Goodbyes in The Land Down Under. July 26, 2008

Queensland

Originally uploaded by chris.warn

 

Hello all,
We have loads to catch up on, so get yourself a cup of tea!
Our last few days in Australia were well spent with Debsi and Steve Hill. After a few days relaxing around Brisbane, we headed up the coast bright and early for a whale watching boat trip off the coast of Mooloolaba. This was the last thing to tick off the list of Aussie experiences and we headed out on Steve’s Whale One (Steve Irwine’s trip) to do just that. Perfect day for it with a clear blue sky,cooling wind and good company. About 15 miles out we spotted our first whale, we saw the tail flip out on the horizon and were told it had gone in for a dive. Apparently the whales can stay underwater for anything from 6 to 45 minutes, but this fella popped up again pretty quickly. The boat follows strict rules of maintaining a certain distance away, no feeding of the whales and all that good stuff to protect the whales from the over zealous tourists and boat drivers. We kept a distance away and everyone zoomed in with their camera to get a snap of a black dorsal fin or a flick of a tail. The whale was pretty shy and spent a lot of time underwater as we sailed along next to it.
We headed out deeper to continue the search, and soon we were lucky enough to see three humpback whales who were a lot more active. It is mating season and there were two males wooing a female. Great for us as we saw lots of showing off with tail flicks, jumping, flipper slaps and rising out of the water with open mouths. We took hundreds of snaps and think we have a few credible ones. The whales came towrds us at one point and we just stood and watched these huge creatures rolling by and giving out a huge blow of water. Now that is something you don’t get to see very often, Awesome! (well we are in Australia, but i promise to stop using that word once we have left.)
We definitely got our money’s worth on the trip, but Steve missed out on the lunch as he couldn’t take his eyes off the whales. We nipped in between dives and ate our lunch stood up watching the whales rise less than 100 feet from the boat. It might not have been the best food in the world ,but it was a pretty impressive restaurant.
We headed back to shore reluctantly to have a fruit smoothy on the beach. It may be the winter in Oz ,but you can still wear a cossie in this neck of the woods, the sunshine coast.
After a quick stroll, we drove to have dinner with Mr and Mrs West (Debsi’s parents.) They followed their daughters over to Australia in March and are now living in a fab new house in Little Mountain, near Caloundra. To top it all Mr West has just bought a very cool spanking new boat (which matches his car.) Chris and Steve were like kids in a sweet shop looking it over. Dinner was a homemade shepherds pie(Yiippee!) and a nearly homemade huge cream cake with strawberries in. A great ending to a memorable day!
We headed back to Brisbane the next morning and i began to feel a little sad as i knew the goodbyes were imminent! We stopped and bought some fresh strawberries, which took the edge off it a little.
The after noon was spent jamming things into our rucksacks. Chris is able to live with one pair of shorts and a few t shirts ,where as i seem to have more clothes than Kylie on a world tour. Still nothing to wear though.
Sad goodbyes to Steve and a teary one to Debsi and then we were off at 7 the next morning. We trained it to the airport and had a quick flight to Sydney. It took about an hour or so and was pretty non eventful.
When we arrived at Sydney it was heaving, full of teenagers celebrating World Youth Day (a Catholic sponsored event), all flying home to their wordwide destinations. Yuk! Teenagers!
We did our best to remain calm and tolerant of screaming, shouting, flirting youths generally showing off.  We coped by muttering things to each other and giving out whithering looks (I have always been good at them.)
Chris was worried we wouldn’t get through customs as we had some cockle shells in our back pack from the West Coast. He was worried they might get sniffed out by the customs dogs, especially the cocker spaniels!!!! Come on! That had Chris and i laughing all the way on to our plane. We have been really spoilt with great planes in the past, but this time we lucked out. United Airlines was a bit ropey. I was gutted when i discovered that we didn’t have any choice of movies and individual screens. The air hostesses were really unglamourous and a little past their prime. Chris reckoned that he actually saw one of the hostess’s using the trolley to help her walk! Unfortunately the flight was 13 hours long and the youths were a bit annoying.Thank god for complementary wine!
Our final goodbyes in Australia were the saddest and we will both miss our friends so much. After spending such a long time in Australia we really felt like we got the most from our visit. So many fantastic times and it really is gorgeous. We will be back,thats for sure. So i will end this one as a “cheerio” and not a “goodbye” (as Fagin might say.)
Onwards to the U.S.A.!!!!!!

A tale of 3 cities. July 18, 2008

Melbourne

Originally uploaded by chris.warn

Well we’re still alive, but have travelled far since the last blog – 3 major Oz cities to be exact. We stayed in the Perth area with Neil and Vicky Carson for a few weeks in total, going North to see the dolphins of Monkey Mia and South with the intention of seeing the ‘Gloucester Tree’ at Pemberton. The latter plan was scuppered by me being ill and all flu ridden, so maybe I’ll never know the joy of climbing this tree (used as a fire lookout post) – shame. I ended up passing my flu on to Soph and back to Vicky and Neil, so on many of the days of our stay in their beautiful house it resonated with the sounds of noses being blown and general sniffles all round! We did have a couple of good socials (this time without embarrassing ourselves) and cooked some nice meals, including my first proper pucker Jamie Oliver lasagne (Rosy you would have been proud). Said our farewells to Archie and Sue and our new mates Mick and Sue and met up with a guy called Steve Hussey and his wife Lisa. He used to be my First Lieutenant on a submarine and, although I hadn’t seen him for ages, I felt like it was only yesterday as I had been following his adventures in the Aus submarine HMAS Rankin on the SKY programme ‘Submarine’. He’s now taking a sabbatical from the Navy to set up some food/coffee franchises and Neil and I spent a pleasant hour or so sampling some of his new line of buns and scones (kindly just turfed out of the oven by his missus) – he really couldn’t have picked a better man for the job!

