Wollongong - 'Life's better in the Gong'

Thankfully, I keep a diary as it has been over a month since my last post!

On November 11th we set off for Wollongong as Canberra had got rainy and, well, boring!
We were lucky to experience the beautiful route through McGuiness Drive, a stunning windy, if not sometimes hairy, decent down a narrowly carved road through temperate rainforest with breathtaking views over the fields and coast below and beyond.

McGuiness Drive

We arrived in the evening and tired to find the campsite recommended by the Lonely Planet Guide (LPG) - Coledale. When we finally found it (50 odd kms out of Wollongong town centre!) we were a little disappointed as it wasn't anywhere near as amazing as described, so, armed with our impromptu purchase of beer and port, we set off to find another one a little closer to the town...
We returned to Coledale, half an hour later and one beer down (Luke was drinking and navigating, who says men can't multitask!?) and in convoy with two other nomads we collected en route.

Coledale campsite is nice enough, really it's just a glorified lay-by with access to showers and kitchen services. What they should mention in the LPG is that you can enter all hours, so if you happen to arrive late in Wollongong you can rely on Coledale campsite to be available for entry and avoid driving up and down the coast being disappointed by the campsites that closed 10 minutes before you arrived... I am only too happy to share this information so my hard lessons can be learned from *cough, cough.

We woke next day to pancakes and hangovers and moved Autumn back down the coast to the town centre. We parked up at the beach and walked into town opting for coffee reinforcements on the way. The town centre is very nicely laid out with a pedestrianized high street containing all the basic necessities although, driving to the town centre and finding parking near by is a little more challenging, as we later discovered!
We enjoyed lunch at the infamous Diggies (also recommended by the LPG. Faith restored), overlooking the Ocean and decided to get in burgers for dinner later on. On this day, Monday 12th November, we bought me my first coffee cafetiere, a since very used and greatly loved essential. Sorry Dad (aka - Mr Tea), I am now a 'coffee person'. Whoops! Please don't disown me.

On Tuesday morning we went for separate runs as we had a bit of a debate about when to make our way up to Cairns, confirming in the process, that we are clearly running out of suitable subjects to argue about! Upon reuniting half an hour later, we made friends again and did yoga. It's hard to hold a grudge whilst balancing on one's head with your left toe in your right armpit!
We went to the library where I last blogged on Canberra, did a food shop and enjoyed Luke's lovely seafood stir fry.

Wednesday and Thursday saw rain like Tuesday and after buying some lovely new active wear from Lorna Jane, sending some emails to rellies from the Library and visiting the Lighthouse with fish 'n chips, we got itchy feet again.
We arrived at the Burt household (Luke's cousin) in Manly, Sydney, New South Wales on Thursday 15th Nov at 4:00pm, where we were very warmly greeted with dinner and a bottle of Black Sheep Shiraz, which we had been carrying in Autumn since the McLaren Vale. Thankfully, it still tasted like wine!

Canberra

From Barossa we decided to head toward Sydney where we will be spending Christmas and New Years with Luke's cousin and her family.

Our first stop on route was Mildura where we camped at the Lawn Tennis Club next to a grumpy lady in her campervan. We played on our long boards and I taught Luke how to use the Poi (Maori fire balls on chains, without the fire). We hit the library to let our parents know we were alive, stocked up of food and fuel and hit the road again as the weather was awful and wasn't showing any signs of improving for the next couple of days.

We stayed the night at a trucker's rest stop beside the main road. The rain was SO LOUD on our campervan roof - loud enough to even drown out Luke's snoring!
The next day we hit the road again in the rain and, with just 5 hours journey estimated on our Tom Tom (Bruce we call him and yes, he has an Aussie accent), we aimed to reach Canberra.

Siesta in the park

We arrived at Canberra in torrential rain and hit the supermarket for some more fruit and veggies - when it's hot it's very hard to keep fresh food in the camper in our little cool box, even when we do abuse the supermarket's freezer section and place our freezer packs next to the ice-cream tubs... So, with the arrival of cooler weather, I'll be damned if I don't at least get to enjoy a nice pear or two!
We parked up next to the lake for the night and work early on Thursday to a run and porridge then set off on our longboards to explore the city, we got a subway for lunch and had a little nap in the park. I love siestas. My overall impression is that the city is very clean. It feels a bit empty too which isn't surprising - Canberra is geologically half the size of London but only has 400,000 inhabitants, compared to London's 8,000,000!!
I found the atmosphere pretty laid back and certainly very friendly but there didn't seem to be much diversity in cafes and bars so I would imagine the night life would be a bit lacking.

Ultimately, Canberra is a very well thought out city. Parliament and the National Gallery & Library are on one side of a large lake and the city centre is on the other side. There is a cycle path that runs the entire circumference of the lake, which is split in three by two bridges. The distance of the largest loop (Western) is 18km which we foolishly decided to run around on Friday morning - exhaustio!

National Bonsai collection

Canberra War Memorial

The weather was very good for us throughout most of our stay. Saturday we decided to visit the War Memorial as we figured it would be very busy on Sunday 11th but, when we arrived, it was extremely crowded... Little did we know we had chosen to visit the same day Prince Charles and Camilla had too (we're convinced they followed us over from Windsor). It's the first time i've seen Charlie or Camilla up-close so it was a pretty cool experience. Not sure if they appreciated my sitting on Luke's shoulders but, hey-ho! We returned on Sunday for the memorial service and explored the National Bonsai collection on the way back to the camper for lunch - Bonsai means 'planted in a pot', which was interesting to find out as I assumed it meant 'little tree'?! Later that afternoon we decided to hit the road to Wollongong, getting further up towards Sydney.

Return to Adelaide - Glenelg & Barossa Valley

The last week of October for us was not exactly laborious. Having driven so far from Port Lincoln in one go we decided we deserved a good relaxing break. True to our natures however, our version of 'relaxing' invariably ends up being a little more strenuous than we set out to enjoy...

