Beasts of the Blue

Blue Mountains, 14th January 2011

It took us for EVER to get back from the area around the Brown Brothers to the Blue Mountains. I mean, I love car journeys: I have all my favourite things with me, books to read, yummy snacks and best of all I’m in a confined space where Jon has no choice but to take notice of me for hours and hours!!! However, even I was bored 5 hours down the road and all you’re seeing is yet more farmland. We stayed in a nice motel overnight in a place where they held prisoners of war during the Second World War and the lady at the tourist information centre (which had a brilliant hologram play) said it was just down the road. Just down the road? Just down the road?! If we’d gone that far ‘just down the road’ at home we’d have hit Scotland 2 hours back and be heading for its northernmost point!

Anyway, we eventually got to the Blue Mountains, which I would recommend not approaching from the west because it just seemed like it was going to be the biggest let down (- there didn’t seem to be any hills in sight!). When we finally got to the main tourist destinations it actually turned out to be pretty cool! We headed to the Jenolan Caves… which again we didn’t go in (way expensive – and Jon has a thing about caves just being caves… yes, I know you could say it about anything!). I was more interested in walking around the Blue Lake in search of a platypus and there were a coupleof other tracks around the site. There is an awesome descent to this place and we kept saying it would be a great hill climb on our bikes, if a little bit of a beast. At the bottom of the hill in the valley is the most Welsh looking building I saw in the whole of Oz. It’s a great big hotel, built by an Englishman I think and its so like the old hotels with waterwheels you see in Wales and Cornwall and even in the Pennines (I suppose a bit like the place we stayed on the last night of the C2C Mum and Dad!). I should have taken a photo but we were too busy with the wildlife. There were loads of skinks all over the path and Jon had great fun creeping up on them – mean boy! There were also some wonderful butterflies and dragonflies near the lake.

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After the Jenolan Caves we managed to get over to the Three Sisters before the sun went down. I really wanted to go on the cableway which takes you down onto the forest floor but it was closing up for the day… I might head back out there when we go back to Sydney as you can get the train to just down the road.

Again the views from the Three Sisters were pretty cool. We took the path down to the rocks (the Sisters) and I was knackered walking back up the steps as we returned – they were so steep!  Jon eyed up the rocks for a bit of bouldering but there was a climbing prohibited sign on there. I guess there’s a good chance of falling to your death if you popped off!

The Three Sisters overlook a massive expanse of forest in the valley below.  There were steps all the way down if you’d wanted to head out on a proper hike – that was pretty cool. I suppose the Three Sisters is a little bit like a mini vegetated Grand Canyon! If we get to the Grand Canyon, I’ll confirm whether I’m correct or not!

It was extortionate to stay in Katoomba (which is the town next to the Three Sisters) so I guilt-tripped Jon into us ‘at least having a proper meal if it was going to be another night in the car’. Picture a whiney voice and you’ve got it. We ate in Cafe Zuppa and I mention it because I had an awesome pasta dish with pumpkin in, which sounds terrible but was yummy!

Anyway, here are the typical tourist photos… enjoy! ; )… oh and if anyone can identify the birds…?

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Getting Blottoed at Brown Brothers

13th January 2011, Victoria

I absolutely LOVE Brown Brothers Orange and Flora Muscat! It’s a dessert wine – and ever since I tried it at my Dad’s birthday meal in the Lake District a few years back I’ve been finding any excuse to drink it. I mean what could be better! Alcohol that you drink with dessert… it’s like they combined my two favourite things in the world! So of course, when I realised we were coming to Oz I was straight on Google finding the directions  to the place! And just by chance ( hmmmmm no planning there then Helen!!!) it was roughly on our route!

After leaving the Grampians, we headed towards Ballarat as that’s where Mum’s cousin lives. When we got there and guess what, I couldn’t find the address anywhere (later found neatly written on a sheet and put somewhere very safe so as not to lose!) so we headed straight out (after a quick visit to Aldi of course!) and on the way to the direction of the winery region.

With the price of accommodation being so expensive Jon persuaded me to spend the night in a truck stop. This was fine apart from the fact I was convinced we were going to get told off all night! Plus it was a really hot night and once the air con had been off for half an hour or so we were absolutely sweating our nuts off – or Jon was! : ) Luckily, we were right next to McDonalds so breakfast was quite a straightforward affair and then we were off to the Brown Brothers – yippee!!!

We were about 2 hours early at the winery. Luckily there was a cheese factory down the road where you could try some samples. They were actually really yummy so it was a shame we couldn’t take any… but it did kill an hour and by the time we returned we had just enough time to try a few different wines before lunch that we’d booked. The restaurant had a system where each course came with a selected wine; so 3 glasses each. However, Jon was driving and he’s not really one for wasting things so I was virtually paralytic by the time we were finished… even with all the food! It was excellent! And what a great idea to have your wine and food matched! If I ever become a restaurant owner I will totally have recommendations to go with each meal! The only downside was that I couldn’t finish the last glass and Jon was so disappointed in me!

