Farewell to Sydney

Us at the Opera House

Hard to believe that it all came together in the end...months of thinking about it, weeks of preparing a plan and then within two viewings of the van and a mere 5 days of advertising – Lola was sold, and sold at a higher price than we paid all those kilometres ago!  It was bitter sweet; we love that campervan and were SO sad to see her drive away, but what a relief that it went without having to reduce our price, without having to put up ‘urgent’ posters at the hostels....just brilliant really!

Sunset View on the Manly Ferry

We had been house-sitting for one of my cousins in a suburb just outside of Sydney.  Just perfect for us sorting out the van, getting our return trip organised and for exploring Sydney.  Kay & Pete and their two children, Emma and Luke arrived back from their holiday the day after the van sold and very kindly let us stay for the remainder of our time in Australia.  It was lovely to spend time with the family and get to know Emma & Luke.  Emma showed us her amazing ballet skills and she performed on the recorder in a big concert at the Opera House while we were there; Luke found a new play friend with Chris and spent a lot of time playing draughts with him and showing off his toy car collection!  Kay & Pete spoilt us with cooking us meals, treating us to take away and letting us sample lots of Aussie wines!

Chris at Sydney Airport

After I finished my admin work and a couple of days doing after school care, we made some time for some sightseeing.  We went for a lovely walk with Pete & Emma in the Royal National Park there were some amazing coastal views.  Me & Chris had a day trip to Manly on the ferry across the harbour, it was just lovely and on the ferry back we watched the sunset behind the Sydney Harbour Bridge, it felt really special, I was even a little teary thinking about us leaving Australia behind.  We had another great day on ‘Pete’s Northern Beach Tour’ where we visited some of the beautiful beaches and view points north of Sydney.  We even saw where they film Home & Away!  Picnicing has become a favourite past-time and we had a couple lounging in the Botanical Gardens, it’s just so beautiful in there, could have stayed staring at the view for hours. 

Batu Caves

We left Sydney yesterday, backpacks packed again!  As glamorous as ever, we departed on Air Asia and landed in Kuala Lumpur.  It was really, really busy and then we realised why – for the 2^nd year in a row we are in Malaysia for National Malaysia Day!  Tired from the flight this Asian business was a little overwhelming, but fresh faced today, it’s not been too bad.  We’ve had a lovely day out of the city at Batu Caves, a large Hindu Shrine built into the caves.  It was a beautiful setting in the cliff side and fun to watch the mischievous monkeys stealing the religious offerings!  We headed to Little India for lunch and filled up on roti & curry for a mere £1.60 including drinks...we’d forgotten how cheap Asia can be.  Enjoying seeing all the little shrines dotted about again, the smell of incense and the food stalls...haven’t missed the sewage smells and the squat toilets though!

Off to Bangkok tomorrow.  Very excited for a curry & a Chang!

Miss you all, 3 months and 7 days till we’re home!

Kat & Chris xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The Final Road Trip

Getting back on the road with Lola after our time working in Adelaide felt great. Driving long distances and admiring the sights and wildlife is what Australia has all been about for us. Our first stop after leaving those lovable but troublesome horses behind was to Chloe & Dave’s house in the Adelaide Hills where they cooked an amazing Pork Belly roast.

On our way over to Victoria we travelled South Australia’s Limestone Coast which we didn’t do last time we were here. We saw Australia’s only colony of white Kangaroos, which looked a little bit like giant bald cats. Took a detour to South Australia’s biggest sight Larry the Lobster standing tall at 17 meters! Enjoyed coastal drives even spotting whales playing way off in the distance! Then we visited the city of Mount Gambier which was built around extinct volcanoes and craters, and has amazing sinkholes that have been turned into gardens. All in all South Australia was a great place to stop for a few months, even if we didn’t intend to! There is a lot to enjoy as a tourist around the state and Adelaide was a fantastic city to live in, easy to navigate as it’s more like a big town, good transport, fantastic library and we made some great friends there as well as getting to look after horses for 6 weeks! J

Entering Victoria we were really excited to drive the Great Ocean Road as it’s recommended as one of the best things to do in Australia. The beginning of the drive was amazing as straight away you see dramatic, sheer cliffs and an extremely volatile Southern Ocean. Cliff fragments such as the 12 Apostles jut up from the sea a short distance away from the coast which is very picturesque. Then the drive takes you away from the coast and uphill into the forest, unfortunately this wasn’t as interesting as there was no ocean to be seen. Back onto the coastal road for the final part of the drive and we began passing through a lot of seaside towns, saw some waterfalls and koalas, visited the lighthouse from ‘Around the Twist’ and went to a interesting surf museum. It was a really nice drive as you’re hugging the coast and can see the ocean at all times but it wasn’t as spectacular as the first section.

