A YEAR TO GO AROUND THE WORLD

i'll leave you all with a little travelling quote !!


a year to go around the world! a whole twelve months of seeings and curious happenings in far-off foreign lands! you have thought of doing this, almost promised yourself that when you get old enough, and rich enough, and could 'spare the time' you too would go around the world. most of us get old enough; some of us get rich enough; but the time!! the time!! - to spare the time, to cut loose from goods & lands, from stocks & dreary desks, quit clients, patients, readers, home & friends - aye, and our enemies whom we so dearly love!! full many a promise must be broken & few the voyagers round the world...

australia part 2 - victoria & new south wales

we set off from adelaide on saturday 18th april after dropping back into brenty's for one more night of fun & that it certainly was ! our plan was then to move onto the next state in australia, victoria. we actually spent a few days getting to the border simply because we were having such a good time. we drove down along the coast before settling for the night in salt creek. it was pitch black when we arrived to our campsite. we managed to set up camp & settle in for the night amongst the leeches, yuck !! seriously they were absolutely everywhere. the toilets & showers were like obstacles courses. while managing to avoid them we got into the tent & went asleep hoping they wouldn't find any holes in the tent. i'm almost sure myself & cathy wore our ugg boots that night ... anyway we woke the next morning to see the outside of the tent had lots of leeches sliming all over it, another job tom had to sort out !!

by sunrise we were on the road, the princes highway to be exact. we had a day of very slow progress as we stopped off so many times taking in all the last special sights in south australia. our first stop of the day was in a campers rest area where tom gave cathy her very first driving lesson. how cool is that, learning to drive in the ac/dc campervan ! it was a funny thing to watch it & of course as there is 3 seats in the front of the campervan cats had both of us dishing out the orders at times. tom was the primary instructor though. it was also in this little campers rest area that we had a weird experience, funny as ! you see when we were in adelaide our friend brenty got us to watch this video called 'wolf creek' - never again ! i was so freaked after watching this movie i thought i would never get back into a campervan again. it was a story of 2 girls & one guy who got abducted in the outback. without going into the gorey details their life ended so badly i was watching the movie through little gaps in my fingers ... anyway out of nowhere this oldish guy came out of a field & over to us. tom was just whispering 'wolf creek' to me as he approached. he started chatting & within minutes was telling us where certain backpackers got murdered in australia. there was one other campervan parked up & i was just praying someone would get out of it. when no-one did i imagined he had abducted them & was now coming to get us. cathy was hiding in the back of the campervan & tom was looking at me out of the corner of his eye & thinking 'whats going on here' ! i started dropping hints to get rid of him & just after he left the area a couple jumped out of that other campervan. we got chatting to them & they said they had seen the movie wolf creek, arrived there the night before, the same guy came over to them & they went to sleep all freaked with knives beside their pillows !! it turns out the poor guy was just a local farmer who enjoyed chatting to backpackers ... talk about paranoia !!!! just wish we hadn't watched that feckin movie !!!!!

so after almost being abducted by wolf creek !!! we moved on passing through some beautiful fishing villages before stopping for two nights in the town of milicient. easily the most scenic campsite we stayed in. we moved on to take in the lake of mt gambier, a volcanic crater lake. after our time here we crossed the border from south australia to victoria settling for the night in port fairy, a stunning little town complete with bluestone & sandstone white washed cottages, colourful fishing boats & tree lined streets. it's in a little scenic town like this our poor little ac/dc van gets the death stares, where locals really don't appreciate scruffy backpackers being around. before we settled down to sleep for the night in a carpark we had take away fish & chips for dinner, possibly the best ever. we normally set up the tent beside the tent but at this stage we made the transition from 'free' campsites to just parking up the van in a wharf car park. not really a good idea to pop up a tent here !! before we left we managed to squeeze in breakfast down on the beach ... all in a days work eh ...


great ocean road

the next few days we found ourselves on the great ocean road. this is a 400km stretch of coastal road that sweeps along the south before you reach melbourne, built by soldiers many years ago. on this road we continued to indulge on the supposedly banned australian ice cream, met an ac/dc fan who thought the van was the greatest thing he'd ever seen, visited beaches & caves & took in some breathtaking sights as you'll see in the photos. we spent a few hours hanging out around the sights of the 12 apostles rock formations & made a decision to stay here until after sunset because every evening over 1000 penguins come in from the sea to rest for the night ... or so we were told ! we persisted till the very end. it got colder & colder, one by one everyone left & then appeared 7 little fellas barely visible as night had fallen. we felt so misguided but still a little rewarded because even 7 was a very pretty sight.

melbourne

we landed in melbourne on schedule which was the thursday night i think ! we never expected to be plunged into sadness that night. as we were driving through the st kilda area just south of melbourne city poor ac/dc who by now was a very valuable member of our travelling team went into cardiac/gear box arrest & couldn't move another inch. we were both shocked & devastated to say the least !!!! we decided not to call the 24 hour roadside assistance available to us to have one more night with the van & instead pushed the campervan off the road into a nearby housing estate, a very posh one might i add ... what an eye sore for the residents. the next morning we got the van operating but very badly. we drove to the wicked campers depot in melbourne. at this stage the gear box was almost on the floor. it would only go into 2 gears & the reverse had failed. not ideal when your trying to navigate yourself through the city of melbourne with a population of almost 4 million in rush hour traffic. hats off to tom because he does all the driving. to add to our misery the sky above was black & the rain poured down, a true reflection of how we felt as we brought ac/dc on her final journey. they immediately took the van from us and put it into an old yard nearby & parked it amongst all the other bashed up & broken vehicles. it only took them minutes to hand us the keys of a replacement. talk about the opposite ... it had some rubbish like 'i shop' written on the side & was painted up all girly. i actually thought tom was gona refuse to drive it & even though it was slightly bigger, newer, easier on fuel & more comfy than ac/dc we refused to like it as we lived in it over the next week while we made our way into new south wales on our way to sydney ...