We also spent a nice lunch in Fremantle, which is an old part of Perth and a town in its’ own right on the coast, where the Swan River hits the sea. It’s got a clean, well preserved prison, which amazingly only stopped taking customers in 1991, even though it was built in 1855 – so they got value for money there. Stopped on the Cappucino Strip (or Capo Strip), which is famous for its’ coffee houses, restaurants and nooky little shops, and had a tasty lunch before walking around the town a bit. Like many days here it was blowing a hooley, but at least the sun was out! The next day myself and Neil had planned a Friday afternoon sports make-and-mend with a round of golf, but the weather put paid to that. Instead we went for a quick 100 balls on the driving range. Funny, the wind seemed to make me top all my drives!
The next day was pretty sad as we said adios to the Carsons and Neil kindly drove us to Perth airport (60kms away!) – they had been perfect hosts and we were well rested at this point. Took the night flight to Melbourne Avalon airport (70kms away from my brother, Phil). Fortunately we had made decision to hire a small car (like a dwarf clown’s car, without the exploding doors) as opposed to busing it. Drove to Phil’s and were met with pasta and home-cooked apple pie (Phil had had his apron on). Next day was a lazy Sunday, did a roast, watched Aussie Rules Football on telly (Phil’s team, the Doggies won!)and caught up with Phil. He starts a new job soon and there are a few exciting changes potentially happening to him in next weeks – so good for him. He had the Monday off and we drove to Brighton Beach on the shore of Port Phillip Bay (it seemed appropriate) and the sea-weed strewn beach was made noteworthy by the row of brightly painted beach houses there. Apparently they each sell for 65000 quid a pop, so I was suprised to see an old fella re-painting his own, thought he would have had a man for that! Cool though and a great photo opportunity. Bits of graffitti had ruined some of them which is a crying shame, but some were excellent. Think we might emigrate and come and live in one. Phil beat me at skimming stones, so I suggested lunch! After this we visited Black Rock (which sounds dramatic but isn’t) there isn’t even a black rock, just named because it sits on loads of little black rocks, like pumice stone. The sea defences had been built from the bluestone taken from the dismantled local prison and several of the blocks had initials and dates chiselled in them – detailing who had been hung over a century before,spooky but looked like they had been done the day before. Phil’s ex came over to see us in the evening and we had a Thai and some exceptional pear tart, which rounded off a nice little stay. Up very early next morning to get back to the airport for our flight to Brisbane, the 3rd big city in 4 days. Sad to say cheerio to some-one else, but Phil seems quite chipper and at least he’s got his looks (if not all his hair). As it happened we checked in with 2 minutes to spare, so glad we got up when we did. Arrived in Brisbane in fine fettle and waited for arrival of Debs and Steve, who were going to pick us up. Classic sit-com material – the mobile network was down on the East coast, so we couldn’t get calls and couldn’t call Debs on landline. She had left a message the previous evening, that we didn’t get, saying ‘make your own way’. So after 3 hours of searching the domestic airport, trying not to bump into people stumbling around the departures lounge, shell shocked by the lack of mobile communications (like a sci-fi disaster movie, people just don’t know what to do!), we took a train. This was the first time we had actually carried our ruck-sacks for any distance for ages, which was a bit of a shocker. However, the journey was easy peasy and we were at Steve and Deb’s within the hour. We are currently enjoying further relaxing times and farewells with this couple, whose wedding we attended in March (seems a long time ago). Not much to report, but our diet is taking a pounding and the vino continues to glide down without a hiccup, until later in the evening. Tomorrow, we travel North to Deb’s parent’s house in Calloundra and hopefully, if the weather holds, some further whale watching from a boat – very excited about that, but I’ll let Soph report. After that it’s the good’ol US of A, which is where she’ll probably blog from.

The long goodbye to the campervan! July 8, 2008

WA

Originally uploaded by chris.warn

Hello chaps,
As you can see from our photos we have seen the dolphins. This was one of the ‘must see’ we had on our list to do in Oz..
We left in our loyal campervan and headed north up the coast. After a relatively uneventful stay Geraldton, we woke early for the long slog up to the dolphin feeding coastal area. On the way to Monkey Mia we drove to the Shell Beach and had read a little bit about. Very white beach with gorgeous blue clear flat sea. As you step on the beach you realize it is a little bit rough underfoot. Closer examination reveals that we were standing on thousands of millions of tiny white shells. We thought it would be a beach with lots of shells on, but blow me down,that’s actually all the beach is made up of. Cockle shells no less! We crunched our way down to the sea for a paddle and a closer look at this unusual place. Apparently the shells are up to 10 metres deep and they run as far as the eye can see. We were lucky to avoid the tourists and spent a good 10 minutes in solitude enjoying more shells than either of us knew what to do with. They are in constant supply too and used for local building of walls, these cockles must be pretty unlucky to die in such masses.

We reached Monkey Mia at 4ish and were pleasantly suprised that it seemed quite low key and wasn’t too pricey to enter the peninsula. There were no power sites left so it was still pretty popular out of season. We had to camp with all the young back packers and enjoyed a grumble together about how loud their music was. The campsite was right on the beach and although it was quite big it was still pretty and had a sandy surface. We headed for a stroll down the beach to enjoy the sunset and have a nose around. As we walked along a sandy path we spottted butterflies flying around and a big group of them resting on plants and trees, a nice little bonus and i half expected Snow white to come along singing in her very high voice with butterflies on her hands. We headed for the deserted beach, none of those those lazy young un’s were more than 5 ft from their campsites so it was calm and quiet!
It seems that whenever we arrange to watch a sunset they are always a bit rubbish, however if we don’t plan it we see the sky flooding with a pallet of reds and we are miles away from it all. As expected this sunset was a bit rubbish,but we didn’t mind as we had already seen the butterflies.
We were also unperturbed, as we had booked a table for two in the restaurant and were really looking forward to it. A table, watching the last of the sun, in Monkey Mia with the man i love, butterfly sightings and dolphin watching the next day. I should coco!
Our evening was really lovely and we had a cheeky bottle of wine(ok we had 2 bottles) and reflected on our trip in Oz. When the waitresses started staring and tutting in front of us we knew it was time to go. Very special night though and we were really excited about the next days events. Heading back to the camper we heard drunken youths (damn those youths!) and my heroic husband asked them to keep the noise down. He is so brave when tipsy! Luckily they were quite nice youths really and did as requested. I don’t suppose really mean youths come to see dolphins being fed.
The next morning we were very excited and headed the 2 minute stroll along the beach to the jetty. It was a sunny morning and perfect paddling weather. A small crowd were building at the allocated area and we joined them, looking out to sea for signs of fins.
In no time at all the crowd had doubled and everyone was shuffling for a place by the sea front. It was a bit like the Next sale. Finally we were rewarded when fins cut through the water out at sea and the dolphins approached. We were all asked to stand in a line, just up to our shins and not to touch these lovely animals. It was incredible, first we had a female dolphin come right up to the shallows and roll onto her side, eyeing us all up. She swam around the dolphin commentator and you could hear her clicking vibrating through the water. Everyone was taking photos like crazy and before long there were 6 dolphins around the shallows. They only feed the adults on the beach, but some of the calves come along with their mums. Great fun,the calves were messing around just like kids do, cutting through the water, rolling ,catching fish and chasing each other. They really were quite cheeky and would dive in between the adult dolphins and splash their tails.
The adult females look after their calfs for 4 years and never retire from bearing children (yes,you heard right,they are constantly having children and looking after them,poor things) It must be similar to how my mum felt when i moved back home briefly at the age of 30!
I tried to get some good snaps of all the events, but really you do have to be there for this one. I wanted everyone else to go away, so we could be on our own with these beautiful creatures, especially the freakishly tall man/giant stood in front of me.
Dolphins really do seem to enjoy interacting and we were told that some people would get selected to feed them. And what do you know? (i can see my sister rolling her eyes as she reads this) they picked me out first. i had been silently pleading for it to happen. So wet fish in hand i poked it towards a dolphin and it half heartedly took it in its mouth. It wasn’t really that bothered, but i loved it and was staring with all my might trying to take as much in as possible. This was definitely a once in a life time moment and Chris and i left with our heads in the clouds. Although the dolphins weren’t completely untame, there was not a ball in sight and no hoop jumping, just as nature had intended and their beauty and deft manouevring was more than entertaining. Lucky old us!
We were back in the van before mid day and did one more cheeky visit to get some shells from The Shell Beach. I could hear my mum saying “what would happen to the beach if everyone who visited took shells away ?” But i justified it by remembering that the shells are used for local buildings and also no one saw us!
After a long trip back down the coast we spent the evening at Dongara. We were also given a beautiful sunset that night that was straight out of a painting, clouds lined with silver, rays of sun in lines onto the sea, splendid!What a lovely day!
The skies opened up on the way back to Perth the next morning and we could see the rain coming in black sheets towards our poor little rusty van. Back to the warm welcome at the Carsons house and a warm bed and good company to recover from the drive.
We were in for another treat the next day as we were booked on a wine tasting boat trip along The Swan River. Are we starting to make you sick with jealousy yet? Sorry,it was our treat for all that pasta eating and campervan sleeping. We set off at 9 with Vicky ,Willy (still suffering with flu) Susie and Mick. When they passed the wine around to taste at 10.30 ish i thought it was way too early, but it was absolutely great and after all….this was a cultural experience and we were also on a boat for the day. We visited the Sandalford vineyard and sampled several more wines. Chris and i were overwhelmed when we realised no one was monitoring our portions and you could have as much as you wanted. Show some restraint Mrs Warn! Back on the boat we were all feeling absolutely refreshed and pulled up at a restaurant for our lunch. White table clothes, 3 courses, cigars, more wine and a live jazz singer, that’s what i am talking about! Chris got very emotional as he met a man who had actually served in Vietnam and we sat next to him and his new lady all the way back. I remember laughing so hard my belly hurt and being unable to control the tears running down my face. It wouldn’t be funny if i tried to explain the jokes now, but a good time was had by all. It was like a posh booze cruise.
We returned back to Vicky and Willy’s house to continue the wine tasting and order in a lot of pizza, yum, what a perfect end to a great day!
Unbelievably we weren’t too shabby the next day and headed off to see a little of Bunbury and Busselton to the south of Perth. This is probably where our sight seeing ended though. Poor Chris has a very bad throat so we ended up watching DVD’s and getting really hot and then really cold (Chris not me,i stayed pretty much the same temperature)
We had a quiet night and after a doctors trip and some anti biotics being administered we drove back to the Carsons. Poor Chris is feeling better today ,but still a little fragile, i’ve just heard him saying he is about to have a lemsip. And last but not least we have said our final goodbyes to our campervan, yey! I am not sorry to see the back of the cold, old rust bucket, but it did take us all over Oz.I am not getting back into another one for at least a year, home comforts beckon and i am sick of looking like a gypsy.
We are now in the warm softly furnished, clean house of Vicky and Willy. Bliss. I am off to give my husband some sympathy and watch telly.Hurray,the campervan has gone!

