Australia continued

Kangaroo Valley, had many things going for it, firstly it was cheap $26 (a bit different to what was being charged on the coast) it was picturesque and had everything necessary on its doorstep, a pub which we made use of during our stay, village store, park, coffee rooms. It was very quiet, but it was really nice being away from the husstle and bustle of the expensive and busy coastal campsites. (The schools were still on holiday). During our stay here we met a guy call Alan and his wife who very kindly asked us for a drink with them. (Throughout the trip people  have been ever so friendly and kind, it has been great meeting new people on our journey. )

We travelled from the Kangaroo Valley down the Hume highway into the capital of Canberra, the scenery was different again to what we have been used to, it had high rolling hills, very green and once again picturesque. The road dropped down to Lake George through Canberra where we found ourselves on another scenic trip which climbed up into the Snowy mountains. We ended up in a town called Jindabybyne, 3000 feet above sea level. This campsite was still very busy. The weather was beautiful during the day but pretty cold at night especially for Australia. There were lots of gallars, (pink and grey parrots), once again they were very noisey, but interesting. We stayed one night in a motel and the other two camping. We were planning on staying a bit longer here but we would have ended up with the water bottle out again. Believe it or not it snowed a day after we left. (Apparently it had been the coldest spell they had for 45 years).

Jindabybyne campsite

We have both been very surprised by the extremities in the weather as it is very changeable, we thought we would just see blue skies all the time. How wrong were we!!!

We travelled down the Snowy Mountain Highway through the Brown mountains, which was very impressive down the coast to a place called Eden, which is famous for Whale watching.

 Typical landscape views on the Snowy Mountains route

It is a quiet village mainly based around fishing. Again it was surrounded by beautiful white sandy beaches. Great for surfers. We chose to live in cabins as the weather was a little bit unpredicatble but in the end we had no choice but to find somewhere else as most of the cabins were already pre-booked because of the holidays. We drove about 10km from the main highway heading towards Wonboyne lake, where we found a campsite which was fairly cheap and a lot quieter. It is amazing when you just find places on your travels that are not on the normal route. This campsite ended up being  our favourite one so far.

Wongboyne lake

Steve found a place to fish and sleep!

This was a campsite right next to nature and a beach near by.  In fact  I noticed that everyone on the site seemed to own a fishing rod, obviously the place to fish.  The beach was about 5km away, you could drive down a dirt track or walk it.  We were pleased we chose the option of driving, as we saw a red bellied black snake in the middle of the path.

 Kangaroos came to visit us on a regular basis. One was very interested in what I was typing on the lap top, I was trying to do the blog, it was so funny.  At first we were a bit apprehensive when this particular one  approached us as we knew nothing about their nature and  were a lot bigger than we thought. We were pleasently surprised how freindly they were. These kangaroos were totally in the wild not like the  previous time   when we saw them in the farm near Newcastle  Some of the children on the site decided to name the big Kangaroo Bruce and were quite happy stroking it even though it was twice the size of some of them.

We saw many red and green parrots,  they were pretty tame and would come to your tent and feed from  your hands.

Apparantley there was also a 4 ft Iguana which  hung around the campsite, we were unfortunate or perhaps fortunate not to meet it as they quite happily walk into  people's  tents scrounging for food.

Over the week the site became one happy family we met some lovely people, Dave, Kelly, Matthew and Tristan. They invited us for a barbecue on a  beach which you could only get there by boat on high tide, so it was very secluded as you can imagine. We would never have found it on our own.

Steve had a  great day out on  a boat with an elderly guy called Bill who taught him a thing or two about fishing and catching nippers with a pump. This was a very successful day for Steve as he managed to catch 7 edible fish, Flathead, Bream, Whitehead, Trevally, and Whiting, however there were still none as big as my Emperor ! 

We also got a chance to hire a boat for the day, with a fishing rod for me to use , unfortunatley I did not manage to catch anything this time. I never thought the day I would be going fishing for the day again, it is becoming a habit on this trip.

Captain Steve in charge of the boat.

We then headed toward Barnsdale, a pleasent home town which was ok for an overnight stop as we still had a jourey to get to  Melbourne for  Friday 20th January. This time we bought a sat nav, thank goodness so it was a lot easier.

