Jan 2007

Melbourne Museum

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Nic scared these big boys

After a quick drive from Duck Point we were soon arriving in Melbourne to stay for one week. Due to the Tennis Open we really struggled getting into any of the hostels we wanted and so ended up in a bit of a grot hole. Still, they gave us free muesli and powdered milk for breakfast - woohoo!

It wasn't long before we were showered and refreshed and ready to pound the pavements of Melbourne. It was boiling outside so we hopped on the free shuttle bus and had a little tour of Melbourne. We stopped at the museum - a beautiful, bright coloured building that resembles a rubix cube and made our way back into the centre via Federation Square - another fantastic building. We had a bite to eat by the Yarra River before heading deep into the little alley ways, arcades and shops.

For one of the days we treated ourselves and had a trip to Melbourne Zoo! It was great fun! We saw lots of animals and had a fun day out. David was quite chuffed when he saw the hippo and was fascinated by the baboons and their red arses - Nic even managed to startle the giraffes! Our biggest treat however was Nic's birthday present - the Tenacious D gig. Melbourne was hot but the concert hall was roasting and we were soaked with sweat by the end of the evening. It still ROCKED though! Nic had the best view in the house by being on David's shoulder for most of it - they played all the classic tunes

Towards the end of our stay in Melbourne we stocked up on dehydrated food and basic essentials needed for the Overland
Track - our big walk in Tasmania - we even had to buy a shit shovel! We began preparing ourselves for the following week.....

A deserted beach we wandered across

Wow! We fell in love with this little peninsula. We ended up camping at a place called Duck Point just outside the National Park's boundaries and therefore a little cheaper (we were squeezed in amongst the boats.) Wilsons Promontary was gorgeous and gave us a taster as to what Tasmania would be like - it was the last land link between Tassie and the mainland before the rise in sea level! We did a lot of walking over the next few days, through temperate rainforest and beaches. We visited Squeeky Beach - so called because it 'squeeks' when you walk due to the quartz sand and generally relaxed in the National Parks green surroundings. David had a little swim but soon clambered out after experiencing the stongest currents ever - Stong sountern ocean!

On our last day just as we were leaving the National Park all the cars were being pulled over for random breath tests. After David had finshed huffing and puffing we were soon on our way back for one more night at Duck Point before heading for Melbourne....

90 Mile Beach

After Thredbo (which we learned was later evacuated due to severe bush fires!) we hit the road once more and headed back to the East Coast and onwards to Melbourne. Our first stop was at Eden, it was a long drive over the Great Dividing Range the evening admiring the views from Eden's little harbour the Lens on the camera jammed! It wouldn't do anything but beep and shut itself off - we'd have to wait 'til we got to Melbourne before it could be fixed!!! In the meantime we still had Nic's camera so all was not lost! Learning a lot about these camera thingys...!

After Eden we headed to 90 Mile Beach - as you may have guessed this beach was blimming huge!! We ended up staying in a small free camping area just behind the sand dunes, you could hear the sea from the tent it was fantastic. In the morning we ate breakfast on the beach before packing up and jumping back in the car for the next leg of our trip to Wilsons Promontary National Park.

David gets the dinner on - whilst the kangaroos look on!

Walking up Mount Kosciuszko via a red run, spot Nic!

Glimpse of the chairlifts - the cheats way to the top!!!!

On the summit!

Views from the top of Australia

So after a night in a Canberra (long enough!) we headed south where we were would spend the night surrounded by mountains, all above 1600m. We set up camp in a very basic but empty site and got cracking with our first bush curry - we were then joined by some hungry kangaroos! Darkness fell and the stars entertained us for the evening with a now slightly cooler bottle of wine!

After a weird night of hearing kangaroos jumping around our tent munching away on the grass, we packed up and headed further into the bush. We travelled along the longest gravel road ever, pit-stopped by a 2 hour walk in the bush, out of ACT and back in NSW. We were now heading for Kosciuszko (Pronounced Kozzeeosko) National Park or otherwise famously known as the Snowy Mountains!

We drove the long way round through the mountains (working David's watch hard - over the day we had ascended over 6000m!) and stopped for lunch at Kahncoban Australia's highest town! We eventually made our way to Thredbo to stay for a couple of nights to tackle Australia's highest peak!

We were already the height of Snowdon when we started the climb but 2228m metres was still a way up! There were chairlifts going halfway which was weird with not a drop of snow in sight, but that was cheating! The weather was perfect for climbing and after 4 hours we made it greeted by fantastic views over the great dividing range!

Kangaroos at the campsite

A quick swim stop where the lizard joined us

Nic enjoys the view whilst David has a spot of fresh air from all the driving!

Cave Beach where we stopped one night

Nic in the rainforest

Pebbly Beach - we camped near here for one of our nights.

A quick game of golf - Nic won!!!! Ha ha ha!!!

So we left beautiful Sydney, said our goodbyes to Les and Lorraine and got into our rental car to begin the next leg of our journey. Our plan is to spend the next two weeks heading from Sydney to Melbourne, taking in all the National Parks along the way.

For the first five night we camped in National Parks and saw an abundance of wildlife. We saw a 2m snake crossing the road, an echidna (spikey anteater) walking along a track, a 1.5m lizard who joined us for lunch one day and have had kangaroos bouncing through our campsites! Not to mention all the various creepy crawlies!!!

We've visited gorgeous lagoons, waterfalls and beaches and have seen Aboriginal rock engravings and done plenty of walking. Our stay in Canberra will be a short one before we head off into the National Parks again. Hopefully taking in some of the mountains and maybe even squeezing in a quick hike up Australia's tallest mountain at 2228m (Mt Kosciusko - over double the height of Snowdon and with no train......) then it's onward to Melbourne...