We got off the bus this morning after yet another overnight bus... It was the first time it has been late for us. Still, only a 40 minutes late. We slept fairly well despite the bus picking up a driver on the way home who shouted his arse off speaking to the other driver even though the whole bus was trying to sleep.
So we're in Airlie. It's another functional kind of town. Pretty much a hub for Whitsunday sailing trips. There are also loads of "schoolies" about. These are 16 year olds who have just done their exams and looking to go wild. However, they have to where identity tags to say who they are, who they are with and there age! So no booze for them. I'm sure they find a way round it. Accompanying the schoolies are "toolies" who are 21+ men looking to take advantage of drunk young girls... So tonight might be interesting (especially for the police!). No different in UK I suppose...
We got to the YHA which is quite nice actually. Basic hostel with all you need, no frills other than a little pool! So we and ame took a dip and then went to check in for tomorrow's trip. So looking forward to being waited on for 3 days. We won't check emails or post until Tuesday probably so to Anoymous who posted about us being eaten by sharks (re: Surfin' Byron Bay), don't worry if we don't post, we're still alive! (As an aside, if you do post anomymously then put you're name at the end of it so it's easy for us to know who it is. Then we can know where the love is coming from).
Tonight we're having a couple of beers with V (one of the Canadians from our Fraser trip) in the hostel. Then we might go out and see what these Schoolies are up to. We set sail at 09:30 tomorrow: Captain Rob and Captain Coad.
We are back from our epic Fraser Island self drive 4x4 trip. It was amazing. We signed up to the trip for 3 days and 2 nights with 9 total strangers. We were soooo lucky with our group. We had 4 Canadians, 2 Swiss, 2 Germans, 1 Irish and us 2 English. Quite a diverse little group. We got on brilliantly and everyone helped out.
We all met at 3pm on the day before we left (Sunday) for a quick meeting to introduce ourselves, buy food, order booze and watch some information videos. We then all had a BBQ together and relaxed with some beers before going back to our hostel for a good nights sleep. We had to be at the garage by 06:30 the next morning (Monday) so we got into bed and set our alarm for 05:30; or so we thought... When the alarm went off we got up, got a bit late, rushed down stairs in our hostel to find the place shut. It was in fact 05:00 not 06:00 as we had forgotten to change our clock from New South Wales time to Queensland time...oops. But we managed to talk to my mum and dad on Skype by pure chance for 20 minutes so every cloud etc... And it turned out to be good practice for a whole three days of very early starts.
So we headed over with plenty of time to find the others and go over for our 2 hours worth of early morning lectures from Koala (our trip organisers). It was a little over the top with the threats; "if you get salt water on the car, you'll get fined", "if you're late back, you'll get fined", "if you have any fun, you'll get fined"... But we took the practical advice and left the lectures to one side. Luckily everyone was older than 20, most over 22 so we didn't have any annoying kids with us ;-)
We left at 09:30 to get the ferry to Fraser Island. The ferry arrives on the West coast which is pretty inaccessible and so our task for the day was to get across the island to the east coast where the beach is the road up and down the island and where we were going to camp for the night. This was only about 20k and so we were pretty relaxed and thought we would end up arriving at the camping spot pretty early, however this is because we totally underestimated the driving conditions.
As soon as we were off the ramp, the car was flicked into 4 wheel drive and away we went. Two of the Canadians, (Justin and Chris) were very handy at the wheel each with good experience of driving in snow and harsh conditions. Just as well as the sand roads were SHIT. Slipping around, getting stuck, digging ourselves out and pushing the big van up sandy hills. It was all really good fun and good for team building.
The first stop that day was Lake McKenzie which is right in the middle of the island and we got there by lunch time. This lake was absolute perfection! Like a postcard. It was such a treat after quite an overwhelming, tiring, hot and sandy introduction to driving on the Island. We had a gorgeous swim and had lunch in the special dingo proof lunch area! Then it was back on the road to try and get down the beach to find our campsite; which luckily we did get to before dark despite at one point going in a big circle around the lake (not many road signs on the island!)
