Adventures Around Oz

Lola has now had her service, new tyres and surprise new brakes fitted. With a more responsive Lola at our fingertips we started looking for some fruit picking work along the Murray River in Victoria and New South Wales. We found a tomato picking job in Rochester so we thought we’d give that a go, we turned up and started that same day. Squelching rotten tomatoes, the amount of flies and the work being so low to the ground meant that it wasn’t all that fun. It paid $1.50 a bucket, each bucket weighing 20kgs. We did it for 6 hours and the most I managed to get was 8 in an hour ($12) and the most Kat managed to get was 6 in an hour ($9). The minimum wage in Australia is about $19 an hour so we quickly realised that this wasn’t for us! We collected our hard earned $90 from the reluctant to pay Turkish contractors and thought we’d head to Canberra to say happy birthday to a friend from school, Liam.

600kms later we arrived the next day just after lunch to Patey Street (party central) in Canberra. In the evening we played laser tag, hung out at an arcade, went to a Liam’s friend’s house party, drank too much and then when they received a noise complaint moved the party to Patey Street. The next day we recovered! The day after we walked into town to see some of Canberra’s sights, including the lake and parliament.

Moving on after Canberra we headed to the Warrumbungles National Park and did some stunning walks around the area. Following this we traversed the ‘Waterfall Way’ drive. As you would imagine it was full of waterfalls and national parks! A particular highlight was the Cathedral Rocks walk / climb that we did which cumulated in a 400m scramble up piles of balanced rocks for a stunning panoramic view of the area. This was made all the more special because the day before we has driven up to the very steep (1st gear most of the way steep) area called Point Lookout and at the viewing platform all we could see were the clouds!

With the ‘Waterfall Way’ behind us we started heading up the coast so we’d make it up to Brisbane in time for Kats dad and his wife Chris’ arrival. We saw the first ‘big thing’ that started the craze of ‘big things’ in Australia ‘The Big Banana’ near Coffs Harbour. We stopped at Byron Bay and enjoyed a brisk walk around Cape Byron to see the lighthouse and we also visited nearby Nimbin, a rough ‘hippy’ town that sounded better than it was in the Lonely Planet.

The Gold Coast section of Queensland meant that we visited a lot of beaches along the way including Surfers Paradise which sums up the area nicely with huge hi-rise buildings and big billboards running adjacent to a lovely long white sand beach. Another trip inland to the rainforest hinterland of Tamborine Mountain just outside Brisbane gave us more waterfalls and a man made glow worm cave created with concrete by the man who designed sections of the Australian Seaworld! We then headed to Brisbane, did a XXXX brewery tour as well as a walking tour of the city and a trip to the modern art museum all the while experiencing on and off torrential downpours.

Then in the dead of night and with the rain lashing down we picked up Phil and Chris from the airport! The next day after being smitten with Lola they picked up their own campervan named ‘Skip’ and now we’re all slowly travelling up the sunshine coast heading more and more into the tropical north.

Love Chris & Kat xxx

Wildlife & Wine

Kangaroo Island is a small island with a friendly community and a relaxed atmosphere.  The island views range from amazing white beaches to red cliffs to dense bush.  We had an amazing 4 days there, trying cheeses (sheep halloumi was amazing) visiting Lighthouses, walking through the National Park, sand boarding down the Little Sahara sand dunes (Chris boarding...me tobogganing!) and exploring the Kelly Hill Caves.  We free camped most nights and even stayed at a powered site for a mere $10!  I could probably write pages & pages about the trip, but I’ll just pick out a few of the best bits, most of which involve some of our many wildlife encounters on Kangaroo Island.



Guess Who Ate All the Fish!?

The Pelican Feeding.  As we were walking down to the feeding area I was saying to Chris “it might be like Kalbarri and there will be no pelicans to feed...” only to be greeted by 30 hungry birds lined up on the platform at the Kingscote jetty!  They, like us, where 20mins early so we got to watch them preen and take lots of photos!  Then a man came out to do a little presentation, they patiently waited, only occasionally making a dive into his fish bucket and once trying his hand but quickly spitting it out as they are very fussy eaters!  They are beautiful birds and very entertaining to watch as it is chaos when the fish is thrown to them – every bird for itself, wings fly everywhere, then when it’s thrown into the water bottoms are up in the air as they search for the fish!



Possum Eating Almonds

We also went to Paul’s Place.  This centre for rescued animals is the described as the “weirdest tourist attraction on K.I” and it is probably because of the array of animals all living together, Paul’s eccentric manner and the fact that Emu’s eat off your head (Chris) or that you hold and feed a fully sized kangaroo milk out of a Cooper’s beer bottle (Kat).  It was an incredible place, we climbed a ladder to feed a Koala and her baby (so small & soft) we had parrots on our heads, stroked Echidnas (anteaters) whilst they ate a termite nest, we had a python around our necks and cradled a possum wrapped in a pillow case whilst it snacked on almonds!  Random, yes.  Amazing, yes.  And a great cause, all these animals are rescued by Paul and all the animals adore him – baby emus run around in circles when they see him, the Roos run to him when he yells “KANGAS!” and Giggles the laughing Kookaburra lets off a huge belly laugh when he shouts at her!  It was just brilliant.

Enchindas

Flinders Chase National Park was also great for wildlife. We saw an Echidna in the wild when walking along the Rocky River to Snake’s Lagoon.  There where kangaroos & wallabies along the walk too.  We also saw the fur seal colony at Admiral’s Arch and there were very mischievous seal pups playing on the rocks and a very nosey sealion who seemed to pose for Chris’ photos!  Then we headed to Hanson Bay where there is a koala walk, the koala spotting turned quite competitive, but Chris scraped the win finding 7 to my 6 (I was robbed!).  It was just lovely to see so many of them and a couple were in low branches so good for watching and taking photos of.  On the last day we went for another Sealion fix at Seal Bay Conservation Bay where we watched them frolic on the beach.  It was a really special few days.

Back on the mainland and Lola has been pampered with a service and new tyres.  As ever, its not been quite as smooth sailing as we hoped and she needs some work doing on her brakes after the weekend, as brakes are fairly important we thought it wise to get it done sooner rather than later!



Kat Wine Tasting



So to fill our weekend we headed to McLaren Vale, one of South Australia’s many wine regions.  We were a little nervous about going wine tasting as we weren’t sure how much we’d be expected to buy...!  But it turned out to be a great day.  Armed with Lianne’s winery advice list we headed to Hardys’ Cellar Door and after trying most their menu we bought a very nice Sparkling Chardonnay.  Next we went to 90 Mile wines at the Visitor’s Centre and then to Alpha Box & Dice.  We then went to Red Heads which was a brand that consists of 6 different individuals that make their own brands of wine.  We met Adam, maker of La Curio Wines (which you can buy at home via those Direct Wine leaflets that always fall out of the paper!)  We spent a good hour chatting about vans, travels and wine whilst tasting most of the Red Heads range and when we asked to buy a bottle of the beautiful Primitivo Adam insisted we take it as a gift!  So with some spare cash in our pockets we headed to Ekhidna for more wine tasting, a ginger ale beer and a ploughman’s platter.  We swayed all the way home, scrumping some grapes as we went!

Our plans are a little uncertain at the moment whilst waiting for the van work to be done.  We have possible grape picking here or possible tomato in Victoria or perhaps just travelling as we definitely must be in Brisbane for meeting Dad in the wee hours of the 25^th Feb.

Lots of love Kat & Chris xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx