Happy New Year!

We had an early start as we had neither internet nor breaky, as it’s known locally, before we headed out towards Melbourne from the fabulous Mallacoota. We set off at 8.45am and arrived at our Motel in Leongatha at 5.15pm so it was a real travelling day on the hottest day since we got here at 35 degrees. As itwas New Years Eve everything is fully booked and we were travelling from pillar to post before finally finding a vacancy. We travelled down the Princess Highway to Cabbage tree Creek when I asked Claire if she thought that Cabbage Tree Creek sounded like a place that would have internet so we could put yesterday’s blog on; we both agreed that it probably wouldn’t so turned left towards Marlo which is by the sea. I’m so pleased we made this decision because, guess what? Skippy bounced across the road in front of us and he was a real live Kangaroo, not one from a zoo or with a fence around it, a proper genuine Australian Kangaroo. Thank you Skippy, Happy New Year; I now know this years going to be a good one. Also the views were fabulous with the same theme as yesterday of sea, a stretch of beach and a salt lake on the inside of the beach.

We carried onto Orbost where we had breakfast and could join the Princess highway again past the Lakes Entrance, through Bairnsdale and Sale where we turned onto the Gippsland Highway towards Port Albert for our first disappointment of no vacancies. Back onto the highway to Claire’s favourite place that she had been reading about called Yanakie. Yanakie is the gateway to Wilsons Promontory National Park that you have to pay to get into and I believe that there are no shops, pubs or hotels, which may be great sometimes but not for us without food, tent, boots or anything. Especially not on New Years Eve after we had been driving all day so we about turned and headed back to the highway again.

Once we were back to Fish Creek we were off to Venus Bay which seemed to have a ring to it; I really thought this is where we would be laying our hats for New Year. Unfortunately, “No Vacancies” or “Gone Fishing”, so we headed inland to Meeniyan that, again Claire liked the look of as we drove through earlier. At Venus Bay we saw the motorbike policeman; well, Claire thought he was a policeman. We had seen him earlier when he pulled to the side of the road, to let me passed behind a tractor with a haystack on top, by double white lines; no overtaking. I didn’t overtake even though it was safe to because I would have had to go over the lines; instead drove up the hill at 20kmh until he turned off and I could get back up to normal speed (the speed limit). In the mean time the motorbike cop that wasn’t in uniform, but Claire thought he was one, caught me up. I wasn’t sure what the speed limit was so drove exactly at 80kph and after a while he overtook me and disappeared into the distance. Anyway, this time, at Venus, he was in front of me so I could have a proper look for myself and although it wasn’t a police bike nor did he have police clothes he had the ‘air’ of a policeman about him and the bike did too. Within 50 yards his lights flashed and he pulled in the guy in front for speeding. Claire is ’The Man’. Anyway, our theory was that inland places wouldn’t be as popular as seaside places so might be more likely to have vacancies. Claire had spotted a nice Motel on our way out, which would now be on our way in, so we stopped to have a look, No Vacancies; such a shame as they even had a pool. The lady there was lovely and rang a motel in the next town towards Melbourne to find that they did have vacancies so we headed towards Leongatha. We said we would stop and booked in the name of Krause, but when we got there it looked like it was in the middle of nowhere so we carried on into town to have a look. It was far too far out to walk, especially on New Years Eve so we parked and tried the main Hotel in town. They had two rooms which they showed us but neither had air con or even a fan but they recommended the other Motel just down the road. So here we are at Leongatha Motel to see the New Year in as Mr and Mrs Mason, in case the motels speak to each other; we had a quick but thorough shower and walked back to the hotel for dinner which was great. They had a special dinner of T bone steak for $15 and what a plate full, we could hardly eat the meat let alone the bone, gristle and fat. A real bargain, and again, proper cooking. The place is called Mc Martins Hotel and looks great from the outside except they don’t have decent signs. The bar and restaurant is nice but not very well defined as distinct areas. When he showed us the rooms everything was fine but the room only had a bed and en-suite but no fridge or anything else, not even a fan. They only charge $58 for a double room and $68 for a double room with en-suite so it’s really cheap, almost backpackers prices but in a nice massive hotel, but I get the feeling that they are missing what the average Australian requirements are these days. They also have no internet in the whole place, but you could have guessed that from what I have written so far; a little bit old school and out of the times. Better to charge more and get it right; I wish it was up for sale, it’s so close!