Glenelg Harbour

I had a nice run on Monday morning along Henley beach followed by a longish (10km each way) long board into Glenelg with Luke. We had lunch out (what a treat!) and ice-cream and a good mooch around the surf shops - something we have been good at avoiding until now... Luke is a bad influence on me (tongue in cheek)... We made our return journey and camped up for the night in our same old spot. We were starting to feel like we were on borrowed time a little with our parking spot on the beach front, in front of all the modern sea-front mansions, but we decided to push our luck a little further!

On Tuesday we finally got around to getting our Medicare sorted. So easy to get stuff done over here. None of that British bureaucracy over here, just simple sign a form with a lady to help you, then - done. Easy. We chilled on the beach with some beers and took a nice romantic stroll down the pier in the moonlight, aggghh.

Wednesday 31st we had a bit of a shopping spree and went back for some boardies and bikinis we'd seen in Glenelg (whoops!). Later that eve we were asked to move on from our nice spot in Henley (always move on when you get the 'borrowed time' feeling), so we found a backstreet a little further along the way.

Thursday we set off for Barossa - our main reason for returning to Adelaide a second time - on our way through to Canberra. We figured that it would be a shame to have educated our palettes so well in McLaren Vale to not then put them to use in the most famous wine valleys of Australia. It would have been extremely narrow-minded of us indeed! So... with that dutiful mindset, we set off to find somewhere to camp a little nearer by.

Barossa Day 1
We arrived at a campsite in the heart of Barossa at about 10am. Luke drove us the first day and we visited a few recommended Cellar Doors: McGuigan, Ross Estate, Jacob's Creek and Langmeil. We discovered that Jacob's Creek produce fantastic wines and I never did get an answer as to why we see so much of the lower end of their produce...

McGuigan international winemakers

We had stumbled upon a well kept secret at Langmeil: Barossa produces some of the finest Shiraz in Australia and indeed, worldwide but their finest produce definitely lies in their fortified wines (the real stuff!). We were speaking to a local priest who was telling us, among other things, that the larger and older wineries in Barossa had bottled their finest wines in the slower economic periods as seeing them put to waste was more than they could bare. The result is that their fortified wines are just fantastic, and rather strong - AKA: Fantastic! We did buy a bottle of 20 year old Tawny (Port) from Langmeil which we shall be enjoying on New Years with some friends of ours - lucky buggers!

Barossa Day 2
Saturday I awoke with an unlikely hangover... but after a good sunbathe and eat-up, felt well enough to soldier on with our second day of wine-tasting.
We drove to the local Farmers Market and treid all kinds of breads and home-made chocolates and olive oil blends then returned to the campsite for lunch. From there we walked to Penfolds to try some of the most lucrative wines from Australia - there you can buy bottles of wine for more than your average second-hand car! We returned to the campsite via Kaesler Wines.

Barossa Day 3

Petting the roos at Whistler

We checked out of the campsite in the morning and headed straight to Whistler where we not only sampled wines but petted their hand-reared kangaroos! They are so sweet and I have decided I want one. I have promised mum I will walk it regularly and feed it (and pick up it's poo).

Two Hands Wines

After Whistler we went to two-hands which had been recommended to us by a local girl at Ross Estate. We each paid $5 to sit and have our wines bought to us, a little out of the ordinary as you don't usually have to pay to test at Cellar Doors. We sat outside on the terrace and tried wine after wine, quite content with our little lot.
From Two Hands Wines we went to Seppeltsfield Wines where we were further educated on Fortified Wines. We tried all kinds of Sherries and Ports and were introduced to some of the bottles that aren't even available for tasting not to mention, way outside of our budget!

Luke with a peacock at Maggie's Farm Shop

We finished the morning with a trip to Maggie Beer's Farm Shop (the Australian celebrity chef) for lunch. There were loads of pate and pickle samples and we each got a basket of salad and pate for lunch. Maggie's main principles are cooking with fresh produce that is in season and keeping it simple. I am very sure that most people would agree with her after sampling her yummy food!

We left Barossa with full bellies and further educated palettes and set off in the direction of Canberra.

Coffin Bay & National Park

On Thursday 25th October we set off for Coffin Bay, world famous for it's scrumptious oysters.
We arrived in the evening and, after driving around a little, decided to find somewhere to park the camper up for the night - we have become much better at looking for spots to park up whilst there's still light as we have had a few experiences waking in less than desirable or rather odd spots!
There were very few spots around town as the town is very small, mostly a few houses belonging to fishermen and the absolute essentials in life: a coffee shop (doubling up as an oyster bar?), a convenience store and a liquor shop. There is a large campsite in the middle of the bay but we usually find campsites far too conservative (reserved only for times in desperate need of showers!), so we continued toward our main point of interest, the National Park.

Coffin Bay's National Park is about 300km squared. It is situated to the west of Port Lincoln and only takes about 50mins to get there. There is an $8 entry fee and a further $8 fee per night camped. We paid our $24 into the honestly box (cheaper than one night in a campsite, pfft!) at the park entrance and set off toward the bay. We took turns longboarding along side Autumn, holding onto the open window while the other drove - great fun but rather sketchy as we had to keep an eye out for crossing roos and emu!
We parked up by some public toilets (Of the long drop variety, more info on these later) and ran down to the beach immediately. It was getting pretty dark and was a little chilly so I started with the dinner while Luke trialled his new fishing gear. About an hour later Luke returned, windswept and broken hearted: he had cast his rod and snapped it! We ate dinner and drank some wine and decided that we would return to Pt Lincoln the next day to buy a new rod, after all - we had come to Coffin Bay to fish and I was keen to try my luck in the big pond also!
On Friday we made a fly by visit to Pt Lincoln, Luke bought a new rod and serviced the van, filling it with water and fuel, etc while I tackled the important task of sourcing the G&T and sending my bro a moonpig for his 18th (Happy Birthday again Jack!!). We arrived back at the bay and went straight to the beach to practice casting. It was so nice to look in the rock pools and collect 'pretty shells'... Luke was keen to fish so I had a bit of 'me' time. It felt like forever since I was last able to slowly plod along a beach picking up shells and deciding which one was the nicest, not a care in the world but that one simple task, sounds silly but maybe this is what travelling is about after all - reminding ourselves of what it's like to play again! Unfortunately we made no catches on Friday but we did rather enjoy our G&T instead...

