Week 6 - Monday 8 – 14 February 2010

So, having endured a lot of rain, cold and general hardship (you're feeling sorry for us, aren't you?) we found a great deal online and decided to avoid more rain by holing ourselves up in a hotel room at the McCracken Country Club. More than anything we thought it would be amusing to turn up in Priscilla, covered in dust and a bit weather warn, to ask for the room we'd booked. As it turned out it was a large,empty, soul-less conference type place, and no one paid us much attention at all. The room was lovely though – comfy bed, hot showers, porcelain and, importantly, satellite TV! We spent the afternoon watching The Matrix (forgotten what a good film it was, even though I can't bear Keanu Reeves) then watched the United v Everton game live until the early hours (of all the games to manage to catch!)

Next day, and your intrepid travellers headed off for the elusive 1pm ferry to Kangaroo Island. By elusive, what I really mean is, non-existent... Having rushed down to Cape Jervis for said 1pm, we discovered the next ferry was at 4pm, and there wasn't room on that one, but we could get the 6pm if we'd like. Oh dear. So we signed up for the 6pm, with a standby slot on the 4pm. We spent the intervening hours looking for a Vodafone signal so we could make some calls to sort some accommodation and chores out in Adelaide (including a service for Priscilla), then rushed back for 3.30pm to see if we could improve our standby status. The staff on the ferry do a really amazing job of squeezing every last inch of space out the ferry. People were guided to within millimetres of other vehicles, and at one point they were considering putting a block of wood between the ramp which lifts up to form the back plate of the ferry and the wall of the ferry to ensure the nose of a Corolla wasn't squashed. It was pretty impressive. Anyway, good news for us was that we made it onto the 4pm (even if it didn't leave until around 5pm with all the shenanigans). The crossing was good, and I spotted a seal on route, so all looking pretty good.

Arriving at Kangaroo Island, refreshed from our stay in the hotel, we were of course ready for a night of camping. We headed to American River, which we hoped would be sheltered from the winds, only to discover it was very exposed. And windy. And cold. So, well, yes. We caved again, this time paying more money than we paid for our night in the lovely McCracken for a night in a 1950's throw-back below average motel room, complete with op-shop furniture (although the people running the place were lovely).

On Wednesday we headed across the north side of the island and realised the reason for Kangaroo Island's name – we saw few live animals, but lost count of the dead roos and wallabies we saw lining the roads. Not nice. Had a nice lunch stop at Stokes Beach (which you have to clamber through a rocky tunnel to reach), and then camped for FREE and ALONE at Harveys Return. It was a lovely little spot, and I managed to sleep most of the night without worrying about the Axe Murderers.

At this point in time, we weren't feeling overly impressed with Kangaroo Island. It costs a lot of money to get there, and we hadn't by then seen much of the wildlife (other than the aforementioned dead roos) or stunning scenery (don't get me wrong, it was all very nice, but most of Australia is very nice) the island is famed for. I guess the crux of it came down to that great old British obsession – the weather. The weather was (in Jen's words) a bit poo.

Thursday though was great.

In the morning we carried on along the North coast track from our camp to the Cape Borda lighthouse at the north-west corner of the island,



then followed the red corrugated roads down through the west end of the island to Rocky River, the entry point for the Flinders Chase National Park.

From here, we headed down to the Cape de Couedic lighthouse, at the south-west end of the island,



and its neighbour Admiral's Arch. We spent a long time at the rock arch watching the New Zealand fur seals playing, fighting, sleeping, weeing in the water and generally frolicking about – great spot.





Then we headed onto the Remarkable Rocks, which were indeed, remarkable. Jen's correcting me to say they were Quite Remarkable, but I think they were just Remarkable.







Finally, we camped up that night at a council camp ground at Vivone Bay, where we also bought some fuel at a whacking $1.79 per litre (of course I limited the purchase to $10 at this price). We made friends with our neighbours, who we shared our first camp fire with since the Victorian High Country. They even cooked and fed us a Beer Damper – gorgeous with fresh cream and jam!

