28 January
A few weeks ago when I said I didnt see the point of looking for a
contract in the current economic climate, Duncan, an ex colleague from
lastminute.com suggested I come out and join him for a bit.
Duncan left the UK in November 2008 to join his kitted out left hand
drive landrover in Perth, Australia. His original plan was to drive
to Capetown from London, but a friend's wedding in Queensland inspired
him to extend the plan to Australia, New Zealand and drive back to
London from Capetown with some backpacking in South East Asia while
the Landrover was being shipped between New Zealand and South Africa.
As is my nerdy want, I was looking at flights and found a steal to
Melbourne. Tricky thing is it left in two weeks and I was going to
Yemen for a week in three days. The agent put it on hold for me for
three hours - I figured out it was definitely okay with Duncan,
storage for my stuff and paid for the flight within two.
5 star camping.
Thursday 12 February
An early start to get the train down from Cambridgeshire and over to
Heathrow for a 9.30am flight. Heathrow was its usual mix of mayhem
and anticipation. The lines were quite long to check baggage and I
tried to use the kiosk to get my boarding pass but it seemed to be
broken. Fortunately my mileage status put me near the front of the
business class line and when I checked in my bags I was suprisingly
upgraded to business class. Yay! Decent food, lots of room, variety
of entertainment and a seat that reclines to almost- lying-down.
Something to do with online check in 48 hours prior to departure I'm
sure.
Upon disembarking at Hong Kong I was surprised to see a Cathay staff
member holding up a sign with my name on. Uh oh. Can they have my
boarding pass please? They replaced it with another business class
one. Double yay!
Hong Kong airport is pretty nice with a vast array of shopping
options. I want to buy a netbook but having done no research and with
no idea of exchange rates I skipped that idea and went to the business
class lounge where they had free showers. After a quick peruse of the
paper it was back to boarding to Melbourne. The business class
configuration for this leg was herringbone style and I had a fully
reclined bed/seat with comfy duvet.
Friday 13 February
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Stepping off the plane into the skywalk you could strongly smell the
smoke from the Melbourne bush fires. Customs was pretty
straightforward. They didnt care about my kit-kat bar but wanted to
see my straw hat which they shook over a glass mirror. Some sand fell
out but no bugs so I was free to go. Amazingly my bags were checked
priority the whole way through so pretty much ten minutes after
landing I was on the other side. Duncan graciously came to the
airport to pick me up but the Landy was too high to put in the parking
building so I eventually located him parked opposite the taxi rank.
Thinking I'd be shattered after 24 odd hours of flying he'd booked a
room in the five star Park Hyatt in Melbourne CBD! Nice. After
dropping off my stuff and parking the Landy we walked down to
Federation Square which was full of Friday night hum. It was too late
for a meal so we shared a bottle of wine before wandering back.
Saturday 14th February
After a yummy buffet breakfast Duncan and I took in a walk along the
Yarra and the Immigration Museum before wandering through Carlton to
meet my NY friend Craig for a late lunch. We were a few blocks from
the cafe (you know, the one we had lunch at last time, dont remember
the name but its at the other end of Brunswick street) crossing the
road when Craig appeared in his car in front of us. A nice lunch at a
funky place called Retro (after the new fish was delivered at 3pm)
where Craig told lots of embarrassing NY stories about me then Craig
drove us out to where he's staying in Elwood and we took a walk up the
beach for a bit. Given it was valentines evening and we expected all
restaurants to be completely booked out we decided to go for a beer at
The Esplanade in St Kilda and listen to some noisy bands. We were
lucky to get an outdoor table and the sunset was spectacular - made
all the more spectacular due to the smoke in the air. We figured out
the tram back to the city and returned to the very comfortable Park
Hyatt.
Sunday 15 February
After Duncan returned from the old Melbourne Gaol (I'm not a fan of
visiting gaols) we headed out of town towards Ballarat. With Duncan
driving I appointed myself chief navigator despite his mostly
competent satnav device nicknamed Sheila. She's a lot less annoying
on mute.