We caught an Australian Salmon!

On Saturday we hit the beach early. The sun was shining enough to warm the chilly breeze so we were stood about waist deep while we were casting. After a few hours we witnessed a pod of 14 or so dolphins, riding in the surf. They were so fun to watch and so close to the shore! A few fishermen joined us shortly after we saw the dolphins and we realised that the large patches of seaweed, as we had initially judged them, were actually massive shoals of Australian Salmon which the dolphins must have pushed into the bay earlier!! We cast out with a mixture of panic and excitement - I can see why they call fishing a sport - I got such an adreneline rush! Luke cuaght one which he bought in only to throw back as it was a little damaged but he got another bite only moments later. I shared some of the fight but this Salmon was big and strong and had to hand it over to Luke after a short stint for him to make the final beach. After we beached it we gutted it on site, sharing our unwanted bits with the local albatross (they are HUGE!). We washed it out and took it up to the camper where we filleted it and pan fried it for lunch, putting the remaining fillets aside for dinner. We were told by a local fisherman that he had never seen such big shoals and that we ad caught a bigun'. We were quite proud!

Preparing our lunch... and dinner!

After we ate lunch we saw what appeared to be seals around the area the Salmon had been - It all seemed to be following some natural order as minutes after the seals came, along creeped a shark slowly scavenging in the shallows just metres from where we had been standing waist-deep earlier on (Eeek!). 'Now THIS is Australia', was all we could keep saying!

At the foot of a big sand dune

We walked up the bay after (taking care not to enter after our shark witnessing) and explored the white sand dunes 5 or 6km up the bay, if you haven't sampled sand dune jumping, I recommend it. Needless to say, we slept like babies that night!
 Early the next morning we left the park and returned to Pt Lincoln where, in a moment of spontaneity (often mistaken for madness) we decided to make the 650km return journey to Adelaide. In one journey. Nutters.
We set off at 2:30pm and arrived 10 hours, one takeaway roast chicken, an expensive hot chocolate and a minor tiff later at 12:30am Monday morning, where we parked up at our familiar spot in Henley.

Port Lincoln

Toward the centre of the coast of South Australia sits Port Lincoln, a small fishing town. The town is quite wealthy as it sees the majority of Australian seafood pass through its port. It is also home to the Great White Shark. Yes that's right... this is Australia!

Whyalla beach

We stopped at a few points in between Adelaide and Port Lincoln. Port Augusta, Whyalla and Cowell (no Simons mind..) in that order. Whyalla is the second third largest city in SA with Adelaide and Mount Gambier being the larger two. That's about all the info on Whyalla I can provide... it's a small city, probably better referred to as a large town. We had a free shower at a campsite here (they didn't know so technically we borrowed/stole their shower water but we did really need one!), filled our tank and food cupboards and slept a little out of the city on the 'wetlands' where their storm water drains off. Pretty nice place actually and we met a lovely Dutch lady who gave us some tip-offs for Pt Lincoln as they were from the area.
Oh I nearly forgot! Whyalla has a beautiful beach with long shallows. You could wade a good 1.5km or so and still only be up to your knees!

When we arrived at Pt Lincoln on Tuesday 23rd October (it's been ages since I last blogged!!!) the first thing we did was head for a fishing and tackle shop as we had heard that sea fishing down this way was an absolute must. Armed with our new prized possessions (the finest lures budget traveller funds can buy) we moved the camper to 'Billy Light's Point' on the very southern point of Pt Lincoln, where we ate some local fresh fish and slept the night.
On Thursday we had our first scrambled eggs in the camper, courtesy of Master Chef Don Luca, did a big food shop and set off merrily for Coffin Bay. See next blog for details...

Emma & Luke's hazey shiraz trail

Saturday 20th Oct signaled the start of our wine tour of McLaren Valley. We took Autumn to the beautiful rolling vineyards of one Australia's most highly regarded producers of Shiraz wines.

All dolled up in our dress (Luke) and shirt (Emma - only kidding, just keeping you on your toes) and checked in at the local caravan site, which I will mention seemed an absolute luxury to us by this point: running hot showers, kitchen facilities including a freezer to cool our ice packs, clothes lines and washing facilities, etc... Sorry I've gone off on a tangent now. So - all checked in at the site we set off along the '5km Shiraz trail' (distance kindly calculated by Luke) to our vineyards of choice. We went to Serafino Wines first, where we tried a few whites and then moved on to some of their award winning reds and received a little insider's knowledge of Shiraz and some helpful spiel to aid us in our consecutive cellar door visits. We set off shortly after along the trail toward our second choice, Battle of Bosworth Wines, to sample some of the only organically certified wines of McLaren Vale, situated at the very far end of the trail. An hour or so later we reached the vineyard only to find it was closed for a function that day... Due to our fantastic mood, not at all due to our consumption of fine wine, we were not perturbed. We hitched a lift back and flew by two more cellar doors, Primo and one of our favorites; Hugh Hamilton/ Black Sheep where we also sampled some of their olive oils and salad dressings. Later that evening we dined in with home-made curry and some more of the local wine, well - it would have been rude not to!

On Sunday we took Autumn along with us and managed to see another six cellar doors. We were a little more clued up the next day and didn't drink every tasting we were given so were able to hold out a little longer. We included the Battle of Bosthworth, Leconfield, Lloyd Brothers, d'Arenberg - my fave and personally recommended to those of you reading my blog, Corriole and finishing up at Samuel's Gorge. All in all a rather exhausting weekend at McLaren Vale!

