Ahhh thanks guys it's nice to come back to some comments. You'll be sad to hear that straw hat bit the dust.
I have got SO much to tell you I don't know where to start. Not many pictures unfortunately but the reasons for that will become evident. So, basically, Australia is having it's worst weather in 40 years (the time period varies depending who you ask). Or so we are being told. We are beginning to wonder if the whole sunny Australia thing is a clever tourism myth, some sort of global joke. Apart from a few days in sydney and Melbourne it has rained perpetually since we got here. Queensland (where we are now) has been hit by cyclones, widespread floods and all the roads are closed. It's all quite funny. Keep that in your head as a backdrop to the following...
We stayed in Byron bay for a few days to chill out. Byron bay is a cool hippy town so it was definitely a good place to recharge. There was a shop offering to paint you as a fairy but we never got round to it. We had a bit of a laugh taking the piss out of some capoera dancers, I'm sorry, I have come round slightly to Yoga now I've discovered one of my best friends is a yoga teacher, but capoera is taking things too far (if you haven't come across it before it's a "martial art" that blends fighting and breakdancing; sounds cool; isn't). During the 5 days we were in Byron there was a brief few hours of sun so I went surfing and I Think zoe walked to the lighthouse. We had a giant dinosaur living in our garden, who we named Cooper. We also watched Fool's Gold which has very few redeeming features but is possibly worth seeing for Ray Winstone's Deep South (America) accent.
From Byron we moved north to Hervey bay which was the base for our Fraser Island Adventure. And it was quite an adventure, let me tell you. It's a big (100mile long) island made entirely of sand and rainforest and the idea is you hire a 4x4, buy some food, get the ferry, and spend 3 days bombing up and down the beaches and through the forests. The problem is you have to cook, drive, camp and co-operate with a group of complete strangers which would normally be fine, but we got stuck with some totally ineffectual 19 year old Germans & Belgians who were just far too young to look after themselves. And they were all too young to drive, so between 11 of us there were only two of us driving, me and a girl called emma from Southampton who was LOVELY and made it all worthwhile. Anyway, we (I) managed to burst a tyre 15 minutes into the journey, on some sort of jungle root, which was quite funny. Despite this we managed to get to the other side of the island and set up camp. We made sure we camped with the other vans so we had some nice people to talk to.
At this point the weather totally collapsed, and all our carefully erected tents along the beach (this was the view - it was very remote) started to leak. We managed to get 3 of the vans together and strapped up a ground sheet between them. In time honoured tradition, to ignore the fact we were wet and cold, we all got drunk. This proved to be a mistake because we forgot to put the rubbish in the van so our camp was invaded by dingoes at4/5am which was about the same time all the tents fell apart and flooded. Waking up in a howling gale surrounded by flat tents and dingoes was a really cool experience.
It all got better from here, despite a second burst tyre. The weather didn't improve and the tents were so f*cked we checked into a lodge for the second night. This meant we got to have a shower and a proper feed. Unfortunately by this point my camera was beyond repair but hopefully I can steal some other people's off facebook at a later date. What I can show you is the nice lake , the main road at its busiest, and a parrot. Oh and the two drivers, me and Emma, and of course Zoe Driver.
So we made it back to the mainland in one piece and were confronted with loads of horror stories about the floods and some tourists being winched off a boat etc. We were booked on a bus going North (right into the middle of it all) to get on a boat to the whitsunday islands. Not wise, but we decided to go anyway. We were really lucky - there was a cyclone and some of the buses just before and after ours got stuck along the way, or flooded, but ours made it through by some miracle although it took 24 hours instead of 14. And when we got there we discovered all the boats had been cancelled, (alot were all smashed up) except one; a racing yacht called "Spank Me" (groan) which was the only one capable of sailing in such bad weather. Being the intrepid people we are we transferred onto it, leaving our nice comfortable catamaran with a lounge and bar safely in the harbour. I'm SO glad we did it, it was amazing and we met such an ace group of people. Basically we spent 3 days reliving "The Perfect Storm", drinking cheap wine out of a bag, and not being dry once. I went scuba diving for the first time ever, at the Great Barrier Reef, which was a very proud moment, I have a certificate to prove it.
I didn't take many photos because my (new) camera was getting soaking wet and all the pictures I did take are generally of us all getting pissed and drawing on ourselves with luminous zinc sticks. But here are the photos anyway. Here's the boat. Here's Driver driving. These are our new friends Theresa and Philippa and here we are with our sunblock on. This is our captain biting his nails which is never a good sign and here he is trying to fix the generator, a key moment in all our memories. This is the boat that the tourists were winched off (see above). this is Tara modelling the bedroom that 12 of us had to fit in (You can actually see all 12 beds in that photo). This is everyone winding up the sails and here we all are drunk.
I think I've just run out of time on the internet so I had better go, but just to finish off - we are stranded in Airlie beach and all the buses are cancelled and the airport closed. There is 3 METRES of rain predicted tonight, and somehow we have to get to Cairns in 2 days, wish us luck...
Monday, February 18, 2008
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Ice cold in alice
Hello kids,
First of all some general admin.
1) Happy birthday Rachel! (I know it's late, sorry) hope you had a great day :)
2) My mistake on the last post; it's not 4 days drive from Bateman's Bay to Sydney it's 4 hours. heh. Those Australians amongst you were probably wondering what route we had taken there...
Speaking of which,
3) Clare, call yourself an aussie - they are "Grey Kangaroos" not "Wallabies". (What funny animal names you have here). One of them was a baby though so I'll let you off.
So all in all sydney was great, you probably picked up on that, but it was very exciting leaving because we were getting our first internal flight. Not least because we were heading to the desert, and deserts are way cool.
Oh, I should warn you before I start writing that my camera is completely up the spout, and the light meter ist kerput, so some of the photos are really weird colours.