We met up with Jandi and Ellie from the China trip at the Riverlands bars, next to Federation square as they live in Melbourne. The area had a great atmosphere which had very much a British feel to it. Our night life ended up a bit limited as Steve couldn't get into most of the pubs as he was only wearing thongs (flip flops in England, not  the meaning  of  underwear as we know it). It was great to be shown the nightlife  by Jandi and Ellie  as it would have taken us at least a few days to get our bearings and we may never have found the bars near the river. We splashed out in Melbourne and stayed in a studio plumb apartments which were pretty central to everything therefore it was worth it in the end. You could also get to the tennis  by walking , or alternatively you could opt for the  free tram service if you did not fancy a 15 minute walk.

The following day was a day to be celebrated which was my birthday and a chance to watch the Australian Open. It was a scorcher of a day, the tennis ground was pretty busy, thankfully we booked seats at the Hisense Centre. where we saw a couple of good womens' matches who had got through to the third round. One of the matches was V. King V A Ivanovic. It was a great day.

On my way to the tennis

Melbourne Park

The following day we did a bit of site seeing and took one of the ferry rides.It only lasted about one hour and a half, but it gave you a good guide on the city. We both said we would go again to Melbourne for the culture , quaint streets, coffee shops and of course the night life, it is certainly a city  worth visiting.

All photagraphs above are in Melbourne

We left Melbourne and were hoping to find somewhere fairly quiet, as we were both tired after our busy ,three day city visit  and late nights. We travelled down the Great Ocean Road, which has been the most stunning scenerey on the coast line we have seen since we have been away on our trip. The views were of  Sandy beaches, steep hills and windy roads.

The Great Ocean Road

After travelling for about 2 hours South from Melbourne, we arrived at Lorne, unfortunatley the camp sites were  all full, as this was the last weekend of the school holidays and Australian day was during that week, which  is  a  public holiday celebration. We finally found a campsite at Wye River valley, which was a really nice site situated further up the coast with pretty beaches, forests and a fantastic back drop of mountains. This site had koalas in the trees next to the cabins, they were facinating to watch.

Koala bear hugging the tree

We had to leave the camp site earlier than we hoped as the sites had already been pre-booked for the weekend so we decided to go further down the Ocean Road to visit the 12 Apostles, which many people had recommended. We decided after all the driving it would be better to see the coast by a small areoplane, a cesna which was  a 6 seater. We were so pleased we made this decision as we saw parts of the coast line we would never  have been able to see by road.  It also saved us about 4 hours driving.

Getting ready to go in the plane, looking nervous

Views of the coastline from the aeroplane

12 Apostles plane view

Straight after the aeroplane journey we decided to start heading north towards Sydney as we had quite a journey ahead.   Our plan was to stop off at Shell Harbour prior to Sydney to visit a freinds daughter from Darlington and her family We travelled up the Hume highway.  On the way we stopped off at Seymour, a fairly large town and Albury on the Murray River.

Australian day celebrations

Our next destination before Sydney was near Woolingong a resort called Shell Harbour, where we had a great time with Jo, Isla Michael and their family. (Jo used to live in Darlington) We headed for the town on Saturday night,  we had a good night out. We were introduced to some amazing clubs. I have not seen anything similar in England.

Shell Harbour beach

Viv, Michael and Jo

We experienced  a good tour the following day of Shell Harbour and the famous Berkley Temple which was amazing.

Photographs above are of Berkely Temple

On the afternoon the  men went fishing whilst I enjoyed sharing the experience of attending an Australian baby shower.

We then left Shell harbour and headed  towards Sydney, we stopped one hour South of Sydney at  a place called Shelly Beach.  Another very picturesque resort and is world  famous it Pelican show everyday at The Entrance.

Shelly beach, the most famous place in the world for Pelican feeding




 Over 6,000 km later we have toured most of the East of Australia in
our little Hyundi Getz

 Two days to go before we need to get back to Sydney to meet my brother Alan who is going to be joining Bailey's Tours for three weeks.   We are meeting in Sydney, then heading for  the Gold coast which we missed out on our first part of the journey. We only have one month left in Australia before heading off to America for 6 months on the 29th  February 2012.