But it was all cool was we found a perfect camping spot on the each and it was stunning. No-one in sight, huge sandy beach and tents set up in no time. The 75 mile beach on the island is a bit of a tease because it looked so tempting when we arrived but all we could do is wash in the shallows as it's full of SHARKS! We had a BBQ for dinner and dingo proofed our camp. Then we got on with having some beers and getting to know each other - we even had music as we took our little speaker and the evening was brilliant. There were quite a few naughty dingos about which was amazing to see but we chased them off because if they are fed and become tame, then they get aggressive.
The next day we'd been told we should get up and leave camp by 6am to head up the beach to the north of the island - Indian Head (as the beach road is unusable two hours either side of high tide). Alas although we woke up pretty early by the time everyone was up and sorted and we'd taken the rubbish to the dump and had a group trip to the toilets and water shop it was 8.30 and when we got on the beach most of the compressed sand was covered up by the sea. Amy was driver this morning and it was quite hard work avoiding the waves, avoiding the wash outs (mini rivers/craters in the sand where fresh water wasr running into the ocean) and avoiding deeps soft areas of sand.
To cut a long story short, we didn't make it up to Indian Head. We stopped about half way up and agreed that we'd missed the boat (so to speak; a boat would have been handy). It was a really good decision because instead we visited all the sights on the south end of the shore such as the Pinnacles (huge rock structures), the Maheno Shipwreck (washed up in 1935), and Eli Creek. Eli Creek was the best. It was a cute little river running out of the hills down to the beach and just as the day before by the time we got there we were all tired, hungry, hot and sandier than we'd ever been in our life so a chilly peaceful stream to walk up and float down was perfectly timed.
Once everyone had floated to their hearts content we headed to the next stop (Happy Valley) to eat our lunch. This was also as far as we could go as the tide was high by now and there were some rocks that we'd just been able to get round on the way up that we couldn't get back round until the sea withdrew. It turned out Happy Valley had a resort and so we stayed there for an hour or so after lunch (and a some of the group worked on getting nice and drunk).
The final stop of the day was the best - Lake Wabby. This was back down near our camp but a 40 minute walk inland each way to get to. We were pretty sweaty by the time we got there... Just when we thought we were there, we turned a corner a saw the biggest sand dune I've ever seen. It was like a desert. Just at the bottom of it was the lake. Irish (as Michael the Irish man became known as) decided that a hill this big leading into the lake was fit for one purpose only: forward rolling. See below... :-)
It was back to camp and a slightly more sedate evening as we were all KNACKERED. Next day we woke up, packed up in the rain (the bloody rain ladies and gentleman - it ain't meant to rain here is it???), and we were at Lake McKenzie by about 09:00... Our ferry was at 15:00, but we got there way too early at the ferry port and played charades and 2 truths, 1 lie for 2 hours. We were super duper hungry but the time the ferry was set to go as we'd run out of food! Everyone bought snacks on the ferry and ate like animals! When we were finally back a Koala's, we washed up, cleaned up, showered (hurrah!), checked into our room, and got down the local Irish pub for a final farewell dinner to 4 of our group. It was a trip of a lifetime; we're so lucky we had so much fun and had such a good group.
Today, (Thursday), is what me and Ame are now referring to as an "admin day": washing, internet, planning and resting. We're on the 20:50 overnight bus to Airlie Beach tonight arriving at 09:00 ready for our 3 day 2 night sailing trip which sets sail on Saturday. Four of the others headed up last night but are also sailing Saturday and so we're going to try and meet up with them Friday night.
We were up fairly early this morning and off to surf shop. We hired 2 boards, got down the beach and got on those waves maaaaaaaaaaaaaaan. Note the cringy "pink for girl" and "blue for boy" surf boards.
We were quite good. Caught a few pretty good waves. It's a good job we had a lesson in Cornwall in the summer. It meant that it was loads cheaper here to get a board and go and play. This photo is me just about to like totally jump up and nail that wave dude. All 2 feet of it ;-) The waves were pretty good but not that high or powerful but we had loads and loads of fun.
While down on the beach we were snapped for the local paper - "the northern star" who were doing an article on how hot the weather is and wanted a picture of me as I "looked the part"! He didn't seem interest in Ame. So we're going to check the paper shops tomorrow, though I seriously doubt we'll make the cut.
Then it was back to the guesthouse to lay about after an blooooming exercising morning. We were both a little burnt but not too bad.
Had some really good chats with the Aus family who are staying here had a couple of beers with them whilst typing this blog.
