyon and Uluru, I was determined that this was going to be third time lucky! Holly was clearly not so confident and felt an extra 90 mins sleep was more beneficial! Although it wasn't breathtaking, it was a beautiful spot to see the sunrise and was worth the effort, however I think seeing the sun set over the apostles would be even more stunning.
We were incredibly fortunate that the weather was so beautiful as we drove back along the Great Ocean road, stopping at all the beautiful views and landmarks such as the 12 Apostles, London Bridge and the Arches. It certainly reminded up of the striking coast of Dorset and North Cornwall but on a much grander scale (and with bright blue water and massive waves!) In the afternoon we drove into the Otway National Park, a temperate rainforest filled with huge tree ferns and beautiful waterfalls, and did some spectacular walks and ended up doing the Otway Tree Top Walk. We did a similar thing in WA where they have constructed walkways through the canopy of the trees in the forest to give you this amazing view down to the forest floor. This one was much larger and at one point we were 47ft above the ground. Pretty impressive!
Holly had tasked me with one thing on her birthday - to see wild koalas. Fortunately we were in the best place in Australia to see them and Friday was to be our Koala Day! We spent the Friday morning at Cape Otway Lighthouse which had stunning views of the cliffs and the massive expanse of water which stretched all the way to Antarctica. The lighthouse seemed to have a very random collection of buildings all gathered together to make a visitor attraction with a World War 2 bunker and some cottages that once belonged to the Lighthouse Keeper. However, the best part was yet to come.
On the road out of the Lighthouse we found the first of our wild koalas peacefully sleeping in the trees above us. I think we spotted about 15 along this road alone, all fast asleep and blissfully unaware of all the attention they were getting. We then headed on to Kennett River, where keeping with the days theme we had lunch at the Koala Cafe! Just behind the camping ground in Kennett River is a track around 5km in length which you can drive and koala spot! We saw another 10 here and these were far more active and eating away. Koalas seen on birthday weekend.... Tick! All in all a successful day.
Being Easter weekend it was tricky to find cheap and reasonable accommodation to stay in that didn't need a minimum of 3 nights or cost the earth. On the Friday night we stayed in Lorne in one of the YHAs. The dorms here were all 2 floored mini houses perched on a hill in the bush overlooking the town. Holly insists this resembled a treehouse, as we ended up sleeping on the upper level of our room, up in the eaves, accessed by the worlds steepest and narrowest ladder. However, who else can say they spent the night before turning 30 with 10 French people and 2 Irish girls who snored like nothing I've heard before. Don't say I don't treat you Holly! Knowing I had found a lovely b&b for the next evening I wasn't too worried but I don't think Holly was that impressed! Anyway the hostel was nice and we met lots of people including 3 or 4 semi pro Sri Lankan cricketers who have spent the summer playing cricket in Melbourne and then are going over to England to play for teams in Leicester. It made it all the better that we were destroying Sri Lanka in the test match at that time so some good banter was had.
So Holly awoke on her 30th in a "treehouse" and we headed off early to drive to our destination that night, Phillip Island. On the way we stopped off in Torquay where the RipCurl surf championships where taking place at Bells Beach. Sadly we missed the mens final the day before which featured Kelly Slater but we saw the womens final which was good fun. So onwards we trekked and eventually made it to Phillip Island around 3pm and found our b & b. Here is where things started to go pear shaped... When I knocked on the door the landlady gave me a strange look and I began to fear the worst. Yes, the place had been double booked. I had confirmed and checked everything the day before as the person I spoke to had been a little sketchy when I booked. I couldn't believe it! It had to happen on Holly's birthday didn't it. Obviously being Easter everywhere was fully booked, however the landlady being incredibly apologetic offered us to stay in her spare room for free and give us a bottle of champagne! Not the location we wanted for Hollys birthday, but hey we had a solution!
Phillip Island is not only home to a Moto GP circuit but also around 60,000 Little Penguins who call the island home as well. At night, some of these come ashore to nest and people come watch the spectacle and that is what I had booked for Holly's birthday, a trip to the Penguin Parade. However not with the 5000 other people who had booked tickets at the sell out event, but on a ranger tour with 8 other people. So with night vision goggles and headsets on, Secret Agents Tom and Holly headed to a private beach to watch the penguins arrive. It was an amazing experience to see the penguins at close hand. You could hear them calling to each other before tracking them clambering over the rocks onto the beach and then pass us to the nests which we later discovered where found all over the island. Some came in on their own looking very lost and confused but at the end of the short time we were allowed on the beach the ranger saw over 200 little penguins just on the section of the beach in front of us.
The whole story of Phillip island is a great conservation success story. They have successfully bought back land from developers which was impacting on the nests of penguins and after sunset the roads around the edge of the island are closed off for protection because the penguins come ashore. On the walk back to the ranger office, we saw at first hand the penguins in their nests just feet away from us making an incredible noise. All the drains on the island have to be closed off with wire netting to prevent a penguin getting down them and getting stuck thinking its a nest. Just as we were about to leave the path and enter the ranger hut, the ranger spotted a penguin going down a drain that had become uncovered. Getting a nice bite in return for his troubles he rescued the penguin from a nasty suffocation! We would definitely recommend people doing the tour, it really was a fantastic evening.
Easter Sunday was our final chance to see the other elements of the island and after visiting the koala conservation centre and The Nobbies (nothing rude, just a collection of nobbley rocks on the coast) we headed back to Melbourne as we had a date with a British Olympic legend.
Melbourne was hosting the World Track Cycling Championships and it was pure luck that we were in town for them. After not getting tickets for the Olympic cycling I was really keen to see some of it and so we managed to get tickets for the final evening. What a great atmosphere with a world record for the Aussie Anna Mears in the time trial and an incredible finish by Sir Chris Hoy to win the Keirin. It had to be seen to be believed how he came from 4th to 1st on the final corner to win and you can only imagine what it will be like in the Velodrome in London this July if he does something similar! We also saw the Madison, what can only be described as 200 laps of madness, but so captivating to watch all the twists in it and we loved it!
The following day we chilled and relaxed before our 12hr overnight greyhound bus torture! This was the first step on our adventure up the east coast and was a baptism of fire. At 4am we had a change of bus drivers in canberra and I'm not sure if anyone loves their job more than our new driver. Now, at 4am you don't want to have much disturbance. In fact, I would quite like peace and quiet, but it wasn't the passengers who caused the problems, but the driver who proceeded to give a 10 minute lecture on the workings of the air conditioning unit on the bus! Argh! I was so glad to get back to Sydney. That evening we had drinks at the Shangri-la hotel along with friends and the most amazing views overlooking the harbour and then dinner at Jamie Olivers place in town, a real treat to end our time in Sydney and before our east coast adventure begins!
We will write more en route to Cairns but for now, bye!
Love t&h x
- comments
The Baron I hope you had a Happy 30th Birthday Holly!...I'm sure one that you will never forget! The Baron xx