The Delights of Mornington to Sydney - Sydney, Australia
Sydney, Australia
Welcome all to the 'overdue' third edition of our blog. At the start of our expedition (the word we have coined to describe our travels) we self-imposed a time limit of two weeks between blog updates, thus making it a bi-weekly affair. However, due to unforseen techincal hitches (namely another keyboard giving up the go - more on that later) I'm sitting here in the basement (dirt laden and nicotine stained of course) of a Sydney hostel, hoping to update you on the trials and tribulations of the past three weeks. Stay with me on this one guys. Before we kick this off, I'll just run you through where the first 4 weeks of our travels had taken us so far:
1) Flew to Darwin and picked up the Spaceship.2) Drove circa 4000km (2,400 miles) from Darwin to Adelaide (North to South), visiting Uluru (Ayers Rock) en route.3) Drove 'south-east' from Adelaide to Melbourne.
**Our Australia leg of our 'expedition' takes us on a U shape tour of the country, with Darwin being the top left of the U and Sydney being 4 o'clock (Roughly). You get the jist - I hope**
So having picked up our new wheels (Whoosh) and a take-away Chicken Teriyaki (no. 4 on the menu I think) from Don Don, we departed Melbourne and headed south for the short journey to the Mornington Peninsula. This was in the direction of where Glen and Lorraine lived, the couple we had met on the road (in a camp park to be precise) back in the Clare Valleys. As we had previously mentioned, they had offered us a place to put our heads down if we were travelling through that way. After the positive experience at the Chris and Carol's, we thought 'why not' and made arrangements to drop in on our way through.
As you can imagine, we didn't know quite what to expect (remember this expedition is about doing things out of our comfort zone - Within reason of course) . Well blow me down. Upon arriving we were greeted like old friends, shown to our room (a bungalow in the back garden), which was decked out with a fridge and all the goodies you'd expect of a premium bed and breakfast. We dumped our stuff on the floor and fell back onto the bed in the cliche star-fish pose. How good is this we thought?! After a lick of approval from Molly and Rolly (the dogs) we headed into the house for an evening of chat, laughter, gluten-free pizza and plenny a' wine.
After a couple of lazy days, soaking up the local area (yes it rained for a few days) and experiencing a drive-in cinema (Dromana Drive- In) Glen and Lorraine took us on a tour around Mornington and the Flinders area and showed us some lovely sights. Across the sea in the distance you could see the outline of an island called Phillips Island. Renowned for it's surf beaches and wildlife including little penguins, and seals they suggested it as a good place to visit. They then informed us that they had a holiday home on Phillip Island looking out to sea and that we were most welcome to take advantage of it while no-one was using it. After lifting our chins up off the floor, we happily accepted and made arrangements to stay there for 3 nights. We offered to take Molly, they're 4 year old labra-doodle cross, with us as she hadn't been away with them recently. With keys in hand, a dog in tow and a grin on our faces we proceeded on the hour or so drive to Phillip Island. If we had tails, one could make a case that they'd of been wagging more keenly than Molly's!
Having arrived at the island and familiarised ourself with the surroundings and holiday home, Amy cooked up a storm in the form of her trademark Stir-Fry, while I pitifully tried to start a fire. Having no access to fire starters nor kindling, it proved to hard a task for someone who was over excited by the prospect of having a dog (albeit for 4 days). All we wanted to do was play ball - Yes Molly and I - so the task of fire-starting was left to Amy for the first night (as can be seen in Dropbox pictures). Appetites satiated by the culinary excellence of Amy and my ball throwing for Molly, we put our feet up for the night and watched a film. A great feeling after a month on the road to have a house to ourselves, with a dog, free reign over the TV and a fire cracking and spitting away in the background. Living the dream as they say.