Off to the Arts Factory tonight which is the cooool place to go. I reckon it will be good fun and there should hopefully be some live music. 07:45am bus tomorrow so can't go too crazy... Or can we????
We'll I'm re-editing this post at 23:45 to say I thought that Arts Factory was a lot better than I thought it would be. We had a 2 4 1 voucher on food so we had steak and swordfish on the cheap. The bar had a wicked blues band on who we thoroughly enjoyed. We also went to the "The Rails" which is the old train station (trains don't stop in Byron no more so the old station has been converted to a pub.
No it's time for a quick Family Guy on the old portal harddrive then time for bed. Ame is asleep right now. Awwwww....
After our super lazy day, we got up nice and early for our sea kayaking trip to see Flipper et al. We even hussled $20 off the asking price for the trip because we were last minute booking. Proves if you ask, you might get...
We carted all of the stuff down to the beach and set off over the waves. It was a group of 30 of us and there was a little pressure on the launch into the bay because of the potential "wipe out" in the waves. Luckily me and ame were cooperative and got out with out a dunking. Flipper was being a little aukward that day (despite being told stories that the day before was swarming with dolphins) but we paddled on searching as we went. It was hard work on that kayak and I'm not afraid to admit I felt pretty seasick. But before you knew, Flipper was right in front of us diving about, feeding. It was very cool and made it all worth it.
After a brief tea stop on one of the beaches, we set off again. Luckily our Scottish friends from the guesthouse (Greg and Debbie) somehow randomly spotted us from the light house look-out and took this picture. Around there we saw 3 dolphins and even saw their cheeky little faces! Silly creatures.
Unfortunately me and Ame weren't so call sailing in to the main beach and got totally dunked. I didn't mind though. I'm cool enough to take it ;-)
Then it was back for a lazy afternoon, other than a quick pop back to the beach for a little swim. We'd planned a BBQ at the guest house with Greg and Debbie that eve and had a really cool time drinking, cooking and watching "Wolverine: X-Men Origins" on the DVD player (it ain't a great film, but enjoyable if knackered...)
As predicted, we have done nothing today. We did some research on the next part of the trip and laid around. We're cooking in tonight and we'll probably hire a DVD and see if anyone else sits about with us. It's overcast today so not too much pressure to be out and about. There's not a lot to do in Byron other than go to the beach or hire stuff which costs cash. We have haggled a local sea kayaking place down by $20 so we're off tomorrow to play with the dolphins! Very excited about that.
After a fairly successful overnight coach we rocked up in the much hyperd backpacker stopoff Byron Bay. The coach driver was the strictess person we've met in Oz so far, warning the bus that we were being watched by video cameras and any drugs, alcohol etc would be seen and mean we'd get dropped off the coach and deported!!! I find that unlikely that a security man is up all night watching intensely for a sip of booze on a overnight coach. As odd as all that was he then insisted that we watched an Aussie film on the coach, giving no choice to the bus and forcing us to watch Mad Max 3!!! Hardly what I'd call an epic. It was quite funny though and after the school teacher threats had been said he chilled out a bit.
We got a good nights sleep and got to Byron bang on time at 08:30. This was too early for our shared apartment so we dumped our stuff down at the apartments and headed for the main beach. We had a little explore, a little brek then a good swim. The waves were really really powerful and high. It was fun getting crashed about. Then we went for a brief 20 min walk down the beach, went shopping for food for the week and back to our waiting apartment. After which we discovered despite putting on loads of suntan cream, and for the first time this holiday, we were burnt. Nothing that aftersun can't handle but this Oz sun is lethal. Even when it's not that hot, it boils your skin. Some people have said to us that the biggest hole in the ozone layer is over oz. Is that true?
There's some cool likeminded people staying in our appartments. Basically we have shared kitchen and bathroom facilities but private rooms but to be away from the C-R-A-Z-Y kids in the badly reviewed hostels (of which there are many) is brilliant. We met too posh London law students who were making their way round the world before their training contracts. They were interesting to talk to as they enlightened us about Cambodia and Vietnam. We watched "Hitch" with them on the apartment DVD player before going out late evening for a bit of Thai food. The storms came again, but as ever, it was dramatic and exciting.
I'm looking forward to doing next to bugger all in Byron...