On Friday, we drove out for a great view from Point Ellen near where we'd camped, before heading over to Seal Bay.



We did the self-guided tour, rather than paying $28 each to get onto the beach with a ranger, and saw the Australian Sea-lions lounging about on the beach. All very cute, but not nearly as active as their Kiwi counterparts the day before. The Australian Sea-lions go out fishing for 72 hours, then come back and sleep for 72 hours. Then we made the run back to the ferry, discovering on route that my fuel calculations were a bit too close for comfort. We made it to American River to refuel on tightly nipped buttocks and hot air. A deep sigh of relief was breathed by both of us, but mostly by me, who would have had hell to pay if we'd gotten stuck on the dirt roads beforehand....

The ferry back to the mainland was much less eventful than the journey there, and we were in Adelaide by 5pm. There we set up camp in Semaphore, and met up with Jen's internet friend Schlocky, real name Frank. The second of her internet Axe Murderers I've met. Frank turned out to be as lovely as Cheryl, and insisted on paying for our dinner out at the Palais on the Semaphore beach front. All very nice. And, we weren't murdered (although even Jen confessed to being a little concerned when he took the wrong route back to our camp site past what looked like a disused railway line)...

Saturday was a cultural tour of Adelaide, taking in the North Terrace, the museum (very good) and a drink at the Arts Centre before heading to the Fringe Festival in the park, where we caught a comedy show called “The Book of Moron”. No, I wasn't starring. It was a good night though, apart from missing the “Sky Show” (an awful lot of fireworks – Jen was itching to get up and walk out of the small theatre to go and watch for the last 15 minutes). It was the Clipsal 500 race in Adelaide that weekend, as well as the close of the Fringe (comedy) Festival, and the Adelaide Festival of the Arts, so it was as busy as Adelaide gets.





The city kindly laid on free buses to shuttle everyone home. We waited for an hour and a half for ours, but it didn't show. So our free bus became an expensive taxi, hohum.

We planned to head into Adelaide for more culture the next day, but decided to collapse and do very little instead. Well, there was no real decision – these things tend to happen to us! In the late afternoon we walked up to Semaphore again and had a drink in the local pub, before an average Thai meal and another (much cheaper) taxi home.

Ok, enough for now, I know we're behind, but we'll catch up eventually....

Hope everyone's well!

Claire, of Jen and Claire Fame.

Week 5 1 March 2010 – 7 March 2010

Monday we left the Grampians and its emus and drove down to Hamilton where we spent the night updating the blog, eating curry and watching TV in the camp kitchen (little luxuries we miss!)

Tuesday, and we drove back down to the coast (ice cream prize for the first to see the sea), to Port Fairy, where a big folk festival was about to get under way (our timing has left something to be desired in terms of this type of event so far). Port Fairy is another cute little town, based on the River Moyne. We had a chip butty on the wharf along the river, before finding a camp site to spend the night. The Folk Festival involves some good folk, jazz and blues artists which is meant to be excellent, but we were 3 days too early, and with rain forecasted, decided this was not a time to embrace a New Glastonbury. We had a beer that evening in the local pub, but didn't find out much more about the festival. Our camp site was great until we were invaded by what we think were Polish neighbours – camp site largely empty, these guys plonk their two camper-vans right next to us. It was fine apart from Chuckie, the devil daughter who was clearly sent to try us (Jen swore she saw her head turn a full 360 degrees at one point...)

Wednesday, and off we set for the South Australian border, very exciting! We took a detour to Cape Bridgewater which was lovely – beautiful beach on the Victorian side, and seals in the water fishing off the headland – I'd liked to have spent more time there and done the walk to the seal lookout (we saw seals jumping just from the headland).





Then we crossed the border into South Australia. Twice! Well, you know, its the first time we've been this far from Sydney in Australia, it was worth going back for a photo!



Then we headed to Mount Gambier, where they have this bizarrely blue lake (the picture doesn't really do it justice).



