The terrifying road to... Sydney!!

March 16th/17th - Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

The first thing to say about Sydney is about how we discovered the terrible terrible road systems in Australia. The signposting is appalling, the layout makes no sense, the drivers are aggressive and it is just terrifying. We knew that there were toll roads in and around Sydney and had researched how to pay for this, etc beforehand. We also planned our route with the satnav, so in theory we got onto one straight road and it would pretty much take us to our destination. However, as with most things this didn't go to plan and we found ourselves coming off this road and suddenly in the middle of the city. The roads are awful - you realise you are in the wrong lane but you can't then get out because of low concrete walls on either side blocking you in your lane. Whereas we turn off a motorway onto a slip road on the left, their junctions go off from the middle of the road. Long story short, much stress, shouting and fearing for our lives later, we were heading across the bloody Sydney Harbour Bridge which was terrifying and not part of the original plan, and having gone up and down the same stretch of road about 5 times we finally made it to our accommodation in the suburb of Manly.

We were staying with a family from AirBnB who were quite nice but a bit hippyish and it wasn't the best place we have stayed. We parked up and after all the stress of driving we were in need of a beer so ventured out for somewhere to chill and have a drink. We walked to a nearby park where we learnt not only does Sydney have a stupid road system, it also has enormous spiders absolutely everywhere... We looked up as there was a whopper in a web above our heads, ducked, and then as we looked closer there appeared an entire network of huge spiderwebs over the whole pavement, all with massive spiders in them. It was disgusting!!!

One of many killer-spiders

The web tunnel above our head

We escaped the park and the spiders and instead sat on Manly Beach with our beverages!! Sydney was very humid and hot, but it was also really cool because you were so close to the city, but also to the beach. The place we stayed was about a 15min walk to the beach and ~20min bus ride to the city. This probably contributes to Sydney being so expensive to live in!!

Manly Beach

After checking into our room and getting sorted, we headed into the city centre as we had plans to meet a friend of mine from school (Rachael) and her boyfriend for dinner; they had been living in Sydney for the past 6 months.

To get into the city we decided to take the ferry. If you ever go to Sydney, we massively recommend getting this ferry!!!! It takes about half an hour and goes from Manly Harbour to Sydney, right by the Harbour Bridge. It takes commuters (which must be a fantastic commute) and you see all the land formations that make up Sydney, go right past the Opera House and under the Bridge. The views were incredible, especially as the sun was setting, and it only cost a couple of dollars!!

Views from the boat

Sydney Opera House

We walked across the city to Darling Harbour where we met our friends and enjoyed a bargain dinner of a pint (or schooner as they call it) and a quality steak for $10!!

The next day we decided to go and explore the old part of the city which is near the bridge and ferry port and is called 'The Rocks'. It is where the first settlers built their homes and flourished in the Victorian period as dock workers and local tradespeople lived there. It unfortunately became a bit of a rough area and was associated with crime and poor standards of living. Most of it was redeveloped but residents campaigned to save some of the buildings and now a row of terrace houses have been made into a museum. Someone had given a pass so that we got free entry so we went in the museum. It was quite cool to see how they lived and hear the stories of the residents, but really we live in Victorian terraces back home so it wasn't that new to us!!!

The Rocks

The developed part of The Rocks

The museum houses

Afterwards we grabbed some lunch and went to book our Sydney Bridgeclimb experience for a couple of days' time. We then headed back via a ridiculously long detour to some shops, but we made it back eventually!!

Canberra

March 15th/16th - Canberra, Australian Capital Territory (ACT), Australia

The drive between Melbourne and Sydney was epic - ~ 2-3 day drive, so we decided to break it up by going via Canberra. We spent one night in a little town called Eden, which was pretty uneventful, then continued inland towards Canberra where we stayed just outside (in a town called Queanbeyan) with a lady we found on AirBnB. She had lived all over Australia and had loads of stories to tell us about the country.