Canberra to Mallacoota via Boydtown

Having had a lovely stay in Canberra we set off for Eden as the satnav still had it in its memory then it was a quick run along the Princess Highway to Boydtown for lunch at the Seahorse Inn. Unusually we both had the same dish of pork with mash and vegetables and again, it was proper cooking; a lovely meal and what a nice spot close to the beach. If it hadn’t been so windy we would have tried to check in for the night and had the afternoon by the beach for our first time. Claire read in the paper this morning at our hotel in Canberra that Sydney had just had 3 days of cloud and rain, apparently there has only been one other time in December that that has happened on consecutive days within the last 80 years. We had 4 nights in Sydney with the same 3 days of rain and it rained also on the day we left so don’t be put of by our blog, we were just unlucky. However, since we arrived in Canberra it has been sun all the way, just how we expected Australia to be in the summer.

We didn’t bother resetting the satnav and carried along the Princess highway to Genoa where we took a left past Gipsey Point to Mallacoota. Claire had been reading the guide book on the way and I had a quick look over lunch and thought it would be different and exciting to stay at the Adobe mud flats in Mallacoota. It was described as cheap, unique and a labour of love by Margaret and Peter Kurz with an emphasis on recycling and eco-friendliness. They have solar powered hot water and birds, lizards and possums can be hand fed outside your door. Claire didn’t seem keen when I read it out to her but agreed to give it a go. It was a very unusual place in the bush looking how it was described but nobody was around. I parked the car and went to find where reception was while Claire had a look around the mud huts. I couldn’t find anyone around, just broken windows and, well mud huts. Claire on the other hand came rushing up the hill having seen a very large black rat like creature with a small tail outside one of the mud huts. After we had got back into the car we headed into town to look for more suitable accommodation for my little Princess. When was the last time a large, black (possibly) marsupial rat ever hurt anyone?

We tried the Mallacoota hotel and every other place we came across but everywhere was full, either “No Vacancies” or “Closed, gone fishing”. I reset the satnav for Marlo near Orbost and we headed off. As we were going out of town we spotted a place called the “Silver Bream” www.silverbream.com.au which had had a cancellation and we got the last room. We literally dumped the bags inside and headed off walking towards the beach. By the time we got outside the sign now said “no vacancies”. This town is absolutely buzzing, what a place and it happens to be the most Easterly town in Victoria by the coast as well. Again the photos don’t really reflect the spectacular views over the sea and lake. The sea is divided from the lake by a very long strip of beach and apparently they are joined most of the time, we were just lucky for once. A real “sight for sore eyes” if you are ever over this way it is a must to see. It’s about 20km from the highway but well worth it if you can find accommodation.

Following our walk we headed back through the tent and caravan park which was endless and also seemed totally full up to a little bar at the top where we wetted our whistle. We carried on back and stopped for one more at the Hotel that we first tried and it was a great atmosphere so we sat outside and almost immediately the next table sort of included us in their conversation. We had rather more than one and ended up with Julian and Arlene who invited us to their party in the evening. Strange, it must be a New Years Eve, Eve party. When I say evening, they wanted us to come straight away as Julian had to work in the morning. Trouble is, there are no taxis and it’s not on a bus route so 4km is quite a way to walk in the dark. We took their address and came home to relax, write the blog and catch the last rays of the day outside our room. Claire keeps coming in from time to time and asking if I fancy going to the party but it’s the getting back that worries me; 4km in the dark with full on wildlife, no buses or transport with Claire that jumps at a fly before she has had one. In fact the photo of our food at the Seahorse, Claire was vigorously trying to clear the flies from our food. They are bad enough without food but the second you get some there are always about 20 around you immediately and very difficult to eat your food without eating at least two of the little horrors.