Melbourne was next, we had a nice day seeing a Wallace and Gromit Inventions exhibit at the Scienceworks museum, drove to St Kilda and admired the ‘urban’ penguins as well as the view of Melbourne from the pier. Then we made a pilgrimage to where the Australian TV Series ‘The Block’ was filmed this year – we watched this renovation series from beginning to end and loved it so it was really cool to see the finished houses, although maybe that makes us bit sad! Then to Ramsey Street where they film the exterior shots of Neighbours, it looked vaguely familiar but it’s been so many years since either of us watched it – still had to be done!

Melbourne as a city looks a little bit rough around the edges, and by that I mean the suburbs near the city looked rough. Once in Melbourne there’s loads of art sculptures everywhere, interesting looking buildings, a fun evolution of the moving image exhibit at the ACMI and some really great European looking streets filled wall to wall with small cafes and coffee shops. We heard in Adelaide that Melbourne is the place every one goes if they want to do some ‘real’ shopping it didn’t disappoint as the streets were filled with designer shops and boutique shopping arcades – nice to look at but not made for our budget unfortunately.

Away from Melbourne we drove to the Gippsland area of Victoria and visited the amazing Wilsons Promontory National Park. Really nice walks, beaches, kangaroos, emus and coastal views but the best bit was seeing four wombats in the wild. These creatures were so cute, looking just like a giant cuddly toy and when they walk they rock to the left and right making them even more endearing!

Our final stop before driving to Sydney was to visit Liam and Bella in Canberra to receive a Patey Street hangover. We had Japanese food, went to the pub, sang Karaoke and played real life Goldeneye. The next day was not so fun, although we just about recovered by lunch and went to watch The Dark Knight Rises with Liz, Liam’s sister so it wasn’t a totally wasted day.

After a fun few days in Canberra we’re now in Sydney. Kat’s doing admin work for the cartooning club she helped out whilst in Adelaide. I sold my guitar within 2 days of advertising it L We’ve unpacked and cleaned Lola, how much stuff we’ve accumulated! The advert is online and flyers are now posted all over Sydney’s hostels. Fingers crossed for us!

Love Chris & Kat xxx

Heaps good on the Horse Farm

We are nearing the end of our time in South Australia and since I last wrote we have been living in Gawler, about 40mins from Adelaide at a small horse farm where I’ve been taking care of 9 horses.  They are all trouble but I do love being there with them (most of the time!)  There is Jemima the escapee Shetland who I have spent more time rounding up than anything else!  Then we have Sparky the Welsh Pony Stallion, only 12hands tall but full of attitude and for a couple of weeks refused to have anything to do with me!   Little Jazz is mum to the idiot foal Walter, who canters about the place carrying his food bucket and swinging it around.  The comedy odd couple is the big grey, Ferris who has no sense of personal space and Kolbie the 9 month old Shetland foal, who looks like a big woolly dog (I want to bring Kolbie home).  Then the other three live in the field, Orly is the one I ride and a bit of a grump, Harry jumps the field fence regularly and little Ginny gets bullied by the other two!  They are 9 characters and it has been a great experience living with them, Floyd the cat, Jesse the dog and Grandpa Henry at the farm.  I’ve enjoyed it so much that I’m trying to think of a way to work with horses when I get home.

When we haven’t been busy with the farm – always a fence to build, grass to mow, wood to stain...we have both been working too.  I have been doing kids clubs – vacation and after school for primary kids.  It is exhausting, can be very rewarding but gosh, I’ve shouted like I remember teachers shouting when I was little!  Chris also got roped into the vacation camp and helped us with the 120 little darlings who were having a PJ party and pillow fight day!  Chris has also managed to get a real job doing data entry.

In-between all this working we’ve still seen our besties, Tom & Laura.  The kitchen has enabled us to make roast dinners for each other and cakes!  We’ve also had a random evening at a roller derby (a brutal but entertaining sport that I’d totally recommend) and hopefully will be going out for a nice meal before we leave Adelaide. We’ve also been out drinking cider with Chloe & David.  Chloe is the one great thing that came out of my time doing care work; she was a fellow worker being terrorised by the patient!  So we have totally bonded about our awful experiences and have been meeting up for ciders since then, so lovely to have a few friends in Adelaide J

So leaving Adelaide is our next plan and hopefully we’ll take a scenic trip to Sydney where we will try to work again and sell Lola – sad times, but we need our pennies back!   The plan to go to the US has changed and we’ll be heading home through Asia to save some money.  Excited about moving from heaps good South Australia....really excited for when the van is sold and we can book all our flights home!

