I can't believe that I am sitting here only a few days away from the half way mark of our trip! The past (nearly) eight weeks have absolutely flown by and I have no doubt that the next eight will go even faster. Again, I apologise for the delay. Wifi is like gold in Australia compared to New Zealand and usually on the rare occasions we have it, I get quickly distracted by Facebook or my Daily Mail Showbiz App (yes I am that lame).
So you lovely bunch, what have we been up to in the past few weeks?! Well, we have driven all the way from Melbourne to Sydney, that is what we have been up to! En route to Cairns, chipping away at the world's most mammoth road trip and having quite the adventure!
We set off for Sydney straight from our final stop along the Great Ocean Road, Port Campbell. From there we drove inland via a place called Colac and headed in the direction of Melbourne. Driving in Australia could not be more different from England! Get ready for roads that go on and on with no other cars in sight. Definitely do not speed, especially in Victoria - there were police everywhere and on Bank Holidays, which we happened to be travelling on, if you are caught speeding, you get double points and double the fine - ouch!
We broke up the drive to Sydney over a few days and found some interesting places to stop along the way. First up we stopped on Phillips Island. We took a ferry across in order to miss having to drive back through Melbourne (a wise move) and I am proud to say that I successfully drove onto the ferry with minimal damage to the car/myself/my passengers and the ferry.
The main attraction on Phillips Island is the penguins. We bought tickets to the 'Penguin Parade' which is a short drive from the city centre and costs around $24 for an adult. It was a great evening, although extremely cold, even for us brits! You are able to watch as slowly from the sea these tiny penguins start to waddle up the sand on their way to their nesting boxes on the dry land. Although it is a waiting game to start with, eventually there a huge groups of these little guys dotted all over the beach and there are boardwalks which you can walk around to follow them onto land and get an amazing close up view. Unfortunately due to their protection, you can't take pictures so I can't share any with you, but it was a really awesome evening and my love for penguins grew considerably.
We left Phillips Island and drove to a small town called Foster. We drove there via a huge National Park called Wilsons Promontory which we had been strongly recommended by a few people when planning our driving route. Wilsons Promontory is a peninsula that forms the most southern point of mainland Australia (nerd snort) and it was a really stunning place to visit. There are loads of beautiful walks ranging in length and many tiny beaches that were completely desolate. At one point we had a whole beach to ourselves and it did feel like something from shipwrecked. In true mature adult style it wasn't long before we were running around it and writing things in the sand etc ... hands down one of my trip highlights though!
We spent that night in Foster and this, guys and girls, is where I learnt never ever to have expectations of a place, especially a hostel. It was the tiniest little house, with only three bedrooms in total and we arrived to two ladies in the kitchen who literally said nothing to us when we walked through the door. Unfortunately we were never destined to be friends as one lady took a particular dislike to me and I swear she was cursing me in her native tongue. Anyway, I won't say much more about Foster because quite frankly our next stop tops it hands down and fully deserves the 'worst hostel in Australia (so far) award' ... our next stop, Lakes Entrance and its gem of a hostel 'Lake Riviera Backpackers'. Now, don't get me wrong, I have become used to a bit of dirt and the odd smell in the air, hell I even embrace the mystery of the ominous stains on my bed sheets! But Lake Riviera Backpackers took the biscuit. It was like something from an American horror film, a dodgey motel type set up with an eery silence.We soon learnt that the eery silence was just the absence of guests because this place is an absolute dump. The kitchen smelt of dead death and yes, there were mouse droppings everywhere. When I had gathered myself together and stopped retching from the smell of whatever was living (or dying) in the fridge I went to explore our room. It wasn't a great deal better than the kitchen. It was so horrible and so dissapointing as I really thought I had bonded with the owner, especially as we laughed at how I had reversed (accidentally) onto her front lawn and driven around her drive about fifty times trying to find the hostel. Alas, I know now why she let my reversing antics go and that is because she knew what lay in store for me in my $35 a night-flipping accomodation. It is safe to say we were so fast out of that place the next day, slightly hungover from the sheer volume of cheap boxed wine we had to down the night before in order to block out our surroundings... (although we did visit the 99 mile beach and had a nice breakfast away from the hostel so Lakes Entrance scored a few points).
After a pretty rough night our next stop took us to Narooma. It is safe to say that poor old Narooma had a lot of pressure after two of the scariest and most miserable nights. Thankfully it delivered. Although not a huge place, it had character and we enjoyed taking a drive around to some of the lookouts and went down to a fish station where the fisherman gut their catches from that day and throw them to the rays in the water. The water was so clear we got a great view of the rays and fish coming up for food.
From Narooma we drove to Katoomba which for us was the start of Sydney. Katoomba is situated near to the Blue Mountains which are home to the 'Three Sisters'. The Blue Mountains have definitely been a highlight of my whole trip so far; they are absolutely breathtaking. You can see for miles across the valley's and these stretches of forest that carpet the ground below and just go on and on. We had the most amazing weather to enjoy the views and took a long walk around some of the tracks to see waterfalls and many stunning lookout points along the way.
After the Blue Mountains we drove into Sydney and could finally stay put for a few days, parking up our little car and settling down in our hostel. Being the classic tourists that we are, we went straight to see the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. It was a great moment to be able to stand there and see them; they are so iconic but never fail to look different close up. We walked around the city and explored 'The Rocks' and many of the quirky streets. I absolutely loved Sydney. It has a good atsmosphere and everyone is a little more laid back than you'd expect from such a busy city. The Harbour is stunning and we enjoyed a surprisingly reasonably priced drink with the Opera House in the background.
We visited Taronga Zoo which was a short ferry ride from the Harbour. We got an amazing deal from our hostel, $40 for zoo entry and the ferry, so that was a winner. The zoo was so good. I am such a sucker for a zoo at all times and this has got to be one of the best I have been to. It had every animal imaginable as well as loads of great talks and shows. The best thing was having Sydney as the backdrop; all these exotic animals with a view of skyscrapers and the Opera House as a back drop was quite surreal.
We didn't visit Bondi Beach (controversial I know). We were warned off it by so many people saying it was too touristy and commercialised, so we instead opted for Manly Beach, which was a pleasant $14 ferry ride from the Harbour. It was a beautiful beach and we had great weather; I also saw my first proper lifesaving situation on the beach! Aussie lifeguards are the coolest.
When our time was up in Sydney we took a short drive South to Cronulla and were lucky enough to stay with a beautiful friend of mine and her lovely Gran. We were completely spoiled again and had the most delicious fish and chips on the seafront (although not as good as fish and chips back home - sorry!). It was the perfect end to Sydney and I always love seeing a friendly face whilst I am away.
So there you are guys! I am sort of up to date (not up to date at all actually but I am already working on my next post I promise!) The next part of our adventure will see us driving from Sydney up to Cairns which is a mammoth trip, especially if you are me behind the wheel... but I can't wait to tell you all about it!
Stay tuned guys! X
No comments:
Post a Comment