I read all the physics of why its so blue for 6 months of the year, then the usual grey, but I didn't really understand it and can't recall it for you now – something to do with the volcanic ash geology... We found a camp site, which wasn't the best, but served its purpose for a night. Our neighbours were an older couple (the lady was EXTREMELY talkative, we struggled to get away in the morning) and a lady travelling around the country alone with her three children – quite a challenge! When we finally extracted ourselves from the detailed advice of our neighbour on Thursday morning, we had a trip to Bunnings Warehouse (you know I'm singing the tune as I write) to buy some drinking water hose and fittings so we could build our water system (mmm, water system).

After that we headed up along the coast via Carpenter Rocks (really not a lot happening there) to Robe. I was keen to drive up the beach track through Canuda National Park, but Jen was understandably a bit nervous about us getting bogged and losing Priscilla to the incoming tide, so we went up the road. Hmpf. I'd read that Robe was lovely and it turned out to be perfect. Not a cheap camp site, but we had a spot right next to the water. That night we had a lovely sunset and saw a seal playing in the bay! The next morning we had a dolphin in the bay to get us out of bed.







It was all too lovely, so for the first time since setting off, we stopped for three nights (THREE NIGHTS!) and just stood still and didn't do too much. Well. We did some stuff. Like we built a water system (mmm, water system)... Sounds a bit more exciting than perhaps it is, but heh, we're not big on DIY, this was quite a project for us! And now we have fixed water tanks and running water when we need it at the back of the car. We're very proud of ourselves!





We also had a date night, and went out for a pizza!

All in all a very satisfactory time was had, the only disappointing thing was the water looked so inviting, but was in fact minus 15'C (no really, it was, I went in!)

Saturday we reluctantly left our little paradise to keep Priscilla eating up those kilometres (around 5,000km's at this point). We headed to the Coroong National Park, via Kingston, where Priscilla picked a fight with a large red lobster:



The Coroong stretches from just north of Robe around 100km to the mouth of the River Murray, and consists of a string of salt-water lagoons separated from the Southern Ocean by the Younghusband Peninsula. Again, I wanted to drive up the beach, and we almost did a couple of times - firstly from a spot called the Granites, where a group of dirt bike riders put me off by suggesting the tide was on its way in, and secondly at 32 Mile Crossing, where a group fishing confirmed the tide issue and we admitted defeat and kept to the dirt track behind the dunes until we reached our camp at 42 Mile Crossing.

We did make friends with a Shingleback Lizard on route though:





It was a nice enough camp, with quite a few people present. We met a nice lady and her travelling companion from Adelaide – she was setting off for a year to travel around the country on her own. There were also some Yutes (Youths), who turned out to be lovely, from Perth, travelling around the country as well. You meet all sorts...

Anyway, this random bunch of travellers was in for a night and a half – we had a tremendous (yes Taylor, that kind of Tremendous) thunder storm – I think it went on for about 3 hours, raging mostly just above our heads. Lightening, thunder to crack the world apart and of course torrential rain didn't make for the best night's sleep its fair to say. But we, and Priscilla, and importantly the tent, survived to face another day.... And it meant we felt justified treating ourselves to a night in a hotel!

More of which in the next instalment....

Claire, of Claire and Jen Fame

Week 4 - Sunday 21 February – 28 February 2010

We headed out from Melbourne to Healesville, calling in at the Queen Victoria Markets on route – great markets, if we lived in Melbourne, we'd do our weekly food shop there, lovely fruit, veg, meat and delicatesans (and fish if you're into that type of thing...) Jen bought a new shirt to try to shield her from the mozzies, and I got some peppers (capsicums to you Aussies), sounds fair right?

We drove on out to Healesville and had a night at another campsite there. Healesville is another nice little town with cute shops and lots of vineyards around it, which have culminated in the very cool/poncey bar/restaurant thing called the Giant Steps, where you can taste all the local produce (at a cost!) and a more down to earth, but still unusually city-like, White Rabbit Brewery, in large hanger buildings next to each other. The key for us was to see the Healesville Sanctuary, a wildlife sanctuary and visitor centre, much recommended by books and friends.