We arrived around lunchtime and so had just the afternoon in Canberra, but soon discovered this was more than enough time!! It is a city that was built for the sole purpose of being the administrative capital so there are lots of government buildings and not a lot else. It was also designed from scratch for that purpose so lacks quite a bit of character. There are two islands - one with all the government buildings with the parliament building in the middle, and the other with shops and restaurants, etc and with the Anzac memorial in the middle, and these are joined by a bridge and mall; the roads are all designed in concentric circles around these two centres. In addition, we were there on a Sunday and it turns out that lots of government workers fly in for the working week and then fly out again at weekends, so it was pretty dead.

We parked the campervan and first checked out the parliament building:

The view from parliament looking back towards the other end of town with the Anzac memorial at the end

We then headed across the bridge to the other end of town and went a a museum about Canberra - it explained how the site was chosen and how the city grew. After this drove up to the Anzac war memorial and got there just before 5pm at which time (unknown to us) they had a ceremony and Last Post for the fallen Anzac soldiers. We weren't sure if this was a daily/weekly thing or if it was on because it was 2015 and there was a lot of Gallipoli 100th Anniversary things on in Australia while we were there, but it was very interesting to watch. A military official read some words, and then a soldier read a piece about one of the fallen soldiers at Gallipoli; people laid some wreaths and the Last Post was played.

Outside, around the monument, there were various memorials to different battalions and wars as well as some tanks and planes.

The view from the Anzac memorial looking back towards Parliament

The Anzac Memorial

The lady we were staying with had suggested we drive up a nearby hill that has good views of the whole city from the top. She said she went there quite often with a friend and really rated it. We drove all the way to the top of the hill but then found out that there was a tower there (a bit like the BT tower) but to go to the top you had to pay. Neither of us was particularly fussed but we couldn't get very good views from the base of the tower, so we headed down a bit to a lookout. There was a car park that was pretty deserted apart from about 5 cars dotted around it. As we got out we thought it was strange that all these cars had men sat in them on their own, but in our innocent minds we thought they were waiting for their wives or whoever they were with to take pictures before leaving. We got a couple of decent pics but the lookouts weren't very good. As we headed back to our campervan we kept thinking it was very strange these men were all there on their own just sitting; we couldn't see anyone else that might be with them. At this point Mike jokingly brought up the suggestion that it was a gay cruising area. We laughed about it but as we were nearly at our van, two men came out of the bushes and headed back to separate cars!!! It was then our suspicions were confirmed and we made a hasty getaway!!! When we got back we googled it and apparently it is a gay cruising zone. We chose not to let our host know about this and instead told her it was really good!!! It was very funny....

View from the hill of Canberra

You can see the bridge connecting the two ends of town

That night we had a lovely dinner with our host. We set off early the next day for Sydney.

The Prom

March 13th/14th - Wilson's Promontory National Park, Victoria, Australia

We left Melbourne relatively early the next morning for the 3 hour drive to the beautiful Wilson's Promontory National Park. We did have to navigate driving through the centre of Melbourne (again I say 'we' - Mike did a sterling job) and a couple of hook turns but made it out alive.

We had booked a campsite in the national park for the night, and as we drove into the park we got very excited because the scenery was stunning. The road began to climb quite high and off to one side there was green forest and to the other there was the ocean.

When we got to the campsite it was really busy because it was a Friday and we were quickly discovering that Aussies love to spend the weekend camping in the great outdoors and having a barbie!! 

When we went to check-in the lady asked us if we were in a tent or vehicle. She explained that had we been in a tent she would have given us advice on protecting our stuff from the wombats!!! We were v excited - wombats were one of the many animals we were keen to spot in the wild and we had read that at night they come out and roam around the campsite!!

We pitched up and headed straight for the beach which was a 60 second walk from our site. It was beautiful - white sand, clear blue sea, and hardly a soul on the beach. We were a bit wary about going in the water as the guy we had stayed with in Melbourne told us how he had gone in surfing and had accidentally trodden on a stingray which had shot its spear thing through his Achilles tendon and he had to got o hospital!! Also, despite appearances, it was pretty breezy and chilly down on the beach!

After messing around on the beach for a bit we decided to tackle one of the local walks. Firstly we went over a bridge across the estuary, which again was so peaceful and quiet, with hardly anyone there. We then entered the forest and hiked up and up until we reached the top and the most incredible lookout ever! We were quite puffed out when we got there but it was completely worth it. There were just deserted beaches and coastline as far as the eye could see.