From lots of rock formations to re-union celebrations. July 1, 2008

WA

Originally uploaded by chris.warn

After really enjoying ourselves in the town of Esperance, it was time to hit the road again and drive through the wheat-belt of Australia towards Perth. Set off in good time and after the storms of the previous day, it had cleared nicely – unfortunately we then headed inland where it almost instantly clouded over again! On the map it seemed like a lovely drive aiming for a place called Hyden (and passing lots of lakes), but the lakes were dry or close to it, so the drive was a bit dull. Bit of a patchwork road as well, so the van almost fell apart! We screeched to a halt near Hyden, because Soph was convinced she had seen the presenter from the BBC programme ‘Tribe’, this was not the case. Soph has been convinced she’s seen this guy several times since actually spotting him in the Avon Gorge in Bristol (hallucinations are us!) – we can’t even remember his name, although he was in the Royal Marines apparently. We visited a spot called Wave Rock, which we had heard mixed reports about, but actually loved. Really beautiful rock formation, which was lined in multiple hues by centuries of water run-off. This water force had also shaped the rock to look like…..you guessed it – a wave! In many ways it was quite cosmic – water shapes rock to look like water (I’ve got to stop eating these wild mushrooms!). We decided to walk through the bush to the other strangely shaped rock “Hippo’s Yawn’ and yes it does look like a hippo yawning, sort of. As we followed an old track through the gum trees and overhanging tendrils of plants, we stopped to listen to the eerie quiet; we both then made the clichéd observation that you could almost hear the silence, when seconds later a car door slammed and we realized we were stood about 20 feet from a carpark – genius! Hippo Yawn Rock was quite cool although they could do with painting some eyes on the head to make it a bit more obvious, maybe chip out some nostrils, that sort of thing. The evening arrived prematurely as the rains came in and we spent a fairly miserable night tucked up watching ‘Cold Feet’ as the heavens opened. No shower the next morning as the camp was dodgy to say the least. A mad woman who talked to her cat, one pre-op transsexual and a drunk, orange coloured Dutchman, was enough to put us off the ablution blocks. We were very pleased because we were heading for the coast, civilization and Neil and Vicky Carson’s house in Secret Harbour (now doesn’t that sound like a nice place to be!)
We arrived in good time in the earlyish afternoon and Vicky was there to greet us, with Neil adhering to the Royal Naval Friday work ethic, ie he was home by 2! We were so excited we all started tucking into wine and by the time the other guests had arrived (Archie and Sue, who I knew from Plym days of old and Mike and Sarah, whose wedding I attended in UK many moons ago) we were all fairly tipsy. So much so that this not so close circle of friends were left on their own to make conversation as we all went to bed! Disgraceful behaviour, everyone had gone by 2230!
Next day was quiet and we only fully recovered after consuming a pizza at about 9 in the evening, after meeting up with Mike and Sarah to make apologies I was really pleased to see another ex-RN buddy of mine and his wife, Mark and Sue Powell, they haven’t changed a bit!
Finally recovering on the Sunday morning we took our first tentative steps into the Freo Doctor (the ocean gale that blows in to the coast here). Certainly cleared our heads though and we walked down to the beach at Secret Harbour, seeing a squadron of pelicans give us a fly-past under stormy skies – very good drill! We experienced some of Perth’s variable weather as it went from sunny to gale, to rain, to sun in about an hour! Later we met up with Sue and Archie again and took a trip inland to Serpentine Falls. Very pleasant, walking through the trees, seeing the falls and lots of butterflys and had a lovely picnic, as semi wild kangaroos hopped over to us and begged food (as Sue promised they would). We did this pretty much next to the sign telling us not to (very poor). Nice though and also good to be able to talk to Sue and Arch sober! We left Perth with Neil going down with flu and proceeded over the Swan River and through Perth to the north. Camping in a deserted sea side resort called Ledge Point. We had a pretty shabby game of tennis, I’ll leave you to guess who won, and had a blowy walk on the beach under a hot sun. We have now traveled even further north on the first day of the month. Had a good day today seeing the Pinnacles, a huge collection of limestone stones standing clear of the sandstone surrounds (created by the fierce shore wind blowing away the sandstone to reveal the limestone beneath. The pinnacles are formed by leaching from the surrounding vegetation, which created a chemical reaction in the soil and topped each of these limestone pillars with a calcrete protective cap, resulting in erosion taking place around them. The vegetation’s roots then grew down between these pillars further fragmenting the soil and speeding up the process. Wow, Rock Evans my old Geography teacher would be so proud!)) It really was impressive and a much bigger area than we thought it would be, thousands of these things ranging in height from a couple of inches to about 15ft. Made for some good photos, with us gooning around in between them. Outstanding views as well, the deep blue of the distant sea contrasting with the white of huge sand dunes and the varying oranges of the pinnacles. After this we drove to the coast to have a cheese sandwich and then followed the road up to Dongara, this was the slower route but did take us along the coast. Unfortunately this wasn’t that attractive and you can see that man is trying to build on every bit of sea front land in WA, a running battle with nature which  man seems to be winning. If only they’d build sympathetic housing, like clapper-board beach houses instead of these huge concrete tin roofed monstrosities that are visible everywhere – quelle dommage!
Arrived in Geraldton and after short walk on beach to see a sunset, we have now settled into the van for the night. Cold last night (3 degrees C) and expected same tonight. One more push north tomorrow, when we aim for Monkey Mia and some dolphins (flippers crossed) – I’ll let Soph tell you all about it…all together now, fa loves pa!