Love you all,

Miss you xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

How Plans Change...



Chris Suited Up For Work

So last time I wrote we were destined for Tasmania...however, things didn’t quite go to plan!  Lola was sick, we thought terminal at one point, thankfully we were able to get her fixed after driving on 2 cylinders for 400kms!  Much further and we would have completely stuffed the engine, but wonderful Scottish Robbie the mechanic managed to bring her back to life without the valves needing to be replaced (huge sigh of relief).  This rather traumatic experience did show us that if things were to go wrong, we really don’t have much money to save ourselves with...a bit of a reality check I guess.  So that is why we’re not in Tasmania but working in Adelaide instead.

Walk Into Adelaide

Looking for work wasn’t too bad, but just like when you’re home, a few days of looking and continually checking your email can soon feel like an eternity.  I found it especially bad because there are just loads of physiotherapy jobs advertised here, but they won’t allow me to practice here unless I did the expensive and time consuming Australian exams.  After a few days I got a carer position for a lady with Multiple Sclerosis; I was so pleased to be doing something health related and excited to start earning money – it ended up being my worst ever job and I only lasted 2 weeks until her verbal abuse, swearing and general rudeness just got too much for me to cope with.  Lesson to be learnt – do not trust adverts on Gumtree.  In the meantime Chris managed to get a 7 week contract as a receptionist at a pension agency.  He has a beautiful coffee machine there which I hear a lot about, he gets a fair few comments about being a male receptionist and how odd that is, he also gets free alcohol on a Friday at 4.30 each week – so his role is going pretty well.

The State Library - Free Internet :)

We are living in a caravan park, still in Lola.  It is only a 2km walk to town through the Botanical Gardens and past the zoo (we can see into the aviary as we go past) so it is a great location.  It is autumn here and the van is covered in leaves!  The caravan park is small and doesn’t have too many facilities...its too cold to use the pool!  We have lovely neighbours, fellow travellers Tom & Laura, who are also living in a little van and are looking for work.  I’ve been jobless for a few days, so my days are mostly taken up walking into town, using the internet to apply for jobs, meet Chris for lunch, get DVD from the library then I head back to the van to watch it!  The sitting and relaxing bit has been nice after the stress of that job, but now I’m hoping I’ll be back working and earning money again soon.

So quite an unexciting blog post...but the money we make will fund our American adventures on the way home, so the time spent earning will be worth it.  Not sure how long we’ll be in Adelaide for yet, definitely another 5 weeks to finish Chris’ contract.

Miss you all.

Kat & Chris xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Back to the Northern Territory

So we made it through rainy Queensland, luck seemed to be on our side as roads re-opened and we seemed to be the one of first 2WD vehicles to make it through to the Outback Way, the Highway connecting Outback Queensland with the red centre of Northern Territory.

Pilosaur Fossil

The distances have been huge and since we last posted we have covered 5,000kms in Lola!  But there have been some interesting sights along the way.  We began the dinosaur trail at Hughenden, where they discovered the fossil of “Mutt” the Muttaburrasaurus, there was an amazing replica of the skeleton found on a nearby homestead – the original bones are now in America, where most Archaeology research and funding seems to be.  Impressed, we headed onto Richmond & their Kronosaurus Corner.  Millions of years ago Richmond would have been underwater as part of the Great Inland Sea, consequently the dinosaur bones on display here were mainly of ocean dinosaurs   The Kronosaurus is thought to be the T-Rex of the Ocean - think Jurassic Park 3 when the huge shark type dinosaurs attack the little boat!  And they have also discovered full Pilosaur skeletons, which look more like dolphin dinosaurs.  The incredible thing being, that these are generally discovered by farmers in the area, there is no real research, digs or teams looking for the fossils, who knows what else is out there waiting to be discovered!

As we passed over the border, the familiar bush land continued, vast and flat – not much to see, just straight road and expensive petrol – a bit of wildlife though, Eagles above us and snakes on the road!  The first larger place we got to was Tennant Creek, a fairly large, rough looking town, we passed through to get to the Devils Marbles.  These are huge red boulders, some sphere shaped like marbles.  They pop up from nowhere out of the flat bush, they are thought to be magma that millions of years ago was pushed up onto the Earth’s surface, over time the wind and rain has caused the shapes and now the erosion / splitting of some of the rocks.  They were very pretty to see and we could camp there and watch the sunset over the rocks. 

