Xmas and birthdays in a heat wave

The Mungins are now into the last 5 weeks before the kids break up for Summer hols and Christmas. How wierd does that sound? after spending 40 years in a hemisphere with a cold christmas, I am struggling to get my head around any alternative. I thought the supermarket had lost it the other day when I turned up to do the shopping and they were playing piped Xmas music. It suddenly dawned on me why. Who can blame me for forgetting Noel when there are next to no decorations anywhere to be seen and only the odd box of crackers on the ends of aisles, easily missed in the search for more mundane things like a box of cheerios!If you long for glitter free christmases lacking in consumerism then an Oz xmas is for you. I will wait and see if things change!

Ciara had yet another bowling party to celebrate a birthday;this time her ninth, where she wiped the floor with her Aussie schoolmates. May have to see if they do bowling as an after school club!!

My birthday was spent having lunch in a lovely veggie restaraunt overlooking the sea with a couple of friends. Grant remembered my birthday this year and suprised me : a book on punctuation! All joking aside, its been a good read so far as you can see from the use of the colon!Just have to find an excuse to use a semicolon now!

The heatwave continues with a draining 34-36 today. Didn't bother to actually check what it finally reached as I was too busy recovering from cycling 5 km in it! Apparently Adelaide is 43 at moment and it's only Spring! The swimming pool has certainly come into its own and the kids have been very popular with all the neighbours children, funny that!

Kayaking up the Khyber

Felt the need to add my own insights into the sea kayak adventure undertaken by us ladies whilst the gents sipped beer on their luxury craft, as I felt this section had been grossly under represented especially for comedy value!

Still am uncertain how I persuaded my sister that kayaking with 2 reasonably young kids in double sea kayaks in the Pacific ocean would be a good idea. I think she had very little time to consider the magnitude of the feat she was about to undertake until she turned up at Shute Harbour that early Tue morning. As the nutty New Zealander, who was to be our guide, proceeded to run through safety proceedings: paddle technique, steering advice and a rough itinerary which involved paddling to Hamilton Island; a journey which had taken 45 minutes on a catamaran doing 20 knots the day before, my sisters face turned a shade of green. I also began to have misgivings as he explained the importance of paddling in unison with your partner; remembering the last time we had taken Ciara out in a canoe when she had screamed at Grant on three separate occasions in the space of ten minutes,"I've lost my oars daddy " and that was on a calm canal in Scotland!
" Do you think it would be possible for the little one to just sit up front and watch ?"I asked desperately.
"Oh yes if you think you are capable of rowing a double kayak by yourself " came the reply.
"MMmm" I nervously whispered .

Thus armed with waterproof skirts worn above the nipple line, a bottle of water, life jackets and a quick prayer to anyone who was listening we set off.

It soon became apparent that Sam and me would be bringing up the rear as the various couple sped away in some kind of crazy race along with the instructor. We barely managed to keep them in our line of sights especially as I was keeping my eyes on the cruise ship heading out of the small harbour mouth, at speed and on a collision course with me! Well that's how it seemed from my angle.

After a good 30 minutes paddling we finally caught up with the rest of the group who'd been sunning themselves in a mangrove at the edge of the harbour mouth.
"OK that was your quick rest!" The kiwi shouted, "and now onwards."
"What about us?" I was heard to scream as they once again took off in some sort of recreation of the Americas cup .
"Just remember to keep paddling and don't stop or the tidal current will sweep you back and oh it gets a bit choppy out at this point."

A bit choppy, a bit choppy, it appeared more like a series of 10ft tsunamis as I fought the savage waters ahead: dehydrating, feeling queasy, lactic acid accumulating in my arms at the rate of knots and my lovely daughter in the prow shouting,
"I'm getting wet, can't I row now!"

I seemed to have overtaken Sam at this point and understood why once I'd cleared the worst of the turbulent waters when I looked back and caught her sunning herself whilst Caitlin wrestled the waves stoically: a point she hotly denies!
One hour later and we reached some sort of rocky island . I was the last to arrive watched by all and sundry who were tucking into the fruit and nuts and resting on the beach.
"What happened to Hamo?" I asked ( well you can see I was picking up the local lingo)
"I was only joking about that" laughed the kiwi as I heaved a huge sigh of relief.
I now had a large blister on my left hand and and an empty pit where my stomach should be and no bloody sea turtles- not one. However the swim just off the island made up for all the effort as I donned yet another ridiculous looking stinger suit and swam gently in the beautiful warm turquoise waters surrounded by fantastic views of the Whitsunday Islands.
This moment of idyllic tranquility was shred to pieces as our now much hated leader shouted from shore
" OK back to the boats for another paddle"

I have to say the tiredness overcame Sam and me on the journey home as we descended into fits of giggles playing bumper boats. Also watching Caitlin get the better of Sam and refusing to paddle properly at times had me in stitches. Still we arrived back in one piece although my arms have yet to recover!

The last push

We're now on to Tuesday, Melbourne Cup day, and our last day in the Whitsundays.

Sharon and the girls have booked an all morning Sea Kayak tour, which I looked on at enviously, but Phil wanted to go big game fishing and I sacrificed my personal interests to keep him company.

We arrived at the jetty at 7:45am, and oursleves and 3 Germans get on the boat. As it turned out big game fishing was in the the confines of the bay and we caught sod all.

I'm not really into fishing but some of the views in the bay were very nice, with the sun beating down on cerulean seas. There were some moment of humour (well my own internal humour anyway) when we'd caught nothing for hours and everyone was beginning to look inwards. There we were bobbing on the sea, silent in our own thougts, beginning to feel a litte like some kind of 50's movie with everyone slowly dying on the open Ocean.

Breaking the bubble, we were back at the Quay in time for lunch, and met a tired and a slightly burnt group of ex kayakers.

We had one last chance to eat out before departing, and stumbled into the madness of Melbourne Cup Day. Here we were 1,500 miles north of Melbourne, but had a town full of people in full race regalia, sitting in restaurants, serving champagne on "Cup Day".

We then drove south for Mackay Airport, eventually arriving in Melbourne at about 11pm. Our final Melbourne Cup interaction was the ludicrous 45 minutes wating for a bus to the long stay car park at Melbourne Aiport. It seemed a disproportionate number of drivers had 'phoned in ill on this day.

We eventually got home at 1am, very tired but having had a great compressed visit to a tropical paradise.

If anyone wants the trip pictures here they are: http://www.flickr.com/photos/36445314@N08/sets/72157622621199139/

Indulgent Hamilton

Having done 3 Islands in one day we decided to spend our last full day on the Cannes/Monte Carlo of Queensland - Hamilton.

We arrived in the morning - spending $600 to get there (the argument was it avoided the bogans), booked a golf cab/buggy thing to get around and went over to "Resort". This is on Catseye beach, an iconic tropical beach and part of the 2-3 main hotels here. Its also "free" to us, having paid to get here, and we settled in for the day. My interest in staring at tropical paradise beaches all day was beginining to wane, but it was gobsmackinlgy beautiful.

Sharon and I hired a Kayak and went out to where the Sea Turtles fed. We managed to see three of these guys, but trapped on the surface, on a small boat, we saw little more. Fighting to keep oursleves in line with the waves we made our way back to shore.

After a lunch of good wine and great prawns, we left Phil and Sam to the beach and went round the Island on our buggy. There were some great vantage points, some huge houses, and an inability to get into the gated hotel community of Qualia http://www.qualia.com.au/, one of the worlds newest must go to places. My AMEX Black Card was obviously never going to open the gates.

A few hours later we took the boat back to Airlie Beach, tired and ready for our last day.

Whitehaven Beach

Whitehaven is classed as one of the best 10 best beaches in the world. There are some confusing and contradictory criteria for a good beach, and rightly some Scottish Beaches are nudging the top 10. I have to say though that Whitehaven has some justification.

We sailed the long way round Hamilton (the wind was really driving the sea by this time) and the short route/narrow channel wasn't recommended.

I'm not really into sitting on beaches doing nothing, but this was pared back minimalism. We pulled into the main bay with 5-6 other big tourist boats intent on the same purpose.