Crossing the estuary

Mike on top of the world

The land behind us

The views

On our way back down we were busy looking for wombat poo - apparently cuboidal in shape - and in finding plenty were were optimistic for a successful night of 'wombat hunting' later. 

When we got back, we thought we would give the Aussie BBQ a run for its money, and instead cooked a traditional English fry-up for dinner and sat outside in the beautiful scenery to eat it - it was delicious!

After cleaning up we got all of our warm gear on and our head torches and camera, and as soon as it was dark we commenced a lap of the campsite in search of wombats. 

We found a wombat pretty quickly and we were sooo excited! It was quite difficult to take a picture because of it being pitch black, but we managed one or two. They seemed very gentle and were just sniffing around the site eating things. We watched one for a bit and then moved on and found a couple of others. We were watching one and I was trying to get quite close, but Mike was telling me to 'be careful' and to 'stay back' because they can get quite aggressive. Then all of a sudden a group of young kids came running over and went right up to it and was stroking it and everything! We were so surprised, and when their parents came over they were laughing at us for being so cautious and explained that these ones were pretty tame! We felt like right idiots, especially as when they first came over we were about to shout at them to be careful!

We were on such a high after seeing the wombats - one thing we realised during our time in Australia was just how amazing it was to see animals in the wild and how those moments actually became the highlight of out trip. And as it turns out Wilson's Prom was going to just keep giving... but more on that later.

We returned to our campervan and because we were in the middle of nowhere the stars and the night sky looked amazing so we spent a while fiddling around with my camera before attempting some astrophotography. Mike was really into this and we did get a couple of incredible shots of the milkyway, but unfortunately they need some editing before they can go up as the file is e-nor-mous.

The next morning we got up and got going early, partly because we had a long drive ahead of us, and partly because we had read that morning is the best time to spot other animals out and about. We hadn't had much luck with wild kangaroos until this point and were beginning to loose hope. I was driving through the park and Mike was engrossed in his gameboy when suddenly at the side of the road I saw a couple of emus!!! We pulled over and ran back with our cameras. As we got close we saw not only the 2 emus, but also a kangaroo behind them. It was incredible!!! A short while later another car pulled up and pointed out another kangaroo to us who we watched for a bit and managed to film him bouncing off.

Wilson's Prom was incredible, there was so much to see and do, and we were so happy with the animals we managed to see in the wild. We would definitely recommend people to go here if they can when in Australia.

Melbs Part 2

March 11th/12th - Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

The next day we decided to get out of the city and see some of the surrounding sights. Our friend Deepa and her sister Priya were hiring a car for the day to explore an area called Mornington Peninsula and Philip Island and were more than happy for us to tag along!!!

We got the tram to where they were staying in another suburb of Melbourne in the morning - it was a very pretty and affluent suburb where lots of families lived and really easy to get to on the tram. Deepa drove us out of the city towards Mornington Peninsula and we stopped by a pretty beach with painted beach huts to have some breakfast (ie. we all ate our packed lunches early!)

The beach where we had breakfast

Afterwards we drove on further down the peninsula to where all the beautiful, big, rich houses were. We went for a paddle and then into the pretty little seaside town for one of the biggest ice creams I have ever had - we all felt a bit sick afterwards!!

View of the bay from the top of the hill

Messing around on the pier...

The bay - lots of people seemed to own their own boat...

Ice creams - the salted caramel flavour was amazing

Afterwards we drove right to the top of the peninsula where there were some incredible views:

A group of very drunk, middle-aged Australians pulled up and insisted on taking lots of photos for us...

To continue our day of food indulgence, we next drove to a pub and sat in the garden with a loacl cider, before going strawberry picking!

Feeling very stuffed it was finally time to head to the part of the day I was most looking forward to - to see the penguins!! Philip Island is famous for its colony of Little Penguins that live there. Each evening, hundreds of visitors go and take a seat to watch them come in from a day at sea, waddle up the beach and try to find their way to their burrows further up the beach. They leave their babies in the burrows while they go to fish during the day and when they come onto the beach at dusk the babies start making a noise and waiting for their parents at the opening to the burrow. The parents follow the calls home. Unfortunately you are not allowed to take any photos as the flash temporarily blinds the penguins and they can't find their way home!!! You will have to take my word for it that they were unbelievably cute. We didn't have a great view of them coming in from the ocean, but we stayed for ages following them really closely as they found their way home. They have built a boardwalk over the beach so you can follow the penguins without interfering too much. Some of the burrows are really quite far inland and we were warned to check under our car before leaving in case on was there!!! Read about them on wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_penguin) and check out the pictures of them there; there is also some cool info about when they once trained sheepdogs to protect the penguins!!

Our final day in Melbourne was spent leisurely wandering around, eating some more local food and finishing with a drink on a rooftop bar. 

Rooftop bar

We really enjoyed Melbourne, and now we have finished our travels in Australia we both agree that it was our favourite city there. The climate was perfect - hot in summer, warmish in winter and not humid; there were loads of quirky things going on and a really big music scene; and lots of great places to eat! It was the closest city to London and felt like it would be easy to make the transition there. Deepa's sister was there because she has just moved there with her husband so it will be interesting to see how they get on living there. 

Anyway, time to head out of the city and back into camping out in National Parks - to Wilson's Prom!

Melbs

March 9th/10th - Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Driving into Melbourne was not as bad as we had feared. Because of the tram system they have a strange rule called a 'hook turn' whereby to turn right you have to be on the inside lane, but we were staying in a suburb on the outskirts of the city so there weren't any of these there,

We stayed in a suburb called Kensington and were staying with a guy called Ben from AirBnB. He was actually away with work so we had his apartment to ourselves for most of our stay, The balcony looked out over the racetrack and the apartment block had a gym we could use and its own coffee shop - I just hope our eyesore of a campervan parked outside didn't bring down the tone of the place too much!

Our first day there we went into the city centre and did a walking tour. Melbourne was quite similar to Adelaide as in there was a lot of Victorian architecture and arcades. We learnt about the history of Melbourne and its rivalry with Sydney and also about Ned Kelly. We saw some beautiful old buildings and parks, Chinatown, the local gaol where Kelly was interred and visited some 'laneways' - little back alleys with quirky cafes, bars and shops. It turns out that Melbourne is a bit of a foodie heaven, and after several recommendations from our guide and witnessing some amazing looking places to eat we jointly decided to blow the budget on eating out!

Flinders Street Station

Exhibition Building

Victorian Arcade

There was also a lot of street art with a whole lane dedicated to it, and a road called AC/DC lane! Melbourne was particularly busy because they had a bank holiday fesitval on with lots of family events and a fayre, but also it was the build up to the Australian Grand Prix due to be in Melbourne. 

Street art

Flinders station next to the more modern Arts Centre on the left

AC/DC Lane!

After our tour we ate our packed lunch before heading to the Melbourne Museum where we met Deepa, a friend from university and who I went travelling in the USA with. We saw the exhibition on Aboriginal history in the museum, and then had some dinner and drinks before watching a fireworks display down by the river (it was the end of some festival they had on there).

The next day we headed to the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) where a member of the committee gave us a tour of the stadium. Our cricket knowledge is pretty rubbish, especially our Australian cricket knowledge, but we were fully aware when he was just taking the piss out of the English cricket team... We saw the stadium, the press conference room, the changing rooms and all the rooms the teams use before a match, There were also several galleries with memorabilia and important items and we were told about the history of the MCG and cricket in Australia. It also turns out that the waiting list to become a member is ridiculous - you need to be nominated and then wait about 30 years or something!

Around the outside of the stadium there were statues of Australian cricketing and sporting legends - the above is Shane Warne

The stadium

The dressing room/ team room

The view from the balcony of the MCG - in the distance is the city, but to the left there are lots of tennis courts that they use in the Australian Open - their sporting facilities available for training were amazing

Afterwards we went downstairs to the sports museum which looked at each of Australia's big sports and at the history of the Olympic Games, which was really good but we were getting a bit tired by this point!! We headed towards one of the laneways and sat and had some brunch and a coffee which was sooo tasty! That afternoon we just had a bit of a wander and did some shopping, before heading back.