Goodbye Australia, Hello America!

Before leaving Woolgoogla we had one last supper at our favourite pub the Seaview Tavern across the road from the Diggers rest for a quick one on Tuesday evening. The special meals there are very reasonable from $10 each which is not bad for 3 lamb chops. I think Phil was secretly hoping that we’d bump into Trev and his dog again but they were nowhere to be soon. Perhaps one night of our company was more than enough? It was early to bed and on Wednesday morning we packed our bags and left the motel just after 10am. Phil & I didn’t realise just how close Byron Bay, our final port of call, was to Woolgoogla but that was okay, we just took our time driving some of the journey on the highway and turning off at various creeks, rivers and pretty little towns. Some were what we have come to call them, ‘one horse’ towns but nonetheless they were all very pretty. It was just before 4 in the afternoon when we pulled into Byron Bay and we stopped off at a bottle shop to get some supplies before finding our way to Mick & Lynn’s where we’d arranged to stay the night. Byron Bay was a lot quieter than the last time we visited but the town was still buzzing even though it was late afternoon.

I’m not sure if Mick & Lynn actually invited us or whether we invited ourselves but either way it was great to catch up with them before leaving Oz and gave us a chance say goodbye. When we arrived Mick was busy doing stuff in the garden and Lynn was making her way back from a meeting in Coffs harbour. I admit, I did feel a little guilty landing them with us two reprobates as Lynn has been very busy at work lately and has had to travel to Sydney a couple of times since we were last in Byron Bay to visit her dad who has been poorly in hospital. Lynn made good time and got back home not much after 6pm but of course, we’d already got stuck into the beer by this time so we were a little ahead of her. The weather was warm and the mozzies were out in force but we had a great evening catching up on the under-cover back deck. Mick cooked steaks and sausages on the barbecue which we had with one of Lynn’s special salads and some very garlicky bread. And very nice it was too. Jeff was back from his tour so he also joined us for dinner. The red wine flowed and we finished the evening with a glass of cointreau and ice. Needless to say we all were a bit groggy the next morning, all bar Lynn, who was out at first light picking up supplies from the local farm market.

Whilst Lynn put on the coffee machine, Mick cooked up sausages, eggs and bacon on toast which went down very well after the night before. Jeff came by to pick up his surf board and Phil couldn’t resist taking a photo of him riding away on his bike with his board under one arm. God knows how he got on getting out of the drive and riding up the hill to the beach but I guess, where there is a will there’s a way. Before leaving, we gave Mick & Lynn back their map which we had borrowed; they gave us some invaluable travel tips when we came in January and with their advice we saw sights that we simply would never have found under our own steam. I am certain that we shall meet up again, whether it is on our native land, in Europe or in other far remote places on the planet. Thanks once again for putting us up guys, it was great fun as always!

We said our goodbyes and left Byron bay around quarter to ten. The plan was to leave early so that we could drop off our bags at the Soho www.sohobrisbane.com.au and then return the car. The roads were busy but we were soon in Brisbane. Unfortunately we’d completely forgotten all about daylight saving time in Queensland which meant we gained an extra hour! This didn’t matter much because the crappy sat nav was temperamental so we went round in circles but finally we found our hotel, got to a petrol station to fill up with fuel before eventually getting to the Europa office to return the hire car. This is third time we’ve been in Brisbane so we were easily able to find our way on foot to the centre of town where we stopped off for a drink and a toilet break before going back to the hotel to check in and get our room key. We always stay at the Soho in Brissie when we’ve been here and I’m sure Phil thought the reception staff would recognise him when he checked in, but of course they didn’t!

We couldn’t be bothered to walk back into town for something to eat, so lunch was a quiet affair at a little restaurant-cum-cafe just down from our hotel on Wickham Terrace. It was edible, cheap and cheerful fare but nothing to rave home about. For some reason we were feeling pretty jaded so we went back to our room to catch up with emails and book a hotel in Los Angeles. Our flight leaves Brisbane at midday but we don’t arrive in LA until 7am, bizarrely because of the time zones, we arrive in the US before our flight departs from Australia! Worst thing is, although it will be morning time when we arrive, in Oz time it will be 1am. The plan is to go straight to the hotel to get some sleep before deciding what and where to go from there.