Off to bed by 10pm as has become usual for us (no, of course we're not getting up any earlier...), only to be rudely awakened by a tremendous (not that kind of Tremendous Taylor) clap of thunder on Monday morning at around 7am. We got up quickly, but not quite quickly enough to beat the storm that followed. We just about got the tent down before the real rain started, but then had to fix up the cover etc in the torrential rain. Neither of us won the wet t-shirt competition even though we were the only two competing.

The weather cleared by around 10am, and we made our way to the Healesville Sanctuary. It was the best tourist dollar we've spent so far by some way. It doubles as a tourist centre and a wildlife hospital – they took in a lot of the wildlife injured in the Victorian bush fires in 2009. They seek to rehabilitate the animals that come to them, with a view to reintroducing them to the wild where possible. Where not possible, they keep the animals at the Sanctuary Zoo. This is something in itself, and the animals on show - emus



(my what pretty eyes you have)

koalas, kangaroos, platypus, numerous birds (including one that pooed on Jennie's camera), Tasmanian Devils, frogs, snakes etc), but the most impressive thing is the birds of prey display.

Surrounded by a class of school children (honestly, we did all we could to avoid them, but they follow us – I think they're attracted to Jen's hair), we waited for the “show”. Truly fantastic display. The key highlights were the Barking Owl (really beautiful), Bernice the Buzzard (the handler showed us how these birds can break into an Emu egg using rocks) and finally the Wedge Tail Eagle which nearly took my head off! If you're ever near Melbourne we'd highly recommend this place as a must do.

Barking Owl



Bernice the Buzzard



Wedge Tail Eagle




Jen got some good action shots too:







On Monday afternoon we headed off cross-country to Daylesford, one of the Goldfields towns of Victoria, blessed with mineral springs and a gay festival called Chilled Out in March that we were unfortunately too early for! We camped at a local campsite and polished off some chilli cooked on an earlier night before another early bed.

Tuesday, and we headed up to Hepburn Springs just North of Healeville (the guidebook suggested the water had a slight efervescant and metalic taste – YUK is all I can say!)



before stopping for a game of Mini Golf. It really should have been called Crazy Golf, certainly the Craziest Golf Course I've ever seen. Words can't do it justice, so here's some photos:















Obviously, Jen won, but the less said about that the better....

We had a potter around Daylesford and had lunch at the local pub before heading further into the Goldfields region to Ballarat. Ballarat is a big town, not especially attractive (despite the guidebook assurances of a “wealth of impressive Victorian-era buildings”), but it is the site of the Eureka Stockade, credited as the birthplace of democracy in Australia. In the 1850s when the goldrush was at its peak, diggers were required to pay a licence fee to the government to mine a small claim in the goldfields, but were not entitled to vote. An Irishman, Peter Lalor, lead a small rebellion that saw some 150 diggers burn their licences and set up a stockade. 30 were killed in the short battle of the Eureka Stockade that followed, but the rebellion later proved successful as Victorians became sympathetic to the diggers complaints and the Government abolished the licence fees and granted miners the right to vote and acquire land.

The other key thing to do in Ballarat is Soverign Hill, a living, breathing reincarnation of the goldfield town of Ballarat as it stood in the 1850s. Its a bit like Beamish in the UK, with a working mine, pubs, shops, bowling alley etc which you can walk around, with locals and backpackers dressed up in traditional dress to make it all the more authentic.... We went on Wednesday morning, and it was pretty good to be fair, if a bit expensive for our cheap tastes ($36 each with a 10% discount!) You can even pan for gold in the stream constructed there, and Jennie found a speck of gold! She made the mistake though, of entrusting it to me, and it blew off my finger while she was searching for more. Oops. Randomly now as we travel she likes to sing “Jennie found gold, and Claire lost it!” It was of course but a speck of gold paper from a sweet wrapper, but clearly its a story that's going to live a long time.