The beach itself has no facilities: no bars, no restaurants, no tourist information centre - nature at its best. Equally there was nothing to do but sit and admire some of the purist silica sand in the world. I have to say despite being an adrenaline junky/do something kind of guy, this held my attention for the 2-3 hours we spent there.

The girls went swimming, we lathered on sunscreen liberally, we saw turtles (which by now is becoming blase (I can't believe I'm saying that)), we wandered down the beach from the "crowds" of 1-200 people, then got back on the boat to home.

Despite Whitehaven, at the end of the day, as a group, we decide to spend the next day (Monday) on Hamilton.

Whitsundays - Hamilton

We got a hint of the real Hamilton in the 1-2 hours we had here.

Boat starts heading towards the harbour and suddenly a small jet flys by and lands on the very small runway jutting out into the sea. As the boat pulls into the marina we pass one multi million dollar boat after another until we arrive at the jetty.

4 of us were coated in salt encrusted sea water after the earlier Jetski trip. Intsead of the, probably planned, trip round the shops, we jumped on a bus, arrived at "Resort", jumped in the pool and ran back to the marina and got on the boat to Whitehaven.

It was a madcap tour around a millionairre's paradise, but gave some of us an appetite for more.

The Whitsunday Blitz - Daydream - NOT!!

Unsure of where to go in the Whitsundays we had booked a 3 Island excursion: couple of hours on Daydream, 2 hours on Hamilton, and a few hours on Whitehaven beach - all with a big Cat whizzing us from one t'other. The 2 hours each on the first two turned out to be closer to an hour each and it all became a bit mad.

Daydream was badly named, and has become a very tired and worn out little Island. The main restaurant/bar complex here was also pretty cheap and tacky.

Redemption was found in hiring a pair of Jetskis for 30 mins. Phil and Sam had one and Ciara and I the other. Caitlin is going through a worried age at the moment and immediately saw 14 ways to die when she saw the Jetskis.

I'd never been on one of these before but they turned out to be great fun. Bashing along at 50mph, or 35 mph when facing into the rather windy and heavy seas, with solid waves of spray hitting your eyes giving zero visibility was great fun - no honest.

Phil and Sam, partly through natural disposition, and partly not having an 8 year old on the back were really going for it and one scene with there 'ski at about 40 degrees and about 6 feet in the air was pretty impressive.

5 mins later though and it became they're undoing. I'm looking around and there is an empty 'ski bucking in the heavy seas. We're told to keep 100m clear from each other but I wander over by which time Sammy is back on board. Unfortuantely Phil had the key for the engine on the little stretchy cord thing and is bobbing away into the distance.

In the end the boat comes out from the quay and we're all back in and make a rush for the departing Cat. Next stop Hamilton.

Frantic Trip

Sammy and Phil have vanished to warmer climes in Noosa, and Sharon had previously agreed we would meet them at the end of their holiday for a 4 day trip further North. This was utilising the Melbourne Cup public holiday to give us a 4 day weekend.

5am Saturday morning we're up, off to Melbourne airport, get on a 2 hour flight to Brisbane, meet Phil and Sam at the aiport, get on a 1.5 hour flight to Mackay, get the hire car and drive 2 hours North to Airlie Beach. Phew!! We were there by about 2pm. Phil was still coming to terms with the scale of this country and originally looking at the map thought he would drive from Noosa to Airlie - but that was 1,000km!

Airlie itself was a little like Cairns and clearly was a bit of a backpacker town. We were taken a little aback by this as we thought as the gateway to the Whitsundays it would be a little more upmarket.

We found the hotel, had a good run at the hill and booked in. The hill comment comes from the fact that the hotel is very new, and has been built into a steep hillside behind Airlie, looking over the bay. I'd swear the car was going to tilt over backwards as we climbed a couple of hills. Although the road continues on up the hill above the hotel, the development has stopped. It turned out no firetrucks could make it up the hill and planning permission was pulled.

The hotel suite was great and normally more than we could afford. However we got a discount as it was a new build, presumably to cover any snagging problems. The only problems we had were the crane, and half built hotel and marina down the by the beach.

We went into Airlie and planned the manic next 3 days.

Food, Glorious Food

My sister Sam and husband Phil arrived this week, looking forward to some pleasant Aussie weather. It all started so well with their first day hitting a peak of 28 degrees before nosediving back down to the high teens accompanied by a bracing wind and all in the space of a cat nap.
We had warned them of Melbourne's reputation of four seasons in a day but unless you have experienced it directly, it still can be difficult to get to grips with.
The week quickly turned into a foodie holiday with the best of the eating experiences Melbourne has to offer and a never ending sea of great restaurants and cafes in which to delight the taste buds. Unfortunately for Sam this did involve , on the second evening, her watching the rest of us tuck into a veritable banquet of: blue swimmer crab, scampi, barramundi, swordfish in pesto, sour cherry and pistachio semifreddo and a baked alaska for 6 whilst she looked on with a severe throat infection; only able to write down her requests for a beer which she mostly looked at, finding it hard to swallow even her own saliva.
The most hilarious moment came for me when Sam, now recovered and back on form decided to help pick up the girls from school. Since the girls now cycle to and from school, Sam was required to cycle the 1 and half miles to pick them up. The only spare working bike on offer was Grant's racer and accompanying helmet and because neither of us had the skill or inclination to make any adjustments to either, they were left set up for Grant. Watching her:with her feet unable to touch the floor, helmet slipping down over her eyes and body in typical racing posture as she set off down the hill, I screamed, "Have you ever ridden a racer before?"
"No where are the breaks?" She replied and proceeded to fly away at great speed with me laughing so much I nearly tumbled from my own bike whilst trying to catch her before she hit a main road. Watching her wobble around on thin tyres made for a very entertaining journey: equally so on the way home as Caitlin took great delight in sending her the wrong way at roundabouts with me shouting in the distance,"left, left" as she tottered precariously along!
They have now escaped to visit Noosa, leaving the improving Melbourne weather behind but bringing the rain with them!

Onwards and Upwards

I've rashly agreed at work to be part of a 4 man team in the run up the Eureka Tower event on 22nd November. Eureka Tower is the highest building in Melbourne and will involve 88 floors, 1,900 steps, and 300m or a 1000 ft of climbing.
http://techlab.scherdan.com/albums/skyscrapers/Eureka_Tower_0944a.jpg

As in all things Australian, the other 3 team Members are Olympic Gods in the atheltics world: one is even doing a road race on the afternoon of the same day - I may well become the limiting factor here.

In an attempt to bolster the cycling I'm again trying to get back into running - if nothing else to loosen the legs up a little from their habitual rotary motion.

If anyone is interested the world record for the equivalent race up the 86 floors of the Empire State Building is 9 mins 34 seconds!!! - naturally held by an Australian. I'm dumbfounded by this, but can't help think the other 3 are at least imagining a finish not embarassed by this time.

And Just an Afterthought

I just wanted to add a little something to Grant's summation of our holiday experiences in Queensland. He failed to mention that his references to Jaws quotes were due to the fact that we made the girls watch that cinematic masterpiece on dvd the night before our second snorkel trip. Caitlin took it in her stride although was heard to briefly ask whether we would see any Great Whites on our trip out to the reef whilst Ciara did a runner for bed just about the time Richard Dreyfuss saw the head coming out of the bottom of the boat, shouting"I think I need to go to bed now as I am very tired!!"

Spring In Melbourne part 1

So due to much public demand ( well one person did ask why we weren't blogging anymore) the Mungin blog has returned with vigour. I would like to say the same for spring in Melbourne being under the false impression that we lived in a dry and hot climate. Suffice to say the average temp during daytime has hovered between 14 and 17 degrees over the last couple of days and we even had hail. Apparently all the children in Caitlin's year looked on in amazement as ice fell from the sky, to which Caitlin remarked, "It's only hail!"

As Ciara's leg has returned to complete normality( it was diff to see where the break had been on her xray first week back) we have now started cycling to school. In fact I have begun to cycle everywhere in sandals and my new cycle shorts , oh and a top of course! This is in part due to my having given up running after another bout of injuries. Seb Coe I was apparently not, more like Eddie the Eagle well in trainers and minus the skies of course!