Duncan had a rough idea of where he wanted to go, but said he'd
appreciate some help with the details. Thats my story and I'm
sticking with it so we've been working on the plan that he has the
broad brushstrokes and I figure out the route and likely campsites.
We veered off the main highway M8 to cruise through Bacchus Marsh.
Stopped to buy some fruit and veges and find a nice place for a quick
picnic lunch. Ballan was a sleepy town with a nice reserve blah blah
Our initial plan was to camp overnight near Creswick in the
campsite by the creek. The campsite was empty and creek was dry and
while we were looking for one of the other campsites we noticed a
sign announcing burnoffs in the area starting the following day.
While I doubt that they'd start the burnoff in the current weather
with the out of control fires all over Victoria it spooked us enough
to decide another campsite was in order. We continued up the road to
Creswick and followed the Goldminers Tourist trail through Ballarat to
Enfield State Park.
I had tried to write a text to my friend Danielle who I missed last
time I was in Melbourne as she was busy getting engaged in Croatia and
Italy but when I went to send it I realised her number was in my US
cellphone. Doh! Craig let me use his computer to email her and I got
her response text message once we re-entered cellphone land at about
4.30 in the afternoon.
Monday 16 Fwb
Late awakening 1.30pm! Ballarat museum stuff. Text from DJ. Back to
Melb to couchsurf at Craigs. Nice G&T up the road from Craigs at the
collective.
Meet D & Phil at Espy run into Nick! Dinner at delicious Greek place. Invite to wedding.
Tuesday 17 Feb
Brunch with Craig at (he's 'resting') and off down the mornington
peninsula to back beach before ferry at Sorrento to Queenscliff.
Camping at Point Lonsdale. Up to lighthouse. Crazy annoying black
sand/dust through everything.
Wednesday 18 Feb
Down Great Ocean Road to Apollo Bay. Offroad track. Hard to find.
4wd book doesnt take into account road name changes and highway
improvement programmes eg fire lookout. 4wd through Great Otway
National Park came out at Wye river. On to Apollo Bay. Lovely
restaurant meal (mussels, duncan had the bengal fish).
Thursday 19 Feb
Very short swim at apollo bay. Yoga on the beach. Short trek to
Blanket bay via cape otway lighthouse. Teenagers. Koalas. Some
chilling out.
Friday 20 Feb
Twelve Apostles Marine National Park. Farmland. Past port fairy to
Yambuk lake. Peaceful. Windy and Noisy surf. Great ablutions block.
Saturday 21 Feb
Portland. Good coffee and enormous carrot cake at that place also
homemade sweets. Across to cape bridgewater. Blowhole, petrified
forest. 3 hr walk to seal colony. Weird unworking wind farm. A
smidgen of rain. Camp at Piccaninni Ponds SA border.
Sunday 22 Feb
Walk to piccaninni pond. Breaking all the spiderwebs. Um so what.
Other walk deep cave diving and snorkling. Drive to Mt Gambier. Blue
walk circumference. Tiki tour around Beachport - amazing views and
salt lake. Offroad from Beachport to little dip conservation park.
Landy stuck in sand. NOW Duncan decides to let the air out of the
tyres. Blat along the beach. Weird gated community Nora Creina.
Camping at Old Mans Lake in the conservation park as too late to make
original destination in the base of the Coorong. Amazing sunset and
photos. Lots of annoying bitey bugs.
Monday 23 Feb
Up the dirt road to Robe for a spot of hardware store perusal and
yummy brunch with excellent coffee at the cafe in the lonely planet.
Biker boys came through and went again. Up the coast to Kingston SE
and the B1 along the Coorong. Very dry and salt lake. Settled in
Brown Hill Creek camping ground. Nice bathrooms but fairly basic camp
kitchen.