Adelaide - Brighton, Henley and CBD

We really enjoyed our few days in Adelaide exploring some of the Lonely Planets Guide's (LPG) recommended hot-spots.
We arrived in Adelaide on Weds 17th October and headed straight for Glenelg beach, the hip traveller's end of Adelaide where we planned to set up camp for the night.
Gorgeous beaches and deluxe board walks paint the coast here (sorry if I sound like an excerpt from the LPG, I read it too much!), laden with runners pounding the pavements - we were so impressed and inspired to run again and made plans to run first thing in the morning.
We made our dinner and enjoyed with a bottle of local red (Adelaide is famous for it's vineyards, with some of the best Shiraz in the world originating from this area). Unfortunately we were prompted to move on later in the evening by patrol but he kindly showed us where we would be ok to park for the night (By a railway track - cheers bud!).

We set off early the next day on our longboards from the coast, where we left Autumn, into the City Centre (CBD). We calculated it was about 8km each way but, we usually underestimate our distances!
When we arrived in the CBD we hit the Central Market for coffee and fruit and then onto the shops to get me a new pair of trainers as I have manged to lose mine on-route (classic Emma manoeuvre!).
Adelaide's CBD is pretty small, probably no larger than Windsor town centre but with the addition of a few sky-risers. The great thing about this city thought is that it seems to have been really well thought out. It's easy to navigate because it's just blocks, like Melbourne and its surrounded by parks on all four sides which really makes it seem spacious and clean.

Beautiful sunset off Henley Beach

Later that day and after our long and hungry return journey on the longboards, we moved the camper up the coast a little more to Henley (All these English town names make it all rather nostalgic) where we stayed the night. On route, we were pulled over by a policeman (Again!?) and Luke was asked to perform two alcohol and drug tests! We were advised that we had been completely selected at random but running into policemen sure does seem to be an acquired art of ours recently!
Once Luke had passed the tests the policeman kindly advised us where the best spots were to publicly consume alcohol (Gotta' love Aus!) in the few non 'dry areas' of Adelaide's coast and also, the best wine valley to visit in his (Barossa Valley) and his wife's (Clare Valley) opinions. Off we went, merrily on our way with our newly made plans to visit the vineyards - we didn't need much encouragement!

We stayed at our spot in Henley until the evening on Friday where we met a lady qualified in the profession of 'Craniosacral Therapy', she kindly treated my stresses at the roadside, lifting it from my womb area and cleansing me of my negative energy while Luke waited patiently for an hour... You meet such lovely selfless people while travelling in a camper!

Campfire numero uno

A few hours North of Kingston, Adelaide bound, we came upon a dirt track loop road off the main drag. Not adhering to any particular agenda recently, we decided to take it and happened upon a nice little spot in the middle of the Aussie bush by an inland salt lake, where we decided to camp the night. By camp I mean the whole hog, campfire an' all.

Our first real campfire

Dinner on the fire

Luke gathered up our kindling and wood supplies and we started a fire C. Dundee style. We wrapped sweet potatoes in tin foil and shoved them in the fire (burrowed from Habitat HQ's free food shelf), mixed beans and tuna in a pan and cooked them on the embers and finished with a creamy rice pudding on the last of the heat! We really enjoyed our 'into the wild' experience and found nature to be delightfully accommodating (hidden meaning for personal future reference).

Most importantly and my main reason for dedicating an entire blog entry to one day, was what we experienced when the sun went in, for, positioned in between nowhere and somewhere else, we witnessed the most amazing night sky. Never before have I seen so many billions of stars shining so brightly. Luke and I felt so small and insignificant in comparison. Unfortunately, as with so many other wonders, a mere camera couldn't possibly capture what we saw that night so - you'll have to take my word for it!

On the way back onto the main drag we saw a kangaroo jump in front of the van and witnessed the crossing of a large dragon-like lizzard which we have yet to look up but loved seeing as we felt like we truly were in the bush.

A few "interesting" days...by Luke

Hello! Sorry for the radio silence…it’s a long story, but, don’t worry, all will be explained…

So, a lot has happened since our “proposed” date for departing Melbourne…

It all started on the 11^th of October.

After another early morning run, and another long day making full use of the free food shelf and beanbags at Habitat HQ hostel, we finally got the call from Adam - the mechanic at ADM motors - saying that “the van was fixed, and she’s driving great”. We were ecstatic. We were finally going to hit the road and - not that we don’t like Melbourne, we both think it’s a great city, just that it probably needs a week, two at most to really enjoy – we were finally getting out of the city and into real Australia.

It was 16:18, and the garage shut at 17:30, so we had to be efficient if we wanted to leave that day, we still had a lot to do. Needless to say, the next two and a half hours were some of our finest multi-tasking moments.

I jumped on the tram (using our tomtom to make sure I was going the correct way – as you’d imagine, I got a few odd looks as I was sitting on the tram holding a satnav up as we winded down the roads turning each corner), whilst Em prepared all of our bags and food for the journey.

Got to the garage with ten minutes to spare, and after a quick test drive in Autumn, I could happily shake Adams hand as I paid him and left the garage for the last time…

A short drive later, and I was back at Habitat HQ and we were loading up Autumn, preparing to set off on our trip.

Goodbyes said, bags loaded, onto the petrol station.

Moments later, with a full water tank and $80 of fuel in her, we drove to Coles supermarket in Balaclava (a small area just East of St Kilda – more detailed descriptions will follow…)

With so much time on our hands the past few days we had actually planned an impressive shopping list. Consisting of canned goods and vegetables, we have eaten lots, and well, and still have lots to go almost a week later.

We loaded up the van, sat in our seats, and were finally ready to go.

Em was going to do the first leg of the trip, and as she turned the ignition on, what followed was the start of a very peculiar little adventure…

“BANG!!!”

…the ignition cut out.

…we waited.

We tried to start Autumn up again…nothing.

We got out, looked around the car, and checked the exhaust to see that nothing was blocking it. I thought that it had just backfired and that the battery might be drained.

It was getting close to 22:00 now, fortunately a fellow car park driver who happened to be an apprentice mechanic offered his help.

We got the jump leads out and hooked up the batteries, waited a few moments and tried to start Autumn up again…

…nothing.

And now, the immobiliser had stopped flashing too.