I have also returned to the early morning swimming although first dayI turned up at 5.30am in my eagerness only to find that the nutters don't start until 6am ! I was joined by Duncan Goodhue and the Australian olympic team who proceeded to swim, literal circles, around me as I attempted to do fly legs and crawl arms. Guess the instructor didn't mean housefly legs!

The last of my exercise regime involves a dance class on a Friday morning. Now those of you who are aware of my lack of dance coordination will not be suprised to find out that I stand at the back doing my own thing while the rest of the class try to find supportive words to encourage me,even the eighty year old granny whom I think must have trained in the Bolshoi ballet, seem to pick up the steps quicker than me. However true to form I persist in the abuse of body and street credentials in the happy knowledge that I'll only be here for another year and after that the mad semi clothed cycling, night time 'swimming' and she really shouldnt do that to music and in lycra, exerciser, will be a distant and hopefully hazy mermory in the Melbournian psyche.

I feel that I should also give mention to the fact that some of the people who live in Melbourne are completely sports mad! While waiting outside the swimming pool at 5.30am the other morning I saw numerous chains gangs of cyclists whizzing past . For those of you who don't understand the words chain gang, it is not as I once thought, a term for imprisoned folk chained together and made to do manual labour, but in the cycling world it is a term for imprisoned folk chained together and made to do manual labour for fun. And to think my husband wants to join this cruel sport!!

In fact he is pondering attempting another long distance cycle race and approached one of his new friends at work whom he knows does a little cycling. "Oh you mean you need a training partner. Yeah that could be fun but I just need to get the Marathon out of the way next weekend and the long distance sea swim race held over 10 miles then I'm all yours!! Grant was a little taken aback and after that stopped talking about it all.

The last thing I want to mention is 'The Return of the Ducks.' Yes once more the ducks have returned to our swimming pool. This is despite a) removal of their eggs from nest by the side of the pool.
b) me chasing said creatures around pool in my dressing gown as I am the only family member not scared of them
c) the liberal use of Duck Off - a substance recommended and then supplied by the swimming pool people - I was worried initially that this substance would do something unpleasant to our unwanted but lovely vermin,but I shoudln't have worried as they seem to love the stuff and I think it should be renamed Duck food!!
Anyway am hoping the warmer months and the sight of all of us Mungins in bathers should have the desired effect and if in fact this turns out to be the case I will be selling us on to other fellow 'ducks in our swimming pool' sufferers.

North Queensland - The conclusion

I write this as a summary of our holiday, and after a bottle of wine. I have to say its all beginning to feel a bit self analysis/therapeutic - you write down your thoughts and feelings into the void for your own purpose. C'mon guys the occasional comment on the blog: a hint of jealousy, derision, anything would be good.

Anyway, North Queensland. I had no preconceptions other than the barrier reef. That in itself easily overwrote the old mantra of reality being tinged by the weight of expectation: it really was gob smackingly beautiful, and I still remember moments of hearing strange muffled/high pitched whines as I would snorkel along pysically shaking with excitement and attempting to squeal with delight under water.

The land side of the trip was more complex. The landscape was beautiful and challenging in equal measure, and to a certain extent created the character of the people. It's all very well being Euro cool (quite literally) in Melbourne, but the relentless mega watt sun needs a certain individual to cope, and despite my recent complaints about Melbourne's Spring birthing pains, it ain't me.

Still, if you include the highly recommended detours from the obvious attractions on the coast, its a great trip to a true tropical paradise, and an insight into the genuine Australian outback experience.

North Queensland - The last leg

We only had 3 days holiday left and work was beginning to encroach on my thoughts.

We had a couple of days resting, wandering around Port Douglas, and letting the kids enjoy the pool in the complex, while I undertook the impossible task of finding a bottle of VB in Queensland.

These 2 days were bisected by our final trip out, this time to the Daintree Forest and Cape Tribulation.

The dust had cleared at his point and the drive north afforded beautiful views of the mountains, before we crossed the ferry on the Daintree River and plunged into dense rainforest with a road that started following the curves of the headland.

We stopped off at the Daintree National Park centre, walking through the forest and climbing the 4 storey observation tower to get above the canopy. Daintree appears to be the worlds oldest rainforest, containing a huge divesity of plant and animal life, as well as some of the earliest plants. Having admired lizards and the usual giant strangler figs we found out that the sting from the stinging vine remains diabolically painful for months and we quickly left.

We drove north to Cape Tribulation, hoping to see the Cassowary bird, an Emu like creature. There were road signs everywere to look out for them, but we saw none.

Finally we arrive Cape Tribulation, and quite literally run out of road. North of here its 4x4 only up to Capetown. We stayed for a while to admire the endless tropical beaces, and Cape Trib itself. Captain Cook beached his boat here for repairs after hitting a reef, and his diary had the rather odd line in it saying "This is where our troubles started"! I'm tempted to read the rest to find out what went wrong in this tropical paradise. Having exausted our views of the beaches we turned around and headed back to Port Douglas, still forlornly looking for Cassowary.

North Queensland - yet another day

Having pretty much become wrinkled prunes with all the water activity we now turned our attention inland.

The Atherton table lands are a plateau above the coast, rich in volcanic soils. Here are the coffee and banana plantations, and the small country towns of the Australian outback - population 200 and 3 'Roos.

We were aiming for the Misty Mountains and the waterfall tour - an area of probably a couple of hundred square kilometres dotted with waterfalls.

This was actually a great trip, seeing something a little different from the obvious tourist activities along the coast. The falls were set in beautiful scenery, at the bottom of steep ravines in surprisingly hilly country. With a little bit of green showing in the hills there was also a little homesickness.

The falls aside, there were some amazing lookouts. Unfortunately, the crystal clear views of the early holiday had been replaced by the remnants of the Sydney duststorms as they moved North, and haze and hints of what might have been were the order of the day.

End of the day were the Josephine Falls on the lower slopes of Bartle Frere, the highest mountain in Queensland. It would have been great to climb to the top, but 2 children, the ten hour round trip, and despite the path, rainforest all the way to the top said no.

We travelled 250 miles in total today, and it was well worth it for all we saw.

North Queensland - Day 10

And so to our second, and more focussed trip to the Outer Reef. It was Agincourt again, and with the same Company - Quicksilver. This time though it was 80 people on a high speed Catamaran, and instead of berthing at a pontoon for the day it made 3 roughly 2 hour each stops at places of interest. The focus here was also much more on diving with the snorkellers as hangers on.

The first stop was excellent, with the usual myriad supply of beautiful fish. We even managed to find our own Giant Clam, with Caitlin now practised enough to dive down and touch it. I really hope she retains these memories and they don't fade as she moves through adolesence.

Sharon and I took turns supporting Ciara, who was just about beginning to get the hang of the snorkel. One of the highlights for Ciara was when one of the crew started throwing bits of fish off the back of the semi submerged platform at the back of the boat. When our very own pet Maori Wrasse appeared, all 5 feet of him, Ciara initially had the "we're gonna need a bigger boat" look from Roy Schneider in Jaws, but quickly settled down to stroking this monster as it hung around the boat for 10 mins.

The second dive site was a bit more challenging, requiring a fair amount of swimming to see around. There was also a drop off with a pinnacle rising about 60 feet up and we were assured there were Barracuda here. In the end I just spotted some but couldn't quite get down to their depth. The fish were again good when you could find them, and it's where I took most of our photos (having now worked out how to use an underwater camera - http://www.flickr.com/photos/36445314@N08/sets/72157622387117133/), however you could feel family fatigue beginning to kick in.

The 3rd and final drop was becoming a swim too far for us. We started moving through a gap in the reef to the open Ocean, the boat rocking in the heavy Ocean Swell. The top divers were dropped off here in a very military style operation: 1 after another dropped off the back of the boat until a line of 15 bobbing people could be seen snaking out in a line.

We then back through the gap and settled against the reef for the next hour. The swimming though was fairly brief. Sharon and Caitlin went with the guided tour, but there were about 15 people instead of the 4 we had on the previous trip and they cut it short. There was also a heavy current to contend with, coming through the break in the reef a few hundred metres away.

An hour later the open Ocean divers caught up with us, and a tired group headed for home, with some great pictures and memories.