Today has been another happy, but considerably more practical day than the last two. It started in style with another soak in the bath and fancy pants meal in the restaurant (todays special was french toast with stewed rhubarb and fresh strawberries). Then we did some emails before packing up and getting a lift back to the station. We had a peaceful train journey back to the hustle and bustle of central sydney and arrived a good few hours before us bus (as there are only a few trains a day). That is why we're set up in an internet cafe writing this blog.
Our time is about to run out though, at which point we shall get ourselves some noodles before catching the 7pm coach to Byron Bay where we will arrive tomorrow at 8am after a (hopefully) sleepy night on the coach. We're now accustomed to having a relaxed time in beautiful settings and are planning on another four days of it up in Byron. We've got ourselves a room in a "flashpacker"style place which has a shared kitchen and so plan to have a slightly less extravagant (but not less fun) week there.
Yesterday was an absolutely perfect day. I will always remember it.
We awoke (on our 10 year anniversary) to the sound of bouncy thuds as the family of kangeroos gave us a second visit on their way back after a night on camp. We couldn't believe we got to see them not once but twice.
We had breakfast back in the restaurant and I had the special which was poached salmon, herby scrambled eggs and home grown asparagus while rob had poached eggs, bacon, spinach, mushrooms and tomato (I have to include details of the food as its an important event in each day, although definitely not the most important of this day.) We then got a lift into town for our whale watching trip.
I have never been whale watching and didn't really know what to expect on the boat heading out away from the coast. It was about half an hour before the captain spoke to us and told us to start looking out for signs of them; splashes and high squirts of water. Before long we'd caught sight of a mother and her calf and headed in their direction. The boat is allowed to go in their direction but not follow them if they start moving. We were lucky enough to get a few hundred metres away before they did start to move on and we'd had lots of tantilising glimses of hump back fins.
The next couple of hours flew by and we saw 12 whales in total!! And not just their fins; at one point one of the calves jumped high out of the water and came crashing back in, one of the mothers turned up right in front of the boat and scared the driver to bits and another whale spent about 10 minutes on its side slapping the water. The experience was phenonenal and I loved how it reduced everyone on the boat to gasping awe struck children.
After our overwhelming morning our plan for the afternoon was to borrow a canoe from the camp and take the packed lunch we had been provided with down the creek for a picnic. A calm non eventful afternoon I had thought, little did I know....... It was lovely and warm and the creek was beautiful and completely peaceful with lots of birds about but little else. We journeyed down for about 40 minutes before mooring up on a little beach and setting up for lunch.
It was here that romantic old Rob proposed. It was beautiful and so much fun and the sunny muddy creek was the perfect setting. We drank Victoria Bitter out of tin mugs to toast to us and all the fun that is yet to come. Rob proposed with a fancy looking (but not too riskily expensive) travel/holding ring (although he shouldn't have told me as I was convinced) to last until we're not moving about. So we still get to choose a ring in Japan or in London when we get back. I am a very lucky girl, and well done Rob.
Back at the camp we upgraded our celebratory toast to a bottle of champagne (or the south australian version anyway) and were treated so sweetly by the camp staff and another couple who we met and chatted to. We had another amazing dinner in the Gunyah restaurant before heading, exhausted, to bed.
On Saturday we left Jo's unit for the most gorgeous place you could ever stay - Paperbark Camp. we got an early train to try and get up here as soon as pos and after 3hrs arrived in Bomaderry.
The king of the camp collected us from the station, although his son now runs the camp, and drove us to the camp via a little guided tour of Jervis bay. He also told us about the history of the camp and the places that inspired him to make it.
On arrival we were shown to "Kookaburra" our deluxe tent. It had a king size bad, decking with lounge chairs and an outdoor bathroom out the back with a claw foot bath and open shower - wow.
Despite how soft and airy and cosy and tempting the tent was we dumped our bags and headed straight out to explore. We borrowed bikes and cycled back to the bay and along the yellow brick coastal bike path from one lovely beach to the next until we could take it no longer and pulled up for a swim. We spent a lovely few hours sun bathing and swimming, our first real beachy holiday moment.
Then back into the little town for a snack before cycling back to the camp to get into that huge bath and stare at the view from it. My daydreaming was disrupted however by an insistent call from Rob so I scuttled out to come face to face with a family of roos!!!!!!! They were right next to our tent... We were ~just seconds away from wild kangeroos!