Unfortunately our plane to Alice Springs wasn't a little Indiana jones plane with propellers, it was a proper passenger plane. Alice is, however, not a proper town. It is a mini place (smaller than wilmslow) and I think it's famous because a) it has a nice name (although no spring) and b) it's the only town for 3 days drive in each direction, of which there are two - up and down. Why anyone would want to live there I've no idea, but it is quite chilled (despite being VERY hot). Zoe got a new day-sack. I bought a hat then sat down and had a beer which attracted several flies, one wasp, and an aborigine. I also bought some pink sunglasses. They will crop up later...
We were a bit unlucky with our accomodation in Alice; it was a 16 person dorm in a hostel, and the other 14 inhabitants were perma-drunk australian manual workers who insisted on calling me buddy and bro (etc) and trying to get me to smoke weed with them. Going to bed involved wading through porn magazines, work boots and beer cans. Luckily we were only there for 1 night.
So, now for the red photos. Our "outback safari" was really really ace. We were basically bunged in a minibus for 3 days with the same 20 people, camping under the stars, eating rubbish food and visiting red rocks, and walking a lot. We loved it.
So here's the bus and the road, and here's the view (which I stared at for a total of approximately 15 hours). The weather was rubbish (It was cloudy) so we were denied a sunset at The Rock - therfore it looked like this. Not very red at all. Unless you employ the red filter. And here's the team. The next day we also missed out on a sunrise thanks to the weather. But then we did the long hike all the way round it which was really wicked. Once you start learning about all the aborigine stuff it takes on a weird spooky atmosphere, like a huge cathedral. Here's a weird mouth thing. This is me by a pond where a giant snake-lady had a fight. this is Zoe modelling her lovely fly hat. (we both have them, aren't they gorgeous).
I particularly liked the wave cave. Apparently aborigines made their kids stand here for days, because they believe you have to learn patience before you can become a real man. This explains a lot. In case you haven't seen it before, here's what Uluru looks like at close quarters. This is Zoe modelling a close up of the rock, for those of you who are interested in geology you can see it's made of a rusty metal type thing. To be precise.
We also visited the Olgas, and I took a brief detour to Mars.
Camping was a laugh. We slept in swags and made our own bread. (That's Kerry, Hi Kerry). See if you can spot the Irish person in this photo. We camped right in the depths of the outback. Here I am collecting firewood. At night a dingo came in, looking for babies to steal. Here he is looking at me. And here he is leaving. (Stu we'd like you to name him, seeing as you did such a good job with Karl the goat.) Here's an outback sunset, and this is one of my favourite pictures ever, an upside down Orion, taken from my cosy swag. The stars were beyond amazing, but I won't lose my cool and gush. Anyone who's been to the middle of nowhere will know what I mean.
And the other highlight from the "Red Centre" of Australia, as it's known, was the King's Canyon. It was a bit of a climb, but at the top there was a fossilised sea, plants left over from dinosaur times and perhaps best of all, the bit where they filmed some of Priscilla Queen of the Desert. We took it in turns to do the frock on a rock pose (Me. Zoe). There was also an ancient billabong called the Garden of Eden which ironically was probably discovered by aborigines about 70,000 years before the bible was written. That's all the politics I'm doing today folks.
There's lots more I could say about that very cool part of the world but the photos go on a bit and they're all the same colour. We had a night out in Alice with our outback friends, a brief stay in Brisbane where I briefly thought I'd accidentally caught a plane back to Stockport, (What on earth Scott and Charlene are doing there I have no idea), got out as quick as we could and are now in Byron Bay, home of hippie surf culture, before heading up to do some sailing in the Whitsundays. Unfortunately it is chucking it down with rain so we are at a bit of a loose end. You're not allowed to swim because it's all stormy so I am predicting an afternoon in the pub.
I'll just leave you with my latest persona; Outback Rick.
First of all some general admin.
1) Happy birthday Rachel! (I know it's late, sorry) hope you had a great day :)
2) My mistake on the last post; it's not 4 days drive from Bateman's Bay to Sydney it's 4 hours. heh. Those Australians amongst you were probably wondering what route we had taken there...
Speaking of which,
3) Clare, call yourself an aussie - they are "Grey Kangaroos" not "Wallabies". (What funny animal names you have here). One of them was a baby though so I'll let you off.
So all in all sydney was great, you probably picked up on that, but it was very exciting leaving because we were getting our first internal flight. Not least because we were heading to the desert, and deserts are way cool.
Oh, I should warn you before I start writing that my camera is completely up the spout, and the light meter ist kerput, so some of the photos are really weird colours.
Unfortunately our plane to Alice Springs wasn't a little Indiana jones plane with propellers, it was a proper passenger plane. Alice is, however, not a proper town. It is a mini place (smaller than wilmslow) and I think it's famous because a) it has a nice name (although no spring) and b) it's the only town for 3 days drive in each direction, of which there are two - up and down. Why anyone would want to live there I've no idea, but it is quite chilled (despite being VERY hot). Zoe got a new day-sack. I bought a hat then sat down and had a beer which attracted several flies, one wasp, and an aborigine. I also bought some pink sunglasses. They will crop up later...
We were a bit unlucky with our accomodation in Alice; it was a 16 person dorm in a hostel, and the other 14 inhabitants were perma-drunk australian manual workers who insisted on calling me buddy and bro (etc) and trying to get me to smoke weed with them. Going to bed involved wading through porn magazines, work boots and beer cans. Luckily we were only there for 1 night.
So, now for the red photos. Our "outback safari" was really really ace. We were basically bunged in a minibus for 3 days with the same 20 people, camping under the stars, eating rubbish food and visiting red rocks, and walking a lot. We loved it.