North Queesland: Days 6-9

Today we moved from the Hotel in Cairns to our apartment in Port Douglas. The drive along the Captain Cook Highway was great, and nearly the equal of the Great Ocean Road in Victoria. Less dramatic, but endless white sand beaches, with rainforest hills rolling down to the shore were pretty spectacular.

The next 2 days consisted of lazy days around the pool and shopping and eating in Port Douglas, at the end of which I was getting a little bored.

Day 9 consisted of a drive further up the coast to stop at the Mossman Gorge. A beautiful deepcut gorge with large cystal clear swimming holes fed by chilly mountain water. Again as it wasn't the wet season it wasn't quite as spectacular as I guess it could have been.

The afternoon was a trip on a boat on the Daintree river to look for "salties". I was pleasantly surprised to see 2-3 resting in the water next to the Mangroves, but am beginning to think Crocodiles are a tourist hoax, and are really plastic mock ups - they never move! We'll need to go to the Northern Territory on the next holiday where they do the dangle chicken carcass thing to prove people like me wrong.

On the Saturday was the most depressing part of the holiday as we stayed in to watch the AFL Grand Final on the telly. It was the all conquering Geelong against the girls team St Kilda, who hadn't won since 1967, and there was a bit of romantic optimism in the air. As it was the game was close fought and went down to the final 5 minutes. St Kilda unfortunately lost - gutted!

Queensland Day 5

Yesterday we said farewell to Neil and Helen, at the end of what I hope was a great 3 week advernture for them: taking some in some of the great sights in Victoria (with mixed weather), a scorching Sydney, and the Barrier Reef. It was really good of them to come so far to see us.

We spent the rest of the day relaxing and booking a day trip to one of the inner reef Isles for Day 5.

We chose Green Island, which was about an hour from Cairns, and consisted I guess of what was a small Atoll. The booking clerk promised Sea Turtles, Manta Ray, even sightings of Elvis and Jimmy Hoffa, all of which I took with a pinch of salt.

I was pleasantly surprised on arriving, as the Island was a bit of a tropical paradise: I was expecting Ricardo Montablan and that midget to welcome us, and we quickly booked some snorkelling gear, some sunbeds and obligatory grass umbrella and stared out over prisitine white sand to an aquamarine sea under a cobalt blue sky.

The snorkelling was suprisingly good off the beach, and although not quite as good as the Outer Reef. Swimming out just a little took you to some reasonable coral and fish.

After lunch we took the 10 minute boardwalk through the Island to the other side, admiring the rainforest as we went. The shock as we arrived at the other side was that there was basically no-one here. Your very own private beach paradise - it beggars belief. To cap it all we did actually see a couple of turtles in the water, occassionally raising their heads.

Finally hauling ourselves back to our sun beds the day only got better as an hour later Sharon came stumbling out the water like a scene from Jaws, shouting the same word again and again at the top of her voice. Tens of people turned to look, or lazily lifted heads from sun beds as Sharon shouted "Turtle!, Turtle!, I've been with Turtles".

As much to get away from the embarrasment, Sharon took her turn with the girls and off I went. Surely not, the chance of finding them, but 5 minutes later, there was one on the sea bed. He (?) moved as I approached and we calmly swam around each other for 5 minutes until I darted in for a fleeting touch of his carapace before he got fed up and wandered off.

As we sailed home that night, I was really trying to assimilate some of these incredible experiences.

North Queensland Day 3

The Great Barrier Reef. One of the great reasons to go to this part of the world is a trip to the Barrier Reef. The six of us had booked a trip to the Agincourt Reef - at about 30km out definitely the outer part of the reef - next stop the 1,500 foot drop off the continental shelf.

We went with a pretty slick organisation with their wave piercing high speed catamaran to spend the day attached to their pontoon. The only fly in the ointment is that we shared this wonderful experience with about 300 other people. Arriving at the pontoon, civilized humanity evaporated as 306 people charged for snorkelling gear.

Suitably togged up we had our first foray into the water and received two pretty quick shocks. First was that it may be an Ocean, but the Pacific isn't the North Atlantic: and with a temperature in the mid 20's was really pleasant to swim in. The second was that you have some idea of wondering around in the water waiting for the occassional fish to appear, but the minute your in there are fish everywhere, and evrey colour of the rainbow - its gobsmacking.

One of the highlights of the day for Sharon and I was Neil and Helen generously looking after the 2 girls while we went on an advanced snorkelling tour. "Advanced" or a large lunch had obviously put people off, and 4 of us and a marine biologist wandered/floated/swam off for an hour. The advantage with the expert was being taken to all the interesting spots and our eyes got wider and wider as we wandered from Giant Clams on the sea bed straight out of Hollywood 1930's movies, to sea sponges, to large coral gardens beatifully lit just a couple of feet below the surface. Its a bit of a pity really that one of the highlights with Neil and Helen visiting was the hour we didn't spend with them.

I took Neil's waterproof camera with me on this tour but didn't use it properly. Its pretty disappointing to think of all those great pics you took, and then get back on the boat and find there were none!

All to soon they day was over and we headed back to Cairns. Unfortunately, high on euphoria, the marketing spiel of a 20% discount for another tour was too much and we booked in again for later on the holiday on a slightly different tour.

North Queensland Day 2

Up into the rainforest on our first full day. For those that haven't been, Cairns and the rest of the coast is a thin strip about 5km deep backing onto the great dividing range.

Today we took a cable car up into the rainforest, past the Barron Gorge and falls, and up to Kalundra, an old staging post town, turned hip craft market, tourist spot.

This trip had trapped tourist all over it, but from the minute we started it was great. After an initial climb the cable car settled into a routine of gently gliding over the rainforest canopy, and once over the inital hill the coast vanished and we were in the Lost World. You could look out the window and down the 100 feet or so into the packed/tangled quagmire of vines, bushes, and ferns, or look out over the canopy and watch Cockatoo's swooping.

There were 2 interim stops, on the cable car with great opportunities to wander around boardwalks in within the forest. The second of these stops allowed a view of the Barron Gorge, the edge of which the cable car was following. At this point were the falls, with huge jagged cliffs carrying the river water down to the lower level. As it was the dry season the falls were great but rather overpowered by the cliffs. Postcards of them in full flow in the wet season look spectacular.

We eventually arrive at Kuranda which was a pleasant craft town. It also had a Butterfly World, where you got to wander around a greenhouse type area seeing some of the largest and most colourful butterflies I've ever seen including Cairns Bird Wing and Ulysees. Butterflies have the craziest abilities with that thing where they liquify there bodies in the cocoon and somehow rebuild it all into a butterfly. Its so specialized that toxins ingested by Cairn Birdwing caterpillars remain intact in the adult butterfly, completely ignored by the chemical soup process.

2 hours later we took the famous Kuranda train down the other side of the Gorge back to Cairns. This had been a working railway to get goods off the plateau to the coast, and included 15 tunnels chisseled out of the rock by hand - only in Australia.

The North Queensland Holiday

God we did so much, the blog will run forever.





This was the second and last of our 2 week holidays this year and we were going to be based out of Cairns and Port Douglas, spending the first few days with our friends Neil and Helen, before they returned to the UK.

We leave Melbourne and 3.5 flying hours later we arrive in Cairns, marvelling again at the scale of this Country. You could be in North Africa from London in that time.

Cairns was a little like Blackpool on heat: endless gift shops, "authentic" dijeridoo shops everywhere, and buskers. The buskers were generally mellow, although the one who played on the street below our hotel window played the same repetoire EVERY night.

Something to do with the heat, but Cairns drivers are like Melburnians on Ketamine. I mean it was like watching kids driving those little cars in theme parks. You could see them through the heat haze driving down the road, and you waited and waited and waited. Then they saw you wanting to cross and stopped! How anyone gets anywhere is beyond me.

The hotel was good - clean, roomy, with a balcony overlooking the Esplanade, the large outdoor "infinity" public pool, and the bay. It also had its own pool, mercifully in the shade.

Sydney trip with Neiland Helen Sept 2009

Travelled with Neil and Helen for my (this being Sharon since I'm in Sydney about once a month) second trip to Sydney to finish off our sightseeing there. Managed to find a few more things that we hadn't done the last time .