There were about six of them, all different shapes and sizes and then just when we thought it was over a huge big grey back appeared that would have been about 7 feet tall at full height. It was spectacular.
After that excitement we finished getting ready, had a pre dinner drink at our tent and then headed over to the Gunyah restaurant which is the most revered in the area alongside the new one that Rick Stein has recently opened!
I think the meal was the best I have ever had and the setting is amazing as the restaurant is raised high amongst the trees. We had Oysters to start, freshly caught and shucked. Then we had loin of Kangeroo for our main (poor old skippy) and shared cheese for dessert. Yum yum yum yum yum.
Today we made it to the beach! Hurray. We had to pop into town and then got the bus out to Bondi Beach to do the coastal walk from Bondi to Coogee. Bondi was really beautiful plus we were really lucky that we happened to be here during the "sculptures by the sea" festival and so the coast was littered with art, lots of which was great.
Rob's favourite was the one attached here with the straw in the sea. He had an image of the BFG bending down and sipping up the ocean (there's no accounting for taste). There were some amazing ones right on the cliff which framed the sea beautifully.
Of course the most gorgeous sights were the sea views and we passed four beaches along the way, we particularly liked Bronte.
Eventually after a good exercising walk we reached Coogee beach. We had a little paddle then went looking for a reward beer (and luckily found three each!).
Finally finished off the day with fish and chips on the beach. (But don't tell anyone I had fish and chips yesterday too!) Great day.
Thursday morning we'd arranged to speak to my dad and Alison so we popped out of bed bright and early to be ready for that. A lovely start to the day and meant we were up in good time to get lots of bookings made. Then with that all sorted and home made lunch in our bellies we headed out.
Plan for the afternoon was to head to Manly so we got the bus down to circular quay to get the ferry. We felt like regular boaties after our river trip yesterday. Was good though because the ferry went the opposite way, to North Sydney, and so we got different sights such as Pinchgut Island. The lovely history to this is that it where where high security prisoners used to be taken, chained and fed only on bread and water until their stomachs shrivelled.
Arriving in Manly we headed straight down the high street to the beach
which was very busy considering it was a Thursday afternoon. I'd been sad there wouldn't be time to swim however most people were on the beach rather than in the water as it didn't look that warm and a bit of a breeze was starting up.
Sure enough by the time we came back out from shopping for sun hats the sun had gone entirely and been replaced by ominous skies. As someone who wasn't trying to sunbathe the weather was quite exciting. We grabbed coffee and went back to the ferry and by the time it took off he heavens opened and the storm began.
So in contrast to our sunny river trip yesterday, this ferry ride rumbled with thunder, was pounded with rain and as we approached the opera house it was backdropped by dramatic fork lightening!
This was all very exciting from the comfort of the ferry but we then got soaked running into the city to meet Jo at Australia Square. The plan was to have a drink in the bar there to look at the views however it was closed to the public because they were doing a magazine photo shoot so we got the train straight to Newtown.
We had a brilliant eve out in Newtown; the studenty big brother to Glebe. We did a bit of a pub crawl, drank lots of yummy beers and had pub dinner (to which Jo treated us despite us putting up a good fight). I rolled out of the taxi after the short ride home straight into bed and was snoozing in minutes.
This was a BIG coach tour jobbie. We managed to get it half price so that was a bonus because the trip was beautiful but the tour was like an OAP tour to the Blackpool or something.
The mountains were amazing and the forests deep and unexplored. This isn't the kind of sight that I automatically associate with Australia. It was interesting to see. It is a little money making in the mountains though where you get delivered to "Scenic World". A crap name for a sight that allows you to get down to a wooden board walk on the forest floor. The only catch: you have no choice but to pay $19 each to go down by mountain train and then up by cable car. So we paid our money and got on the train. It was slightly unerving to read this is the steepst railway in the WORLD and goes to about 45 degrees in places... What made it hilarious was as the train started to descend down they played the Indiana Jones theme music. CHEEEEESE!!!!