Tuesday 24 Feb
After a leisurely start took the bus to Adelaide. Walked the walk
along the main st and gardens. Botanic garden with water lilies. Oz
wine museum scratch and sniff exhibit. Late lunch in Central Market
and bar hopped along that mall street tasting the local wine. Great
greek dinner at Greek cafe place next to the swankier restaurant
place. Very reasonable cab fare back to camp 18.00.
Wednesday 25 Feb
Adelaide to Marlowe.
Up the A1 but following a police escorted wide load so took a sideroad
to go through Gawler. Sidetrip to Mintaro. Original plan to stay in
Clare but not really far enough and didnt look very interesting.
Wirrabara Forrest had a nice camping spot but upon going the extra
3.5km to the rangers hut to fill out the self permit discovered the
forest was closed to all visitors after nightfall until 15 March for
fire hazard reasons. Slogged on to Marlow which was very historic and
nice. Great campground, nice bartender at the oldest hotel and good
local wine.
Thursday 26 Feb
Duncan woke up unable to move so up to me to drive. Late start after
laundry, me packing up the tent for the first time and a proper
english fryup breakfast in an extremely well equipped camp kitchen we
had to ourselves. Drive from Marlowe to Woomera. Oddly 1950s seeming
which made sense after the museum trip the following day. Arrive four
pm. 42 degrees in the shade. Rented cabin with aircon.
Friday 27 Feb.
Woomera park with rockets and missiles and stuff. Dodgy museum with
high school kid style exhibitions all shook up and not cleaned but
interesting non the less. Other museum much better with audio visual
displays etc. Mick from the federal police liked the landy and
introduced himself. Recommended some off road tracks and advised lake
Eyre was filling up for about the third time in 150 years (I think
he's exaggerating). Marathon drive from Woomera to Coober Pedy
through woomera prohibited area. Seems odd a main highway to go
through a missile testing area. . Unchanging road, slightly changing
landscape very little other traffic. Hot and bright and headache
inducing. Rented lovely dugout apartment Desert View for two days
mostly on the strength of a swimming pool. VERY nice to have a swim,
simple dinner and early night.
A few weeks ago when I said I didnt see the point of looking for a
contract in the current economic climate, Duncan, an ex colleague from
lastminute.com suggested I come out and join him for a bit.
Duncan left the UK in November 2008 to join his kitted out left hand
drive landrover in Perth, Australia. His original plan was to drive
to Capetown from London, but a friend's wedding in Queensland inspired
him to extend the plan to Australia, New Zealand and drive back to
London from Capetown with some backpacking in South East Asia while
the Landrover was being shipped between New Zealand and South Africa.
As is my nerdy want, I was looking at flights and found a steal to
Melbourne. Tricky thing is it left in two weeks and I was going to
Yemen for a week in three days. The agent put it on hold for me for
three hours - I figured out it was definitely okay with Duncan,
storage for my stuff and paid for the flight within two.
5 star camping.
Thursday 12 February
An early start to get the train down from Cambridgeshire and over to
Heathrow for a 9.30am flight. Heathrow was its usual mix of mayhem
and anticipation. The lines were quite long to check baggage and I
tried to use the kiosk to get my boarding pass but it seemed to be
broken. Fortunately my mileage status put me near the front of the
business class line and when I checked in my bags I was suprisingly
upgraded to business class. Yay! Decent food, lots of room, variety
of entertainment and a seat that reclines to almost- lying-down.
Something to do with online check in 48 hours prior to departure I'm
sure.
Upon disembarking at Hong Kong I was surprised to see a Cathay staff
member holding up a sign with my name on. Uh oh. Can they have my
boarding pass please? They replaced it with another business class
one. Double yay!
Hong Kong airport is pretty nice with a vast array of shopping
options. I want to buy a netbook but having done no research and with
no idea of exchange rates I skipped that idea and went to the business
class lounge where they had free showers. After a quick peruse of the
paper it was back to boarding to Melbourne. The business class
configuration for this leg was herringbone style and I had a fully
reclined bed/seat with comfy duvet.