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When we headed back to the cellar to buy a couple of bottles of wine that we liked, we mentioned we’d come all the way from England and so this lovely man gave us a tour of the original cellar with some of the original bottles. This was really awesome but all I could do was nod and smile and let Jon do most of the talking! I did get my photo with him at the end though – hurrah!

It was only about 3pm when we left Brown Brothers and in my merry state, I noticed a sign pointing to Glenrowan only a few miles back down the road. Being ‘Miss Daisy’ I demanded my driver take me to see where Ned Kelly’s last stand had taken place and got a couple of nice shots of his statue with grey clouds looming poignantly above.

From Sea to Summit

11th-12th January 2011

We headed to Tower Hill Nature Reserve yesterday morning. This is an ancient volcano crater that now takes the form of a wetland area with hills on what would have been the crater rim. It was a bit overcast and there were lots of insects about so we donned our waterproofs and headed up one of the paths to the crater rim. 10 minutes later, the clouds had parted and we were absolutely roasting as we route marched up the steps. I am so unfit as I was out of breath by half way up! When we got to the top there were supposed to be great views of the wetland area in the crater basin but there was little water there. 

We headed back down and took another route over some boardwalks. There were signs saying not to approach any snakes basking on the boardwalk but there only ones we saw were about a metre away.

We identified them later and they were poisonous – how exciting! We got another great view of a koala – in fact we got a video. I also shouted to the koala in a similar way to the Tree of Temptation in the Big Brother house – “Hey! Koala!” – and he actually turned towards me! I felt like we’d bonded!

 We also had quite an entertaining moment when we were watching an emu near the car park. These are big scary things that you wouldn’t want to get in the way of! However, this 12 year old boy didn’t realise it was there as he came speeding around the corner full sprint and nearly headfirst into the emu. I don’t know who was more surprised and scared, the boy or the emu?!

After the volcano, we headed in land towards the Grampians… we were feeling in need of some mountains! Especially as the weather was so poor on the coast.

I didn’t mention that we went to another site yesterday called the Otway Treetop Walk (click on the link if you like!)… I thought it would be good to walk around at canopy level and there was a Go Ape! thing there too… However, when we got there it was drizzling and the prices we’re extortionate considering it was just a walkway! We’d already done a short walk through the rainforest at Mait’s Rest in the rain and that was pretty wet! Therefore we bought a book on the Mammals of Australia and had a really yummy lunch instead! Seriously – Jon had one of the best burgers I’ve ever tried! I know, I know… eating Jon’s food again!!!

Anyway, we headed to the Grampians which doesn’t look that far on the map… and we’d hoped we’d get to see something of the sites on the way. However, the main place to stay in the Grampians is in the north at Hall’s Gap and therefore we had to go straight there, or risk hitting kangaroos on the road when it got dark!

It was pouring with rain when we arrived at Tim’s Place in Hall’s Gap… and the rain just got worse and worse! We had torrential rain all night!!! We got soaked stepping from our door to the car two metres away! There were even frogs trying to climb up our door to get out of the rain! On the plus side, there were 10 people stuck there with enough alcohol to make a good night and that is precisely what we did… well until an angry Frenchman came out and shouted at us  for being noisy!

The next morning I found myself washing up breakfast dishes, looking out onto the playing field covered in kangaroos! The weather was much brighter so Jon headed out to take come photos before we carried on our way. We couldn’t believe how many insects there were trying desperately to dry themselves off! We headed into the hills by car to see some of the famous viewpoints in the area. The Grampians is actually one of the best bits of Australia that we’ve seen. It’s like what I was expecting it to be like; real bush as opposed to all farmland, and rocks emerging out of the vegetation. It would have been great if we’d  had more time to really explore the area, but time didn’t permit so we made sure we visited Mackenzie Falls and the Balconies…

With the amount of rain that we’d had overnight, Mackenzie Falls was a raging torrent! We headed down the path to the viewpoint at the bottom and the path was under water! We didn’t know at the time that this was all the rain that would cause the flash floods around this area.

The views from the Balconies were gorgeous! Of course I had to make Jon go and climb over the barrier to stand in the ‘Jaws of Death’ so I could take a photo…. and of course I was too chicken-shit to go myself! I would have liked to have gone; I know that you’re supposed to do something every day that scares you… but at the same time I really value my life. : )… and I’m convinced Jon would bounce!

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Great Ocean Road

9th-10th January 2011

Yesterday morning we picked up a car from Europcar in Melbourne city centre and set off to explore the Great Ocean Road. I’d left Jonathan booking the car online the day before and when we went into the parking lot to collect our vehicle it turned out to be a huge great blue thing (Holden) rather than the tiny Vauxhall Astra type hatchback I’d been anticipating! Typical! Any excuse to try out a big fast car… he tried to fob me off with, we needed a big boot for our bags but I was less than convinced!

Anyway – we headed out (accelerating out of every junction at a scary speed) into the country and towards the Great Ocean Road. We passed through a place called Geelong on the way, which has these cool totem pole type sculptures dotted around the foreshore. We didn’t really stop for long but managed to grab ourselves a free ‘Splice’  which is a Wall’s lolly ice, similar to a Solero but without the ice-cream. A little disappointing if you ask me but no doubt healthier, as all the boring things are! Anyway, it was quite cold (about 20 degrees, as it had rained in the night) and the poor young girls promoting it had to wear a red Baywatch swimsuit whilst they were handing out the ices. They looked less than impressed! David Hasselhoff was somewhere launching the ice-cream the other week; we saw him on TV! 