PS – we were very pleased with ourselves tonight when we had a message from a lady saying one of our happy snaps of Adelaide had been shortlisted to appear in the SCHMAP tourist guide for that fair city.  Also Soph tonight found out that our blog had been quoted in the Simon’s Town (Cape Town) on-line tourist guide.  Check us out!

It was a long way to Esperance, but we ’sealed’ the deal! June 25, 2008

WA

Originally uploaded by chris.warn

Hello all,

Glad to see you are all blogging still.We had our highest ever stats on the last blogg with 102 hits in one day,brilliant!

Our travels have sinces continued towards Ceduna.As we drove to Ceduna we were passed several times by a huge camper-van/trailer combo with a big sign on the back saying ‘King of the Road’, we were intrigued by the fact that he kept overtaking us with dangerous manoeuvres and then slowing to let us past. Strange, to say the least, and made worse when a big road train entered the equation, with both vehicles ahead of us they started a bizarre game of cat and mouse on the narrow road, this ended abruptly with some road rage as both vehicles swerved off the side of the road and the drivers got out, we passed by necks craning to see the ensuing punch up, but missed it unfortunately. We later saw ‘The King’ pulled up in a petrol station and he was wearing a massive Stetson, but was the size of Noel Edmonds (ie v small and wiry), still it takes all sorts.
We drank quite a lot of wine at Ceduna, knowing that we had some serious driving ahead of us (the next day). The petrol has been expensive here, like everywhere else, when we left it was about 1.50 dollar a litre now about 1.70 – this is draining our resources somewhat, we’ll have to cut back on our bun consumption! This stage of our trip took us onto the Nullarbor Plains which stretch for miles, passed a sign that said ‘The Treeless Plains’ but this was patently a lie as the very next thing we saw was a bunch of trees, why lie like this? tourists aren’t ALL stupid! Well maybe a bit.
At the ‘Head of the Bight’ we turned off the highway and made our way down to the coast to see if we could see some whales, the Southern Right Whale migrates to this area in numbers at this time of year and they come to calve in the warm waters by the cliffs, for once we were in the right place at the right time to see some wild-life. We saw a sign saying there were 3 whales in the bay, so we were hopeful. As we walked out to the cliffs, the first thing that struck us was the superb view. Real wild and un-developed it was just red cliffs and ferocious sea pounding it. The next, was that there were whales ahoy! About 8 in total and we spent a good 80 minutes praying for one to come close, but they didn’t and just lept around and slapped tails about 1000 yards out to sea. Every time we got our camera out for the dramatic shot, we caught the splash which looked like every other white-horse in the bay. Still good fun, but would you believe it (lucky Soph strikes again, Lucy!) as we were walking back to the car we saw a wake in the water coming right towards where we stood on the cliff. It just kept coming and at the head we saw a dark shape in the water, then it came up for air and it was a big female. It steamed right under the cliff, maybe 50m out and rolled luxuriously around in the waves, revealing a calf by its mum’s side. Brilliant moment which I got on camera vid (poor quality but still very pleased!). That made our day really, we drove on grinning another couple of hundred Ks with a rocky escarpment on our right and the sea (getting further and further away as we headed inland) on our left. We passed through the South Aus to Western Aus quarantine check point and our euphoria was tarnished a bit, because we had to hand all our vegetables over (incl garlic and lemon, which I was going to marinade my steaks in!) AND even our red gum bee honey. Gutted! We had previously read about this rule, but for some strange reason (a mixture of arrogance and idiocy) presumed that it wouldn’t apply to US!

As if to cheer us up we drove right through a group of 10 -12 kangaroos of all sizes(not killing any) they seemed to be enjoying the dusk.Thrilled to see them alive and so many of them, maybe they do exist after all!Then we even saw an emu,this is more like it,real outback wildlife!Obviously the camera was safely tucked away in the glove compartment,nothing ever happens when we have it ready!
We stopped off at the Mundrabilla Hotel (all the stops here are hotels/petrol stations/cafes/pubs/shops and camp sites all rolled into one) and spent a cold night in the middle of knowhere in a bleak campsite with cold showers, poor! But to make up for this we had another stunning display of night sky to cheer us up, it was magnificent. Plus our only neighbours in the camp gave us some beef stew (v nice) and, would you believe it, a jar of honey – how’s that for karma.
Got up to see the sunrise which is nice, but no real time to enjoy it because we drove 840km that day (just over 500 miles) this was a record for us in the van! Heard the bizarre story of a truck driver who knocked over 6 camels in one hit in his road train, on these roads. We imagined that this has now gone down in buzzard folk-lore (tell us grandpa about the legendary 6 hump feast!). We took care with speeding so it didn’t happen to us, but I did see a very sad sight – a female kangaroo lying by the side of the road, with her Joey lying next to her, literally knocked out of the pouch and lying in the same position as its’ mother, a thin line of blood coming out of its’ ear! I didn’t tell Soph, until much later on, about that little spectacle! Teary, like the start of Bambi! We drove along Australia’s (and also the world’s) longest stretch of straight road – what can I say, not very exciting, it was long…..and straight! Passed through Norseman and turned left to Esperance, a little coastal town. We were sure glad to get there, because we were shattered by the end of that particular drive! Quiet night, slept like logs! Had a bit of an incident in the campsite looking for a corkscrew, as I entered what I thought was the camp kitchen and started rummaging around I noticed there was a bed in the cabin and that I was in someone else’s chalet, saw that the toilet door was shut and I think someone was in there, I backed out hurriedly before the cops were called!

Up the next day and decided to spend a few days here as it looked so attractive. Soph had her hair done yesterday, very nice too! And we took a look at the coastline here, which isn’t very well advertised in any of the tourist guides, but it’s fantastic. Temperature of the sea is freezing, so you can’t use the beaches, but the views are stunning. Great day yesterday, we actually did a spot of sunbathing over lunch. We found out that the town is named after the first French ship to anchor here in 1792, using the shelter of the bay. It really is amazing that Aus didn’t start as a French colony, just that they approached it from the wrong side I suppose – unlucky Monsieur! This place is also called the Bay of Islands, but, unlike the one in NZ, we could actually see it. Walked along the seafront last night and saw our second large aquatic mammal in a few days, as we walked along the refuelling pier (built in 1935 don’t you know! ) We saw a big shape in the water and it was a massive sealion! Comes there every night, but still officially a wild animal. Saw the sunset from the end of the pier and as we walked back saw that the sealion had been joined by another, they snorted and huffed around in the water begging food from the fisherman who were gutting fish at that point on the pier.
We went for a windy coastal walk this morning, which was impressive for the rollers crashing onto the rocks, then we recovered in a cafe, eating raspberry and mascarpone crumble! As we sit here in the internet cafe (no wireless to be had here) it’s blowing a hooley outside and the rain is imminent, so another quiet day for us before setting off to Perth. Will blog soon!

