Never thought
I’d be saying that! Well, we are reaching the end of our sojourn in this
massive and invigorating country.
We’ve been
spending the last couple of weeks in our second house sit, looking after Lacey
the Pointer, who freaks out during thunderstorms and neurotic Lizzie, the
Manchester Terrier who won’t let you get near enough to her to take her out, at
the lovely home of Kerry and David Williams. They have been kind enough to let us
stay on after their cruise (and our house sit) ended so that we can go straight
to Emily’s in Bondi Beach and impose on her for the last week!
After we left
Byron Bay, our intention was to go inland a bit and visit The Museum of
Interesting Things – a curiosity owned by Russell Crowe in the tiny village of
Nymboida. We drove through twisty, windy roads up into the mountains. A
spectacular drive, made quite challenging by the tropical monsoon that started
not long after we left Byron.
Anyway, after
several hairy moments, we arrived about lunchtime. There is an inn next to the
museum, so we were looking forward to some refreshment. But guess what: ‘Closed
until further notice’! so we never got to see Russell Crowe’s Maximus costume
from ‘Gladiator’ or many other doubtless ‘interesting things’.
Struggling
personfully on through the storms, we eventually reached our stop for the night
– the First Fleet Memorial Gardens free camp in Wallabadah – at about 7 pm and
experienced a startling sunset through the rain.
We arrived at
Chipping Norton (Sydney) the next afternoon and started looking after house and
dogs the following day, where our routine became ‘walk dog, exercise, swim,
shower, then other stuff’
We were able to
go into the city a few times to meet up with the girls and did a really
interesting free walk around The Rocks suburb in central Sydney, where the
council house tenants in beautiful desirable
muse cottages are experiencing something similar to what Johnson and Cameron
are doing in London: putting rents up and forcing tenants out so that they can
sell to highest bidder…
No more
politics (for a while anyway).
We have had a
lovely time staying out of the city and making occasional forays central, one
of the most exciting was last Wednesday, 4th February when we
delivered our faithful campervan Molly to her new owners in the chi-chi suburb
of Ultimo, just five minutes walk from Darling Harbour. Vaughan and Hilda
Walker were the only people to respond to our ads in Gumtree, cars4backpackers
and campersales.com and they were definitely going to buy her unless horrible
things were discovered – which they sort of were, but that didn’t put them off
and they gave us a price very close to what we were looking for, so everybody
was happy. Great weight off our minds!
Since then we
have been relying on public transport, which is surprisingly ok. And we have
been able to properly plan our New Zealand leg – three weeks in each island
with lots to see.
First, though,
a few observations picked up over the last five months driving almost the
entire circumference of this amazing country:
§ In all, we have so far driven 18,210
kilometres and stayed at 60 different campsites – eight of which were free
sites
§ We saw snakes (1); spiders (1 big mofo,
plus a few tiddlers); eagles (2); Jabirus, Kookaburras, hundreds of tiny penguins, sea lions, kangaroos, wallabies,
koalas, ibis, emus, crocodiles (lots); dolphins, sharks, dugongs, turtles, Giant Grouper,
Clown Sweetlips, terrapin, giant clams, stingrays, other fish and birds of all
colours and sizes; ants & mosquitos (billions); cockroaches (too many!); a
giant lobster (see below); box jellyfish (none – thankfully!)
§ We have experienced 100% humidity, monsoons
and psychedelic electrical storms; landscapes of all shapes and sizes – from
forbidding never-ending desert outback, stunning coastline, rainforest, tranquil
blue lagoons and huge rolling surf to green rolling hills and mountains
reminiscent of Wales, The Lake District, Dorset or The New Forest
§ Australians love their sport, which
becomes a sort of barometer of the national psyche. Two days before the country
co-hosts the cricket world cup with New Zealand, there’s a lot of tv coverage.
Especially as Australia are hot favourites to win. Like most countries (except
England and football), they focus on the sports they are likely to do well in,
so winning the Asian Cup in football was pretty big, the Melbourne Open was,
well, less intense after Murray saw off the young pretender Nick
(Kyrgios) – see below
§ I have to say that sports reporting bias
is pretty awful, with Aussie sportsmen routinely called by their first names,
while foreigners get surnamed. This is most obvious in cricket, but happens in
other sports. The relish with which the Australians commentated on their test
cricket series victory over India made me long for TMS, Boycott included!