Well this is our last evening before we leave Australia tomorrow. Am I sad? Well no, not really, it’s been a ball down under but the time has come to move on to pastures new. I think we’ve done pretty well driving practically the entire boomerang coast. I am sure there is much we have missed along the way and I would have liked to have got to Darwin, but all in all we haven’t done badly for first timers. There have been some highs and a few lows, although not too many of the latter I’m pleased to say. The highs include, connecting up with Jane & Ian in Melbourne, Philip Island, driving the Great Ocean, Road, seeing Sydney in the sunshine, Fraser Island, cruising the Whitsundays, chilling out at the white house in Townsville, Magetic Island (even if it did rain half the time) and staying at Byron Bay with Mick & Lynn. One thing I will miss is the friendliness of the Australian people; I just love their laid back approach to life, their directness and the way they tell it as it is. Out here, life is certainly a beach! We’ve met some great people along the way, and some hopefully that we will keep in touch with when we return back to England. As for the lows, well we have been unlucky with the weather at times, the speeding fines and bans weren’t planned and we had some miserable moments in Melbourne. The worst though was receiving news from Jim to say that Daphne had fallen and broken her fema resulting in surgery and worst still, hearing news of her subsequent heart attack. This is just a brief mention of some of the good and the bad so far, we will, no doubt, have much more time to say on the whole trip when we get back home and have time to reflect.


For now it’s, “Goodbye Australia, Hello America”!

Melbourne to Sydney & back to Berwick

Happy New Year everyone! Let us just bloody well hope that it is a good one. This is a picture of the fireworks in Sydney Harbour, don’t they look amazing. I quite believe that I walked over this same bridge just a few days ago. I heard on the radio that the fireworks in London were pretty spectacular also. We had a pleasant and rather civilised, quiet dinner for two on New Year’s Eve, enjoying a steak dinner and wine before walking back to our motel just after 9pm. It was tiring being in the car all day with temperatures exceeding 35 outside and both the heat and the long journey wore me out so I went to bed and Phil stayed up to watch the film which meant he saw the New Year in by himself. I don’t think he minded much but he was a little groggy when he awoke the next morning.

The plan was that we would drive along the ocean road on the Bass Strait and find ourselves a quiet stretch of beach and lay down our towels. But would you believe it, when we opened the motel door, we found grey skies and rain in the air. I think it had rained overnight but it was obvious from the skies that there was more rain to come. We stopped off at the next village for some breakfast and drove some 30 or 40k along the coast hoping that the sun would come out and we could have a beach day. But no such luck, the rain came and we decided to abandon our beach plan and head back to Berwick.

We got back sometime just before 2pm unintentionally disturbing Jeremy who’d had a very heavy night in the city celebrating the New Year. I had meant to warm him that we were heading home but I couldn’t get the text to send. No change back at no 44 and I can’t believe we’ve been away for 10 days. We had some quite urgent internet stuff to sort so Phil got stuck into this whilst I stuck on the washing and had a clean up. Most of Berwick seemed to be shut, which wasn’t altogether surprising because it was New Years Day but the supermarket was open so we drove into town and picked up some lamb steaks, pots and veggies and a few other basic supplies. Phil cooked us a lovely meal, we got showered and changed and settled in front the plasma. The Foxtel seems to be working now so we had more choice than before we went away but there still wasn’t much on to watch. We did spot that The Sopranos was on from 7.30pm which we were really happy about because we love this series and the episodes they were showing were ones we hadn’t seen. And that was our New Years Day.

It all seems a little flat after the excitement of Sydney. It was a long drive to Sydney & back and I am happy to say that we made it back without any major trauma. I was nervous at first about doing such a long journey and wanted to fly, but in retrospect, I am glad we did the drive because it meant we saw so much more. You could do Melbourne to Sydney in a day at a push but we did the first stretch to Sydney over 3 days and 2 overnight stops along the coastal road and coming back we went via Canberra with 3 overnight stops. Yes, there miles of endless stretches of vast empty nothingness but we also saw some awesome sights. The last stretch of the journey was very pretty, some great beaches all the way from Ninety Mile beach through to Venus Bay, in fact, pretty much all the way to Philip Island. What a big shame that it was raining. Never mind, I know I shouldn’t moan but we really are not having much luck so far with the weather in Australia. Saturday was another bleak day with grey dull skies with not a single ray of sunshine. Why is it that everything seems so much better when the sun shines?

Harriet managed to get through to us on the SKYPE briefly just before we left the motel to say that she’d had to go the visit A&E at MK hospital at 5.30am in the morning. I’m not sure that I got the whole story because we hadn’t long been away and the SKYPE connection was a little fuzzy. Apparently she was given antibiotics for tonsillitis and also more antibiotics for a stomach infection. The doctor wasn’t too sure what was wrong with her stomach but I believe she had to give a few samples. Poor Harriet, nearly every time she has a holiday from work she seems to come down with one bug or another. So Harriet if you’re happening to be reading this entry today, I hope you’re feeling better soon and keep taking the pills!

We’re going to be taking it fairly easy over the weekend so apologies now for any boring entries. I’m sure things will liven up again when we fly to Brisbane on Monday, in fact the way things pan out with me and Phil I have no doubt whatsoever we’ll find something to write about. Today we’re going shopping and will have lunch out and then maybe a movie if we can find a cinema and a film that we both want to watch. For now though, I leave you with some of some of the lovely beaches that we saw from a distance but didn’t get to sit on.