There were no signs of life – we feared for the worst.

It was past ten o’clock, it was cold, and we were in a badly lit car park in Balaclava, which isn’t the happiest of places to be in during the day. (Earlier that day whilst Em had been strolling down the pavement to get a morning coffee an intoxicated woman with erratic arms flung her forearm towards Em – fortunately Em has ninja quick reactions and managed to dodge the attack and escape). In summary, Balaclava isn’t the kind of place you’d want to spend your day in, let alone your night – with all of your valuables with you in a 24 year old campervan.

Fear was definitely kicking in and we were succumbing to drastic decisions.

I thought I could push the campervan along the road back to St Kilda. It was just a mere 600m, with only one four-lane highway to cross (and with a 60 litre full tank of petrol, 80 litres of water, as well as a good 10 days of shopping) lets just say it wasn’t my finest moment, and the van didn’t move very far.

It was getting very late and Em had spotted a somewhat “quiet” side road, which looked better than where we were, so with the help of two shopping assistants who were locking up their stores, we pushed the van around the corner and set up for the night.

We didn’t sleep a lot.

Next morning, van still intact, we called up Adam.

Detailing what we remembered, Em chatted to Adam and suggested that possibly a fuse had gone.

Unfortunately, our phone ran out of credit and cut him off.

This wasn’t the best start to our day.

Minutes later, phone topped up, we chatted to Adam again. He kindly offered to leave the garage and drive over to where we were. (Thanks Adam!)

Twenty minutes on the scene and after using a few gadgets that Em and I hadn’t packed in our bags, he diagnosed it as one of the main fuses had gone. (A wire had short-circuited on the exhaust as we started it up and blown the fuse.)

As mechanics do best, he got out his tools, soldering iron in hand and made us a makeshift temporary one and started up the engine. We followed him to a nearby shop and he ordered a replacement fuse in for us – Autumn was fixed!

A day delayed, we set off. Saying our goodbye to Melbourne, we were finally on the road.

Autumn with her old and new owners

Next stop, The Great Ocean Road. Note to self, a full tank of water whilst driving along Australia’s windiest road with multiple inclines and steep declines is not very fuel economic. Needless to say, we drove a fair old way, and stopped for the night just west of Bells Beach.

A beautiful morning woke us up, and Em’s spider sense was tingling. “We should probably get out of here”, she suggested to me as we started to think of morning tea…followed shortly by a friendly warden knocking on our window saying that we were parked in a national heritage site and it was a $120 per person fine. We weren’t laughing. We apologised as sincerely as we could, as we hadn't actually seen any signs…he kindly let us off with a warning.

Definitely awake now, we set off west. Several hours driving later, we soon left the Great Ocean Road and were heading towards South Australia.

We decided to stop off for lunch in Bridgewater Bay, (still in Victoria), a picturesque 4km long white sand beach that really was beautiful.

After a day on the beach, we decided we’d stay here for longer and went off in search of somewhere to sleep for the night - where wardens and fines wouldn’t factor into a morning lie in.

Could be Mars?

Amazingly, five minutes down the road and we came across a camping car park. It was by the sea, and a short walk from several national heritage sites. One of which, natural blowholes, was a 200m stroll towards the cliffs, whilst natural springs was a 2km walk away. With dusk and darkness looming, we looked at each other and thought we’d jog it. Flip-flops flapping, we got there with plenty of time, admiring the Mars-esque landscape along the way - and we can say that jogging is our new favourite way of seeing the sites.

Em - just after a 2km flip flop jog and seeing the natural springs.

The next morning, we headed back to the bay. After a day on the beach, we decided we’d hit the road again and set off north west towards Adelaide.

Along the way, we remembered that we had met some guys from Adelaide in Nomads hostel whilst in Melbourne, and as Em drove along the highway, I leant back across our camper to grab my stuff and try and find their details, jokingly remarking “watch out for police cars”.

…famous last words.

Moments later, Em was flashed down by a police car and we pulled over.

Sheepishly, I got out of the car and spoke to the officer. We were flashed down because I wasn’t wearing my seat belt.

Our lonely planet guide to driving in Australia. (Looked at after the incident).

As above, you can see that it wasn’t a smart thing to do. After explaining to the officer that I had just momentarily taken it off to grab my things, and then put it on again (so the window for him seeing me without it on was literally 10-15 seconds) he swiftly took my driving license and walked to his car. He didn’t look happy.

Bizarrely, he returned a few minutes later, and was a changed man, smiling, he said as he passed me my license back, “That’s alright, I trust you. You can go now.”

We were confused. But happy to oblige, and drove off.

After that series of events we set off for Bool Lagoon, a large national reserve where we would stay for the night.

On arriving, and noticing the park admission fees, we decided to carry on moving, and headed west.

Now, finally, we're parked up in a small town called Kingston...we stopped for a while at a truckers lay-by on the way, but thoughts of the film Wolf Creek soon got stuck in our minds and the hour drive to the coast at night time seemed less scary than staying in the van!

We’ve just popped into the local library to do some well-needed bank transfers (we’ve been keeping all of our money in our savings account, so we need internet to access it and transfer it to our current account.)

Before getting to the library, we had a quarter tank of petrol and $5 to our name...of which we spent $4.80 on stamps for postcards...., yes, that's right, we had 20 cents to our name earlier today?!

But, all transferred, safe and sound, we're now ready to hit the road for some more adventures.

Will keep you posted,

Luke  x

Thermal springs & GOR tour

It's Wednesday, 4:50pm. Sat on beanbags in the lounge area of Habitat HQ. Sound familiar? It certainly does to us...

We were hoping to have Autumn back today from the mechanics but today has been and gone and now tomorrow even seems unlikely. Current sentiments are boredom, restlessness, lethargy, langour and a good measuring of bloated, however, also... tanned, clean, nourished and most importantly: Ready. To leave. Purlease!

Whilst playing the waiting game we have also been keeping ourselves entertained by visiting the local tourist hotspots.

Top thermal spring, 40^oC, 360^o vistas. Nice.

