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| more OZ travelogue | |||||||||||||||||
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| TRAVELOGUE:OZ-1 | |||||||||||||||||
| April 29, 2003 | |||||||||||||||||
| home... | |||||||||||||||||
| Greetings from Australia. We have been here for more than 3 weeks now.? We had 5 great days in Sydney staying in the Kings Cross neighborhood, a gritty part of town just a train ride away from the harbor, the bridge, and the famous opera house.? Bill scouted out a sailing opportunity and we sailed on a J-24 on the harbor with great views of Sydney and its surrounding areas.? The Royal Garden was pretty impressive even after we noticed the huge bat population up in the fig trees, yikes. Later we saw them flying over our hostel from its rooftop garden and through the gap in the observatory dome when we signed up to have a look at the stars. FYI- the Southern Cross has 5 stars, not four, and Orion is visible from both northern and southern hemispheres.? Because it was slightly cloudy the night of our observatory viewing, they showed a 3-D movie about our solar system which was fun (see pics).? Bill got us tickets to a Reggae show at a club called the Metro; a group called Sly & Robbie playing with a guy from Black Uhuru, lively! | |||||||||||||||||
| In Sydney we had some great dinners including yummy Indian food in Kings Cross, enormous juicy mussels at a place called Fishface, and some decent sushi near Argyle Street.? This all in preparation for a road/car camping trip down the coast to Melbourne.? Our first stop was the Blue Mountains about 90 minutes west of Sydney.? We hiked down to a place called Victoria Falls along limestone cliffs and down a few hundred meters into the river valley.? The birdcalls sounded like sonar in the canyon.? After an overnight we hiked back out and headed on to Katoomba where we saw a famous rock formation called the three sisters, prevented an overheated car by filling an empty radiator!, and set our sights on Royal National Park on the shore.? The next morning we hiked along the shore of the Tasman Sea.? It is lined by a steep rock shelf that we had seen from the plane arriving from New Zealand.? The colors are amazing from deep reds and yellows to stark white.? One cliff edge was so white and square it looked like a wedge of tofu. | |||||||||||||||||
| Driving on the left seemed to be no problem for Bill and we arrived at Murramurang Park with no problems. We now refer to it as Kangaroo junction because the campsite had a flock/herd/pride (?) of kangaroos scouting for food scraps.? We were quite taken with them, but the locals barely noticed them.? Further south Bill was drawn into a roadside emu shop and bought some emu sausage (it was as if the car had a mind of its own, yeah right).? Then, in a small town called Berry we bought 2 bottles of wine, one fit for Kangaroo junction and one to save for my birthday the following night.? Trying to be spontaneous and flexible the next day we started out with no particular plan. We actually found ourselves still in the car around 6pm, sun coming down beginning to drizzle, no campsite for miles, hungry and stocked with emu sausage.? At long last, the Marlo Ocean View (up for discussion) Caravan Park was like a beacon in the night.? And so it was, April 15, 2003, emu sausage green thai curry over a camp stove with fancy wine and not so fancy company in a caravan park on the southern shores of Australia. Can't be beat. | |||||||||||||||||
| Wilson's Promontory (familiarly referred to as "the prom") is a beautiful National Park in Victoria. It covers a huge territory jutting out into the southern Tasman Sea with a lighthouse and gorgeous beaches facing both east and west.? We arrived around 4pm and quickly packed up for a two-night three-day hike out to Oberon bay on the western side.? We caught the sunset just before we hit the campsite and had a starry night on the gorgeous beach.? The following day we hiked across the promontory to the eastern side at Waterloo bay for another gorgeous night. The campsite had a bunch of lorikeets, bright red and blue birds, squawking up in the trees, oh yes and a possum!? Hiking out the Friday before Easter we saw groups of boyscouts, girlscouts, and fellow travelers so we were lucky to have missed the rush. | |||||||||||||||||
| Melbourne became the launching point for our next adventure, a 7-day bike trip on the Great Ocean Road.? We found a hostel in St. Kilda, a hip neighborhood outside of Melbourne CBD.? From there we could catch the tram into town or further down to the beach.? Downtown we checked out a huge open-air market called Victoria Market, found a yummy bowl of noodles, and tried to plan our bike trip.? Finally, we found a bike outfitter, a guy from Baltimore who is now an Aussie transplant rented us two hybrid bikes, a bob-trailer (for bill), and a couple of panniers.? Two days later we were on the train to Warrnambool, a small town at the western-most point of our ride.? The Great Ocean Road is an historic road built after the First World War that traces the southern shore of Victoria and marks the sites of beautiful rock formations and multiple historic shipwrecks.? The most famous shipwreck was that of the Loch Ard and in Warrnambool it is commemorated with a night aqua-laser show.? Other than 2 teenage survivors, the only thing that miraculously survived was a 6-foot tall ceramic peacock that had been aboard the ship on its way to an art show in Melbourne.?The funny thing was that the peacock was the shining finale, its laser image rising from the surface of the water, absolutely hilarious! | |||||||||||||||||
| Riding 75 kilometers the next day was not so hilarious. Though it was gorgeous.? When we were on the home stretch to Port Campbell, that day's final destination we were re-routed and extra 5 kilometers around a controlled forest fire! Nice! Day 2 was a grueling challenge.? After viewing the classic rock formations such as "the twelve apostles" early in the day, we later climbed Lavers Hill, up 600 meters over 14 kilometers, brushed by a cold windy sleet for the last 3 kilometers.? That night we lucked out to land at the Lavers Hill Roadhouse Inn which turned out to have great food and beer.? And, a bonus, we met a really cool German couple from Sydney who had traveled to many of the same places we intend to go.? So, we got really excited for the upcoming parts of our trip and temporarily forgot about our sore muscles.?? The next day we had the pleasure of riding down the other side of Lavers Hill only to be met by the steepest portion of the trip at Otway point, 200 meters up over 2 kilometers...ouch!? From there we were home free and back to the beautiful shoreviews that make the Great Ocean Road famous.? The hills were much more manageable and the weather much more agreeable.? Apollo Bay to Lorne was the most beautiful stretch riding along the high cliffs above the rough, rocky beaches.? Lorne had yummy gourmet food and a cozy caravan campsite.? Dolphins escorted us on to Torquay and in 7 days total we finished the ride turning inland to Geelong and hopping the train back to Melbourne for some city-life respite.? | |||||||||||||||||
| After a few days relaxing here in Melbourne we plan to hop the train to Adelaide and then across the Nullabar plain by train to Perth. | |||||||||||||||||