Walking, Wineglass and Wombats! June 21, 2008

Tasssie to SA border 009

Originally uploaded by chris.warn

Hello you lovely people,

Are you all enjoying the sun? We bring further news of great adventures and amazing Wombat sightings.
We spent our third day in Tasmania with an early start and managed to tuck in to a honey sweetened bowl of porridge and be ready for some serious walking action before the clock struck 8(ish.)
We were on a well conserved peninsula near the Freycinet National Park and after paying a fee (both of us had a little grumble about this, even thought the money was going to preservation) we set off for the famous Wine Glass Bay Look out. Ok, maybe it is only famous in Tasmania, but we were expecting great things. My face dropped a little when the woman in the info office gleefully told me there was a 603 step climb to it, but my husband was all psyched up and so off we went. I have learnt from our previous walks never ever to let Chris take the lead, as he walks really fast and I can’t keep up. So I was very pleased to be leading when we set off and if we approached wider areas I tried to walk quickly or distract him with scenery to prevent any over taking. There was occasional “elbowing” not dissimilar to the dinner queue at my old school, but I remained at front for the majority of the journey. The walk was overshadowed by the trees and the steps either showed themselves as blocks or tree roots searching for some soil to sink into. On the way were soft curved rocks and boulders weathered by years of wind and rain with thirsty looking bushes filling in the gaps. The view at the top overlooked the Wine Glass bay, we saw no similarity between the bay and a wine glass, but it was still a great view. Fantastic to be up there early and we admired the blue flat sea stretched out in a gentle sandy curve away from us. Unfortunately the Lookout was closed for maintenance and there were two fella’s doing some work up there .It took a little away from our self congratulation for reaching the top, because they had a generator running up there. We both knew they had carried it up there ,so we weren’t such intrepid explorers after all. Damn those conservationing do gooders!
We smugly passed lots of red faced walkers on the way down, feeling particularly triumphant when we passed a chubby elder man who clearly wasn’t going to make it to the top before lunch time. Back to the van before 10.30,The Warnies are on fire, even if we are comparing ourselves to chubby old men!
Next stop the nearby lighthouse, just your standard white one, but viewed by a pretty board walk with sights over the coast and again we were alone, which always makes it better.
Chris may or may not have had a prang with a parked car. We saw no damage so we are going to say we didn’t hit anything. After a brief episode of palpitations we were on our way down the east coast of Tas. We saw some Wallabies hop by (its always a nice change to see them alive instead of road kill) and what do you know, we only saw a blimmin wombat. After much excitement and pointing we pulled over and approached it slowly. It looked like a little bear and was just walking along beside the road. We weren’t sure whether it was well, as it didn’t see us approaching, we really weren’t that subtle either with lots of loud whispering and flip flopping. As we got closer it stopped and scratched its ear, very exciting. It did manage to break into a trot when we got really close, but it didn’t look like it was doing 40 ks an hour. No sign of square poo either. It was a lovely cuddly sturdy little thing though, if I had got a chance I would have picked it up and given it a bit of squeeze. With all the excitement we only got one photo, I think I will hold back on the application as a National Geographical photographer.
After a long drive through forests and rugged hills with lakes as clear as mirrors ,we arrived at The Eagle Hawk Neck a narrowing of land before the peninsula that used to be home to “anti social dogs” These dogs were all chained together to stop the prisoners escaping form the nearby prison. Pretty bleak past, however thoroughly pleasant these days, green with the occasional ice cream shops. It gave us a bit of an introduction to our destination which was (Dum dum dum) Port Arthur prison!

Reading some of the info i learnt where some of the old expressions used in the english language come from.

Marked man-the prisoners were all marked with numbers

Pulling your weight-the prisoners pulled their body weight in logs while working there.Hence if the aren’t working at full potential ,they aren’t pulling their weight

Jack the lad-Jack being a sailor and we all know what sailors are like,you probably know that but i didn’t.

  
Apparently this prison was occupied by 12500 convicts in total over the years 1830-1877. Really sad stories throughout the info centre with poor children being sent to jail at the age of 15 for 15 years, just for stealing hankies. But then some right meanies were in there as well,they had to keep the mills running on what is ther modern equivalent of a step machine. Amazingly harsh and unbelievable that while convicts served their sentences the prison officers and their families all lived within metres of the prison enjoying tiffin and cricket matches. Pretty surreal existence for both parties. It was even stranger to read that when the prison closed in 1877, the building was used as a place for the community to meet for dances. Quite bizarre to be having a knees up where there was once so much misery.
We found it an interesting trip especially reading the history behind the area. I was quite surprised that I didn’t feel any real negatives vibes from the place, but it has been used as a school and community centre since. However when we came to a door with “The Punishment Room” written on it, we were both a bit taken back. When we walked inside the small room the atmosphere was chilling and we both felt it. I’m not a real believer in ghosts, but it was clear from the feeling we got there that it was a place with an awful past. We left pretty quickly and talked for quite a while about the prison and it’s past on the way home. I don’t think it is a place you can come and not feel moved.
After a long and emotional day we retired to our little campervan feeling a million miles away from home.
The next day had a frosty start. Frozen dew on the ground and it took a lot of mental preparation before we could face the cold shower blocks. We were in for a long ride cutting Tasmania nearly into halves to get back to the ferry for the evening sailing. We thought we would have lots of time, but the roads of Tasmania took us in forests ,plains ,hills and corners made by nature and not man. There were more corners than a pile of snakes and we day dreamed the time away with the sun high and fresh over us. Tasmania has some populated towns, but in between is very little in the way of people.
Luckily we made it in good time for the ferry and settled into our recliner seats for the long night ahead .There was an early sleeping passenger who was snoring like crazy before we had even left the port .It was quite entertaining as people craned their necks to see where the noise was coming from. Chris even did a close walk by to get an even better look at the snorer. We eventually snuggled up in our sleeping bags like two large green larva and slept as best we could until we arrived back in Aus mainland at 07.00.

Tasmania was a stunning yet chilly vacation and we loved our walking (yes seriously even I did).It was a good time to visit for the tranquility of the lakes and forests and for the space we had together away from the crowds.
Australia’s main land was most welcome and a long relatively uneventful drive lead us to Adelaide. We met up with the lovely Sam who is Chris’s mate’s sons. He was a true gent and even gave up his new bed and bedding for us. So comfortable, it was like sleeping in a warm large marshmallow. One of those great night sleeps where ever position you move into is comfortable. Earlier that evening Sam introduced us to the Mega Schnitzel Meal which is so big that you are awarded a free beer if you eat it all. Sam, Chris and Sam’s mate (Chris) all had one and they were all a bit quiet afterwards. Sam is only 20 so had a Bolognese sauce and cheese on his. Those were the days when your metabolism was your friend and not your foe.
Great rest thanks to Sam and his mate and we left with a good nights sleep obtained and a bit of a soft spot for Sam.
More driving, the sun is getting hotter and the landscape decidedly flatter as we head further west. We are now on the South Aus /West Aus border and the sun is warming us up a little after Tasmania. We are back to the meditative bush driving, which is always so relaxing.Unfortunately i was so busy relaxing i missed seeing two kangaroo’s bounce accross the road.ridiculous,i still haven’t seen any in the wild.
We are enjoying our camp site stops,we recently went to a site that we had stayed at a few months ago.To celebrate our return we cooked the same meal as the one we had last time.It was the fish finger(always reminds us of Chris  Taylor) campsite and Chris had 10 of them.In a moment of madness i put one of my fish fingers on Chris’s plate when he wasnt looking.After dinner he complained of feeling unwell and i realised he had been functioning at his optimum fish finger eating level and my sneaky extra one had pushed him over the edge.I never believed in fishfinger homeostasis before ,i always thought it was a culinary myth, but now i know it exists.Chris also later told me he didn’t think the fish fingers were cooked.so we had both eated defrosted blocks of slightly warm raw fish.Yum!Sushi it isn’t,but fortunately we weren’t ill.