Friday 13 February
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Stepping off the plane into the skywalk you could strongly smell the
smoke from the Melbourne bush fires. Customs was pretty
straightforward. They didnt care about my kit-kat bar but wanted to
see my straw hat which they shook over a glass mirror. Some sand fell
out but no bugs so I was free to go. Amazingly my bags were checked
priority the whole way through so pretty much ten minutes after
landing I was on the other side. Duncan graciously came to the
airport to pick me up but the Landy was too high to put in the parking
building so I eventually located him parked opposite the taxi rank.
Thinking I'd be shattered after 24 odd hours of flying he'd booked a
room in the five star Park Hyatt in Melbourne CBD! Nice. After
dropping off my stuff and parking the Landy we walked down to
Federation Square which was full of Friday night hum. It was too late
for a meal so we shared a bottle of wine before wandering back.
Saturday 14th February
After a yummy buffet breakfast Duncan and I took in a walk along the
Yarra and the Immigration Museum before wandering through Carlton to
meet my NY friend Craig for a late lunch. We were a few blocks from
the cafe (you know, the one we had lunch at last time, dont remember
the name but its at the other end of Brunswick street) crossing the
road when Craig appeared in his car in front of us. A nice lunch at a
funky place called Retro (after the new fish was delivered at 3pm)
where Craig told lots of embarrassing NY stories about me then Craig
drove us out to where he's staying in Elwood and we took a walk up the
beach for a bit. Given it was valentines evening and we expected all
restaurants to be completely booked out we decided to go for a beer at
The Esplanade in St Kilda and listen to some noisy bands. We were
lucky to get an outdoor table and the sunset was spectacular - made
all the more spectacular due to the smoke in the air. We figured out
the tram back to the city and returned to the very comfortable Park
Hyatt.
Sunday 15 February
After Duncan returned from the old Melbourne Gaol (I'm not a fan of
visiting gaols) we headed out of town towards Ballarat. With Duncan
driving I appointed myself chief navigator despite his mostly
competent satnav device nicknamed Sheila. She's a lot less annoying
on mute.
Duncan had a rough idea of where he wanted to go, but said he'd
appreciate some help with the details. Thats my story and I'm
sticking with it so we've been working on the plan that he has the
broad brushstrokes and I figure out the route and likely campsites.
We veered off the main highway M8 to cruise through Bacchus Marsh.
Stopped to buy some fruit and veges and find a nice place for a quick
picnic lunch. Ballan was a sleepy town with a nice reserve blah blah
Our initial plan was to camp overnight near Creswick in the
campsite by the creek. The campsite was empty and creek was dry and
while we were looking for one of the other campsites we noticed a
sign announcing burnoffs in the area starting the following day.
While I doubt that they'd start the burnoff in the current weather
with the out of control fires all over Victoria it spooked us enough
to decide another campsite was in order. We continued up the road to
Creswick and followed the Goldminers Tourist trail through Ballarat to
Enfield State Park.
I had tried to write a text to my friend Danielle who I missed last
time I was in Melbourne as she was busy getting engaged in Croatia and
Italy but when I went to send it I realised her number was in my US
cellphone. Doh! Craig let me use his computer to email her and I got
her response text message once we re-entered cellphone land at about
4.30 in the afternoon.
Monday 16 Fwb
Late awakening 1.30pm! Ballarat museum stuff. Text from DJ. Back to
Melb to couchsurf at Craigs. Nice G&T up the road from Craigs at the
collective.
Meet D & Phil at Espy run into Nick! Dinner at delicious Greek place. Invite to wedding.
Tuesday 17 Feb
Brunch with Craig at (he's 'resting') and off down the mornington
peninsula to back beach before ferry at Sorrento to Queenscliff.
Camping at Point Lonsdale. Up to lighthouse. Crazy annoying black
sand/dust through everything.
Wednesday 18 Feb
Down Great Ocean Road to Apollo Bay. Offroad track. Hard to find.