So here's the bus and the road, and here's the view (which I stared at for a total of approximately 15 hours). The weather was rubbish (It was cloudy) so we were denied a sunset at The Rock - therfore it looked like this. Not very red at all. Unless you employ the red filter. And here's the team. The next day we also missed out on a sunrise thanks to the weather. But then we did the long hike all the way round it which was really wicked. Once you start learning about all the aborigine stuff it takes on a weird spooky atmosphere, like a huge cathedral. Here's a weird mouth thing. This is me by a pond where a giant snake-lady had a fight. this is Zoe modelling her lovely fly hat. (we both have them, aren't they gorgeous).
I particularly liked the wave cave. Apparently aborigines made their kids stand here for days, because they believe you have to learn patience before you can become a real man. This explains a lot. In case you haven't seen it before, here's what Uluru looks like at close quarters. This is Zoe modelling a close up of the rock, for those of you who are interested in geology you can see it's made of a rusty metal type thing. To be precise.
We also visited the Olgas, and I took a brief detour to Mars.
Camping was a laugh. We slept in swags and made our own bread. (That's Kerry, Hi Kerry). See if you can spot the Irish person in this photo. We camped right in the depths of the outback. Here I am collecting firewood. At night a dingo came in, looking for babies to steal. Here he is looking at me. And here he is leaving. (Stu we'd like you to name him, seeing as you did such a good job with Karl the goat.) Here's an outback sunset, and this is one of my favourite pictures ever, an upside down Orion, taken from my cosy swag. The stars were beyond amazing, but I won't lose my cool and gush. Anyone who's been to the middle of nowhere will know what I mean.
And the other highlight from the "Red Centre" of Australia, as it's known, was the King's Canyon. It was a bit of a climb, but at the top there was a fossilised sea, plants left over from dinosaur times and perhaps best of all, the bit where they filmed some of Priscilla Queen of the Desert. We took it in turns to do the frock on a rock pose (Me. Zoe). There was also an ancient billabong called the Garden of Eden which ironically was probably discovered by aborigines about 70,000 years before the bible was written. That's all the politics I'm doing today folks.
There's lots more I could say about that very cool part of the world but the photos go on a bit and they're all the same colour. We had a night out in Alice with our outback friends, a brief stay in Brisbane where I briefly thought I'd accidentally caught a plane back to Stockport, (What on earth Scott and Charlene are doing there I have no idea), got out as quick as we could and are now in Byron Bay, home of hippie surf culture, before heading up to do some sailing in the Whitsundays. Unfortunately it is chucking it down with rain so we are at a bit of a loose end. You're not allowed to swim because it's all stormy so I am predicting an afternoon in the pub.
I'll just leave you with my latest persona; Outback Rick.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
is that you sydney?
HI
Once again we have done too much to write about succinctly since my last post so i apologise in advance for more rushed waffle if that is indeed what comes out of my fingers now...
Had much fun driving around the snowy mountains and going on charilifts, which I might have mentiooned last time. We have enjoyed the English place names. This one was quite funny. This one will only mean something to certain members of my family. On the subject of dodgy names, check out this cheese.
Our next stop on the way to sydney was out-of-the-way Bateman's bay (where we made kebabs and used our first coin-operated barbecue) and the surrounding beaches; the most exciting of which was pebbly beach, where we were inundated by kangaroos trying to eat our crisps and steal Zoe's phone. It was really cool, you could touch them and everything. I took the opportunity to cuddle one, although in the tussle for the crisps one stood on Zoe's foot and drew blood. We are telling people she has been mauled by a wild kangaroo.
After that it was quite a dull 4 day's drive to sydney, arriving in which was VERY exciting. This far into the trip my hair was beginning to malfunction so I bought some scissors from a service station and cut it all off over the bin in a backpackers hostel. How times have changed. After that we spent the evening checking out the obvious sights, (Obvious sight 2), climbing the tower (here's sydney by night and here is a picture of luna park) and getting ready for Australia day. I'm not sure how we have fluked being in the right place for all these major events (thailand at new year, melbourne for the open, sydney for australia day) but despite the acomodation issues, it's been amazing. For thos of you that aren't australian, or happen to work with any, australia day is a day when millions of australians get pissed, watch bands, (That was Dan Sultan, we liked him. He is indiginous) and watch fireworks (My fireworks photos are shit but you know what fireworks look like). We were both a bit freaked out by the large amounts of giant bats in Sydney. They also had a big car rally which is why there's millions of car photos on flickr - I'm not sure what I thought I was doing there.
Later that evening I took this photo of the Opera house which I am pleased with.
The rest of our time in Sydney has been an opportunity to catch up with those of you who have emigrated, ALL of whom have sickeningly jealous-makingly great lives. Dufty took me in her jeep to a cool bay where you can go swimming and look at the skyline. Yesterday we met up with
Christiane who's living in a huge old beach house (with the world's biggest bathroom) on a hill in Coogee with a view of the sea. (grrr). From her house it's a really nice walk to bondi past a few beaches where we went snorkelling. I should say thanks to the very helpful Mark for finding me a giant blue grouper (? spelling) and taking Zoe her glasses. And in Bondi we had an ice cream then bumped into suzy and Luke. So here we all are post-beach and pre-drinks.
So Sydney life is very agreeable and civilised. We have been at the beach again today. My favourite thing is the swimming pools that fill up with sea water when the tide comes in. I think I am going to live here for ever. Or I would were it not for the fact that we are going to Uluru tomorrow. Yes folks in a moment of madness we are going off-itinerary and visiting The Rock at a mere cost of *cough* million pounds. Apparently it's, erm, quite hot at this time of year so the next blog post might be written by a charred corpse... (At least the cemetary here is a beautiful place to hang out. Ooh - Lee - we even saw your tomb.)