The next few days took very much the same form of the evening just described. We (mainly Amy) cooked some nice meals, including a Shepherds Pie with sweet potato, with the use of an oven (remember we've been using a camping stove for over a month), tended to the insatiable desire of Molly to jump into the sea to fetch her ball (mainly Jeff) and enjoyed the sites and wildlife of the island. We witnessed a flock of pelicans be fed their entree of the day (they eat over 15kg of fish a day!), little penguins return from their time at sea (some are out at sea for upto 5 weeks at a time) and our first snake in the wild. It was a species of brown snake and the only one in Australia without a specific antivenom. We wasn't going to pick a fight with that one. We also took a drive to the Phillip Island Grand Prix circuit, which was home to the first Australian Grand Prix and still stages World Superbike races. We also managed to venture over to Churchill Island ,via a single car width bridge, to enjoy the delights of the Heritage Farm. This included sheep shearing, cow milking (Amy had a go), a working dog in action, boomerang throwing and last but not least a truck load of East Asians (usually Chinese or Japansese) that we have become accustomed to at every 'touristy' attraction we visit. These guys really are something else. You have to grow a thick skin, stand your ground and refuse to be moved when watching something (such a sheep shearing) otherwise your day can be ruined quickly. Now I'm sure individually they are pleasant people, but when in such large groups they provoke each other into behaving like a group of school children barging and pushing eachother to board the last school bus home. I've got a feeling though that this is how they're used to going about they're daily lives and know no different. It has however led to a growing dislike for the 'touristy' attractions and a growing sense of skepticism when faced with a 'must-do' attraction. In layman terms, we're rubbish tourists.Having enjoyed our stay at Glen and Lorraines holiday home, which included a night of extremely loud thunder and bright white lightning, it was time to return the keys and the exhausted dog and keep all but fond memories and photographs of our time on Phillip Island. We made use of the B&B esque accommodation for one last night, cooking an unforgettable plate of gastronomical perfection that included salmon, prawns and sweet potato fries, before saying our good-byes. We hit the road again. Destination: SYDNEY.
With a journey of over 600 miles to be made, a few days on the road beckoned. We spent 3 nights staying in free camps along the way. We love free camping, as every time we do so, it feels like we are working and generating an income. We have budgeted 25 dollars a night for each of the 85 nights while in Australia, so all these free stops help put us in a better position financially for when we get to the big lights of cities such as Sydney. A notable overnight stop on the way to Sydney was at a little far flung place called Genoa situated round down in the bottom right hand corner if you was looking at a map of Australia. It was set in beautiful grounds with a small clean, cold water shower block (yes we did brave it!).
In the morning we decided to go for a run. Amy headed off before me (a bit of time alone is healthy every now and then) and when I caught up with her she excitedly (as excited as Amy gets) told me that she had seen a platypus rise to the surface of the nearby river and lay there momentarily. We thought it was pretty cool but didn't realise the rarity of the sighting until we shared the story with a few well-travelled Australians. Their reaction was of unrivalled excitement as they had never come across somebody that had seen a platypus let alone see a platypus (in the wild) themselves. Even the guide in the Australian Museum was somewhat suprised. It's a shame our camera wasn't to hand for Amy to get a photograph of it.
As we closed in on Sydney our excitement grew. Finally, we would get to see the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the world famous Sydney Opera House. Well, not quite yet as the traffic was quite phenomenal. Finally traffic to rival that of sunny old England. Having eventually arrived at the hostel that we had booked for 5 nights, we were greeted with the words that no backpackers want to hear, "Sorry, but your beds have been double-booked and are no longer available in the 4 bed dorm". Our hearts momentarily sunk until we were informed that there were two beds available in a 6 bed dorm, which were also cheaper. We agreed that it could have been worse and that we had little choice. So the 6 bed dorm it was. It turnt out that only 2 other beds were occupied anyway so all was good - Or was it...
The first day in an unfamilair place is always a nightmare. What bus to take? Where do the trains go? Where's the supermarket? You get the drift. To simplify things on this occasion, we decided to follow our sense of direction (Jeff's that is) and headed into the centre of the city on foot. Low and behold this was a 3 mile walk or so and in the haste of our excitement we had flip flops on. Not the most ideal walking attire. Having got to the information centre (more on these in a later post) we felt slightly more attuned with our surroundings and worked out what buses would take us from our hostel to the CBD (central business district) and The Quay (Opera house and Harbour Bridge). Bus ticket and map in hand we headed back to our hostel for an early night as we had the first day of our two day scuba diving course to contend with in the morning!
I forgot to mention that when we arrived at the hostel, we was also greeted with less than ideal parking arrangements. We booked the hostel on the basis that they had free parking due to Whoosh needing somewhere to put his head down (free of charge). Well what a load of rubbish. Misadvertisement or what! A more apt description would have been 'limited, free overnight parking'. You ask why? Well it was a sort of underground/basement carpark to the rear of the property with a single car width entry/exit. It could fit 3 cars in a straight line and two cars parked perpendicular to them. No sweat if you're not following. Basically, unless you was the last car in, you would need to contact the owner of the other vehicles that were blocking you in to get them to move. Not ideal on your first morning when you have no idea who owns the other cars and the piece of paper on the dashboard with their contact details was anything but legible. Not ideal on the first morning of our scuba diving course. 25 mins of frantic searching (the hostel was like a maze) and a grumpy ol' fat french bird came trudging down the stairs with Amy in tow giving her a verbal kick up the ****. She wasn't in the best of moods and was plain rude to Amy. I wasn't in the best of moods either, so after telling her what I thought of her, her replying with a French expletive or two we was on our way to Manly (a Sydney Suburb with wonderful beaches) to undertake two of four dives that would result in us being qualified padi divers.