Good to Go

It made a pleasant change to wake up to clear bright blue skis this morning after all the rain in Sydney. Don’t get me wrong, I loved Sydney but it was a little soggy and we would have enjoyed it much more had the weather had been fine. I would have liked to have walked barefoot on Bondi beach and visited Manley island, but never mind. I always say I will never return to a city once I have visited it, but Phil says “never say never” so knows maybe one day. Anyway, I diverse, back to Canberra we go. We had a little drive around late yesterday to get our bearings but didn’t get time to get a feel for the place because we were tired after the drive from Sydney and wanted to get an early night. But as I said, the weather was lovely and we were keen to get in the car. The complimentary breakfast was good, the restaurant was busy and I think they were slightly understaffed but we were soon fed and watered and out the door. Phil had to sort out the internet connection because we had a few things that needed sorting so it was nearly 11 o’clock before we left the hotel. We headed to the city hill because we wanted to see Parliament House and do the cultural Parliament square walk which I’d seen in the Lonely Planet book.

In retrospect, it was probably wasn’t the best idea to walk 5 or 6 kms in the midday heat, but determined not to be beaten, we persevered. We started out at the focus of the triangle, Parliament House on Capital Hill. Phil had especially wanted to see the art gallery but because we were late starting out, the queues were gigantic. Phil doesn’t do queues so in the end we didn’t get to see the art, and again, because of the crowds, we also didn’t get to see inside any of the attractions. Still, no worries, it was a lovely walk for a while along the Lake Burley Griffin and we saw the grand high commission buildings, the Old Parliament House, the National Library and the High Court of Australia plus a few more monumental buildings along the way.

It was baking hot by the time we got back to the car and we decided to head to the Black Mountain Tower. It was a gentle drive up the mountain and it was well worth the 7 dollar fee to go up to the outside viewing area. Formidable views across the city of Canberra and I was glad we went. Phil was keen to go to the National Museum of Australia but I was thirsty and hungry. We were tempted to go the Hyatt for lunch but in the end we went back to our hotel for lunch in the beer garden because the menu was good and it was inexpensive. We’d have probably paid more for lunch at The Hyatt than we’ve paid for our room at Olims so probably a wise choice.

Phil had the house special steak and I had fish and chips. I was sorely tempted to go for the chicken and avocado salad but I can never choose anything healthy when I’m famished. Still neither of us was unhappy with our choice and both enjoyed our lunch. The idea was to get back in the car and go and visit the museum but it was really hot by this time so we decided to ditch the guidebook and walk into the civic area of Canberra. It wasn’t far away, only a 10 minute walk and we were soon in the Canberra Centre. It was quiet and some of the shops weren’t open. The plan wasn’t to shop, but to sit outside a café and do some people watching. Trouble was, there weren’t many people to watch, the place was fairly deserted. I questioned the concierge about this when we got back and he said that most of the locals, head either out to Sydney or to the coast.

I think the many hours of driving have caught up with Phil and he took to the double bed with his book as soon as we got back to the hotel. It was too warm for him even to sit on the balcony. Hark at us pair, we moan about the lousy weather and as soon as it comes hot, we complain! Typical Brits, I hear you say to yourself! I read in the Australian Daily Telegraph today that the bad weather is all down to the cyclone. The headline read “Drought and Floods”. The cyclone has swirled the country hitting the west quite hard and causing many floods. Apparently there has hardly been any rainfall over the winter in Oz so the floods have made the farmers very happy.

Canberra is a city with wide sprawling roads and is fairly spread out. I like it; it’s gentle and so much more relaxed compared to Sydney & Melbourne. Without going into all the history stuff (mainly because I don’t know it) to me, Canberra feels like its a place to showcase Australia History, architecture and symbolises her identity and aspirations as a modern nation. I’m sure there are loads of things that we have missed but after only a 2 day visit, I feel that I’ve got the gist of the place.

This morning Phil phoned JetStar and brought forward our flight from Melbourne to Brisbane. On our original schedule we were booked to fly to Brisbane on the 10th Jan but now we are flying out on the 4th January instead. Or at least we think we are, we haven’t received the email confirmation even though Phil has phoned twice to chase. It’s costing more than we wanted to pay, but we’ve decided it’s worth it. Six weeks in Victoria has been a couple of weeks too long and we feel it’s time to leave town. Phil had been looking at flights so we can visit our friends on the gold coast but it’s worked out slightly cheaper to fly to Brisbane and then hire a car and drive the 3 hour journey to see them. I suggested we hire a campervan but Phil isn’t keen and actually I guess it will be fairly expensive. I think Phil remembers the last time we hired a campervan and it was a bad experience, or nightmare from hell as Phil would recall!