We drove into Ceduna yesterday and Chris had gone a bit quiet on the way towards it.When i asked what was wrong he pointed at the dashboard and our petrol pointer was below the red empty tank area.We had to keep our fingers crossed and took a photo to show you lot what had happened.If we had been found all shrivelled up in the outback our camera would tell the story of how we ended up there. 
Yesterday morning I met a woman in the bathroom  who has just begun a 7 month trip. There was a big mirror in front of us and I looked at her perfectly styled hair, ironed clothes, fully made up face. It dawned on me that we were the “before and after examples” of 7 months travel. Unfortunately I was the “after” example, with hair roots showing by an inch, faded clothes and a disheveled looking face.It was a little like the evolution of woman. But I did have a little smile to myself as she applied perfume. I mean come on, perfume in the outback?i was tempted to ask he to send me a photo of herself in 7 months to see how she weathered the camping.
We are getting to be old pro’s at the traveling business and while we are not about to start another 7 months traveling, we do have 7 months of amazing experiences behind us. It feels like we are nearing the end of our trip, but hang in there with us for another few months and we can go all the way together!

We’re Insania for Tasmania (as Peter Andre might say!) June 16, 2008

From NSW to Tassie 029

Originally uploaded by chris.warn

After the energy shown on the last day of our last blog, things took a decided downturn whilst we stayed in a lovely campsite in Shepparton. It was probably because the site was so nice, we decided to do nothing the next day…at all. Got up late and just loafed around, eventually getting it together by about 3 in the afternoon, enough at least to put some washing in and for a game of tennis (Soph won on tie-breaker, I gutted to come so close for a change!). During the evening we watched Ned Kelly the movie, suitable viewing for this area. It was a bit basic, those poor Irish thieves, those nasty Victorian Police etc, but pretty good viewing and easy for us to picture as we’d been to the place of his arrest (by the way very disappointed that no-one, not no-one made any comments about me putting a cooking pot on my head by the huge Ned Kelly statue, c’mon we’re out here embarrassing ourselves for you people, send us an e-mail!).
Next day was more energetic as we got moving to drive down towards Melbourne. As we drove along the Hume Highway through Bendigo and beyond, the Victorian State country-side was gorgeous when the sun came out and looked like a bad day on Exmoor when the frequent, heavy rain showers swept through. We had to make a choice of going via the Cathedral National Park East or to Lavendula, a lavender farm West. The thought of a nice lunch and a lavender flavoured scone won through on this rainy day so West it was. Drove for a few hours to get to this place, which had been recommended by my brother’s fella Mustafa, we took directions from a kindly old man (who looked like the toymaker in Pinochio) and he guided us out of town for 20 minutes – guess what, SHUT, the kindly, idiotic old man! Ended up going to a café and having a BLT and a massive bowl of chips (so big even we couldn’t eat them all!) to eat away our sorrows. Got through the rush hour traffic to Mustafa’s house in Melbourne without incident, it felt very familiar coming back here. Nice night with Phil and Mus, take out curry and lots of sitting on the sofa. Slow start next day and had brunch in Kensington (very nice) and then took a walk around the Victoria St markets, a big old fashioned market under vast sheds selling all sorts. As the market shut, the place was alive with people shouting out ‘dollar box’ ‘cabbages one dollar’ ‘bag of apples one dollar’ (which Phil bought), everything goes!
That evening had to leave and drove to the Station Pier in Melbourne Port to get on the Spirit of Tasmania ferry for our overnight trip on an Ocean View Recliner, half as pricey as a cabin and four times more uncomfortable! Bit roughers with the ship steaming along at 27 knots and shaking like a Type 42, but slept pretty well apart from me having the odd dream about the cargo doors opening and the ship flooding. Sailed into Devonport (and that phrase takes me back) in the early morning light, as the sun rose over the McDonalds by the docks. First stop an all you can eat brekky with free coffee, very nice and then we drove over the Mersey River (yes there is also a small ferry!) via the Victoria Bridge and headed West to Ulverstone, passing Leith and yes the sunshine was on it, where we booked into a campsite. Then headed through Penguin, in season packed with the little fellas but not now too cold for penguins which is a bit ominous, and on to Stanley. This is a small town nestled around a peninsular called the Circular Heads, its’ centre point being a large edifice called ‘The Nut’ which has 150 metre cliffs plunging to the sea below. It looks like a mini Table Mountain and even has a small chair-lift (if you’re lazy according to the pamphlet). The chair-lift looked circa Swiss 1930 style, so we decided to walk up the incredibly steep path to the top. As we got about half-way up we passed an old boy in a powder blue trackie and trainers, he told us he walked up and down twice a day. Obviously as mad as a badger, he asked where we were from and his eyes watered when we said Plymouth, he was only based at Mountbatten on the flying boats during the War! We wheezed passed him and continued up to the blowy, cold but crystal clear summit. It was a stunning view West across to rolling green fields, beaches and beyond to Cape Grim, which is surrounded by 3 big islands Robbins, Hunter and 3 Hummock, like protective brothers. This land was inhabited by whitey in 1826 when the Van Diemen Lands company bought 350,000 acres of it. It was initially thought to be ‘wretched’ and there was a real struggle getting people in, until the Scots found out about it! It has a real feel of being at the ends of the earth though and a recent scientific survey graded Cape Grim as having the cleanest air in the settled world and standing on the cliffs looking North you wouldn’t disagree with their findings. We walked round the top and as we came through a leafy glen spotted several wallabies in the undergrowth, expertly failing to catch one of them on film as we struggled to get our camera out of its’ bag! Dew shone on the spongy green grass like shattered diamonds and it was beautiful. Back down the path and into the van we drove East again towards Penguin where we turned inland and made our way through rolling fields and then thick forestry to the Preston Falls, completely deserted we had the place to ourselves which was great. Further into the hills was the Leven Canyon, it was fantastic, sun shining through the tall gum trees and 243 muddy steps down to the gorge and an old bridge over the thundering waters below, which charged down to a 90 degree bend in the river called the Devil’s Elbow, all very dramatic. We were caught up in the moment and pressed on through the bush, we passed a sign which read ‘For experienced bushwalkers only’ and about half a mile in realized that we weren’t, it took goat like agility and nerves of steel to get as far as we did. Scared of snakes and aware that every overhung hole had a spider’s web on it, we stayed just long enough to get some phots of the river and the Devil’s Elbow, before slipping, sliding and sweating back to the van. As we drove back to the camp-site, we decided to follow signs for Cruickshank’s Lookout and we were glad we did, although knackered by all the walking we pushed on up through a final wooded hill and were greeted by a stunning vista. A metal platform hung over the valley precariously and it felt like you were looking out from a static helicopter. The Leven Valley stretched out before you, the foaming river cutting a swathe through the lush foliage and the monolithic granite of the gorge walls creating a real photo moment, lucky enough to be up there on our own for a good 20 minutes before other walkers joined us it was peaceful and grand. Had steak that night and witnessed a stunner of a sunset over the bluff at Penguin – what a day.
We have now traveled further East and, passing through Ashgrove, visited the Cheese Factory and Shop, which was like a dream come true for Sophs. We sampled about 16 cheeses and chose our favourite 5, then went back to those for further testing and then, after picking out the relevant packs, went back to double check our final selection. All in all we ate about a kilo of various cheeses each (all this at 11 in the morning). They had colourful, painted plaster cows in the fields outside which looked visually stunning. Next up we stopped off at Launceston to purchase our tickets to the States and then back home (bit of a sad moment). Then we drove to the East coast and a place called Cole’s Bay where we have holed up tonight. The last part of the journey was at dusk, with the sun setting through the trees and over Great Oyster Bay, Tasmania is a wonderful place it really is. We saw Wallabies in the trees and had our first ‘near miss’ of one on the road, which would have spoilt the serenity of the evening a bit!
2 interesting facts to take away with you reference Wombats. 1. They can run at speeds of 40km/h (that’s sub 10 sec 100 metre times) and 2. They poo square faeces – unbelievable! I’m not sure if 2 facts are linked, Linford Christie any response?