The first of these was a walk around the Botanical gardens where we spent a great deal of time being amazed by the fruit bat colony ( also known as Flying Foxes ). The colony was suprisingly active for the daytime and a soaring temp of 30 degrees plus. We managed to successfully duck the falling gauno as we watched and heard these flying acrobats, seeking perches amongst the trees.

Inside the park we also discovered a large pond, home to numerous tame eels. These eels which looked much like Moray eels to me (I admit to having no wisdom to bring to the subject) were obviously used to being fed, as every time a child stuck a stick into their watery homes they would swim quickly over to this spot, and surface through the murky depths, mouths agape. Not that dissimilar to me at lunch time in a swanky restaurant, when the plates are hovered inches from me on their way to their ultimate destinations: I am not sure if it has been the eating in Sydney or our recent holiday that has added 1/2 stone to these rapidly ageing hips!

We also enjoyed a night cruise to Darling harbour for a swanky night time meal, and a day cruise to Manly where I enjoyed sitting on the beach wall under the stately pines admiring the view whilst the children: made sandcastles(Ciara), posed( Caitlin) and kicked sand in people's faces (Grant).

The trip was finished off by a very enjoyable morning around the Rocks Sunday market. All of us spent a good number of hours trying to decide which trinkets to purchase, all of us except Grant that is, who looked on in disbelief at the amount of time his wife, kids and friends would spend emersed in tack and still claiming to want to see more. He seemed to make himself scarce whenever I needed a second opinion on a purchase which only held me back a small amount in the end, as I had friends there to help for once!

July -Sept 2009

Just realised how little we have been writing on blog site since returning from our last Queensland holiday.

Ciara's leg has healed really well and her cast came off 6 weeks after her leg was fixed. The wheelchair was a nightmare so was a great relief to see the back of that. She also received an Aussie statement at the end of term which means a classroom assistant finally!! Shame it had to be Australia that provided it but it may mean things are easier on our return to the UK.

Caitlin had a great term and continued to enjoy all that Australia has to offer including an Aussie accent and terminology. She now owns a pair of thongs (flip flops to you Brits), she wears sunnies (sunglasses) and swims in bathers (swimsuits), she meets people at the intersection (crossroads), she watches footie ( Australian rules football ) and supports St. Kilda avidly!! These are just a few of the ones that were pointed out to us when friends recently joined us for a holiday.

Grant has continued loving working out here - NOT! but has agreed to extend contract to Sept 2010 when we really will have to come home, and I really must stop enjoying this eternal holiday!

I have managed to engross myself in a new hobby - creative writing which I continue to inflict on my nearest and dearest, however no sign of a bestseller yet, not even a Jeffrey Archer, so guess I will have to find a real job on return to U.K!

The weather has been cold and rainy pretty, much like a U.K summer, with the odd day of mid to high twenties a forerunner of things to come. I am feeling a little nervous of anything hotter as I am more Celtic in temperament than Mediterranean.

Our friends from the UK came out to visit in September and spent 3 weeks with us. We managed to fit in the best that Melbourne had to offer i.e. cold weather, a wine tasting in the Yarra Glen where all the wineries were shut, and a trip to Williamstown where everything was closed due to lack of interest at that time of year. However the situation was rescued by some good restaurants, some good drinking sessions, and a few trips away. Hopefully the weather and holiday season will kick in for our next visitors due in Nov and Dec.

Day 10 - Lake Mackenzie ,the wreck and whale spouts

We drove to Lake Mackenzie first thing which due to its business proved less serene than the lake the day before.

It took a mad rush as we tried to fit in everything we wanted to do that day and involved some bone jangling drives severe enough to loose anything not tied down .

The wreck of the Scottish Leisure Liner produced some great photographic moments and we even managed to spot some distant whale spouts out to sea at Waddy Point. Alas the whales themselves were too hard to see without binoculars.

The sand cliffs between the Wreck and Waddy Point were awesome too and hard to believe they were completely made of silica crystals!

We allowed Caitlin to drive some of the way back along the beach and after a little fear on her behalf she quickly found the accelerator and managed a steady 60km//hr for a reasonable section . Good thing there was no motorway police!

We returned to the campsite just before dusk to the eerie calls of the bird life which this time sounded like pterodactyls and finished our last full day on Fraser sadly.

We did manage to see a dingo but only on the next day as we drove back to the ferry and it ran alongside the car posing for photos!

I will not relate to you our adventures in Dreamworld as one theme park is much like the next but will say they had some amazing tigers there.

And so ends our Queensland holiday and we left just wishing we could have had a bit longer - always a good note to finish on!

Day 9 - Fraser Island

An early start was required to get the boat ship shape and ready for shore at Carlo Point for 8.15am.

Then after a quick shop and rental of our monster engined behemoth 4 by 4 we took the ferry to Fraser Island.

Suddenly we were driving on a beach alongside the waves. What fun we had skitting along the sand, bouncing through numerous freshwater creeks snaking from the island's interior out to sea. Now that's what I call the Great Ocean road .
After 10 miles of outrageous fun, we turn inland driving through rutted sand tracks euphemistically called roads with me wishing I had worn a sports bra.
We discover mid afternoon a fabulous lake which I am not allowed to name as it was not the famous one and Grant wants to keep it a secret!!! From who?

White sand crumbly soft like icing sugar decorated the beach whilst crystal clear blue water sipped the edges. Tiny dark fish darted in and out between our toes as we waded in the cool, shallows. The kids paddled as far as their clothes allowed them and then a bit more.

Later in the day we arrived at our campground deep in the central rainforest of the island, fenced off from the wild Dingoes which had so far been non exsistent.

As I fell around the campsite, festooned with giant tree roots in the disappearing light ,forty young backpackers arrived and set up camp next to us. However in the end they were suprisingly quiet compared to us after a few G and T's and we slept soundly.

Day 8 - Last full day on Jabiru

Awoke this morning , turned and looked straight out onto the sunrise's colours reflecting off the ocean waters. What better way to start the day!
In the early morning we steered our way to Inskip Island and once anchored, set off for the beach in the' Tinnie' our small outboard motor boat.

I had my first meeting with squeaky sand so called because being totally devoid of shell material, when you stand on it, the escaping air produces a humorous squeaking noise. The beach came in a series of golden and silver hues and was devoid of people but not empty of sound as we listened to the squawks of hundreds of wild parrots in the scrub land adjoining the beach.

It had taken 2 trips to get most of us onto the island and during our exploring the tide had dropped. This meant the tinnie struggled to get its first passenger cargo back to the Jabiru with three of us pushing it, for a time, along the sea bottom before the water was deep enough for us to launch . The second trip however fared even worse and ended up with everyone from the beach having to swim out to the small motorboat whilst those aboard the Jabiru enjoyed the spectacle.

Grant /Captain Ahab, whilst we had been ashore had managed to land himself two prize fish which he proudly displayed to all and sundry, showing us the size of his catch by holding them glistening in the sunlight. It was only when I pointed out that one of them was indeed a poisonous Giant Toadfish that he finally released his hard earned treasure displaying instantly all the symptoms of the venom associated with eating this puffer fish . Despite this the other catch proved to be edible, a Sandy Flathead which I gutted and John barbecued for us all to sample that evening.

Day 7 Jaribu and cruising the creeks

Today Sarah and John carefully piloted the houseboat out of Carlo Creek aided by the owners.

To be honest I had no idea that navigating a houseboat would be so difficult ! We learnt about tide times, depth soundings, lead markers, red, yellow and black crosses. For me who frequently mistakes left for right the results if we had been on our own would have been disastrous as this area is awash with sandbanks! Add into the mix the fact we were afloat on the Pacific Ocean and you can see why at this point I was feeling a little nervous.

Then we had our first sighting of a pair of dolphins twenty five metres from the boat followed half an hour later by a whole pod playing in the water. Suddenly all my misgivings had disappeared. The morning was topped by a sea turtle floating on the top of the water who was swimming so close to us that when he regally lifted his head from the suface of the sea I looked straight into his ponderous eyes.

In the afternoon we moored the boat in Kauri Creek alongside the mangroves whilst John and Grant took the kids to behold the marching crab legions guarding their mudflats only to witness them fleeing in haste when they realised the size and unruliness of the opposing forces.