So that's all for now, I am, for once, fully up to date. I am now going for a shower followed by a bowl of pasta by the beach. As always, missing you all xxx
[PS. This last photo is for people who worked at BBC broadcast. We saw some australian dead-ringer lookalikes for Paul Marsh and Andrew Davies in a bar. I took this surreptitious photo. W.E.I.R.D]
Once again we have done too much to write about succinctly since my last post so i apologise in advance for more rushed waffle if that is indeed what comes out of my fingers now...
Had much fun driving around the snowy mountains and going on charilifts, which I might have mentiooned last time. We have enjoyed the English place names. This one was quite funny. This one will only mean something to certain members of my family. On the subject of dodgy names, check out this cheese.
Our next stop on the way to sydney was out-of-the-way Bateman's bay (where we made kebabs and used our first coin-operated barbecue) and the surrounding beaches; the most exciting of which was pebbly beach, where we were inundated by kangaroos trying to eat our crisps and steal Zoe's phone. It was really cool, you could touch them and everything. I took the opportunity to cuddle one, although in the tussle for the crisps one stood on Zoe's foot and drew blood. We are telling people she has been mauled by a wild kangaroo.
After that it was quite a dull 4 day's drive to sydney, arriving in which was VERY exciting. This far into the trip my hair was beginning to malfunction so I bought some scissors from a service station and cut it all off over the bin in a backpackers hostel. How times have changed. After that we spent the evening checking out the obvious sights, (Obvious sight 2), climbing the tower (here's sydney by night and here is a picture of luna park) and getting ready for Australia day. I'm not sure how we have fluked being in the right place for all these major events (thailand at new year, melbourne for the open, sydney for australia day) but despite the acomodation issues, it's been amazing. For thos of you that aren't australian, or happen to work with any, australia day is a day when millions of australians get pissed, watch bands, (That was Dan Sultan, we liked him. He is indiginous) and watch fireworks (My fireworks photos are shit but you know what fireworks look like). We were both a bit freaked out by the large amounts of giant bats in Sydney. They also had a big car rally which is why there's millions of car photos on flickr - I'm not sure what I thought I was doing there.
Later that evening I took this photo of the Opera house which I am pleased with.
The rest of our time in Sydney has been an opportunity to catch up with those of you who have emigrated, ALL of whom have sickeningly jealous-makingly great lives. Dufty took me in her jeep to a cool bay where you can go swimming and look at the skyline. Yesterday we met up with
Christiane who's living in a huge old beach house (with the world's biggest bathroom) on a hill in Coogee with a view of the sea. (grrr). From her house it's a really nice walk to bondi past a few beaches where we went snorkelling. I should say thanks to the very helpful Mark for finding me a giant blue grouper (? spelling) and taking Zoe her glasses. And in Bondi we had an ice cream then bumped into suzy and Luke. So here we all are post-beach and pre-drinks.
So Sydney life is very agreeable and civilised. We have been at the beach again today. My favourite thing is the swimming pools that fill up with sea water when the tide comes in. I think I am going to live here for ever. Or I would were it not for the fact that we are going to Uluru tomorrow. Yes folks in a moment of madness we are going off-itinerary and visiting The Rock at a mere cost of *cough* million pounds. Apparently it's, erm, quite hot at this time of year so the next blog post might be written by a charred corpse... (At least the cemetary here is a beautiful place to hang out. Ooh - Lee - we even saw your tomb.)
So that's all for now, I am, for once, fully up to date. I am now going for a shower followed by a bowl of pasta by the beach. As always, missing you all xxx
[PS. This last photo is for people who worked at BBC broadcast. We saw some australian dead-ringer lookalikes for Paul Marsh and Andrew Davies in a bar. I took this surreptitious photo. W.E.I.R.D]
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
The Perfect Blend
Hello there,
I'm writing this from a ski lodge in the Snowy Mountains. It's very relaxing here, but freezing, but I'll get on to that. I hope you are all well. Thanks for all your emails and stuff, it's good to know life goes on, although Danny, sorry to hear about the Pitbull attack.
Anyway, after the tennis we went to watch a country band at a bar called Manchester Lane, which was a smoky Jazz club.without the smoke. The day after we mooched around and met Zoe's lovely friend Kirsten for lunch by the river who we drilled (is that the right word?) for information about Australia and drew up plans. After that we went to the queen victoria market and bought some posh food which was a bit embarrassing to cook in the hostel surrounded by 18 year olds eating pot noodles. We spent the evening in St Kilda which has the world's oldest roller coaster but we didn't find it. We did, however, find a massive grand old hotel called the Esplanade which had been turned into a band venue called the Espy. We loved the Espy. Here's the bar, here's the staircase. And we saw an electro band who were two teenagers jumping up and down pressing buttons, and they are going to be big but we can't remember their name. (Lucy, take note, Australians love electro, I think you could easily this market.)
I am of course building up to the proudest moment of my life. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this is me on RAMSAY STREET. This is Paul's house, this is the robinsons, this is the ramsays, and this one used to be Des & Daphne's, (and then the Willises and then the Kennedys). The one of Mrs Mangels was deleted because I was puling a funny face.
Adriana has correctly spotted that it was raining. The weather in Melbourne went a bit downhill after this point.
And our last activity in Melbourne was to investigate Fitzroy, the cool bit, and its cafes, bars, shops, graffitti, odd vehicles, and nice old buildings.
So now we're en route to Sydney!
The journey was pretty special. After a few *ahem* wrong turns we managed to find our way onto the scary mountain path to Kosciusko; none other than Australia's highest point, kids. It was very beautiful but did unfortunately take 8 hours and most of it was on gravel. And it was raining. Thanks to a bag of sweets and some careful navigating from Zoe we got there safely and enjoyed some amazing views of the Snowy river on the way. We even saw our first kangaroos but our wildlife photography skills are a bit poor especially while driving. There is one photo though, see if you can spot it on the snowy mountinas pictures. I will be awarding a prize.