The walk down the bottom was fun and a good temperature because of the forest. Then it was up via the cable car. I f-in hate cable cars. I don't trust the strength of the cables despite knowing they must be safe. It was good to be back on the granny bus. A brief stop for tea and scone and a whistle stop tour of Sydney's Olympic village from 2000. Ame was particularly interested in this because of her job. I reckon London can do better! C'mon London!
Finally, we took the public ferry back to circular quay from the Olympic village. This was probably the best thing all day. It was fast and the weather was awesome. Approaching Sydney via water is probably the best way to see it. We got back to Jo's and I cooked chilli and we all shared that wine we bought at Hunter. Thursday is job day. We've got to book Byron Bay and a fee trips. Can't believe it's only been a week. It feels like years ago since I was in UK. So much still to do and see....
Tuesday we went on a small 20 person trip to Hunter Valley wine district. It was a very early start at 06:30 to get on the bus for 07:00 (well you wouldn't want to waste any wine time now would ya?) We had a really fun mixed group of young and old. Two nice American sisters from North Carolina kept us amused whilst another couple from Angel of all places provided more Brit power to the tour.
The first 2 vineyards were family run joints where you buy "from the cellar door". Our tour guide (possibily Rolf Harris' younger brother...) made his feelings clear about we should buy from these places and not the main commercial vineyards. (He also told me what Pome stands for and why Aussies call us that. Pome is an acroymn and stands for Prisoner Of Mainland England and the first dumping of criminals to the Oz would have this written on their shirt. Interesting me thinks). The first place was very fast pace, friendly and the woman who was doing our tastings was pretty funny. In 20 mins we had tried 10 wines, a port and a dessert wine! All before 11am... Next place we bought a Verdelho (passion fruity dry nice white).
Tempus Two was one of the commercial vineyards and it felt like some sort of west end bar. Far too smug for my liking. Then it was off for pie lunch and a spot of beer tasting. All were gorgeous especially the dark one.
Last place was a great professional family run place and we purchased another white from there... Finally a visit to a cheese shop and some choc shops. On the way home, we thought we'd eat local to Jo's flat and went to Glebe Point Road and had a wicked Thai. All in all, an enjoyable boozy fast pace day.
We got to Sydney after a surprisingly easy overnight bus. I thought it was gonna be hard to sleep and we were gonna be knackered but on advise from our mums, we popped 1/2 a travel sickness pill because they make you drowsy. Actually got about 8 hours sleep (and no accommodation costs that night!).
We got a taxi to Jo's flat in Glebe and then got the guided tour around the building. It's a really nice flat and we're so lucky because it's saved us on room, washing, breakfast, internet and some dinner costs! It's cool to stay in an area where people live rather than inner city youth hostels. Glebe is excellent and only 20mins bus ride into the centre of the city. It's got a real Camden kind of vibe to it along with residential friendly safeness.
So we chilled out for the whole morning and headed into Sydney's Circular Quay to do all the stereotypical sites. I was a little bowled over about how excited I was to see the bridge and opera house. It's one of those sites you've seen on the TV all your life and then suddenly you're straight in front of it. We walked up along the dock until we were directly in front of the bridge, over looking the harbour and the Opera House. We decided it was most appropriate to have a drink . Right next to us was this swanky looking restaurant and we thought sod it, how often are we gonna be in the gorgeous sunlight in Sydney? To add extra swank, we even upgraded to have lunch there! (which wasn't as much as you think; we had 2 salads, garlic bread, a drink each - £25 altogether. Not mad expensive considering the area).
Then we had a slow strut up close to the Opera House. The white sail like structures are scally like a snake. I didn't much expect that. It's a lot more solid than I thought it would be. I imagine soft lighter materials. You can definitely tell it was built in the 70's. It a bit gaudy but still quite amazingly big. I was interested to learn a fact about the bridge too. When it was built (around the 20's I think) the designer had the foresight to build it with 4 lanes each way despite their being hardly any cars in the country at that time... So now in 2009 it still has the original design and copes well with the traffic... Boring or interesting? Answers on a postcard.
Then it was back to Jo's to cook her dinner to say thank you for having us. Jo introduced us to an interesting phrase: Flashpackers. Not just backpackers, but people who do it a bit more flash. Not just staying in hostels but not staying in expense hotels. I quite like it.
We're going to Hunter Valley on Tuesday and then Blue Mountains on Wednesday. Action packed days for the Flashpackers...