Prating around in the thermal springs

On Sunday we went to the thermal springs via public transport (as we currently don't have our camper, long story...), it was about 2 and 1/2 hours each way but well worth the commute.

No comment...

The springs are heated via a geothermal aquifer and are high in minerals and sulfides (minerals that smell like eggy farts) which are good for skin and hair.
 The springs vary in temperature between 38 and 41^o and there are also sauna and steam rooms. If you take time to ensure full submersion, you can be sure to acquire a beautifully shiny barnet, with a distinct whiff of eggy farts, guaranteed to last after not one but two washes (the smell, not the shine). Unfortunately, the springs can't do much for your looks, trust me, I tried...
We enjoyed a delightful game of charades and over-killed on eye-spy on the journey home, It took me over 10 minutes before Luke had to tell me his spy for 'n', which was for the nuts I had been scoffing all along. To the nearest passengers amusement. Thanks Luke.

In 1864 the State of Victoria identified the need for a road along the south-west coastline. The idea was initiated in 1914, with the creation of The Great Ocean Road Corridor Strategy. In 1919 employment commenced for returned servicemen from the First World War.

London Bridge has fallen down!

Yesterday we took advantage of the free '1 day Great Ocean Road' tour Luca won a few days ago and previewed a little of whats to come. The tour starts at 7am and gets you back to the hostel around 9pm. It is a fly by tour of Bells Beach - the home town of Rip Curl and iconic 50 year storm wave in Point Break, temperate rainforest in Otway, the 12 apostles (originally, one fell down now it's 'the apostles') and London Bridge. We also saw kangaroos and koalas - finally! koalas poop, a lot. Oh - and sleep, a lot. We learnt never to call a koala a bear to an Aussie if you know what's good for you!

I hope to update next time with good news of our much anticipated departure in Autumn. Au revoir!

Grounded in St Kilda

The beauty of travelling is the freedom to go where you want when you want, as and when the opportunity arises. That is, unless you buy a 23 year old campervan with various mechanical faults that need fixing before you can justify venturing into the wild...

Our planned departure on Tuesday was unfortunately postponed when we heard from our mechanic (Adam) that the transmission ideally needed replacing. When we went to collect Autumn from Adam on Wednesday (that's right, Wednesday. Luckily we were able to stay the night at Bea's house while the camper slept a second and impromptu night at the mechanics, rolls eyes), we were informed that it would be in our interest to have the transmission fixed as currently, the van has no second gear and was changing from first directly to third, placing a strain on the engine, third gear, the fan and not to mention, making an awful racket in the process!
This came as no surprise to us as we had asked him to drive it and tell us what he thought the noise was. I wish I could say the same for the price... We were quoted $1,500 to take out the gearbox and send off to the relevant garage to carry out the repairs. Ouch. Fortunately for us, we hadn't yet bought the camper in full so we negotiated the cost of the repairs off the price of the camper. Result: a camper in great condition with $2500 repairs recently carried out, just crying to be driven accross the Aussie outback!

We officially signed the licensing paperwork and dropped Autumn off with Adam yesterday. We hope she will be ready by Tuesday(ish).

Becky, Harry, Luke & I.

Meanwhile, with the good news of Autumn's imminent release and her new roadworthy condition, we checked back in at Habitat and headed into the city for some beer and a bit of fun with a few others from the hostel. We caught up with Becky and Harry, a couple who have recently completed their journey across Aus in a 4X4.

Luke won a free day trip along the great ocean road by impersonating a male koala mating call (Tee hee), so we've booked for Monday (I had to pay, tut!). Should be a good introduction of what to expect when we set off later on next week.
We're headed to the Thermal Springs tomorrow. I have been to thermal springs in the Philippines so am quite excited to have the opportunity to go again.
With the 16km + run/ sightseeing we did this morning, we really have seen a lot that Melbourne has to offer over the last 2 & 1/2 weeks. The Botanic Gardens were a real treat this morning in the sunshine and the Melbourne Memorial Shrine was an emotional and educational experience... I know I sound like a full hippie convert here but, seriously, I have never truly stopped and contemplated on the lives lost in war or even how it must have been for my grandfather. Lest we forget.

On a lighter note - there's free fresh bread and cakes one of the girls has brought back from work so we're off to partake in the madness ...
My blogs are usually cut short when faced with the prospect of food. You can clearly see where my (mostly Luke's) priorities lie...

Checking out

"I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination."

Jimmy Dean

Today we set off along the Great Ocean Road, destination Adelaide.
Big build up over the last few days as this will be when we truly start to travel on our own in the camper.  Away from the city and into the wilderness. Australia is big.

We are currently sat in the lounge area of Habitat HQ, after having slept like a log last night (in the fireplace.. haha!). We're waiting on a return call from Bea so we can go to hers and leave our stuff while we get the money out from the bank to pay for Autumn. Later we plan to do a big shop for various tinned cuisine, fill up on water, petrol and gas and hit the road. It may be night when we leave but we are really keen to get going as today has been our cut-off since we knew when Autumn was booked in to be fixed. We're really excited!

We got to Skype with Luke's parents this morning (it was 12 midnight for them!), which was really nice. My attempts at Facetiming mum were somewhat thwarted by dodgy connection but no worries - will call you up on the phone mummy!

So.. hopefully I can blog soon but if not - don't worry, we're safe and responsible (We have to say that - our parents read this blog) and when I next write - we'll have lots of stories of campfires and kangaroos (which don't appear in burger form).

I'll leave you with another quote I like:

To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel

is to be able to experience

everyday things as if for the first time,

to be in a position in which

almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted.

-Bill Bryson

Homeless

Got your attention?  Dont't worry, no biggy... The camper is booked in at the mechanics and will hopefully be fixed and free of all leaks (there were a few) and paid for, courtesy of the current owners, by tomorrow afternoon, when we hope to set off on our trip to Adelaide along the Great Ocean Road.