Tomorrow we leave Canberra and are heading back towards Melbourne, driving for a few hours on the highway and then getting back on the coastal road. We’re may do it over a couple of days with only one overnighter. I’m not sure; we’ll go with the flow I guess. I’m pretty certain if it’s boiling hot when we get to the coast road then the temptation will be to book a motel and head to the beach. We’ll see. The only fly in the ointment with that idea is that Phil has been sniffing all day and I suspect he is coming down with a cold. Not great when we have such a long road ahead. Other than that, we’re good to go.

Canberra capital city

We checked out of our hotel and set off through the streets of Sydney in the rain; the satnav was playing up and we managed to do another circuit of the city past China town and Paddy’s market before finally getting out in the right direction by which time Claire was already stressed again. It was a long boring drive to Canberra along mainly featureless roads; well it wasn’t that long at about three hours but it seemed longer.

Claire had chosen our hotel in Canberra from the internet and our guide book so I set the satnav for Olims hotel which is one of the four original licensed hotels in Canberra. The Olims hotel was here from the start and opened around the time that parliament house opened in 1927 but was called Ainslie hotel then. We arrived and parked in the huge car park and walked to reception to ask if they had any rooms available. They did but they have had trouble with their tv reception and now there are no film programs available in the rooms so they offered a discount and would throw in continental breakfast and let us have a garden room with a balcony. The gardens are well kept and our room is nice so we settled in before heading off to find some fresh supplies and to see what was around. It’s very pretty around the river and waterside but there is nowhere to park and get pictures so you will have to settle for the few that I took around the gardens and hotel. Canberra seems like a strange place to put the capital of Australia but when they were choosing there was great rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne both wanting it in their own city so they eventually decided on somewhere in between and not directly on the coast. In my opinion there are too many traffic lights, they should have used more roundabouts like in Milton Keynes to keep the traffic flowing and reduce journey times; but you all know what I feel about traffic lights. When the Milton Keynes Development Corporation first designed MK they chose roundabouts opposed to lights for the reasons I just mentioned and did a great job. Since MK council have taken over they have and are doing everything they can to reverse that original policy to deliberately increase journey times and slow traffic down and all at our expense. If I had the power, I wouldn’t sack them; I would hang them!

Having replenished our supplies we headed off to eat as we were both starving and had hardly eaten anything since breakfast. They had marked a map for us in reception with places of interest and I had asked him to mark decent restaurants which he did in a different colour. The Dixons area according to the guide book was where you could find a variety of Asian cuisine so we headed off there. On the way we accidentally drove through the city centre which is at the end of our road and it looks a bit like Milton Keynes except smaller. When we arrived at Dixons we were a little disappointed as the rectangular block with all the restaurants around it was rather featureless except for the Mc Donald’s and Kentucky close by. We chose the Thai so that Claire could have her usual chicken green curry but it was only average.

We returned to our room to find that not only did we not have film channels we didn’t have any channels at all so Claire stopped off at reception again and they sent an engineer down who discovered that we have no aerial connected to our tv and they have none left so we will have no tv until tomorrow. We are now upgraded to the full buffet breakfast in the morning. I guess we will have to go down to the bar later or catch up on some reading. Since we left home in November I have only read two books and that was mostly on flights, we have hardly had anytime to relax yet. Claire is really looking forward to staying at Geoff and Denise’s place and doesn’t want to see any sights or go on any drives at all. I think a compromise is necessary; maybe we will just pop to Magnetic Island and do one drive to Cairns and back leaving plenty of time to chill. We got talking to the American owner at the Thai restaurant and mentioned having 3 weeks in LA on our way home. He suggested driving up to Vancouver and back so we could see the most spectacular views to be seen. I thought that seemed like a long way and asked how many miles it was and he replied about 6000. Maybe we need another couple of house swaps next year.