Alice Springs was the next stop off, for reasonably priced fuel, a Coles shop, a visit to the Reptile Centre (fell in love with a Bearded Dragon named Blossom) and to top-up our car rego.  All good jobs done, then it was off to the MacDonnell Ranges.  These are not far from Alice Springs and there are lots of gorges, water holes, viewpoints and walks amongst the beautiful scenery.  It was really lovely on the West and we stayed there overnight in the National Park with a huge gorge behind us.  The East Macs are much smaller and sadly we were foiled by a boggy road, so couldn’t get to many of the sights, instead we ended up rescuing a mother and baby whose car was stuck in the mud – at 40degrees they were very grateful for a lift to air-con and a telephone!

Chris at Kings Canyon

Our next stop was Kings Canyon.  This is a giant red rock canyon in the middle of nowhere; we walked up the steep gorge and were amazed at the sheer size of the canyon.  The walk was lovely as you went amongst big rock domes which eroded into different shapes over the years.  We also saw wild dingoes and monitor lizards whilst there.  After that is was down towards Uluru.  Ayres Rock is a real symbol of Australia and driving to it feels like a real pilgrimage as you can see it from quite far away slowly getting larger as you approach.  It’s the sheer scale of the red rock on the fairly flat bush landscape that is impressive.  A lesser known wonder is the Olgas nearby, it’s a similar formation of rock but looks like giant beehives.  The walk here was beautiful and you could get amongst the big rocks up a steep climb to a wonderful viewpoint.  The whole Red Centre experience was a good one, the distances are definitely worth it as the sights are so impressive.

We are now back in South Australia in opal mining town Coober Peddy – the flies are even worse here than the centre!  Lola is a bit poorly...again...we have fingers crossed for a minor blip and then we need to head south to source some fruit picking work as the piggy bank is getting a little low and there is Tasmania to visit next month!

Lots of love,

Kat & Chris xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Tropical North Queensland

The Great Barrier Reef was at first disappointing. I think the reason is because it gets so much hype you just expect it to be better than anything you have ever seen in the sea. The reason however it is so famous is because of the sheer size of it. Something you cannot quite appreciate without doing a helicopter tour or diving / snorkelling in multiple sites. We did have a great time though after this initial disappointment passed. The coral is spectacularly colourful and whilst the fish weren’t as plentiful as what we’ve seen previously we did see some monster wrasses, GIANT clams and a very large stingray relaxing on the ocean floor. Also we were dressed as giant florescent condoms in our stinger suits because of the deadly jelly fish and stingers that frequent the waters at this time of year. We could have died without them, but it was a tough choice...

On the way to the Great Barrier Reef we sailed through some of the Whitsunday Islands which were nice to admire in passing but the next day was even better as we got to explore Hamilton Island as a freebie because of booking the Great Barrier Reef trip. We climbed Passage Peak the tallest point of the island to get an amazing vantage point across some of the close by Islands. This is where we could really appreciate the natural beauty of the Whitsundays. Hamilton Island felt a little bit like a theme park village with people whizzing all over the island in golf carts, pretty marina and lots of resort style accommodation. Very nice if you can afford it!

The next boat trip for us was Magnetic Island just off the coast from Townsville (recently hit by a mini cyclone!). What a beautiful island, with barely any people on it. We walked all over the island as there are walk trails to get you around nearly all of it. We saw black cockatoos enjoy limes from a lime tree, picnicked on a near deserted beach, photographed a Koala lazing about in a low branch and saw lots of amazing views at every turn. 20km of walking later we were knackered as we caught the ferry back to Townsville!

After Townsville we started to head further up the coast and it started raining a lot! Enough to create massive flood damage which luckily we’ve mostly avoided. We tried to find some fruit picking jobs (bananas) but it was too wet for most of the farms to keep working. So we carried on up the coast and visited Paronella Park which is a Spanish Castle built in the midst of the Queensland tropics in the 1920’s! As it had been abandoned before the current owners bought the place it has a lot of moss growing on it and it survived massive flooding and a cyclone making it look all the more atmospheric! The castle grounds feature two waterfalls, one which generates hydroelectric power, a lovely botanical garden, a swimming area, a tunnel of love (once an aquarium, then a mushroom farm and now a bat hideout) and it used to have 2 tennis courts as well as a cinema. It was a great place to explore and stop for the night.