So now we're here, staying in a little ski resort called Thredbo. It is not actually Snowy here because it's summer, but the ski lift operates all year round and we have been up it twice already. We have had to embrace our outdoorsy selves as there is nothing else to do, so we walked toward the top of mount koszszsko (I'm sorry I can't say it or spell it) but didn't quite make it to the peak because the weather went barmy. Here I am gazing upon austraila's highest Mountain.
Today we've been on a walk through an amazing burnt down eucalyptus forest (also on a mountain) which was spooky because it was full of menacing ravens waiting to pick our carcasses clean when we ran out of bananas and starved. There were lots of flowers everywhere and it was like somewhere a unicorn might live. Or Heidi. The computer I'm on has just gone up the spout so I can't put anyt more picture links unfortunately so I will stop waffling on get back to you when we're in Sydney. (Tim, Maggi andZoe I have a picture I took specially for you I'll have to post it next time)
/adios
I'm writing this from a ski lodge in the Snowy Mountains. It's very relaxing here, but freezing, but I'll get on to that. I hope you are all well. Thanks for all your emails and stuff, it's good to know life goes on, although Danny, sorry to hear about the Pitbull attack.
Anyway, after the tennis we went to watch a country band at a bar called Manchester Lane, which was a smoky Jazz club.without the smoke. The day after we mooched around and met Zoe's lovely friend Kirsten for lunch by the river who we drilled (is that the right word?) for information about Australia and drew up plans. After that we went to the queen victoria market and bought some posh food which was a bit embarrassing to cook in the hostel surrounded by 18 year olds eating pot noodles. We spent the evening in St Kilda which has the world's oldest roller coaster but we didn't find it. We did, however, find a massive grand old hotel called the Esplanade which had been turned into a band venue called the Espy. We loved the Espy. Here's the bar, here's the staircase. And we saw an electro band who were two teenagers jumping up and down pressing buttons, and they are going to be big but we can't remember their name. (Lucy, take note, Australians love electro, I think you could easily this market.)
I am of course building up to the proudest moment of my life. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this is me on RAMSAY STREET. This is Paul's house, this is the robinsons, this is the ramsays, and this one used to be Des & Daphne's, (and then the Willises and then the Kennedys). The one of Mrs Mangels was deleted because I was puling a funny face.
Adriana has correctly spotted that it was raining. The weather in Melbourne went a bit downhill after this point.
And our last activity in Melbourne was to investigate Fitzroy, the cool bit, and its cafes, bars, shops, graffitti, odd vehicles, and nice old buildings.
So now we're en route to Sydney!
The journey was pretty special. After a few *ahem* wrong turns we managed to find our way onto the scary mountain path to Kosciusko; none other than Australia's highest point, kids. It was very beautiful but did unfortunately take 8 hours and most of it was on gravel. And it was raining. Thanks to a bag of sweets and some careful navigating from Zoe we got there safely and enjoyed some amazing views of the Snowy river on the way. We even saw our first kangaroos but our wildlife photography skills are a bit poor especially while driving. There is one photo though, see if you can spot it on the snowy mountinas pictures. I will be awarding a prize.
So now we're here, staying in a little ski resort called Thredbo. It is not actually Snowy here because it's summer, but the ski lift operates all year round and we have been up it twice already. We have had to embrace our outdoorsy selves as there is nothing else to do, so we walked toward the top of mount koszszsko (I'm sorry I can't say it or spell it) but didn't quite make it to the peak because the weather went barmy. Here I am gazing upon austraila's highest Mountain.
Today we've been on a walk through an amazing burnt down eucalyptus forest (also on a mountain) which was spooky because it was full of menacing ravens waiting to pick our carcasses clean when we ran out of bananas and starved. There were lots of flowers everywhere and it was like somewhere a unicorn might live. Or Heidi. The computer I'm on has just gone up the spout so I can't put anyt more picture links unfortunately so I will stop waffling on get back to you when we're in Sydney. (Tim, Maggi andZoe I have a picture I took specially for you I'll have to post it next time)
/adios
Friday, January 18, 2008
dry as a dead dingo's donger
Hello. I finally managed to find a civilised place and I've uploaded all the photos to date, which is very exciting because my camera is on its last legs and I was worried I would lose them all.
So first of all I need to show you some pictures from the rest of Malaysia and Singapore.
Here's Zoe and a twin tower (the other one's behind it) and here they are by day. And here's the moment I turned into my bird form, during a trip to Kuala lumpur aviary.
Now, the pictures of the Malaysian space institute/museum thing are truly spectacular. It's an informative and educational building in KL. No expense was spared on building the place.
This is me in the zero gravity simulation. I forget the exact wording but the next exhibit was described (approximately) thus. "Black holes are just a theory. Nobody has ever experienced one, but this simulation is the nearest any human being is likely to get."
This is the simulation they were talking about. Note how in that picture Zoe is very tall. At the other end of the room she is very short. We're not sure how this compression of matter occurred but it was very clever. Without wishing to dwell too much on the space museum, I have to show you this vision of the future. If you look closely there is a plastic burger in it which lights up when you press the button. I took this photo especially for Alison, and Star Trek fans all over the world.
And for sleaze fans, here is a squaddie admiring a malaysian girl dancing on a table, and this is the malay rock band we saw in Kuala Lumpur. You may not be able to pick it out from this photo but despite all being men, the drummer looked like Alison from Big Brother, the guitarist looked like Joan Armatrading, and the singer was Tanita tikaram.
So, whizzing through Singapore we have Martinis in the Fullerton, Singapore Slings in Raffles, another drink somewhere flash, a statue of Boy George, a monkey that looks like Alison's cat, some hindi things, a nice tiger, some temple or something, and a merlion.