The crab pots set, we had our second casualty of our holiday. Katie, the Archards eight year old stood on something unseen in the mud and due to the risk of stonefish, whom are highly poisonous, a dash to bullock Point was required to meet the ambulance sent by the owners. Luckily this time all was fine and we returned to Kauri Creek to take up residence for the night.

The evening was again adorned by a breathtaking sunset complete with birdlife roosting in the mangroves and pelicans flying overhead.

Day 4,5,6

So today was the day the holiday came to a standstill!

As the adults packed away the tents , six year old William had climbed a nearby grass tree as boys so frequently do.

The next moment we were all stopped in our activities by loud screams and ran to find Ciara trapped under the fallen tree where it had collapsed on top of her throwing William free.

A quick look at the 40 degree angulation of her foot and we were off to the nearest hospital in Kingaroy, a good 35 miles away across mountain roads leaving the Archards to phone ahead.
Grant managed to make the journey in a record 35 minutes whilst I tried to make Ciara as comfortable as possible in the back, no easy feat.

The Doctors at Kingaroy had 1 attempt at reducing the fracture under sedation before sending us onward to the larger hospital at Toowomba. Ciara was admitted, spending a very uncomfortable 24hours , even with morphine, before her leg was finally reduced under a general anaesthetic and much to everyone's relief!!

The next day Ciara seemed very much back to normal and after consulting with the doctors and Ciara it was decided that we would go on with the holiday and join the Archards on the houseboat in Hervey Bay.

A much happier Mungin family arrived to board the " Jabiru"at sunset on Carlo point. I am not sure if it was the relief to have Ciara virtually back to normal after such a harrowing experience or the fantastic setting we found ourselves in, complete with pelicans roosting on the nearby sandbank as the sun went down over the Pacific inlet, which made the evening so memorable for us.

Day 3 - The Bunyas

We awoke to a beautiful Queensland sunrise complete with the call of the laughing Cukkaburra and the Whipcrack bird whom I thought from the loudness of the cries must have been perched on the ridge of our tent!

Our images of possums sliding down trees after stealing our butter the night before were soon vanquished as we discovered the real thieves - Magpies ! This morning they were caught in the act as we witnessed them from the open flaps of our tent knocking plates and cutlery off our tables and flying away with empty pasta wrappers only to return seconds later throwing the rubbish back down in disgust onto our belongings.

After a hearty breakfast made by the kids of french toast thoroughly drenched in maple syrup we attempted our second bush walk amusingly called Paradise!

This time we bore witness to fig vines hundreds of years old forming cathedral like scaffolding which the kids took to climbing. There were also breaks in the rain forest revealing vast ' alpine' like meadows looking out onto the Bunya Pine custodians on the opposite crest.

The day was rounded off with a game of rounders and an evening climb to the Bunya peak to sit and contemplate a spectacular sunset.

The Queensland adventure-Day 2 The Bunyas

The cold wind that night was a killer . " These tents weren't meant for cold weather camping" advised Sarah at dawn the next morning as Grant tried to rouse me from my hypothermic stupor. I felt like I'd barely slept but had failed to hear Bes throwing up all night in the big tent. In the end the only thing that could raise my body temperature was a voyage into the strange world of the Bush Shower.

This consisted of a baggy,soiled looking canvas bag with bright orange nozzle. In order to hoist the bag to head level there was a thin, dangling metal loo chain with no pulley system. Outside of the shower cubicle could be found the Donkey Boiler . This was the mechanism used to heat the water for the shower and effectively consisted of a small steam engine. The said intrepid Bush Camper was required to build a small fire under the large metal container and as cold water was fed into a funnel one end , hot steam and water was produced from a small tap at the other. This all of course depended on someone being able to get a fire going in the first place no easy feat with wet wood and high winds although diesel helped a lot.

Then a strong individual was required to carry a plastic container full of boiling water and fill the canvas bag and then return with an equal or so amount of cold water to get the mix 'Just right'. The bag could be hoisted up. Speed however was an imperative as there was a limit to how long the water would last.

I have to say after some initial trepidation on my behalf I agreed to be the first to sample what the bush shower had to offer and was pleasantly surprised, not only did it work, delivering hot water but was wonderfully invigorating . So much for modern technology .

Even the toilet grew on me as unlike many public toilets I have experienced in the U.k this one didn't smell despite relying on a composting system!!

After spending the first half an hour of my waking moments this first morning scheming with Sarah on how we were going to escape our camping nightmare , I now felt instantly revived and ready for whatever the Bunya's wanted to throw at me in the way of a hike.

So once everybody had partaken of the shower and breakies, we began our chosen Bush walk experiencing fantastic views along the Cherry and Darling Plains and across the Great Divide Mountain Range. At some points we had to pick our way along cliff hugging paths.

We finished the days activities with a drive to Dandabah to celebrate John's m something birthday with some genuine Bunya nut cake and spiced fig accompaniment whilst watching the wallaby colony frolic nearby. Grant tried to take photos of our first real wild sighting of this authentic Aussie animal whilst Ciara shrieked " Wallaby,wallaby" from the balcony causing the poor beasts to scatter in every direction even before Grant had managed to turn his camera on.

In this small collection of houses we were also able to feed the wild birds. Not just a few sparrows and tits but King Parrots and Crimson Rosella's. These birds were so used to tourists feeding them that they landed on shoulders, heads and arms and fed out of hands. If a noise disturbed them they would launch into the air, on mass, in a frenzy of feathers and colour causing the kids to shriek, mostly in delight but for Ciara in horror. She then refused point blank to have our feathered friends anywhere near her screaming as soon as one approached.

That evening we had what would turn out to be one of the best open fires of the holiday toasting marshmallows and admiring the night sky with the very visible Milky way and Southern Cross. It was my first real study of the Southern Hemisphere stars with their beautiful, crystal, clear clarity and totally new night sky landmarks for me. I found myself constantly staring above until I felt giddy( of course that could have been the small amount of alcohol I had consumed around the fire).

A much warmer night was had by all although the ' Tent of Death' as Grant and me now affectionately liked to call it , continued to deliver the goods with a midnight bout of coughing ( Young Will ) and explosive diarrhoea ( Bes). Their airbeds also experienced a midnight loss of air requiring John to replenish them with the foot pump in the dark whilst three of the Mungins (yes more and more were deserting The Tent Of Death ) listened on wondering if they should offer help or enjoy the warm confines of their sleeping bags. I'll leave you to guess which we did.

The Queensland adventure Day 1

Setting off for Queensland and an adventure which should see us:

1) tenting in the Bunya Mountain National Park for 3 days( haven't heard of it -me neither ,they have a lot of national parks!!),

2) cruising on a houseboat on the Great Sandy straits between Fraser Island and mainland Australia-near Hervey Bay,4 days looking out for dolphins and other wildlife

3)tenting on Fraser Island 3 days -4 wheel driving on island with no roads only beaches and sandy tracks

4) motel 2 nights and visiting Dreamworld -Aussie version of Disney/ Thorpe park-just for the kids obviously

The best adventure on the 2 hour plane trip to Brisbane was sitting next to a rather unusual gentleman .About twenty minutes into the flight , this character opened up his rucksack and produced a giant thermos flask like apparatus and began to unscrew the top of this strange device. All I could see as he huddled over it protectively were various white sockets and multicoloured wires. I flew back into my seat trying not to look like I was spying on him but aware the air hostesses were also giving him wary looks as they went about their business.

I decided after 5 minutes or so of not being able to see a damn thing , to risk leaning forward again , not sure whether I was about to reassure myself or begin worrying even more. This time all I could see as he sat huddled over his contraption was a big black letter B on the side of the flask.

At this point he turned to me and smiled saying " you put your earphones in at the side if you want to watch T.V "

Suffice to say we survived the flight unharmed and collected our hire car. The man behind the counter announced proudly that we had been upgraded and Grant began to wonder if indeed it had been a bomb on the plane and we were in fact in Heaven. However we were quick to realise that this had not happened as instead of the Lamborghini Murcielago God should have given us we were upgraded to the Toyota Camry . Still can't complain as it was a lot more spacious inside than the corolla we had booked.