We are staying two nights so that we have a chance to look around all day tomorrow so Claire will be at the ready with the camera to take pictures as we go as there are some lovely views to be seen. The best part of coming here is that the sun is shining and when I looked at the forecast for Sydney, Brisbane, even Townsville, and its rain all the way. We did meet a couple on the coast on our way to Sydney that had lived in Canberra all their lives and the chap offered to give us a guided tour but I think Claire wants to do it on our own with the help of the crapnav if we can get it going.

Last night in Sydney

Luckily I went straight to sleep after the fire alarm but poor Claire tossed and turned until she got up and did a bit of washing and ironing so consequently she was tired all day. We bought tickets for the Sydney sightseeing bus at around 9.45am and changed buses to the second tour around Bondi beach. It was another grey day so the photos weren’t good but it was a worthwhile tour. Bondi is an Aborigine translation for breaking waves and Coogee beach is a translation for “the smell of rotting seaweed”. Those guys had been here for a long time and you can see why Bondi is the most popular beach in the area. There really were great sights but from the bus it’s not the same and we didn’t really want to waste 30 minutes just for photos. We stopped at a placed called Woollooomoooloo on the bus tour which I thought was a great name and wanted to get off just to take a photo of a sign, especially as it was the first suburb to be built in Australia but we had so much else to see. After the Bondi tour we had a walk around Circular Quay, took a few photo’s and stopped for a drink. There was a big bird that walked through people, under their chairs and tables and even went into the bar; it didn’t seem a bit scared of people at all but I couldn’t say the same about Claire. When the bird came to her chair she suddenly needed the toilet and stayed there until it had gone.
We completed the rest of the Sydney tour and decided t stay onboard until we got to Kings Cross where our friends Mick and Lynn had recommended by email. It’s a backpacker’s place that has strip clubs and bars everywhere. They had recommended a pub called “Bourbon and Beefsteak” because the beer is only $3.50 until 10pm. Somehow we walked straight passed the pub and stopped at a bar on the way back where I asked a police lady where it was. She laughed as she told me that it was next door. We managed to get a seat outside so that we could watch life go by but the beer had gone up to just under $5 a pint now but the food was very cheap. Claire ordered a rump steak at $10 and I had the surf and turf at $15; probably the cheapest we have found so far. When I went back to get the next drink I was only charged $3 a pint and that was the price for the rest of our time there, I guess happy hour had just started. That is even cheaper than our cheap places at home, although they are not real pints. It’s on the outside bend just near the fountain at Kings Cross if anyone else wants to try it. The food was great; we weren’t expecting much at the price but it couldn’t be faulted. We ended up staying there until around 9.30pm and got the tube back as the buses had finished. One last drink at the Harbourside and it was time to go home ready for packing and leaving in the morning. While we were on the tube Claire was doing her usual indiscrete eavesdropping and heard some girls talking and one of them mentioned that she was from Milton Keynes; what’s the chances of that? Claire couldn’t resist going over and talking to her and found out that her father has the “Candy Shop” near the Wolverton Tesco’s.
Ian and Jane are coming to stay in Sydney for New Years Eve and asked if we would still be here so we could link up again but much as we would love to I think the next 4 nights would be better spent doing a little more travelling on our way back, especially that the weather doesn’t look like changing any time soon. There is supposed to be a spectacular firework display in Sydney and they are making preparations now for it but I did see the Darling Harbour display on Christmas Eve while walking to the shop that evening.
It’s funny that we travelled all around Sydney today but when we got back to Darling Harbour, to us, it seemed the nicest area anywhere. It doesn’t have the bridge or Opera house view but somehow when you don’t have blue skies the Opera house is lost in the grey background. If we ever come back to Sydney I think we would definitely stay at Darling Harbour.

Prison fire?

Although I have paid $50 for 3 days internet I have not been able to receive anything in the room and nobody has responded to the phone messages that I have left so we have been forced to use internet stations where we can find them. When you have to use public internet it’s so much harder to find and save anything so I screwed up a bit with the Christmas lunch Cruise. I couldn’t remember which one of the many companies I finally found availability with but I did ask directions when I phoned them. They didn’t give me any as they said the information and a map would all be emailed with the confirmation. They also took my mobile number but I never received a phone call or the email confirmation, and was forced to find them with a search again on public internet. I obviously took the phone number of one I had tried earlier that was fully booked, then spent 24 hours leaving phone messages with them also without reply. We decided that the only thing we could do was walk down and catch the boat at the time they had told me and look for the boat. I am very grateful to http://www.riverboatcruises.com.au/ for accommodating us and not ruining our Christmas day.