So now we're in Australia. We started off in Adelaide which to be honest was a bit dull although we had a comedy incident involving a pedalo and a huge fountain which resulted in this lovely rainbow. Just outside adelaide was mount lofty, Steph we took this photo for you. And a volcano with a big blue crater.
So we hired a car and basically spent a week drivling from Adelaide to Melbourne, through some absolute nowheresvilles, lobster ports and the like, from Southern Australia to Victoria, then along the great ocean road and Victoria's surf coast.
The Great ocean road was beautiful. I'll let you browse the photos by yourselves, if you can be bothered, but here is one of the twelve apostles, (which are rocks). We stayed in a couple of gorgeous beach/fishing towns which apparently all the rich and famous live in, a bit like Saint tropez. Here is an example of the houses. This dilapidated old one was for sale. Most triumphantly, I learnt to SURF in a place called, bizarrely, Torquay. Contrary to the usual male rules, the better you are, the smaller your surfboard, hence this baby. Here I am happily surfing along and about to kill some kids. And thanks to Zoe's mastery of the telephoto lens, here I am drowning. I came away from the day surfing grazed and bruised but very happy and we celebrated with a bottle of wine.
The day after that we drove up to and finally arrived in Melbourne which we LOVE and it's where we are now. Thanks to a tremendous fluke the Australian Open is on, (this is a picture of it that I took from the top of the rialto tower) and it's 10 mins walk from our hostel. This is not where the fluke ends - we went yesterday on a cheapo ground pass and Amer Delic was playing first thing on an outside court and we watched him for four hours in an amazing 5 set marathon* complete with rowdy bosnian supporters who were shouting "I'm blind, I'm deaf, I wanna be a ref" at the umpire for most of the match. For those of you who remember this episode, Amer Delic is the guy I got a bit obsessed with at Wimbledon this year (due to some spectacular tantrums) and subsequently became friends with on facebook. Here he is taking his top off. (Look how close we were sat!!)
Oh and we saw some women playing doubles as well, apparently these two are famous sisters...
Everyone is obsessed with the tennis obviously, you can even watch it in the town square, which also has some cool modern buildings.
Got lots more to do in Melbourne but just in case you're not bored of tennis pictures yet, here is me, here is Zoe, this is the Margaret Court Arena (because it couldn't be called the Margaret Court Court, which I find hilarious).
And here is someone playing tennis. ahem.
*He lost
So first of all I need to show you some pictures from the rest of Malaysia and Singapore.
Here's Zoe and a twin tower (the other one's behind it) and here they are by day. And here's the moment I turned into my bird form, during a trip to Kuala lumpur aviary.
Now, the pictures of the Malaysian space institute/museum thing are truly spectacular. It's an informative and educational building in KL. No expense was spared on building the place.
This is me in the zero gravity simulation. I forget the exact wording but the next exhibit was described (approximately) thus. "Black holes are just a theory. Nobody has ever experienced one, but this simulation is the nearest any human being is likely to get."
This is the simulation they were talking about. Note how in that picture Zoe is very tall. At the other end of the room she is very short. We're not sure how this compression of matter occurred but it was very clever. Without wishing to dwell too much on the space museum, I have to show you this vision of the future. If you look closely there is a plastic burger in it which lights up when you press the button. I took this photo especially for Alison, and Star Trek fans all over the world.
And for sleaze fans, here is a squaddie admiring a malaysian girl dancing on a table, and this is the malay rock band we saw in Kuala Lumpur. You may not be able to pick it out from this photo but despite all being men, the drummer looked like Alison from Big Brother, the guitarist looked like Joan Armatrading, and the singer was Tanita tikaram.
So, whizzing through Singapore we have Martinis in the Fullerton, Singapore Slings in Raffles, another drink somewhere flash, a statue of Boy George, a monkey that looks like Alison's cat, some hindi things, a nice tiger, some temple or something, and a merlion.
So now we're in Australia. We started off in Adelaide which to be honest was a bit dull although we had a comedy incident involving a pedalo and a huge fountain which resulted in this lovely rainbow. Just outside adelaide was mount lofty, Steph we took this photo for you. And a volcano with a big blue crater.
So we hired a car and basically spent a week drivling from Adelaide to Melbourne, through some absolute nowheresvilles, lobster ports and the like, from Southern Australia to Victoria, then along the great ocean road and Victoria's surf coast.
The Great ocean road was beautiful. I'll let you browse the photos by yourselves, if you can be bothered, but here is one of the twelve apostles, (which are rocks). We stayed in a couple of gorgeous beach/fishing towns which apparently all the rich and famous live in, a bit like Saint tropez. Here is an example of the houses. This dilapidated old one was for sale. Most triumphantly, I learnt to SURF in a place called, bizarrely, Torquay. Contrary to the usual male rules, the better you are, the smaller your surfboard, hence this baby. Here I am happily surfing along and about to kill some kids. And thanks to Zoe's mastery of the telephoto lens, here I am drowning. I came away from the day surfing grazed and bruised but very happy and we celebrated with a bottle of wine.
The day after that we drove up to and finally arrived in Melbourne which we LOVE and it's where we are now. Thanks to a tremendous fluke the Australian Open is on, (this is a picture of it that I took from the top of the rialto tower) and it's 10 mins walk from our hostel. This is not where the fluke ends - we went yesterday on a cheapo ground pass and Amer Delic was playing first thing on an outside court and we watched him for four hours in an amazing 5 set marathon* complete with rowdy bosnian supporters who were shouting "I'm blind, I'm deaf, I wanna be a ref" at the umpire for most of the match. For those of you who remember this episode, Amer Delic is the guy I got a bit obsessed with at Wimbledon this year (due to some spectacular tantrums) and subsequently became friends with on facebook. Here he is taking his top off. (Look how close we were sat!!)