After 30kms into the drive we saw a road sign that could only be possible in Australia. It listed the distances to various local towns followed at the end by a distance marker for Darwin showing 3537km or in English roughly 2500 miles ! Don't think we'll be doing a day trip there then on this holiday!

Eventually we arrived a little later than expected ,due to Bush road conditions and the odd dead squished kangaroo lying in the road at Burton's well campsite, high in the Bunya mountains. The other family whom we'd arranged to meet there were nowhere to be seen although eventually we found them in the pitch black huddled in their tent to escape the 40-50mph winds and freezing cold temperature . I can safely say that it felt more like a mountain in Scotland then one in Queensland . Bes then confirmed my worst nightmares that indeed the campsite only had a bush shower ( detail later ) and a composting Eco toilet . The only saving grace was that we were the only nutters camping here in the winter !

We raced into the tent and fought over the seats ,plates and ' head lice torches' as Ciara liked to lovingly call the Archard's head light torches they'd bought that day. Straight after eating the Archard children immediately fell asleep as if drugged by the sausage and lamb casserole ( it was only about 8pm) . Our children joined them if only to escape the cold and Grant and me were then exiled to a 2 person tent conveniently located just out of earshot to the main tent . The cold wind that night was a killer!

Queensland Holiday

Just back from 2 week holiday in Queensland. Photos loaded. Text to follow.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/36445314@N08/

Eh!

Glasgow average annual rainfall - 889mm

Melbourne average annual rainfall - 650mm

Melbourne is a barren desert and Glasgow suffers an embarassment of riches.

Only explanation is that sometime in July, Melbourne will get floods of biblical proportions.

The Big Chill

Although its been Winter here for a few weeks, with the Solstice this is the first official day of Winter.

Melburnians have been complaining how cold its been here, one of the coldest Winters in years.

I've come out in Solidarity, and have taken to wearing a light jumper when I go out.

Great Ocean Road - The Trip Home

Port Fairy - from the sublime to the ridiculous. It used to be called Belfast, and presumably after the 8,000th tourist told them what the connotations were, they changed it - to Port Fairy!

The original name however was the give away, and this quaint fishing village by the Ocean was filled with raven haired, pale skinned people, with believe it or not, the smell of peat coming out the chimneys at night. Unfortunately it copped the rain big time, with the local supermarket seeming to be raining inside as well as out as staff run around with buckets.

We enjoyed our meal out the night before, despite the Irish theme continuing, with an absolutely plastered Irish couple at the table next to us. The girl spilled drinks over the table all night (clearly they'd been in the pub all day), and if the guy thought it was drink money well spent, I wish him luck, as he basically had to carry her out the restaurant.

We leave Port Fairy with 300k to go. Rather than the indulgence of wandering back down the Great Coast Road, we hit the A1 road straight through the countryside back to Geelong, and then the freeway to Melbourne.

Our one stop off is about 40k into the journey at Warrnambool. This is the home of Logan's Beach - one of the great Southern Right whale breeding grounds at this time of year. If you want the gory details they're called "right" whales because they're the right one's to kill. They're pretty slow, carry a lot of blubber, and float when they die - nice!

We saw nothing and just managed the dry 15 minutes between the Ocean squalls so left quickly.

Our one other stop in the 5 hour dash was in some bogan farming town for sandwiches and coffee. I'm sure I left just that little bit quicker than I arrived.

Looking back on the trip we enjoyed it despite the weather. It turned out to be so much more than a road drive though, and we missed so much: the Otway Fly Walk over the rain forest (sadly a bit like the walk over in "I'm a Celeb Get me Outta Here"), the Bay of Islands which we briefly passed, seeing endless sea stacks crammed in a bay, looking like a fleet of stone long ships, The Arch, what's left of London Bridge, and generally longer walks in the Otway National park.

Looks like we'll have to go back again and ignore the beaches.

Great Ocean Road - Day Two

We leave Apollo Bay in the morning, leaving the coast for a little while to go through the Otway National Park.

Bizzarely, in an area suffering from a 10 year drought, this is a rain forest. We randomly stop off at the Maits Rest car park and suddenly walk into a slightly cold and certainly damp rain forest environment. Ferns erupt everywhere, with the biggest Eucalyptus I've ever seen punching through the canopy way up into the sunlight. I guess with the moisture, it was no suprise to see some of the most stunning fungi.

We then head out of the rainforest back to the coast and down to the Cape Otway lighthouse. The whole Ocean Road coast is known as a bit of a shipwreck area, and is filled with lighthouses, with this one jutting out the furthest south.

On the way, we go through a landscape with signs saying look out for 'roos and Koala's. 'Roos proved elusive, but about 10 mins before the lighthouse, Caitlin spotted her first Koala. After nearly crashing (I swerved to the verge, slamming on the brakes when Caitlin shouted "Koala!") and narrowly avoiding the 3 cars behind us, we stop for photos.

Koala's are truly stoned on whatever they eat, and definitely meet the 18 hour sleep per day category. We shouted, we clapped, we waved, we contemplated throwing sticks but he wouldn't move.

On the way back to the car, knowing what to look for, we spot two other Koala. Similarly they wouldn't move, despite me climbing half way up one of their trees. During this 20 minute interlude we have about 15 Aussie cars wandering by, I imagine saying - "God - pommies taking pics of those Koala's again". I got my own back 10 mins later, by looking reasonably disinterested at what could have been one of hundreds of UK lighthouse sites, watching excited Aussies running around.

After the Cape we hit the Ocean road again, randomly stopping at another car park. This turned out to be Castle Cove. The view from the top looked promising, but after a surpisingly short walk to the beach (considering the height of the cliff) we end up watching some stunning surf. Similar to yesterday in Torquay with its reliability, but these are regulalry 8-10 foot waves. The roar as they hit every 10 seconds is awesome, and the sandy colour of the waves as they hit the beach shows how much they're chewing up the landscape. We had 20 mins being mesmerised by this before the weather, and a worry about children being swept away forced us to leave. Confusingly this means that stopping at every beach has its merits.

After the Cove, with deterioating weather we arrived at probably the most iconic part of the road - the 12 Apsotles. The weather was pretty grim, but we managed to get some pictures (despite driving rain splattered all over the camera lense), appreciated the view, and narrowly avoided deciding on the toursity helicopter trip. There were other sites near here including the Bay of Islands and the Loch Ard area, but the weather was grim and we had kilometeres to go.

At his point we had a fairly long way to our second night stop - Port Fairy. As the road went inland at this point, despite somewhat litiginiously still being called the Great Ocean Road, we went for getting the miles in rather than touristy wandering.

By this time it was absolutely chucking it down as only Austalia can. Like the the English with snow, Aussies can't drive in the rain for toffee. As a Scot however, I'm peculiarly trained for both, and we drove on at a suicidial pace, regularly passing the big multi cyclinder Ute's as they crawled (sensibly) along.

Finally we arrived at Port Fairy, the details of which I'll leave until the last day notes.

Great Ocean Road - Day One

So here we are, start of a long weekend or Bank Holiday. Bizzarely for a Country that really wants to become a Republic, this Long Weekend is in honour of the Queens birthday - which even Britain doesn't have a holiday for. Any excuse I suppose to find a break, and I'm not complaining.

We've decided to take a trip down that iconic road trip: the Great Ocean Road. Starting about 100k west of Melbourne and running (sort of) along the coast for the next 200 plus kilometres.

We leave Melbourne through the main toll roads, with me getting a little nervous again about whether I've registered properly. We then drive past the industrial super complex of Geelong - home to the all conquering footie team, the Geelong Cats. Any team that has won 53 out of its last 55 games is just to boring to be a fan of. Finally we arrive at Torquay (yup honest), official start of the road.

The warning here is to recognise the best is yet to come, and not stop off at every single beach you see . However you can see why this area is the surfing capital of Australia: from Torquay to Angelsea, Bells Beach etc we stop off at one beach after another, with endless Ocean rollers coming in. They're probably not huge, but they're just so predicatable. You can see these blue creases in the Ocean for hundreds of metres out, metronomically crashing into the beach one after another, with perfectly curling breaks on them.

After lunch we then take the trip through to Lorne and finishing off at Apollo Bay. The trip to Lorne is meant to be iconic Coast road, and certainly delivered. The beaches have disappeared, to be replaced by vertiginous green covered hillsides plunging to the sea, with the road weaving in and out and around, about 50 metres above the waves.