Boxing Day morning we had to ring home early on our mobile phones briefly to wish our families a Happy Christmas because the hotel phone didn’t allow overseas calls. I took the nice picture of Claire just before we left for our walk around the harbour to find the boat and Claire said that she didn’t get many good photos of herself these days so I thought I had better publish it. Our cell block has a covered tunnel walkway that joins it to the car park and there is a tunnel walkway that joins the car park to the Harbour side shopping centre which is over three floors. Claire is yet to shop there. I caught Claire putting the Christmas blog on just before we headed off and bought a monorail day pass which does a circuit around Darling harbour area. We managed to do 3 and a half circuits so had good value from them but it was a shame that it rained all day so it was a good job that the massive Paddy’s market was covered. It also had about 3 floors above with a shopping centre and it seemed that everyone had started the sales so the crowds were out. Claire managed to find 3 pairs of knickers as we hadn’t brought enough with us expecting to be wearing swimwear most of the time. I only brought two pairs of pants which is totally inadequate and have been going commando most of the time. It’s a good job we have our own laundrette in the apartment cell.

We had intended to have lunch in the famous restaurant called, “Mum’s Thai” which is just out the back of our apartments but its shut until 10th January so we wont be trying that. While we were looking for our boat yesterday we spotted one of Claries favourite restaurants Wagamama’s along Kings Wharf so headed off to that. We had only just sat down when a cruise boat pulled up just outside that seemed rather familiar somehow called “Fusion Cruises”; whoops! It’s funny how cocking something up can sometimes, turn out better than if it had gone smoothly sometimes. The cruise that we ended up on turned out to have been my first choice when trying to find one in the first place.

Having been walking around Sydney in the rain all day we were both tired so decided on an evening in and an early night. Good job we did because we were awoken at 2am by an alarm which must have been piped into every apartment judging from the volume of it. We quickly got dressed and followed the crowd out of the fire escape that we had earlier got trapped in but this time the outside door was open. It was still raining jet most people seemed to have come out in their pyjamas and less than half were wearing shoes. The alarm eventually stopped but no officials came out to inform people of the situation and in the confusion some people were wandering back in while others walked around the building to the front. We stayed put for a while but then wandered around to the front only to see two fire engines. We also noticed that people were hanging out the windows from most floors and hadn’t even bothered to come down. The building is old, large and started out life in the wool industry and the front outside of the building is protected against change. When it was converted the rooms were arranged all around the outside so that everyone had a window to the outside world. This left a huge hole in the middle of the building that has been left open with walkways to the apartments. The main structure is thick square timbers that run vertically through the building with metal brackets supporting the adjoining beams and wooden walkways. As there are 13 floors if a fire did get going it would spread like crazy because the open centre would act like a chimney allowing the fire to spread very rapidly. There must be hundreds of separate apartments yet there are only 3 lifts supporting the lot and these are also placed in the centre chimney. I still don’t understand why they have no separate staircase that you can use as an alternative to the lifts. There is the fire escape stairs but you will have a $1000 fine if used when there is no fire and each door can only be opened from the chimney area and are locked from the fire escape. You can imagine the delays when everyone decided to go back to bed with only 3 small lifts. I again tried the fire escape walking up the stairs one flight to our floor while Claire held the door open but the door to the third floor was locked from the inside, even under fire conditions; bizarre. Others were pilling into the fire escape to go up to their floors and eventually I noticed that someone was holding open the fire door to our floor so shouted Claire and we could get back to bed.

It’s hardly surprising that we have had an alarm with this set up; it only takes someone to leave their room without their room card and they will be stuck as you can’t even use the lifts without it. All that someone in this position could do was either wait for someone else to come by with a room card and set the lift for you or use the fire escape and risk the $1000. At 2am there are few others around.