Oh and we saw some women playing doubles as well, apparently these two are famous sisters...
Everyone is obsessed with the tennis obviously, you can even watch it in the town square, which also has some cool modern buildings.
Got lots more to do in Melbourne but just in case you're not bored of tennis pictures yet, here is me, here is Zoe, this is the Margaret Court Arena (because it couldn't be called the Margaret Court Court, which I find hilarious).
And here is someone playing tennis. ahem.
*He lost
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Rain and plains
Well, I wrote that last post at about 2 in the morning somewhere in Singapore, so I'm surprised to see it is relatively coherent. We are now in Oz, in a sleepy crayfishing port about half way between Adelaide and Melbourne called *ahem* Port Fairy. The journey here was a long and knackering one!.....
So we finished up in thailand and got on a southbound bus through Malaysia. It took us as far as butterworth where we had to get on a ferry in the middle of the night bound for penang. Here is a highly professional shot of the skyline from the ferry. We stayed in a right dodgy little hostel but luckily found a wonderful curry for us dinner which cost about 10p, or something. The next day we headed up to the Cameron Highlands (as Zoe pointed out - how scottish does that sound.)
The Cameron Highlands are the home of Malaysia's TEA plantations. That's right, TEA. It was a pilgrimage as you can imagine. Here is a picture of some TEA. Some highlights of the tea region were 1) finding out what tea looks like in real life. 2) Having scones 3) bumping into the PG tips lady.
We also did some pottering around the jungle . I wore a cagoul and zoe was in her glastonbury poncho. One thing I should mention about Malaysia is that it rains ALL the time. This is OK, but we fear our tans have been washed away.
Unfortunately I haven't had a chance to upload any pictures after this point thanks to the Australian internet, so I will have to just use old-fashioned words, and put the photos up later.
So, we got a minibus thing to Kuala Lumpur which we loved. It was raining most of the time but we like big tall buildings so we spent some time walking around the towers, and eating underneath them. We also visited the Malaysian national space museum/planetarium thing which was hilarious, funnier than the mappin museum (as was, I understand they've done it up recently). It was basically a load of exhibits made of eggboxes and sticky back plastic. I wish I could show you the pictures of the black hole simulation, and the zero gravity room. You are going to love them.
Actually we fitted quite a lot into KL I have just remembered we also went to a bird park and saw peacocks. Then we spent the evening in a bar full of American GIs and local women of dubious profession. It was very enjoyable though, there was a Malasian band on playing things like Smoke on the water and Mustang Sally.
And then (you can see why we're knackered) we got an overnight bus to Singapore where we stayed in colonial luxury with Jeanine's Anthony for a couple of days. There are some good photos of this too, mainly of martinis and singapore slings etc.
So where are we now I hear you cry. Well we flew to Adelaide, hired a car and have been on the road ever since. We're aiming to get to Melbourne at some point in the next couple of days where we're seeing some friends of Zoe's and I plan to visit Ramsey street.
We have seen several dead kangaroos so far but no real ones, driven hundreds of miles, stayed in some very quiet coastal backwaters (can you have a coastal backwater?), and listened to a lot of dire radio. It's fun being in the middle of nowhere though. Tonight we've ended up in a sort of posh tourist town where families come to surf during the summer holidays - ie now - so it's a bit busy and we had trouble getting a room. Today we saw a blue volcano but more on that when I get the pictures sorted.
Hope you're all having fun in the freezing cold, ho ho.
Lots of love,
Zoe and Rick.
So we finished up in thailand and got on a southbound bus through Malaysia. It took us as far as butterworth where we had to get on a ferry in the middle of the night bound for penang. Here is a highly professional shot of the skyline from the ferry. We stayed in a right dodgy little hostel but luckily found a wonderful curry for us dinner which cost about 10p, or something. The next day we headed up to the Cameron Highlands (as Zoe pointed out - how scottish does that sound.)
The Cameron Highlands are the home of Malaysia's TEA plantations. That's right, TEA. It was a pilgrimage as you can imagine. Here is a picture of some TEA. Some highlights of the tea region were 1) finding out what tea looks like in real life. 2) Having scones 3) bumping into the PG tips lady.
We also did some pottering around the jungle . I wore a cagoul and zoe was in her glastonbury poncho. One thing I should mention about Malaysia is that it rains ALL the time. This is OK, but we fear our tans have been washed away.
Unfortunately I haven't had a chance to upload any pictures after this point thanks to the Australian internet, so I will have to just use old-fashioned words, and put the photos up later.
So, we got a minibus thing to Kuala Lumpur which we loved. It was raining most of the time but we like big tall buildings so we spent some time walking around the towers, and eating underneath them. We also visited the Malaysian national space museum/planetarium thing which was hilarious, funnier than the mappin museum (as was, I understand they've done it up recently). It was basically a load of exhibits made of eggboxes and sticky back plastic. I wish I could show you the pictures of the black hole simulation, and the zero gravity room. You are going to love them.
Actually we fitted quite a lot into KL I have just remembered we also went to a bird park and saw peacocks. Then we spent the evening in a bar full of American GIs and local women of dubious profession. It was very enjoyable though, there was a Malasian band on playing things like Smoke on the water and Mustang Sally.
And then (you can see why we're knackered) we got an overnight bus to Singapore where we stayed in colonial luxury with Jeanine's Anthony for a couple of days. There are some good photos of this too, mainly of martinis and singapore slings etc.
So where are we now I hear you cry. Well we flew to Adelaide, hired a car and have been on the road ever since. We're aiming to get to Melbourne at some point in the next couple of days where we're seeing some friends of Zoe's and I plan to visit Ramsey street.