Later that day we had an equally frightening encounter. This time with what we now believe to be a huntsman spider - Not a scary French bird. To recall events, I had opened the drivers door and saw a furry looking ball on the hinge. Assuming it was dead and rather small I grabbed the camera and shoved the lens close to it hoping to get a photograph. All of a sudden, it sprung to life and ran in the direction of the engine bay via the off-side wing. It looked pretty big to be honest. We spent 10 minutes trying to poke it with a stick out but this failed. We were resigned to the fact of having to share Whoosh with the furry critter. Not exactly a pleasant thought, but all it meant was that we would have to check our shoes and bedding more dilligently than what we already were. Fortunately that wouldn't be the case. On the journey back to the hostel after our first days diving, we were sitting at traffic lights. I was staring at the Fitness First gym across the road when Amy said in tone that I wasn't familiar with, " Jeff, Jeff, Jeff - What the hell is that!". It was our furry little friend. It appeared to have grown stilts during the day as this thing was huge. It's legs spanned the width of half a grapefruit and it was crawling up our bloody windscreen. Thankfully someone was looking down on us and it was on the outside. A quick flick of the windscreen wiper to rid us of this beast failed. It took the blade of the wiper in its step as if it was a finalist on the Wipeout or It's A Knockout. With plan A failing and the traffic lights turning green it was time to execute plan B - Accelerate as hard as possible in the hope that steroid Stan the spider would be blown off in the head wind. A few minutes later we pulled up at another set of lights and looked at each other (Amy & I that is) in the hope that, "That had done the trick". To our disbelief, horror, exasperation, what ever you want to call it, Stan was still aboard and climbing down my window. He proceeded to climb back onto the windscreen. My opportunity had surfaced. It was now or never. I had to take the intiative in this battle of wills. I armed myself with a stick (the one we had used earlier to try and poke him out), clambered from the drivers seat, approached with caution, and with a quick swipe of the stick Stan was removed from the windscreen. All of this and the lights hadn't even turned green yet! I retuned to the driver's seat a hero. A duly deserved sitting ovation greeted me. They don't call me the Web- Ster for nothing you know..
Four dives later, a few shivers from the 'cold' winter waters of Sydney, numerous sightings of reef sharks (5 ft max) and a grumble or two (from Amy) as a result of the heavy apparatus and long walk to the shore, we were bonafide Padi qualified divers. That means we are now allowed to dive to 18 metres (roughly 60ft) anywhere in the world. Having spoke to the owner of the dive centre (an ex-pat from Swindon) and recieved a recommendation or two on places to eat, we headed into the city to a restaurant called Kura Kura - A quaint little Japanese casual dining restuarant. It certainly rivalled DonDon in the taste department but not on price (although not expensive by any means). Sushi'd up we headed back to our hostel to get some kip (sleep, not Laos currency for you eagle-eyed readers out there) after two days of diving. It's certainly tougher in the sea having to contend with the currents and of course the 50 metre trudge from our setting up area with 70 odd pounds on our back.
Great! Our two beds in the 6 bed dorm were now taken and we had been moved to a 4 bed dorm. We had became quite used to our 6 bed dorm and made friends with the South Korean girl who was living there for the next year or so. Anyhow, we couldn't make too much of a fuss as we did make it clear in the beginning that we wanted a 4 bed dorm. Well blow me down. We wasn't staying in there! Having been told by someone what room we was in and taking a look, we were repulsed to see a dubious looking stain on one of the mattresses and no sign of bedding. To top it off, two equally dubious looking guys were occuping the bottom bunks of each bed. It was like walking into a 14 year olds bedroom- You know, one of them that literally lives in his room and listens to that noisy thrash metal 'music'. We certainly didn't come to a developed country to experience that, as pompous as it may sound - We'll save that for Asia thank you very much. With no-one to complain to as it was out of hours and not knowing who the night manager was, we retreated to trusty Whoosh for a night under the stars (yes, there wasn't room for him in the 'limited free overnight parking area').
As you can imagine we wasn't best pleased with the service we received the previous night so we made the decision that we would pack up our stuff, go get our money for the nights outstanding and head off to another hostel with parking (although a significant jump in price). We apporached the manager with our complaints and wants, and to our suprise she was most concerned and appalled at the service we had been given. She gave us a free nights stay, a reduced rate on the rest of our stay and put us back in the room we had grown to like. She also told us where we could park our car for free without having to worry about moving it etc (it was a 5 min walk away but a helluva lot less stress). Content with what we heard from her, we agreed to stay. Having got our Scuba out the way and our hospitality issues sorted, we were now able to proceed with enjoying Sydney City...
(Part 2 of Mornington to Sydney will be uploaded shortly)