anyway back to melbourne - our weekend there was a complete washout. the first rain we have seen since 2008 & boy did it rain.(i can almost hear you cries of sympathy for us!!) obviously it hampered our weekend greatly. it's not so easy trying to cook your spuds & beans on a little gas stove when the rain is bucketing down. we stooped to a whole new level here too when we opted to stay in a trailer park !! seriously there was a few rough heads knocking around that place. it was here that we decided it was time to buy ourselves a new top & pair a of jeans before reaching sydney because as tom pointed out the residents of trailer park were treating us like we were one of their own & the city slickers were treating us like trailer trash !!

we managed to go to ramsey street over the weekend in melbourne much to the delight of cathy although tom seemed uber excited about the visit too. i'm pretty sure he thought he was gona meet harold bishop but it wasn't to be. we laughed so much here trying to remember who lived in which house & singing the theme tune of neighbours into the video camera.

from melbourne we drove on in the pouring rain to a town called sale. we had planned to do a lovely coastal drive but the weather was so bad we wanted to just move on. from 38 degrees in the northern territory to 28 degrees in south australia we were now struggling with temperatures dropping as low as 8 degrees !! we arrived into sale, the town barely visible through the pouring rain & in true backpacker style looked for the cheapest option. it was here that we sent tom into the petrol station all dressed up in his new top & jeans to have a word with the girl behind the counter. his mission was to get her to feel sorry for him & give us permission to park for the night at the petrol station. there was also a really clean toilet where we thought we could brush the teeth & change the undies ... showers don't enter the equation at times like this !! anyway tom charmed her & she agreed to let us stay. the funny thing is later that night when tom was back in his backpackers clothes he went into the shop to buy something & she didn't even recognize him, how funny is that, he's like a comelian !!

when we left sale we moved on eastwards & somehow ended up diverting to raymond island. we went here in search of dolphins & more koalas. we didn't see the dolphins but the koalas were plentiful in their natural surroundings which was so beautiful. tom was even up the trees with them ! we got back on track that evening & the road led us to the border of victoria & new south wales. it was in the town of eden we slept that night, this time sleeping in a car park down by the local pier. it was pitch dark when we arrived. all that was on view was the waters edge & a few boats but when we pulled the curtains of the campervan the next morning we realised we were in yet another stunning location with deep blue sea water all around & so many fishing boats ready to set sail. it was here we hit a new low, washing all our dishes in public toilets haha how bad are we !!!

over the next 3 days we continued up the coast where the sun began to shine again. we stopped off in batemans bay & woolongong before arriving in sydney. what a treat at the end of our road trip. it just has to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world. to add to the magic my cousin aine is living in sydney with her fiance john & kindly invited us to stay with them in a beautiful big apartment for the week, dreamland ! our week has been amazing. we spent the first day or 2 with our feet up getting clean again & eating fine foods. we then spent the next 3 days totally indulging in all the beautiful things the city of sydney has on offer. many hours were spent down by the picture perfect harbour. on the third of these days we celebrated tom's 31st birthday ... it began with a show in the opera house 'the little mermaid' which even though it was aimed at children was so enjoyable. tom's birthday lunch was toasted cheese sandwiches which i had prepared earlier to save our money. it was so funny because i just handed them to him in the middle of the street & we started munching away. i'm sure he was thinking 'thanks lynn thats romantic' but i had plans for a super meal that night so i had to be cruel to be kind. we did end up sharing a fish & chips down by the harbour too, then had mc donalds mc flurrys, hot chocolate & a chocolate fondu before the dinner treat so he was a happy chappy ! we spent the rest of the day walking across the world famous harbour bridge & lounging around darling harbour, another stunning part of sydney. that night cathy, aine & myself cooked up a storm for tom & we celebrated until it was his birthday no more. the next day was spent down at the iconic bondi beach. from there we did the 2 hour coastal walk to coogee beach. i really wanted to go here as back in august 2001 my brother was living here & myself & cats spent the best part of that month there with him. it was great to be there again but i have to admit even though we tried really hard we just couldn't find the place we stayed in. with just two more days left in sydney we had to make it our business to spend one of them on palm beach or as we know it 'summer bay'. we drove the hour north of sydney to this stunning beach area & pulled up at the surf club. but get this they were actually filming outside the diner that day so we got to meet all the cast & got our photos taken with them, the most important of course being mr alf stewart. can you believe it !! as my cousin said he's almost like an uncle because he's been in our lives for so long & there he was learning his lines & filming scenes ......

so today we had one last thing to do before we left & that was to meet matt, louise & their little baby malachi for lunch by the botanic gardens. it was a lovely extended lunch to say the least ... sorry johnny & jane, i know you'll be devastated to know we got to see your gorgeous little nephew before you have !!

so what does tomorrow bring ??? a flight to new zealand where we will spend the next month & then of course get to see my parents for the first time in 8 months & get to holiday with tom's mam again, rock on new zealand ....

the latest photos are you for you all to see ...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MR. PAPA THOMAS

as annes little lad turns 31 we want to wish him a very happy birthday. theres no better place to celebrate this occasion than here in sydney. so heres to tom, happy 31 years ... ur almost as old as mommy!!

love cathy! :D XXX