From Blue Mountain hassles to Vera’s chocolate apples! June 11, 2008

NSW

Originally uploaded by chris.warn

Hello all,
Everytime we speak to our mothers they talk about BBQ’s and sunny walks and we are absolutely freezing over here! You lot are having all the sunshine at last and it is our turn to be chilly.
We are in the state of Victoria cuddled up in a campsite in Shepparton. We finally got stuck into our travels again and left the big smoke of Sydney behind. We headed West to the Blue Mountains(named after the blue hues that are produced by the sun’s rays reflecting blue light from the oil sent into the atmosphere by the eucalyptus trees) with a big opressive looking set of clouds covering the sky. We had imagined the route up to be full of twists and turns with hairpin bends overlooking scarey drops. As it turned out the road was a dual carriage way for most of the route and was also pretty straight and built up. The gradual ascent wasn’t particularly impressive, but the menacing clouds kept the rain coming which helped give the journey a bit more atmosphere. Once we had some height over Sydney we realised it was pretty misty and maybe we weren’t going to get the views we had hoped for.
We did a stop at Wentworth Falls, far to excited to care about the beating rain. We were so chuffed to finally be wearing the walking shoes we had dragged around for most of the trip. We headed down through a forest and followed the path to the top of the Waterfall (named after Wentworth one of the 3 men who originally forged a path through the mountains in 1813). We could hear the rushing water and looked over the top…..nothing but mist. It was a bit like “the heaven scene ” in those films where angels are sent down to earth to sort something out.
We continued downwards through the mist and came to a cliff face which dropped into the unknown with only a frail rail thing between us and certain death. Luckily we were brave enough to pose for a photo, but had to run around the scarey bit screaming at each other.
We were beginning to feel like true explorers and to top it all Chris had his Indiana Jones hat on and had already hummed the theme tune loudly several times. Anyway it was all quite exciting until we started on the steep downwards steps. We were out of breath going down them, which was slightly worrying. Coming towards us were two hikers with all the gear on and we asked them how much furthur the steps went. “About an hour and a half” said one of the chaps, barely red in the face despite climbing up them. “Oh” we replied weakly and turned immediately and headed back to the camper. Unbelievably we got lost on the way back, very tricky considering there was only one path. We have no idea,but when we did return to our van we were elated and very pleased with ourselves on going for such a long walk in the rain. I didn’t tell chris, but on the walk I saw a family do the same route and one of their daughters looked like she was wearing her school shoes.
We have sinced looked at the Waterfall in books and it does look amazing. Damn weather!
We took camp nearby and by the evening we were settled into our steamy,damp camper. There was so much condensation we had to keep wiping the inside of our windows and ended up sticking newspapers on the window to absorb some water. Not quite the clear fresh and yet sunny weather we thought we were returning too.
As you can imagine moral was a little low and after a night sleeping in all our clothes (hoods up) and in sleeping bags with 3 more on top of us, we began to realise we weren’t prepared! It didn’t help that we were on a slope and kept sliding down our bed in the night. Luckily we were so jet lagged we were asleep by 6.30.
The trip trap of rain woke us the next day and we welcomed a new member into our travelling group, a heater!
We found a gap in the mist and raced back to Eaglehawk Lookout to get a few snaps of the Three Sisters. This was a rock formation that jutted out in three peaks from the cliff edge. Aboriginal stories say that these rocks were once three beautiful sisters who were turned into rock by a witch doctor to protect them from a bunyip (monster). Lets hope the ladies don’t mind a bit of mist and rain! They were certainly shy as we barely saw them throught the mist . We did get a brief look over the Jamison Valley through a break in cloud and it was vast, luscious and stunning, such a shame we couldn’t get to see it properly!
We headed to the cinema and listened to a film on Aussie wildlife which gave us a bit of a taste of what the Blue mountains looked like on a good day.
Not ones to leave a place without some excitement we ventured onto THE STEEPEST RAILWAY IN THE WORLD. Oh yes! with a vertical angle of 44 degrees this little bad boy had previously been used to take the coal miners down to the mines. Much to our glee it also played the Indiana Jones Theme tune as it descended at speed, happy days! Quite brief but good fun and on a cable car back up the mountains we passed the Three Sisters again (apparently,we will have to take their word for it,too misty).
The weather cleared as we drove away from the Blue Mountains and we drove out of our way to get through a town called Hartley. We managed to get a quick historic walk in at Bathurst when we got there. Just an average non spectacular sort of place, but as we walked around our guide paper told us about a big war that had been held there with the aboriginies and the new settlers. A lot
of blood was spilled and later a man was hung for swimming in the river at the same time the Govenor was crossing it. Who would have thought it of such a normal looking place.