Being the driver is a nightmare, as you continually get ready to slap a cliff face or plunge off an edge as you're distracted by the scenery. Thrown into this is the Hollywood set of those houses on stilts. I've never driven the Big Sur in California, but from what I've read and seen in movies, this is redolent of that road. Huge holiday homes perched on the slopes above us held up by massive struts as they jut out into the sky - view must be amazing.

As we rolled though Lorne, with the sun setting, you could see what looked like a heavy mist hanging in the trees around a town that hung on to the slopes. It was all very atmospheric, but only closer inspection revealed what turned out to be vast amounts of smoke from people's chimney's hanging in the air. They're a mad Country: they worry about their water and then let all the rain water wash away, and have no desire to have water treatment plants. They're also such a green country but they're powered by brown coal, some of the dirtiest CO2 polluters in the world, and of course along the coast have no sense of smoke pollution.

It was nearly dark when we arrived at Apollo Bay. The final stop off was 6k short, where we weaved up into the hills to look at a recommended restaurant. High in the hills, looking over the bay, floor to ceiling windows. I felt a little like the Little Matchgirl peering through the window, but confirmed that a damask napkin service and what looked like 3 wine glasses per place meant with young children we'd have to pass.

We ended up in Apollo Bay in our surpisingly good, split level motel room having beers and pizza from the local Italian restaurant. Apollo Bay itself was a little "kiss me quickly" hats but the view ad general atmosphere fought through.

Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain.

In reality its probably not a scary figure, and I can imgaine many towns in the UK have a similar stat. However it was a bit worrying today to hear that Melbourne has 400 days supply of water. Bit scary in a City of nearly 4 million.

Ballarat - The Rich Seam

The scene is Sovereign Hill, Ballarat: a recreation of the 1850 gold rush, and history of the town that developed around it. The husband was stressed from a hard week at work, and was initially dubious after seeing the asylum like bunk beds he is expected to sleep in. Child 1 - could be anywhere, who cares so long as I get to stay up late, eat lots of sweets and play with other family's children. Child 2 - "I won't have to go on a roller coaster will I?" -Bless no Ciara, we won't send you on the Tower Of Terror like we did in Disney!

So after the bags were thrown quickly into the room, Grant's from the doorway, as after catching sight of the beds he isn't even gonna cross the threshold until he's had a stiff drink, we set off for the Village .

We entered through an 1850 Chinese Protector's house, lovingly recreated in every detail, as we stepped back in time to the Ballarat gold rush. What a strange experience to walk into a historically correct town complete with actors scurrying around in vintage costume carrying baskets as if on an errand, or chatting together in huddles on the street corners. Real fires were burning in all the hearths, and braziers lit outside (well they were right to warn us about the cold weather). The houses scattered around the impressively large site were filled with an array of Victorian furniture and memorabilia, although each had been done in a style to suit the person that had once lived in them. Sitting on a porch playing banjo, accordion and pipes were three elderly gentlemen, who wouldn't have looked out of place on a set for "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly", whilst a carriage drawn by a team of 4 horses transported baggage and tourists down the muddy dirt track of a high street. What a difference to Melbourne's CBD we'd left 2 hours previously.

Every building seemed to have some sort of entertainment in store for us all, and foolishly we started in the theatre where a small crowd were already seated and smiling at an elderly gentleman I mistook for the warm up act. I later find out that a lot of the people performing or walking around in costume, do this voluntarily and it immediately became obvious that this guy must be one of those volunteers, as the silence after his jokes was deafening and he floundered like a fish on a hook, desperately telling us historical facts, whilst attempting to do basic juggling and odd bits of magic . We are sure it's his wife who has volunteered him to come and entertain (mmm) the crowds. When his back was was turned to the organ to play a musical ditty we scarpered being one of only 5 left in the audience !

We are then joined thankfully by the Archard clan who proceeded to pull us down to the gold panning section, recreated around a fake creek in the tented section of town. It was at this point a strange transformation came over Mother Archard, as with a steely glint in her eye she pushed small children and Japanese tourists asunder as she searched for the perfect panning dish.

She then proceeded to teach the 6 assorted children the basics of finding gold, relaying previous adventures of her first forays to Oz when she spent a great deal of time on this very activity -along with looking for precious stones (odd as she was meant to be working!). The remaining adults watched in amusement as Bes found gold in the bottom of her pan and her zeal and enthusiasm caught in the group like swine Flu in Sunshine- sorry topical joke!

Now all the children were desperately panning, whilst Bes bought bottles of water to place their finds in, and we pondered as the kids become increasingly soaked as they waded further and further into the brook pouring murky water down themselves in their quest for riches. It took a further hour to pull the obsessed brood and mother from the waters and only a promise of food enticed them from their labours.

Fitting in a quick tea, we headed back in darkness for the Light Extravaganza 'Blood on The southern Cross.' We now witnessed a show worthy of Disney, and huge in its construction, as we were led around the hill, walking and on open coaches, to watch various recreations of the times and the story of the first Aussie uprising against the British army (mostly involving the Irish and Scots -so nothing changes there!!!) The evening show finished with an impressive finale involving burning down a hotel (unfortunately not ours) and it seemed so real I felt the need to have a drink to quieten my nerves from all the bloodshed . So a bottle of wine and a few wassabi peas later- the beds seem a godsend !

Day 2, and by now we are used to seeing the strange sites around town. We started the day with another visit to the gold panning -and even Grant and myself joined in this venture, after receiving some lucky origami stars from a Chinese interpreter we found hiding in one of the tents on last night's set! The stars are indeed fortuitous: we overtook Bes' meagre pickings in one pan load and must have found a rich seam or the spot where the staff had thrown the gold filings that morning.

We also summoned the courage to do the mine tour which involved going 60ft underground in pitch black, bar the kids mobile in the row behind, and for the first time in my life I experienced genuine claustrophobia. Not sure why it should strike at this particular time as I have been in many caves, but probably the first since seeing 'The Descent', so maybe therein lies the answer.
We went on to hear about the conditions the miners worked in, from the Thunderbox to the Widowmaker, a piece of machinery (and now I am about to become technical, so for all of you who just like a good yarn with no detail skip the next paragraph) that drills sections of rock at high speed, but at the same time causes silicates to fill the air. If you are the unlucky miner wielding the equipment these silicates are inhaled into your lungs, which is the equivalent of breathing in microscopic shards of glass. And so you die of silicosis which involves coughing up lumps of blood and lung usually by the age of 40. By the way mean life expectancy during the 1850's in Ballarat was 40 for men and 35 for women!! Still at least we wouldn't have to worry about a pension .

The next show involved the pouring of molten gold to form a bar. The gentleman who performed this feat kept us enthralled with the dangers of heating gold up to 1400 degrees Celsius, and what effects a single drop would have on us if he dropped the graphite container that held it. Once the bar was formed, he then doused it in cold water enabling it to be handled within a couple minutes, but as he put his hand into the container of water, let out a shriek - as did I!, and I jumped about a mile in the air waiting for the smell of incinerated flesh to invade my nostrils. As I opened my eyes I realised in fact it was part of the act,which everyone else had obviously seen before or so I told myself.

And now I shall quickly scan past the genuine bakery (although I did not and spent 45 minutes deciding which cake to eat before choosing a jumbo Chelsea bun the size of a football pitch), the candle makers shop where the kids dipped candles in a variety of dyes after hearing and watching old fashioned candle making, the photographer's shop where you could dress up in olden day costumes and have a family portrait done -(I was the only one keen), and a variety of other shops selling sweets, coffins and the likes, to finally get to the gold museum as we head out of town.

It is here I finish my tale as I read in awe about the 71kg nugget they pulled out from 2.5cm below the ground calling it the Welcome Stranger. It certainly would be welcome and I understand a little of what the people who were attracted to this godforsaken hell hole must have come for: a promise of a life of wealth far different from the ones they had left, but obtained on sheer luck and with no prior knowledge or abilities or connections and not recognising class or nationality.

Still don't think I would have been one of them unless of course we'd been discovering 71kg Chelsea buns!!