We then headed up past Cairns through to Port Douglas which had a great windy rugged coastal drive. Walked along the usually celebrity filed four mile beach then headed back down the coast and into the tropical north’s hinterland where we saw a multitude of impressive waterfalls bursting with massive amounts of water because of the torrential downpours each day and a huge fig tree. Unfortunately we didn’t manage to spot the tree kangaroo (yes it’s a real thing!) that hangs about in only this part of Australia. One night however as we camped next to a gorge we did get to handfed cute little rock wallabies that had long eyelashes and very politely hold onto your hand whilst they eat! The next day we stopped in Mareeba for a caffeine fuelled morning of coffee and chocolate at Coffee World where we spent over 4 hours enjoying the brews and nibbles as well as the surprisingly interesting coffee machine collection.

Today we visited the Undara Lava tubes which are huge tunnels that have been formed from cooling lava millions of years ago. The sheer size, textures and colour of the tunnels were really impressive as well as the rainforest that surrounds them. Because of the flooding we got to wade in waters up to our knees as we explored one of the tunnels by torch light!

Floods have now stopped us from continuing inland towards the centre of the country as we had planned so we’re going to have to go back to the coast for an 800km diversion to avoid flooded rivers and try to head inland again.

Wish us luck!

Love Chris & Kat xxx

Exploring Queensland

We had a great 10 days with Dad & Chris; we got spoilt with BBQ food, beers, treats from home and stayed in nice camp sites with their own pool.  Lola led the way with our Sat Nav guiding us up the Sunshine Coast.  Beaches, Museums, Waterfalls, Dams and a National Park walk - all seen in our first couple of days and  then onto the Fraser Coast where we got out fix of wildlife.  We went to Tin Can Bay where dolphins come in each day for feeding, (like Monkey Mia but fair less publicised) it’s a fairly low key affair and it felt really special as we arrived at 7.30am and already Patch and Mystic were in the shallows waiting for their adoring public!  We were allowed to get in the water with them, they were only inches away; you can’t touch them but they can choose to touch you and Patch gave Chris’ leg a nudge and my hand a nuzzle.  Then you can feed the dolphins, which me & Chris did (such a lovely experience) and then I got an extra go along with Dad who had been given some fish for being in a football shirt!



Rum Tasting in Bundaberg

From here we had a relaxing day in Hervey Bay and then had a busy couple of days in Bundaberg.  Our first evening we headed out to the turtle rookery and we were lucky that there were baby turtles hatching as soon as we arrived!  We headed out to the beach and on the higher banks over a hundred little turtles were emerging out of the sand!  The volunteers bundle the babies into a bucket and give them a hand by taking them a little closer to the shore before releasing them again, then the little turles fumble towards the surf and out to sea.  The poor little guys have to fend for themselves from day one, so survival rate is 1 in 1000 but I like to think all our turtles will make it.  Then another nest started hatching and we were lucky to see the process all over again, really special.  We had a lovely day visiting the Hinkler museum (dedicated to aviation master Bert Hinkler, very interesting) and then onto the Bundaberg rum distillary – huzzarh!  Never ones to exit a bar early, we got given a few extra freebies at the end of the tour and Chris picked himself up a bargin new shirt.

Our next destination was Cania National Park, lovely walks and Gorge views.  Then into Rockhampton, where Chris B found the wildlife a little too close for comfort with frogs in the loo, snakes in the laundry room and hairy grasshoppers in the plug holes!  In Rockhampton we passed through into the Tropic of Capricorn and it really was hot!  We managed to visit the zoo, the steam train museum and see the Singing Ship before we all needed to cool off in the pool.  Sadly this is where we had to part ways with Dad & Chris (– SO lovely to see you both J) and me & Chris went to a Crocodile farm.  It was brilliant!  We saw a baby croc hatch, saw the big guys (up to 5 metres) get fed and we held a little one.  They showed us pictures of a crocodile skull found in Texas – they think the full size of the crocodile would have to be over  18 metres – that is HUGE and not something I want to ever come across!

We have since been to Eugella National Park.  We stayed at the most beautiful campsite, basically on top of a mountain overlooking the valley, the view was spectacular.  Here we also went platypus spotting – we went twice at dusk to see the shy creatures, it’s fairly unrewarding as we averaged a glimpse of a platypus every hour!  But they are so darn cute when you do catch a look at them!

We are now in Airlie Beach – the gateway to the Whitsunday Islands & the Great Barrier Reef.  We have splashed out on a trip to the reef and we get a free trip to Hamilton Island the following day, so we’re very excited about it!  But Airlie Beach is a little spoilt due to the competitiveness of everyone trying to get you to book with them, there are LOADS of operators, some aggressively pushy and they all offer the same price and same deals – so why are there so many of them!?!   But hopefully we made the best choice for us and the touts will leave us alone now!  Bring on the coral and the fishes!

Lots of love & miss you all,

Kat & Chris xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx