Feb
8
2011
The trouble is, it could be one of two things. And it is!
On the one hand, its the crappy weather here in Byron Bay – so whats brewing? – poss a storm or two! Typical really of our travel weather …A week of scorching heat in Sydney (a City), then when we get to the coast to spend two nights in the (locally..) famous seaside town of Byron Bay (NOT a city!) and the weather goes all English on us!
BUT, on the flipside, the other thing brewing is Stone and Wood — a microbrewery here in Byron Bay. Reminiscent of several English micro’s in that it ISN’T 150 years and IS brand new and making some seriously cracking beer. Although the choice is only really two beers, their main Premium Ale is the best I (Mike) have tasted in OZ. Honestly. And I (Mike) am saying this not because we randomly stopped by there today on a whim and ended up there for almost an hour having good chats with the master brewer (Brad) and his co-worker Rick, as well as being given three beers to try, but because their beer is abso fab! It was probably the freshest beer I’ve ever had…literally straight from the brewing tank, less than 2weeks old. Bloody beautiful! Its good to be back in this area for their beer alone!
So with 2 days of pretty constant rain/drizzle, its off to another microbrewery in Byron tonight (Buddah Bar) to enjoy a free minibus shuttle, Happy Hour drinks and live rock/blues/funk !
Feb
6
2011
And we were part of it! — Sydneys longest and hottest heatwave for 150 years! saturday hit 107.6F / 42C for almost a week (NO wonder we were sweating from toenails, eyelids, elbows etc!) and Saturday night was the hottest since 1973 when its coldest temp was 27.6C / 81.7F. At night. All night. Unfortunately in no aircon either! Oh well – kinda makes up for some of the shite weather we’ve had recently (floods and so on!).
So today, with the weather starting to cool and the clouds moving in, we decided to go to Coogee Beach, but stay off the sand and take a wander, have a picnic lunch and then relax by the promenade.
Still, Honkers is just tipping 20C at the mo so at least we can start re-adjusting soon!
Feb
5
2011
SATURDAY FEB FIVE:
With the Sydney temperatures easily hitting the 40+ in centigrade, and having visited Little Bay beach in La Parouse yesterday, we decided to give the hot sand a miss today for fear of getting heat-stroke and instead headed to a local pool with Renee. But not until we paid a visit to a local Sat am market which included having a chicken kebab for breakfast at 9.30am!!
The pool was not surprisingly busy, with seemingly all the area’s families taking to the cool waters! Even lying under a massive marquee awning the heat was only just bearable – fortunately in the water our bodies were able to cool down to a comfortable level. But then back out again after a while and the sun was actually burning hot! So, we stayed out of that and under the marquee. Fortunately, the strain of the heat was easily eased by mucking about in the water with the flexible floating aids the ‘Noodles’ !!
Noodle Fun !
Feb
4
2011
La Parouse being a lovely area of Sydney despite being near the airport! The visit took us to Little Bay which was delightful – esp as it has a beach! And some rather hot sun….One deserved the other we decided – so some sunbathing was interspersed with some swimming with some sunbathing with some swimming. Now however the sun has caught up with us and its time for some after-sun!!
This weekend see us staying with our lovely dear fluffy friend Renee in Sydney – its about 8years since we’ve seen eachother so a good weekend will be spent catching up!
And then on Monday we fly from Sydney to Brisbane and then drive straight back again (!!) in a dollar-a-day campervan. This way we get to see Byron Bay for a couple of days, before leaving OZ going from Sydney to Hong Kong.
Feb
3
2011
Althoughwe are in our final Aussie city (Sydney) staying with Renee who we got to know in England about a decade ago, we have decided that one place not to have missed while in this part of OZ is Byron Bay. We think by reputation it is quite touristy, but apparently is a beautiful spot.
So, thanks to the wonder that is internet, we have booked cheap one-way flights to Brisbane and arranged a dollar-a-day camper relocation to take us back to Sydney, allowing us two nights in Byron Bay plus a night stopover before Sydney – dropping the van off and heading straight into the airport for our scheduleed flight to Honkers to catch up with Damian.
All we need to book now is three days of warm, but not too hot please, sunshine and clear blue sky. Maybe the snorkels will be used again after sitting in our backpacks since WA?!!
Jan
31
2011
And loving it! We’ve realised that as much as we enjoy catching up with old friends and staying with them, we equally enjoy the various road trips! Its fun to pick up a new campervan and stock the fridge before route planning (NO satnav/gps going on here!) and heading off.
So for the last driving leg of our time in OZ we are retracing steps taken at the end of Nov – mid Dec…..although this time staying in different places:
FRIDAY & SAT JAN 28&29TH:
Umpherston Sinkhole
Picked up from Apollo in Adelaide a 2berth hightop – basically a Toyota HiAce which is a bit of a dog to be honest. Being so high and yet a light vehicle it catches the wind loads and makes steering a bit left-to-right! But the upside is it was $1 a day. This was the drive from Adelaide to Melb along the beautiful, if slow!, Gt Ocean Rd. This time we didnt stop at all the amazing scenic sights as we’ve ‘benn there, done that!’. And the different stopovers were in Mt Gambier then Lorne – 2 places previously driven through and thought of as looking nice. Mt Gambier is a big town
Freakishly Blue
by local standards (has a McD and three pub hotels!!) and is home to a famous sink-hole (see pic) and used to be known as the Blue Lake City, as the town’s water is supplied by a freakishly blue lake (see other pic!). Lorne is a trendy seaside, sorry Oceanside village full of tourists eating overpriced yet stylish food and hanging out in coffee bars!!
SUNDAY & MONDAY, end of Jan:
Did a massive drive from Lorne on the south coast up to Melb, to drop off the HiTop at Apollo having already gone to Maui Campers to pick up a 6berth monster-home to take to Sydney. This is basically a relay-drive! In and around Melb we managed to waste 2hours driving between the two campervan depots and trying to get out of the city in the right direction!!
So, first stop on way to Sydney last night was at Lakes Entrance. Getting here later than hoped, we literally checked in then headed over the road to the Bowls Club (!! – but more of a proper big bar and bistro than crusty old folks wearing hats!) to grab dinner and watch the mnes final…what a waste of bloody time that was!
Which brings us up to date, being today! Currently 10am Victoria time on Monday 31st, and we are in our 18th McDonalds using their wi-fi and having a pretty good coffee! Going to do a 5hour drive today getting us further up the south-east coast, aiming for Bateman’s Bay, about 4hrs south from Sydney. Although we stopped there briefly our last time here, we have decided to stay the night this time and try to enjoy the place a bit.
Tomorrow’s arrival in Sydney will see us dropping off the motorhome then staying one night, before hopefully heading to Byron ay for a night or two; then back to Sydney to stay with Renee (England about 8years ago) for a long weekend. After that its Honkers for a week then Blighty!
Jan
27
2011
. . With a trip to the Adelaide Botanical gardens. Not as widespread as the one in Sydney but better laid out with a good tropical zone and a show of bio-diversity!!.
And what better than a visit on a warm, sunny OZ day!
Jan
19
2011
That means that we have seen wild dolphins!
For the first time since we got to OZ we have actually seen some of their genuine wildlife in their own habitat – swimming alongside the ferry we took from Sorrento to Queenscliff was a small whoop of dolphins including one dolph-et!.
We did see our first koala in the wild, but it hadnt quite made it to the centre white lines before being mown down by a fleeing vehicle (not ours!)! It was dead!
Could live here!!
Queenscliff: what a beaut part of Port Philip Bay…old colonial houses, Victorian hotels, coffee shops, bookshops, several churches, ice cream parlours and many, many more!
….Could more than happily live here!
Jan
19
2011
As we all know the world’s weather has gone a tad pear shaped and like others we have been hit by it. Selfishly though!
For while others have been frozen in, washed away or flooded out, we have had to suffer the misery of being in a hot country at a particularly unusually wet time. Today in Melbourne would normally be almost 30C, but it barely 20C: Not fair!!
But oh well – the flip side is we get to catch up with friends not seen for maybe four years! We are in Sorrento, south of Melbourne this week hoping to then go on the Adelaide before Sydney and HK and then ultimately The UK. The next few days are going to spent lazily we thinks!
Jan
18
2011
FRIDAY JAN 14TH—–
Although currently in Strahan (pron. Strawn!!) on the west of Tasmania, the journey to get here was an eventful one!: the rains that have so affected Queenland seem to have decided to take a short holiday to Tasmania and have also appeared to have used the same travel agent as us!
The rains fell quickly and abruptly and managed to cover
Night One of 40 ?!?!
entire roads within an hour. The worst affected towns, Railton and Sheffield, were exactly where we were when the rains were at their most vicious. Although we managed to get through Railton (just) the water was already half way up the car wheels and rising. From there we had to wind down hairpin bends to a bridge over a dammed river, then up the other side, and then down the other side of there. And this is where the flash floods won. At one point the water was almost waist-high: the end of the line and a brief car park for 7 car loads trying to get to Cradle Mountain. The road signs were half under water and to the left of the road the water appeared not to be draining away. Mike had the great idea of wading in and trying to move some of the debris preventing drainage. Upon suggesting this to one of the other drivers, the idea was abandoned. Good job. As we finally drove this section of road the following day, the area to left as just mentioned turned out to be an 8metre deep creek.
It turned out that not only was the road impassable, but up the other side there were three landslides blocking the road.
So we had to retrace our journey 20km and back to the small town of Sheffield and find somewhere to stay; which we managed. Sheffield was a ’stranded-town’ as there were no passable roads out or in, so we were ‘lucky’ to have got back in and found somewhere to stay.
The next morning before leaving Sheffield we saw pictures on the TV of the very roads we had driven through! Slightly nervy believe us!
And the weather was still against us on Saturday morning. Finally getting to Cradle Mountain (our original destination when halted by floods) at about 9am, only 18hours late, and there was no mountain to be seen!! Although there was plenty of mist, rain, fog, drizzle, clouds and rain to be seen! So, a quick coffee and on with the journey….to Strahan at the edge of the west coast.
Now, you and we would pronounce the place Stra-Han, but not the Tassies!! Oh No, they call it Strawn, which makes no sense, but matters little as its a nice little town. Mainly tourism-driven, but with fishing and wood being big employers, the place is prob best known for the Gordon River and it’s cruises upon it. Which we did today (Sunday 16th). A great cruise which took in two land excursions and also a decent buffet lunch (Mike had seconds and stole some butter pats for our evening meal!!)
There are two bars in Strawn – one a hotel bar and one a 1960’s tavern: Mmm! Not the greatest we’ve been into but we got chatting with some interesting locals who were happy not to talk cricket!! We even gave two of the locals a lift back from the first pub on our way to drop the car off before going to the second pub!