We managed to stay awake to about 7ish that night which was great progress as jetlag normally makes us boss eyed at 6ish. Very cosy with my new best friend the heater and much more positive about the rest of the trip.
Finally we woke to a dry day and with great excitement headed for Glenrowan.For those of you who do not know, it is the place where Ned Kelly made his last stand. Apparently he had held up a train too many and the police surrounded him and his brothers. He could have escaped, but he stayed to save his brother who was injured and came out shooting. He was captured at the ripe old age of 26, with quite an impressive long beard. He was a bit of a local hero as he rebelled against the English and stood up for the Irish lower classes. It is said he once held up a bank and burnt all of the loan papers, losing all the evidence of borrowing. I wish someone had done that to Natwest when I was in my twenties, it would have saved a lot of heartache.
The place is just one empty main street with shops either side. All the shops are called Ned’s Cafe or Kelly’s Burger bar, NedsHair care(I might have lied about that one.) it was completely geared up to tourists ,but empty as it was out of season. We took the opportunity to get a great photo of Chris (a man not scared of the ridiculous)stood next to a 20foot Ned Kelly Statue in all his armour. Chris is the one wearing the saucepan on his head if you have trouble telling them apart. It was Chris’s idea, he wanted to do his own re-enactment!
Silliness aside, we are finally getting back into the swing of things. We manouver ourselves around our campervan like Russian olympic gymnasts, deftly avoiding crockery,clothes,and mostly each other as we try to live in such a small space again.
We are settled now in what is called The fruitbowl of Australia due to all the fruit it grows and exports. We have just returned from a really long walk to a market farm in search of the legendary chocolate apples made there. A very nice lady called Vera told us all about the place and we thought how quaint it was. We later found out she owns 70 odd acres!
Ok it’s time for bed in our super hot camper van. We now have wireless, so can blogg anywhere, brilliant stuff!
Sorry if this blogg is a little slow, will be more with it for the next adventure and hopefully all the stories won’t be so soggy!

Short story of our visit to UK…one wedding and a load of socials! June 10, 2008

LucyPaul Wedding Break 105

Originally uploaded by chris.warn

We arrived at London Heathrow after 24 hours in various aircraft, one serious delay and zero sleep and picked up the hire car (Vauxhall Astra new design, no rear visibility!) with no hitches whatsoever, they even let us through customs without a sideward glance. I think they must have recognised hardened travellers or something. Trip home to Plymouth was a bit surreal, we were knackered and I think that lent to the dreamy quality of it all. It was a beautiful day as we pootled through the low sloping green fields of middle England along the M5, we just couldn’t stop looking for dead kangaroos. Luckily for us we were lent the house of a friend, Si Morris, who is working in Belgium and that was a nice treat for us. We tried to sleep on our return, but you know how it is sometimes you are just too tired to sleep, very annoying.
After visiting Soph’s Mum we returned home to Simon’s pad and I crashed the hire car into a very obvious wall, right in front of me (not so much a crash as a little knock), but it did dent the bumper area. Gutted, I haven’t knocked a car since I rammed my Mum’s Datsun 120Y into a pub car-park wall back in the 80’s! Anyway, that little drama didn’t stop us going straight to sleep for what felt like a day or so. Soph was then thrown into the preps for her sister Lucy’s hen-do and I was left to loaf around apart from a brief excursion with Harry Nottley and Chris Taylor, who gave me the honour of asking me to be his best man in November! (well he did delay the wedding day until we get back to England so I could hardly say no!)
Soph organised a stonking hen night and Plymouth City has only now just recovered..most of the phots of this one are out of bounds! There seemed to be lot of shouting, pink feather boas and vino collapso. The next week we spent with family and is was good to see them all, the lead up to the wedding also went hitchless and the day was soon upon us.
And what a day it was, lovely weather everyone out in their finery and the happiest couple this side of Taunton, if not the world. Highlight for me was the cream teas (scones, jam and a huge wedge of clotted cream) and the highlight for everyone else seemed to be the suprise VW Beetle which Paul, the Groom, had bought for Lucy and arranged to be driven up to the post wedding gathering – very smooth (at one point Soph whispered in my ear ‘you didn’t buy me a car for our wedding!’ – I think she was joking). Lucy was made up, as the cover phot shows I think.
The final week was spent socialising and we apologise now to everyone we didn’t get to see in our short stay back home, but big thanks to all those who helped us enjoy our visit (you know who you are). Final night was spent in Midhurst again with Charlie (now pregnant) and Mike (now nervous) and the last morning before handing back the damaged hire car was spent by me trying to cover the damage with a mix of mud and water in a jam jar, trying to get a natural ‘been involved in a rally championship, but the rest of the car didn’t get dirty, just the bumper’ look. Ridiculous, but we seemed to have got away with it, fingers crossed! We are now whizzing across Aus again on the road from Sydney to Melbourne, but I’ll let lovely Soph tell you about that very soon, using the wireless internet connection set up by Walshie (he’s a legend) on our old laptop which we can now use in the back of the van, genius!

…..and out of the time-warp come the Warnies! June 7, 2008

Sydney

Originally uploaded by chris.warn

Well it has been ages since the last blog we know (about a month), but we haven’t been lazy just extremely busy with a full social programme and some time back in the UK. This blog is just to prove that we are still alive and get us used to typing the thing again, also to show that we did actually finish up in Sydney last time before flying out. I think the last blog had us travelling up from Melbourne to Sydney and it was a beautiful trip, as we approached this great city we could see it’s highest peaks and spires peaking out through a sea of greenery like a city in a Star Trek episode, this image strengthened by a light mist swirling around the tops of the trees. We went through the outskirts of the big smoke and eventually fought our way through traffic to Bondi Beach, which was suprisingly down-market, the sea front was fantastic but the back streets all looked a bit Blackpool! We sat on the beach for an hour or two soaking up some last rays before the sound of helicopters filming the series ‘Bondi Lifeguards’ grabbed our attention and reminded us that we had run out of parking time! We didn’t see many lifeguards but the one we did pass was small and feral looking like a rat, I guess all the good looking ones were down on the beach in front of camera, leaving the bug eyed, goofy ones doing the life-guarding.

We continued up towards Coogee as the sun set and were gutted to find no camp-sites this close to Sydney so had to turn tail and go back out of town to a site which was expensive but handy for going into town tomorrow. Cleaned van after last night and without a backward glance handed it in. Soph not too displeased to see the end of camping for time being. We got lost several times trying to get to the campervan place, but eventually all sorted and we settled down for a few nights in the Young Women’s Christian Association hostel (ooer), now trendily called a Y-Hostel. Walked through the city and across the botanical gardens and Domain and all of a sudden we were in sight of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House, very cool. They are such iconic bits of kit that they almost appear other-worldly yet really familiar. Had a glass or two of hooch watching the sun set over the Rocks, a trendy area which sits beneath the bridge on the city side, rang our Mums and it was v cool. Next we met up with Paul and Elena, who are close friends of my brother’s fella Mustafa. They took us for a coffee and some delicious cakes in the Rocks district, before Elena had to disappear. Paul then took us into his work in a top end jewellers under the bridge (what a guy and this was his day off ‘n’all) interesting seeing the inside workings of a jewellers, but certainly couldn’t afford the stuff on display, Soph was eyeing up eternity rings – very worrying! There is a phot in the set, which shows myself,Paul and a nice guy called Craig who showed me all about close up, hard core filligree? work. He also took us up the hill to the Observatory, where the view from the bridge is better, if only because it’s so different and not the one you see in books and mags. That night we met up with Clare and Fintan (people we first met whilst staying in Singapore) they had been working here since then and it was good to catch up. It is now an actual tradition that whenever we go out with them it turns into a massive booze up! Felt very bad next day and missed both a Manly ferry trip and a pre-booked Observatory visit in the evening, just as well it was raining and had clouded over, we didn’t feel so bad about it! The next day that was us, pack up and ship out. The start of the journey home didn’t bode well, 1 hour delay on tarmac waiting to fix the onboard computers (not good news) – but the rest of trip home was very smooth. I’ll leave Soph to fill you in on wedding stories and tales of friends and family in the next blog, coming to a store near you SOON!