The Great Ocean Road, according to the guidebook, is one of the world’s great scenic drives. However, we managed to hit it on two of the only overcast and drizzly days we’ve had in Oz. It may be spectacular at particular times of day in glorious weather but it was anything better than we’ve seen either at home (say Cornwall) or in New Zealand in our opinion.  There are surfing beaches  dotted along the way which are some of the best in the world (Bell’s Beach for example) because there is a solid rock platform rather than a beach. In fact about half of the beaches seem to have some rock in them. Curio Bay where we saw the penguin in New Zealand was like this. The waves were pretty tame as we passed these areas but I guess it would be pretty scary on a stormy day. Jon and I were wondering how deep the drop is under the waters after this costal shelf. Is it just a few metres or super deep? And if it is –do sharks come right into the coast?! We are now obsessed with sharks, spiders, snakes and jellyfish although we’ve only seen a spider in the Chinese gardens in Sydney! A girl in the hostel we stayed in last night though, said she’d found a large spider on her bed in the morning. Needless to say, neither of us had a full night’s sleep last night!

A nice lady in a tourist information centre yesterday said that some of the highlights of the G.O.R. are the lighthouses and that we should go and see one of them. She said she really loved lighthouses though, whereas I think they’re a sign of danger, peril and lost souls and they give Jon the heebie-jeebies. In fact, the only lighthouse I think I like, is that one that was in the children's’ programme ‘Round the Twist’. Didn’t that have ghosts in it too? And was that filmed in Australia as it certainly wasn’t English… I’d certainly make the effort to go and find that one if it was around here…

Anyway, one of the lighthouses that we passed was quite picturesque up on the rocks as we drove swiftly past. The other one I made Jon drive about 10 miles down a road to was blocked off  by a visitor centre when we got there so we couldn’t even see it. Scandalous. Now if they had a castle, they wouldn’t be so fussed about a lighthouse. I wonder how big a barrier would be erected around  a castle? Hmmmm… lighthouses - the poor man’s castle.

On the plus side however, we did see a huge number of koala’s in the eucalyptus trees as we passed, looking very sad and miserable in the rain! At one point there was one or two in every other tree – wonderful! These weren’t the first we’ve seen either. We were pointed towards another road yesterday where they could be spotted. We’d only driven about 50m up this road when we saw one in a tree. It looked like it was just waking up as it opened one beady eye, looked us up and down and curled back up in a ball. Just 20m more, around a bend, we spotted two people looking at something and as we pulled over we saw a koala crawl up off the floor and hump his way up the trunk and onto a branch. He wasn’t too high meaning that we got a great view as he munched through some leaves. One long leaf extended out of his mouth and waggled up and down as he chewed, like a big green tongue! At one point he jumped from one branch to another and although he made it, he looked pretty heavy. They’re actually a lot bigger and more robust than we’d imagined. We were thrilled to get such a great view.

We also saw kangaroos in the distance and an echidna crossing the road yesterday. Jon is taking great pleasure in calling them enchiladas though. We have clearly spent too much time with just ourselves! Today, we also saw a wallaby (maybe a swamp wallaby – according to a guide I looked in). It was right next to the road but it had disappeared before we had time to get the camera.  The other thing that was really cool was the Superb Fairy Wren, male and female, and the male has a striking blue tail. It even has a cool name. I think I’d like to be referred to as the Superb Helen Greaves from now on… it definitely has a ring to it.

The last thing we did today was drive past the Twelve Apostles. The weather had been so poor this morning that we weren’t even sure we’d see them but luckily it had cleared up enough to get an ok view through the drizzle.

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Whether it’s much more impressive on a good day or sunrise/sunset again I don’t know, but neither of us were blown away by the sight. It was quite impressive though. I think I would have liked to have gone down on the beach and see how tall the rocks felt, with the cliffs trapping you from behind. However, the weather put a bit of a damper on my enthusiasm at the time.

We’ve ended up at Warrnambool Beach Backpackers tonight which is quite a big hostel that looks like it was some kind of community function centre in the past. We’ve met some nice English/Swedish girls in our room who have donated some folding chairs to us as they’re getting a flight back to Sydney. We thought we would take them for Kate and Yuri for when they go to the beach and stuff. In comparison, another couple seem to be having a barney, be it very quietly while I was sat watching TV. Jon had found a Nintendo Wii by that point so I had to become immensely interested in the TV programme that was on. Unfortunately that happened to be an English documentary on the RSPCA where an officer was rescuing 5 toads from down a grid. The french people next to me where asking in astonishment if we really pay people to do that. I was slightly embarrassed to admit that yes we do. I think the owners of the property could have gone down themselves, don’t you? Even worse, the officer had to get out an ID guide to identify them as toads rather than frogs. It’s my guessing that the toads where quite happy down there in the cool for the time being.