After seeing Nick and Kerry off on their journey to England we hung out in Manly a few more days at Mary and Cheryl's. We'd had to take '007' our campervan into Wicked Campers for a safety check, we told them about the oil situation and they took the van off us straight away fearing the rings had gone, or worse. They re-imbursed us for the oil and gave us a bigger, although just as tatty van! This one was called 'Venus', is painted up like a Mambo t-shirt and also has a painting of a naked she-male devil along the whole of the roof - you just can't beat classy transport! On the back in big red letters is painted; 'Don't sweat the petty things - Just pet the sweaty things! We spent the next few days around Brisbane catching some of the things we'd missed when we passed through earlier. We had a day out with Casey and took her to the cinema, which was a bit of a novelty for us having not been to the 'flicks' for ages. Mary also lent us her car which was a bit of a godsend and allowed us to travel a little easier than in the van, we drove to Mt Glorious which is dense rainforest, then came back through Samford and Ferndale which changes into rolling countryside, a nice run. The night before leaving we all went out for a Thai meal in Manly, Rammy and Casey came also which was nice, we were able to say all our good-bye's in one go, making things a little easier!
The next day we set off south, stopping on the way to say goodbye to Pete and Sharron who'd kindly taken us out on their boat when we were in Manly just after the wedding. We also tried to pop into the ambulance station where Cheryl works as we didn't see her that morning - unfortunately she was out on a call so we missed her. We headed off leaving Brisbane behind, reaching Tweed Heads by nightfall and found a pull over there. We didn't get much sleep, as at around four in the morning a group of drunken lads turned up in what I guessed must have been V8 engined cars by the sound, then spent the next half an hour doing do-nuts around the car park cheering and shouting - very entertaining, bet they weren't cheering next day when they checked the tread on their tyres!
Next morning we headed over to Mt Warning National Park. At just short of 1600 metres Mt Warning is the highest peak on the east coast of Australia, if you're up there at sunrise, you're the first person to see sunlight on the entire Australian Mainland. Well there wasn't a cat-in-hells chance of us climbing it before sunrise but we did decide to tackle it mid-morning after breakfast - far more civilised! The walk up there is an 8.8km round trip, not that far, but the incline was pretty steady so it took us around five hours to reach the top and return to the car-park again. The last vertical 200 metres have to be climbed by scrambling up a chain which is pinned to the rocks, not too bad, although Sarah wasn't too happy with it. The view from the top was spectacular, well worth the climb; we sat and fed wild Bushturkeys also while we were up there - they just can't get enough of those old applecores - yummy! That evening we headed further down the Highway after a spell in Mullimbimby, looking back we could see a lightening storm raging over Mt Warning, it looked fantastic.
On our journey south we decided to spend another day in Byron Bay, as we'd enjoyed it so much when we were there with Nick and Kerri after their wedding. When we got there we were rewarded by the views from the lighthouse which were just unforgettable. There was a rainstorm out over the bay and very heavy cloud. This was punctuated in places by the sunlight, which cast an amber light over the whole area, right back towards the mountains surrounding the far side of the bay. We just stood there for ages in the wind and watched rainstorms moving along the bay, it was fantastic.
After Byron Bay we continued on our way down the coast, finding our own deserted beaches to spend the day here and there. We found plenty of caravan sites and truck stops to shower along the way, also laundry facilities which had spare plug sockets to re-charge our video camera while we washed our socks! We passed through Yamba, Glenn Innes, South West Rocks and Coffs Harbour before reaching Sawtell, a really nice small town close to the Trial Bay coastal area. By chance we managed to get two tickets for a twilight tour of the old gaol there, built to house convicts transported from England during the early 19th Century. Needless to say it was pretty spooky walking amongst the old cells at night, but at least we were spared a sighting of the resident ghost! Next day we carried on towards Port McQaurrie, we spent the day there, then had to drive all the way back there again after leaving, when we realised Sarah had left my watch in the internet cafe - Doh! We had a good laugh earlier when we'd watched a fisherman unloading and cleaning his fish at the harbour, each time he put a cleaned fish in his box a Pelican kept sneaking around the corner and pinching it, we nearly died laughing when he finally realised.
It was over the next couple of nights somewhere near Taree that we had a little nightmare with the van. It had been raining all night when suddenly around 3am we were woken by a torrent of water pouring in from the roof which drenched us! It must have pooled slowly in the gap between the roof and roof lining, which had eventually given way under the weight. We spent the rest of the night huddled in the corner of the van trying to keep dry as the rain dripped in. After calling Wicked Campers and going ballistic as we passed through Nabiac, I ended up on the roof most of the next day with a tube of silicone trying to seal up the vent.