We are staying in a hostel tonight in St Kilda (see, I told you no biggy!) called Habitat HQ. It's much cleaner than Nomads and we get a complementary breakfast. Just had a shower. First one since Fitness First, which was on, erm... *pauses to ask Luke* Wednesday. It's so nice to be clean! We will/ should be able to shower more once we get up the coast a bit and it's a little warmer. There are plenty of free showers along the beach in Melbourne, it's just a little too cold to brave them at the moment - Not even Luke has considered it!

We fixed up the camper good n' proper on Saturday. Replaced the broken legs under the fold out bed with new ones and bought heavy duty brackets to hold them in place. Bea's boss, the owner of a South American restaurant on St Kilda high street (Santa Ana), lent us his power tools for the job, which made life a bit easier. We went to the restaurant yesterday for lunch to say thank you for his generosity. The meal was fantastic and was served in tapas fashion, of which each dish was slightly above our budget and smaller than required so we savored our two tapas dishes and drank our two bottles of beer ($8 each), thanked him again and filled our selves with some of the fine (and large) cakes St Kilda has to offer.
We had, might I add, long boarded from the furthest East-Southerly point of St Kilda to Port Melbourne and then back via some random back-streets, which I think took us a good 3-4 hours, so STILL hungry after our tapas, beer and cake... we bought some bread and dips too. And chocolate.

Fingers crossed for tomorrow and that all that needed fixing gets done, we're off to socialise with our fellow Habitat HQ(ians?)...

PS - Luke has just reminded me, can't believe I nearly forgot! We saw mini penguins on St Kilda pier last night! They were so cute! No pics i'm afraid as it was dark and no flash photography is allowed but, I can assure you, they were ADORABLE.

Cruisers, trams, showers and bedding

The title of this blog, I can imagine, will sound very odd to the inexperienced, however, do not fear, I plan to explain all...

Yesterday was a fantastic day, in fact, our best so far. We woke up with a rather large 'to do' list, comprising of all the things we needed to get for our camper and the long road trips ahead. Included on our list was curtain hooks (a few missing!), a kettle, pillow cases, bed sheets, knives, tin mugs and plates, potato peeler and most importantly; LONGBOARDS (Aussies call them 'cruisers').

We looked in a few shops in St Kilda for longboards but Luke had something a little more specific in mind so we decided to head into the centre, where we would also be more likely to encounter the other list items in the process.
Our Myki cards had run out of credit (they're the Melbourne tram equivalent of Oyster cards) so we ended up free-riding in, what do you expect from free-loading travellers, eh!?
Once we got into the centre, we managed to get all the other items on our list, bar the curtain hooks (still looking for those, where the hell sells curtain hooks!?). We then decided to try the surf shops for some cruisers.
A couple of hours later and we had found our new prized possessions! I have a Sector 9 double set up truck system (sorry - won't give a detailed explanation of this today) and Luke has a rather cool eco-friendly Freedom Dolly board, for which we also got some ginormous wheels so it looks a bit like a dragster cruiser now.

We took the boards out after our dinner on the beach (we like our free BBQing dinners on the beach). We skated along the cycle path for ages and enjoyed Melbourne city lights on the horizon in the distance.

Our bed - complete with bedding!

Later that night, we went to sleep on our bed that actually now comes complete with pillows and sheets! Up until now we had been sleeping on our hoodies and using donated blankets. Last night was utterly luxurious.
This morning we decided to venture back into the centre (yup, you guessed it - still free-riding the tram) and use our Fitness First guest voucher that we were kindly donated by one of the backpackers in the hostel (you hold onto this kind of useful stuff when you're travelling). We were rather excited to use our passes with the sole intention of having lengthly hot showers as, rather disgustingly, but perhaps to be a regular ocurrence, we hadn't showered in three days! I am now wonderfully hair free and Luke has also been exercised. Smiles all round. Apart from the poor salesman who tried very hard to get us to purchase their expensive membership, he was probably a little disappointed when we decided to hot-foot it out of there when he went back into his office to get us some more info on current 'deals'. Sorry Dan - we're on a budget!

We're off now to enjoy the rest of our day as the sun is now shining (it was stormy this morning) and we have cruisers to play with.

Turrah x

Autumn in St Kilda

Lots has been going on since my last post!
On Saturday, Luke and I came to St Kilda, a small beachy town on the suburbs of Melbs, to view a campervan (called Autumn, hence the blog title - don't worry, I do know that it's Spring here).
We liked it so much, we came back on Sunday to view it again. On Monday we confirmed that we wanted it, which was very exciting but slightly nerve wracking and yesterday we cleaned it with the current owners (a Spanish girl called Laura and Venezuelan girl called Beatriz, AKA, Bea), bought our stuff over from the hostel and officially moved in!

Autumn (the camper) is a 1989 Nissan Urvan pop-top camper. She's old but in great condition. Recently serviced, the mechanic recommended a few oil leaks be sorted which the current owners have booked in for next Monday. It should be finished on Tuesday, which is when we intend to hit the Great Ocean Road and of course, finalise on payment!

Autumn the Campervan!

After cleaning Autumn and sorting out a few other bits and pieces we met up on the beach with three of our English friends from the hostel. We had a BBQ on the electric BBQs on the beach and drank super sweet wine (the cheapest we could find). The sunset was amazing and we can safely say it's the first time we really felt like we are living the dream out here.
The sunset was beautiful and the white sandy beaches were just a glimpse of what's to come as this was just an outer-city suburb beach.

Luke, Vicky and Dave

We slept in Autumn last night. It was a bit cold as we only had a couple of blankets (we're off to get bedding in a bit) and woke up this morning next to a park where we went to freshen up. We made tea and porridge on our little gas stove which was such a novelty!

Making porridge in the camper

We looked like proper hippies as were a bit disorganised with the morning routine and left going to the toilet a bit late only to rush there in our jammies and jumpers. We'll get the hang of it soon!
We have become scavengers and second hand store hunters. They're the best place for pots and pans, jumpers and plastic containers, not to mention cutlery and curtain hooks!