I feel we have really seen the rest of the city today and educated ourselves about the cultural history.
We walked beside the river and learnt about how the city grew up around it; along to Enterprize Park where the "scar trees" represent those that indigenous people use as a signpost to let other clans know they had entered their community.
We jumped on a tram from here up north to Queen Victoria Market which has been operating since 1878. It's huge. Unfortunately Sundays is clothes instead of food but their was still an excellent delicatessen section where we got ourselves some lunch time delicacies.
After lunch it was even hotter than before lunch but we still persevered with another long walk due east to the Melbourne Museum (we thought we should visit one museum while we were here), we went to the Melbourne museum for the Bunjilaka exhibition.
The name Bunjilaka is derived from Bunjil, the wedge-tailed eagle 'the creator' and aka, meaning land in the language of the Boon Wurrung and Woi Wurrung people, the traditional owners of Melbourne. The exhibition explored the history of the people, the impact that new settlers has had upon them and the remaining controversies. It was a really interesting introduction to the issue.
Before heading back we visited a modern aboriginal fine art gallery for comparison. Restrained from buying any; they didn't fit with our rucksack or budget.
We're now back at the hotel sneaking in a final shower and complementary tea before heading back into town for the last time to have some dinner and catch the overnight bus to Sydney.
So! Yesterday the big Phillip Island trip. We had a leisurely morning because we were getting picked up at 12:00 for our trip which was very nice.
We got on the bus at 12:00 and drove off first to a wildlife reserve. We saw lots of stereotypical oz animals and it was brilliant. We saw dingos, koalas, wallabies, kangaroos and taz devils! We even got to feed some of them. Mr Koala was a little grumpy cos apparently they sleep 19 hours a day.
And to be honest, I don't blame them in this heat and he was probably the most papped koala that side of Melbourne. He looked like an Ewark. I looked for wires and a puppet master but neither were there. I suppose I found it a strange charming beast that felt like a Jim Henderson puppet.
Amy was particularly excited about the feeding of the wallabies. She is 28 but in her mind, about 8 years old... :-)
Then it was off to Churchill Island to see a still working, old methods farm. We saw a little sheep get sheared which I've never seen before. The shearer was particularly Australian and pretty bitter about the demise of the wool industry in Oz and pretty much told us he earns no money now because of the synthetics taking over.
We drove over to Phillip Island where we went to what felt like Summer Bay (re: Home and Away) and had a brief sit in the sand. Next stop was the Nobbies which are some rocks near the Penguin Parade beach. It was beautiful. These purple flowers had just come out.
You can't take pictures at the penguin parade because as our guide said camera flashes blind the penguins then they stumble about aimlessly and die. Talk about laying it on with a trowel! So one of the main reasons to stop at the Nobbies was to look for penguins in the light so you can take a pic of them. We found one in its burrow sleeping. Pretty impressed.
So as the sunset, it was time for the main event. Me and Ame had chose to do the private penguin experience which involved having your own guide who broadcasted to a headset so he could whisper facts to you and you could sit on the beach. At first I was thinking that we'd been ripped off as he took us to the same area as everyone else at first, however we got to sit at the front in the sand and when the first penguins waddled right by us we realised how lucky we were. At first you think "I'm gonna miss all the penguins... They are too far away" and then suddenly you're absolutely surround by the little buggers (and I mean little - they could only be about 20cm tall some of them). I had an absolutely lovely day.
As a side note, we were doing the trip with about 24 other people all about our age. Majority where girls travelling on their own. Me and Ame made a real effort to be social and friendly and had some good conversations but no-one really seemed confident enough to socialise. It seemed a fairly sombre traveling experience to me. That's why I feel I'm very lucky to be doing this with Ame because (among other things) I like to share these experiences with someone... (ahhhhh)
We got to the YHA which is quite nice actually. Basic hostel with all you need, no frills other than a little pool! So we and ame took a dip and then went to check in for tomorrow's trip. So looking forward to being waited on for 3 days. We won't check emails or post until Tuesday probably so to Anoymous who posted about us being eaten by sharks (re: Surfin' Byron Bay), don't worry if we don't post, we're still alive! (As an aside, if you do post anomymously then put you're name at the end of it so it's easy for us to know who it is. Then we can know where the love is coming from).