Before we passed close to Sydney we turned inland and drove through the area where most of the vineyards are situated. We spotted the 'Lindemans' winery and called in. The staff there let us try a couple of the Shiraz varieties, including a couple of vintages, they tasted fantastic. Never ever thought i'd be standing in Lindemans winery sampling wine straight from the vineyards - great! After nearly running out of petrol miles from anywhere (near Bewowra) and accidentally throwing our phonecard into a bin and having to dismantle the whole thing in public, we passed through the outskirts of Sydney. As we looked over the harbour we could see the Harbour Bridge and the Opera house lit up at night, we didn't linger though as we intended to come back after reaching Adelaide and spend a few weeks there. We drove on through the night eventually reaching Blackheath on the outskirts of the Blue Mountains. It was freezing, I don't think either of us banked on it being this cold in Australia. Out came our outdoor gear, boots, windproofs - the works. Anybody would have thought we were in the Himalayas! We spent a few days around Blackheath and Katoomba visiting most of the sights and look-outs, the scenery up in the Blue mountains is just amazing, the kind of thing you try to capture on film and you just know it isn't doing the view any kind of justice. Just so we weren't having too good a time, our stove pump decided to break; and being as the gas stove that came with the van is absolutely useless this left us in a bit of a pickle. To cap it off I also managed to fall down a hole in the dark, to Sarah's amusement - great. How glad am I now that I paid what seemed like mega-bucks at the time back home for an MSR stove. I took it into an outdoor shop in Katoomba (Paddy Palin) and they arranged for a new pump to be ready for me when we got to Canberra - no charge, that's bloody service for you. There you go you see - you all laugh at me and my 'gear' obsession - but where would you lot have been with your cheapo stoves - eating cold pot noodle that's where ha ha!
Over the next few days we made our way slowly towards Canberra, taking in the Jenolan caves where we spotted our first Platypus! We had to take a bit of a detour when we reached Bathurst as there was a bridge out at Crockwell. We ended up taking a massive detour along Route 81 through Boorwa and Cowra then looping around towards Yass where we eventually found a truckstop to refuel and shower. Tired out and hungry I went around the back of the van to lift the tail-gate where our mini-kitchen is and guess what? The door was jammed. Luckily we were rescued by Ronald McDonald so didn't go hungry, but boy was I furious. I got up at the crack of dawn next morning determined to let the rental company have an earful. I decided to just check the door again though first, guess what, it opened without any effort - don't you just hate it when that happens. I'm sure Sarah had something to do with it and just wanted to a McDonalds! However, just to be sure I spent the morning taking the lock off, oiling it and refitting it to avoid any re-occurances!
We spent the next day lesiurely making our way along the Remembrance Drive into the capital Canberra. We spent a few days there touring the city and visiting a few of the sights, the highlight for me being the War Memorial. It's one of the best War museums i've been to and has a massive collection of military artefacts, many from the Gallipoli campaign. There's also the Remembrance Avenue outside leading up to Parliament house which is lined with bronzes and monuments in memory of every campaign Australia has participated. It's great to see that Australia seems to have no problem spending money when it comes to remembering those who gave service - which is the way it should be; maybe our politicians ought to take a visit over here? That night in the lay-by we had a fox come right up to the campervan while we had our meal, he just sat and watched us for about half-an-hour as we ate, then disappeared as quickly as he appeared into the dark.
From Canberra we took the route through Bega (where the nice cheese comes from!) and Merimbula towards the coast again and Melbourne. Once on the coast we pulled into a deserted beach close to Eden, no sooner had we stopped when we spotted a pod of dolphins playing in the surf along the beach, they were no more than ten feet from the waters edge at times. They stayed for around an hour, I'm sure they could see us stood watching and it was almost as if they were showing off for our benefit - maybe they saw the video camera! They'd surf down the biggest waves, stopping just before being dumped on the beach, then stick their tails vertical out of the water waving and slapping it on the surface ten or twenty times before heading out to catch another wave! Our route had taken us through the Snowy Mountains and sure enough as we came close to the Thredbo and Cooma we could see snow on the hills to our left. We continued on through Genoa, Orbost and eventually Bairnsdale which led to the Lakes Gateway an area we really liked and stopped to spend a while there. The highlight of this section came though when we reached Wilson's Promontory National Park, sitting on a broad peninsula jutting out into the ocean and is just stunning. We spent the whole day walking along the various beaches and up into the hills to the many look-out's which give breathtaking views over the area. I just wish we'd thought on as we'd have loved to have spent a bit more time there, as there are plenty of cheap campsites around. The diving there looks awesome too, we both vowed to return in the future with our gear. Apparently Leafy and Weedy Seadragons are commonly seen around these waters, we'd both love to dive with them after seeing captive one's in Singapore aquarium. It seemed to take us forever to drive off the promontory as we had to keep stopping for the wildlife, we saw wild Emu, Kangaroos, Wallabies and our first Wombats - loads of them. It's like catching a bus, you wait all day for one - then they all come at once! We continued along the coast towards Melbourne, detouring onto Phillip Island to see the Penguins, however it must have been their day off as there were none around; saying that the wind was gusting at gale force, even we were struggling to walk into it, so maybe they had more sense and stayed indoors! The wind continued to pick up all that day, to the point we had to pull over as the van was being blown all over the road. It settled down a little before late afternoon and we made our way gingerly into Melbourne. Melbourne's a great place, very modern and quite a contrast to the surrounding towns and countryside. We spent a couple of days there touring the city and also nearly getting fined for not realising you need to purchase an e-tag to allow your vehicle into the city! The weather however, seemed to be getting even colder and it rained hard before we left - how much colder can it get, this is Australia for god's sake! We were now sleeping in our four-season bags plus with our silk-liners inside just to keep warm! With one eye on the weather we stocked up the van at Geelong and left bound for the Great Ocean Road, something we'd both been looking forward to.
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