§ Australians also love 4-wheel drives and
utes (utility vehicles – basically a fancy van). I think it makes them feel
closer to the outback and their ‘rugged outdoor persona’ – where they really
need them. They also need them on most roads, including motorways, which are uniformly
(?) poorly-maintained and give you a bone-jarring experience even on some of
the most used highways
§ It’s legal to overtake on the inside,
which is a bit weird; road signs are inconsistent and often don’t tell you what
you need to know until it’s too late. Pulling out in front of you seems to be
an accepted idiocy
§ Healthy eating and fitness is splattered
all over the place – 24/7 gyms, health food cafes and smoothie stalls abound.
Yet there is real danger of an obesity epidemic reaching American proportions. Lots
of overweight people in cities, towns and outback
§ Television – unless it’s imported from
UK and US – is pretty much shite
§ Tony Abbot’s a dick. So is Clive Palmer
(‘fuckwit’ – as Kerry Williams said – to be more accurate). Both are guilty of
fuelling panic over the Asian Invasion and creating irrational fear and
prejudice. At the time of writing, the Report Card on inclusion of indigenous
peoples in Australian society has just been published. It was pretty damning –
showing backwards movement in almost every area, from health and education through
to jobs
§ A special mention to the warmth and
friendliness of Australians (and ex-pats) generally, especially Derick &
Beth Johnston, Peter & Nora Willlis, Peter & Michal in Stanhope
Gardens, Kerry & David Williams, plus my lovely former student Charlotte
and her flatmate Katie in Melbourne. Not forgetting of course our wonderful
daughters Holly and Emily in Bondi who put us up (put up with us?!) and their
charming friends – all made us feel so very welcome.
§ Good on yer. No worries. Too easy
§ Grey nomads everywhere – keep on
trucking!
That’s about it
from me. We’ve had a blast travelling around this huge country and it has only
made us determined to come back and start filling in the gaps of the bits we
missed. But for now it’s looking forward to stage two, then on to USA…
P.S. That is quite a missive, I feel quite
emotional reading it through. (Gillie here, by the way!) I felt, while reading the last bit that we
were on our way home!! Is there
something that Andy’s not telling me??
It’s ok though and only the end of stage one, so no way Jose are we
going home yet, we’ve only just started and after a brief rest in Chipping
Norton, to get our breath back, courtesy of our wonderful hosts Kerry and
David, we are more than ready to hit the road again for more adventures and
experiences.
The only
downside about moving on is leaving the girls, as when we fly off to New
Zealand on 21st February we don’t know when we’ll be seeing them
again (a sobering thought...) however, knowing them (and us) something will
happen before too long!!
We’re looking
forward to seeing Andy’s brother and his wife (Steve and Kathy) again and
spending time with them in Wellington, as well as a week with them in the north
of the North Island. We’re also looking
forward to meeting up with our lovely friend Joan and her son in Christchurch,
we’ve arranged lunch on February 28th.
We discussed it
as a possibility before we left Fleet and soon it will be happening. So if any of you are planning a trip that may
coincide with ours, please let us know and that’ll be another lunch/dinner date
to look forward to!!
We’re renting
campers in NZ, but will no doubt be raising a glass to our trusty friend Molly,
who delivered us safe and sound back to Sydney and who has enabled us to live
this amazing new life. We plan to call
all future campers, Molly, in her honour.
I must be getting soppy in my old age, to have feelings for a camper
van!! (But she was special!!)
Time to finish
before I too get emotional.
Loads of love
to everyone...See you in New Zealand
Gillie xxxxxx
PPS - if you want to subscribe, follow the blog and post comments, I think I've just discovered how! type your email address in the space at the top of the post and you can subscribe that way (I think). Good luck
PPS - if you want to subscribe, follow the blog and post comments, I think I've just discovered how! type your email address in the space at the top of the post and you can subscribe that way (I think). Good luck
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| About that giant lobster... |
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| Lizzie (top) and Lacey - our neurotic charges |
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| Say no more |
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| Strange sunset after a day of continuous rain |
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| Terrapin…check out the cute face (says Gillie) |
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| no, I'm not just about to clout Emily! |
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| It's a hard life - relaxing with a beer in the jacuzzi at Chipping Norton |
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