We have seen several dead kangaroos so far but no real ones, driven hundreds of miles, stayed in some very quiet coastal backwaters (can you have a coastal backwater?), and listened to a lot of dire radio. It's fun being in the middle of nowhere though. Tonight we've ended up in a sort of posh tourist town where families come to surf during the summer holidays - ie now - so it's a bit busy and we had trouble getting a room. Today we saw a blue volcano but more on that when I get the pictures sorted.
Hope you're all having fun in the freezing cold, ho ho.
Lots of love,
Zoe and Rick.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
what i railey railey want
Dear everyone,
Apologies for the lack of posting recently. We have been on the move pretty much all the time since my last entry and internet access has been scarce, or slow, so I have a bit too much to catch up on. We have made it it out of Thailand, through malaysia, and into singapore. So here's the end of thailand story....
As predicted, new years eve was really funny. We thought we'd be the only people in Krabi town but it turned out a few people had got stuck there due to accomodation demands on the beaches, so we ended up having a great time, despite intentions of an early night. Krabi is famous for, as well as being the aforementioned transport hub, having some great traffic lights in the shape of ape men. It also had some fantastic dodgy little bars, one of which we settled in for the evening, and met lots of transients including the lovely saskia and ronny, some very funny nice scottish people called elaine and kirsty, someone called heather who had the same hair as heather jones at mtv, and even gandalf. In the bar they had no music as such, but played DVDs of Live 8 which we played along to onthe various musical instruments lying around. And we sang along, here I am joining in with Marti Pellow. And here we all are at midnight. Transport hubs rule
Despite staying up til 4 we decided to head for Railey beach at 9 in the morning on new years day, which turned out to be a mistake because the boat broke down and the driver spent half an hour fixing it with an axe. There are no pictures of this beacause Zoe was trying not to be sick and I was on the phone to Stu who was still up on NYE despite the 7 hour time difference.
We got to Railey eventually which was very beautiful but a pricey tourist trap. It was fab though, there were lots of climbers there due to the large amount of mountains, and we went sea kayaking in some deserted lagoons which you have to canoe throug tunnels to get to. Here is Zoe advertising a canoe in the style of The Price is Right. While kayaking we saw a ghost pirate ship. you can see it on this picture. This is the island we kayaked round. I would like to say I took that photo from a helicopter but I actually just took a photo of the brochure. The island we kayaked to had the whitest sand we have ever seen. Here is my photo evidence. Zoe discovered that in a life jacket, and with her hair pretending to be a brace, she looks like ugly betty. Railey also has some brilliant caves.
Our favourite thing about Railey was the comedy enormous towels we got given. Here is mine. Here is Zoe's.
Then Jeanine and Kate and Joy turned up which was much fun. Spot the person who's been sunbathing for a month. We only saw them for one night but clearly we made the most of it. We miss them.
One night, while getting ready, Zoe noticed that when I've washed my hair I look like exonerated murderer Ron Williamson in the photo from his biography we've both just read. Zoe however can do a better facial impression.
And that's it really. We got a bus to Malaysia after that, but I'll fill you in on that story when I have a bit of time.
Just to finish off, here is Zoe eating some corn on Railey beach, here is me demonstrating the beach is as white as my t shirt, and here we are being affectionate.
Til next time x
Apologies for the lack of posting recently. We have been on the move pretty much all the time since my last entry and internet access has been scarce, or slow, so I have a bit too much to catch up on. We have made it it out of Thailand, through malaysia, and into singapore. So here's the end of thailand story....
As predicted, new years eve was really funny. We thought we'd be the only people in Krabi town but it turned out a few people had got stuck there due to accomodation demands on the beaches, so we ended up having a great time, despite intentions of an early night. Krabi is famous for, as well as being the aforementioned transport hub, having some great traffic lights in the shape of ape men. It also had some fantastic dodgy little bars, one of which we settled in for the evening, and met lots of transients including the lovely saskia and ronny, some very funny nice scottish people called elaine and kirsty, someone called heather who had the same hair as heather jones at mtv, and even gandalf. In the bar they had no music as such, but played DVDs of Live 8 which we played along to onthe various musical instruments lying around. And we sang along, here I am joining in with Marti Pellow. And here we all are at midnight. Transport hubs rule
Despite staying up til 4 we decided to head for Railey beach at 9 in the morning on new years day, which turned out to be a mistake because the boat broke down and the driver spent half an hour fixing it with an axe. There are no pictures of this beacause Zoe was trying not to be sick and I was on the phone to Stu who was still up on NYE despite the 7 hour time difference.
We got to Railey eventually which was very beautiful but a pricey tourist trap. It was fab though, there were lots of climbers there due to the large amount of mountains, and we went sea kayaking in some deserted lagoons which you have to canoe throug tunnels to get to. Here is Zoe advertising a canoe in the style of The Price is Right. While kayaking we saw a ghost pirate ship. you can see it on this picture. This is the island we kayaked round. I would like to say I took that photo from a helicopter but I actually just took a photo of the brochure. The island we kayaked to had the whitest sand we have ever seen. Here is my photo evidence. Zoe discovered that in a life jacket, and with her hair pretending to be a brace, she looks like ugly betty. Railey also has some brilliant caves.
Our favourite thing about Railey was the comedy enormous towels we got given. Here is mine. Here is Zoe's.
Then Jeanine and Kate and Joy turned up which was much fun. Spot the person who's been sunbathing for a month. We only saw them for one night but clearly we made the most of it. We miss them.
One night, while getting ready, Zoe noticed that when I've washed my hair I look like exonerated murderer Ron Williamson in the photo from his biography we've both just read. Zoe however can do a better facial impression.
And that's it really. We got a bus to Malaysia after that, but I'll fill you in on that story when I have a bit of time.
Just to finish off, here is Zoe eating some corn on Railey beach, here is me demonstrating the beach is as white as my t shirt, and here we are being affectionate.
Til next time x
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)