From Ballarat we headed ALL THE WAY BACK to Melbourne, so Jennie could call into the Rapee office to see the showroom there and meet up with Grace who works there. All very pleasant (though we've not yet checked out how much the Melbourne toll roads have cost us), and a cup of coffee and a Monte Carlo biscuit later (thanks Grace!) we were back on the highway out to the Great Ocean Road. I dread to think what the Melbourne tolls have cost us. That plus the fact we've picked up a speeding ticket for doing 78km in a 70km limit ($148!) is going to nudge the already precarious budget closer to the edge of its destruction. I wouldn't mind if we were speed demons, but most of the time we're about 15km under the speed limit, pulling over to let other vehicles pass by.... Hohum.

Anyway, onto the Great Ocean Road and Torquay, where the surfers go, but we didn't stop. We went on instead to the most expensive campground IN THE WORLD (no really, it is) at Anglesea. It was very nice to be fair. Anglesea is cute, but we departed on Thursday for Apollo Bay. We headed back to Addis Point (halfway between Torquay and Anglesea, great lookout) to view Bells Beach from afar first, and stopped many times on route for photos of the beautiful coastline, including a stop at Split Point Lighthouse.





Found a great campsite at Appollo Bay and here, 3,679km and four weeks into the trip, I finally got the surfboard off the roof and put it in the water! Had a good surf actually, nice small waves for me to fall off – water was cold though, I may regret not bringing the full wetsuit.



Friday, and we set off for the 12 Apostles and Port Campbell. We drove out on route to Cape Otway, hoping to see the lighthouse and perhaps even climb it if it wasn't too expensive. Expensive though it is for a lighthouse ($16.50 each), and Victoria Parks have set the area up so you can't even see the view from near the lighthouse without paying the entrance fee. We of course objected to this and cut off our nose to spite our faces and headed back down the 12 km track to the Great Ocean Road. We did see a lot of Koalas here though, so it wasn't all bad.





The stretch of the Great Ocean Road from the Otways to Port Campbell is the most impressive, with the rock stacks which were once attached to the land slowly collapsing into the Southern Ocean.





Its really beautiful. We couldn't though raise our game enough to make it back there for sunset – a combination of tiredness and the promise of more Chinese tourists was enough to convince us that a glass of wine and early bed was the better option. This was, I think, a mistake, as a glorious sunset ensued. Ah well, I think we'll see a few more on our travels.

On Saturday, with the weather beginning to turn for the worst on the coast, we set off for the Grampians which are directly north of Warrnambool where we'd made it to on the coast. We did a big Coles food shop, and picked up a few more beers, in Warrnambool before driving up some very long, straight and largely empty roads to get to Dunkeld, southern gateway to the Grampians. A nice lady in the Tourist Information gave us directions on where to head, including a free campground just out of town . So we had our first free camp in some time, trying despite a sense of futility to reign that budget back in. The campground was good, and even I slept reasonably well (still some fears of murderers to keep me awake).

On Sunday we set off into the Grampians for some off-roading. First stop on route was for a dead snake on road Jen spotted on the road – we think it may have been an Eastern Tiger Snake. Whatever it was, it hadn't had a good night.



We did a few tracks in the Grampians, which were a little disappointing given the write up in the guidebook we were following, we thought we'd struggle, but Priscilla was quite unmoved by the climbs (such as they were) and we didn't have much by way of views compared to the High Country. We did, however, see two emus race across in front of us on Mairs Track, which was great (even if I did think the first one was a black kangaroo....)

We camped at Halls Gap Caravan Park and were surrounded by kangaroos, cockatoos and ducks for the evening. Bit of a windy night, but was good.

Next day we had more fun with the tracks, in particular Chinaman's Track which was a little bit more testing (still not the High Country!), and we saw more Emus! This time they were waiting for us in a little green hollow as we crawled down a rocky path. We stopped immediately and turned off the engine and watched them for about 20 minutes, really amazing.



We're loving the whole wildlife side of travelling – that afternoon we saw numerous kangaroos bouncing alongside us as we headed out of the park as well. Its much nicer than seeing the roadkill version!

Enough for now, Hamilton, Port Fairy and the crossing of the South Australian Border to follow...

Claire, of Jennie and Claire Fame