We're currently logged into the internet at the local library - we get an hour free WIFI a day. Luke is potentially arranging a work meeting for this week. We need to find a carpenter to help us fix the legs under the fold out bed but we may run out of time today. We succeeded in our day's mission of finding a laundrette and will complete our itinerary once we have bought our bedding. I guess carpenter and long boards can wait for tomorrow... We need to get used to having lots of time for these things!

Finding campers

We viewed our first camper today. It was a Mazda E2000 with 330,000km on the clock (Don't worry mums and dads, we didn't buy it)...

The camper interior was great but, confirming our initial impressions, the mileage sure had taken it's toll on the engine.
The owner didn't know where the oil cap was (ha!) and after spending a good 10 minutes trying to start the engine with various 'special' techniques, we were looking at each other trying hard not to laugh!
The gear box was exactly as my dad used to describe; 'A stick in a bucket of worms'. Needless to say, there was another 'special technique' to get the camper in third gear...

We have decided, regretfully (!?), to decline the sale. BUT, we are viewing another tomorrow morning, a Nissan Urvan in very good condition (in the photos on gumtree). We'll find out tomorrow I guess.

We went to Queen Victoria Market this afternoon, a fellow hostel dweller in tow. I have never seen so much MEAT IN MY LIFE!!!! We got some seafood from there and have just finished eating a big seafood stir fry with lots of veggies from the market.

Luke standing next to a cross section of a 650 year old tree

One thing before I sign off tonight... we have discovered tangelos, they're a cross between tangerines and grapefruits and they are delish. Oh and... Melbourne museum was ace. A whole section on genetics (mum you would have loved) and I lost Luke to the nature department for a couple of hours. We saw Pharlap 'The Wonder Horse' too. His actual mounted hide is at the museum and is estimated to last at least 100 years. Kinda gross.

Pharlap The Wonder Horse

Melbourne on foot

Today we walked all over Melbourne.
We started off with a coffee in a really small creperie on Degrave Street where we planned to walk the recommended 'Melbourne on foot' route suggested in the Lonely Planet guide, only to discover that we had covered more than 2/3rds the route last night. So we set off on our own adventure deciding the only way to get to know the city was to get 'lost' in it. To get an idea of what we walked read this post along side a map of Melbourne...

We walked up to Fitzroy via Fitzroy Gardens. There we saw a model Tudor village and a fairy tree, See pic. The park was absolutely stunning and very well kept. There was a conservatory there with a beautiful array of flowers and ponds and a Japanese style bridge through the middle.

We walked the entire length of Fitzroy street, which is similar in ambiance to Camden, only less EMO more hip. At this point i'll mention that the street art here is something else entirely. Forget Banksy. Some of the art here is jaw dropping (see right). From Fitzroy we walked back via Collingwood street where we stumbled upon a nice indoor vintage market called 'Lost & Found' that my brother would have LOVED. We got the address for their sister branch on Lygon street where we were told to get the tram. We had intended on finding a couple of cheapo vintage road bikes for the rest of our journey. After ignoring the locals suggestion of catching a tram, (Why do I always learn the hard way!?) and setting off on foot we found the shop to be rather further away than we had assumed. A good 4/5 miles further away, which, after having covered easily 5 miles already, started to become a massive mission! When we got to 'Lost & Found' they had a perfect bike for me but not for Luke so we left empty handed and succumbed to our grumbling tummies instead.

Currently, Luke is KO'd on the bed (snoring), while I am struggling to keep both eyes open at the same time. Probably a good idea to catch some Zzzs as off to the Museum tomorrow.

Buenas noches.

Melbourne day 1

It's currently 4.00pm here and we're currently sat on my top bunk in our shared hostel room.
It's a 10 person shared dorm. We've already met 5 of the others - a Finnish girl and guy, a local Aussie chap, a fellow pom and a Canadian guy, they're all very friendly.

We are experiencing a crazy form of zombified jet lag. In the last 2 days we've probably had about 6 hours sleep. But that has far from prevented us from having a productive morning...
We arrived here in Melbs at 9.00am where we got on a shuttle bus (Skybus) service to the hostel.
We dumped our bags at reception and took a wander into town to kill some time before check in at 2.00pm. We grabbed a bite to eat from a 7/11 and took a stroll into the centre of town where we got some hot tea (Beacuse it's cold and raining here, not to make you jealous or anything!).
Somehow we managed to end up on the road our Aus bank is on and we popped in to see if we could arrange a meeting for our debit cards to be set up. They ended up sorting everything for us in branch there and then so that's one less thing to do when the jet lag hits tomorrow!

So far we have really enjoyed the atmosphere here. The locals are super friendly and very helpful.
We're off out now to grab some dinner, or breakfast or whatever we're supposed to be eating right now as we're hoping to keep ourselves awake a little longer so we're not up too early tomorrow.
The centre has a really great boho vibe, a bit like Camden but much much busier with cafe upon cafe selling the huuugest muffins you can imagine.  YUM.

Em

Hello from Dubai airport...

It's currently 4:10am (1:10am UK time) and Luke and I are sat outside a Pinkberry cafe having just enjoyed pricey frozen yoghurts with chopped fruit, washed down with the most expensive bottles of evian water the French Alps have ever produced! Still - yum!

Dubai airport is exactly as we were expecting. Somebody told us to expect something similar to Star Wars Shulell City airport, with it's diverse people rushing about the place at top speeds.
Terminal 3 reminds me of Westfields, it's THAT BIG!

Anyway - this was just a quick post to let everyone know our first leg of the journey is complete and was over and done with very quickly. Absolutely nothing to do with the two bottles of red wine we washed our dinners down with. Honest.
Luke managed to get a little shut-eye on the flight toward the end (don't worry boys, there is an open mouthed sleeping Luca photo to follow soon), but I was just too excited!

We're both feeling pretty schleepy now. Our next flight leaves Dubai at 9:35am local time so we're off to find somewhere to rest our heads for a couple of hours.

Before I go - Thank you once again for a fantastic send off, it really started our trip off in the perfect way!

Byesies Em x