4wd book doesnt take into account road name changes and highway
improvement programmes eg fire lookout. 4wd through Great Otway
National Park came out at Wye river. On to Apollo Bay. Lovely
restaurant meal (mussels, duncan had the bengal fish).
Thursday 19 Feb
Very short swim at apollo bay. Yoga on the beach. Short trek to
Blanket bay via cape otway lighthouse. Teenagers. Koalas. Some
chilling out.
Friday 20 Feb
Twelve Apostles Marine National Park. Farmland. Past port fairy to
Yambuk lake. Peaceful. Windy and Noisy surf. Great ablutions block.
Saturday 21 Feb
Portland. Good coffee and enormous carrot cake at that place also
homemade sweets. Across to cape bridgewater. Blowhole, petrified
forest. 3 hr walk to seal colony. Weird unworking wind farm. A
smidgen of rain. Camp at Piccaninni Ponds SA border.
Sunday 22 Feb
Walk to piccaninni pond. Breaking all the spiderwebs. Um so what.
Other walk deep cave diving and snorkling. Drive to Mt Gambier. Blue
walk circumference. Tiki tour around Beachport - amazing views and
salt lake. Offroad from Beachport to little dip conservation park.
Landy stuck in sand. NOW Duncan decides to let the air out of the
tyres. Blat along the beach. Weird gated community Nora Creina.
Camping at Old Mans Lake in the conservation park as too late to make
original destination in the base of the Coorong. Amazing sunset and
photos. Lots of annoying bitey bugs.
Monday 23 Feb
Up the dirt road to Robe for a spot of hardware store perusal and
yummy brunch with excellent coffee at the cafe in the lonely planet.
Biker boys came through and went again. Up the coast to Kingston SE
and the B1 along the Coorong. Very dry and salt lake. Settled in
Brown Hill Creek camping ground. Nice bathrooms but fairly basic camp
kitchen.
Tuesday 24 Feb
After a leisurely start took the bus to Adelaide. Walked the walk
along the main st and gardens. Botanic garden with water lilies. Oz
wine museum scratch and sniff exhibit. Late lunch in Central Market
and bar hopped along that mall street tasting the local wine. Great
greek dinner at Greek cafe place next to the swankier restaurant
place. Very reasonable cab fare back to camp 18.00.
Wednesday 25 Feb
Adelaide to Marlowe.
Up the A1 but following a police escorted wide load so took a sideroad
to go through Gawler. Sidetrip to Mintaro. Original plan to stay in
Clare but not really far enough and didnt look very interesting.
Wirrabara Forrest had a nice camping spot but upon going the extra
3.5km to the rangers hut to fill out the self permit discovered the
forest was closed to all visitors after nightfall until 15 March for
fire hazard reasons. Slogged on to Marlow which was very historic and
nice. Great campground, nice bartender at the oldest hotel and good
local wine.
Thursday 26 Feb
Duncan woke up unable to move so up to me to drive. Late start after
laundry, me packing up the tent for the first time and a proper
english fryup breakfast in an extremely well equipped camp kitchen we
had to ourselves. Drive from Marlowe to Woomera. Oddly 1950s seeming
which made sense after the museum trip the following day. Arrive four
pm. 42 degrees in the shade. Rented cabin with aircon.
Friday 27 Feb.
Woomera park with rockets and missiles and stuff. Dodgy museum with
high school kid style exhibitions all shook up and not cleaned but
interesting non the less. Other museum much better with audio visual
displays etc. Mick from the federal police liked the landy and
introduced himself. Recommended some off road tracks and advised lake
Eyre was filling up for about the third time in 150 years (I think
he's exaggerating). Marathon drive from Woomera to Coober Pedy
through woomera prohibited area. Seems odd a main highway to go
through a missile testing area. . Unchanging road, slightly changing
landscape very little other traffic. Hot and bright and headache
inducing. Rented lovely dugout apartment Desert View for two days
mostly on the strength of a swimming pool. VERY nice to have a swim,
simple dinner and early night.
