Category: Caroline

We’re here! Fresh off the boat this morning. First impressions are good, already we can see how some people might compare it to Scotland with it’s lush green fields (no water shortages here!) and the rolling hills. The slightly cooler climate is a welcome change and we are already feeling more relaxed and at home.
We have become suckers for Australia’s big things and so with the guidebook promising a big platypus at Latrobe, a mere 5km away, we were there. Unfortunately, the big platypus wasn’t up to the usual standard of big things, it was actually disappointingly small (certainly no Larry the Lobster!). All was not lost though, a wee chat with a real Tasmanian in the Tourist info office gave us a plan of action for our nine days here and she also sent us up to a good place to spot platypuses in the wild. Despite our patient searching the platypus remained elusive for today but we have got ourselves a mission for the next eight days; to spot a platypus in the wild and a Tasmanian devil and maybe a tiger, although they may be extinct so I’m not sure we’ll get lucky there.
Our plan for today was to explore the North West coast so the first port of call was Penguin. Named by some imaginative (I’m ashamed to say British) explorer who saw penguins when he first arrived here. The town has, as you might expect, made the most of it’s name and every shop, cafe etc has some quirky name like The Groovy Penguin cafe, as well as some statue of a penguin. The dustbins are also quite quirky with their penguins attached to the sides and of course there was a big penguin, who was actually quite big this time!.

With our ferry crossing to Tasmania booked for 8pm we really are under pressure today to drive lots of miles and get to Melbourne in time. A very early start (and an overly excited Si) meant that we did have time for a brief sojourn into the Grampians. Some impressive rocky hills that have a definite Scottish feel to them, especially when viewed through an early morning mist and a wee bit of drizzle! Leaving before the morning fog had chance to burn off may have been a little over zealous, as we arrived 4 hours before the ferry departed, better than 4 hours after though – it was probably the thought of that real bed that made us so eager.
P.S. I know it’s meant to bring good luck, but I don’t think Si found being pooed on by a seagull so lucky!

It is a long way back to Melbourne but we are in a hurry to get there so that we can jump on a ferry and maximise our time in Tasmania. Which meant there was a lot of driving to be done today, however we did allow ourselves a couple of hours for the Naracoorte caves. During the first tour of Alexandra cave I impressed myself with my recently found knowledge of cave formations as I was able to identify stalagtites and mites, collumns and shawls. It was just as well really as the tour guide was not the most informative. However, it was on our second cave tour that we were to discover why this place has world heritage listing. The Victoria fossil cave was fascinating and we could see first hand the excavation site for fossils of weird and wonderful Australian dinosaur like creatures. The visitor centre had life size replicas of these now extinct mega fauna. Of course they all have very technical dinosaur-esque names but I can’t remember those. The two that left an impression on me were the oversized wombat dinosaur and the squashed headed koalaroo!
Another few hundred kms of hot sticky driving and we have now crossed the border back into Victoria so at least we are now in the right state to catch our ferry.

We had time for one last KI tourist attraction before boarding our ferry, The Emu Ridge Eucalyptus Distillery. You could smell the head-clearing eucalyptus as soon as you opened the door and the tour of the sole remaining eucalyptus distillery was fascinating, especially considering that the whole business is self sufficient, as in they make their own electricity and water. It was also quite interesting to learn about the many uses for eucalyptus, as a decongestant, for cleaning, as an insect repellant and for relieving bites (the last two sold it for me). The emus and their babies also made a welcome distraction and we were just moaning about our lack of kangeroo spotting to Larry, our tour guide when he opened the door to the shop and introduced us to Rita, an orphaned kangaroo who had been rescued by his wife. Isn’t she adorable!?
It then came time to say farewell to Kangeroo Island as we have a slightly bigger island to get to in a hurry. Spotting a pod of dolphins from the ferry on the way back seemed like a very fitting send off.

Today was our only full day on Kangeroo Island (KÌ to the locals) which meant we had to drive an almost complete 200km loop of the island to get in all of the attractions. It also means you are in for a long blog (you have been warned!)
It all began with an early start and a drive to Seal Bay, home of the Australian fur seal. A guided tour took us up close and personal to the seals on the beach (close enough to smell their fishy breath!) Their breeding season has just finished which meant it was a pretty safe time to be so close, the bulls were past their aggressive stage and were not likely to mistake us for female seals! It also meant there were lots of cute little pups frolicking around. Some of the younger ones were still breastfeeding while the slightly older little boy seals were playing at being big boy seals with their pretend fights and chasing of the girls for kisses. The girls, of course, were playing it cool, lounging around on the beach. Si’s favourite photo of the day is this young seal surfing the waves with his fin sticking out like an upside-down surf board. It was a pretty hot 45 degrees on the beach (before 11am!) so it was time to move on.
Next stop: Little Sahara, a plethora of huge sand dunes, supposedly perfect for sandboarding. But at 45 degrees that kind of energetic pursuit was not going to happen so we pootled along to Vivonne bay for a bit of a cool down in the southern ocean. This bay was voted the best beach in Australia by a professor at Sydney University. Can’t have been an easy decision as we have seen a lot of impressive beaches in our time here! We got the boogie board out and had some fun cooling off when some dolphins swam along to join in the fun. So Si can now say he surfed with dolphins. I did capture this moment on film but unfortunately my photography skills were not up to scratch (I’ll blame it on the new camera) and the picture is a little out of focus 🙁
After that excitement we headed off to Flinders Chase National park where our first port of call was Admirals Arch, an arch in the rock complete with an impressive array of stalagmites and New Zealand fur seals lounging around and enjoying a bit of shade (they have thicker fur than their Aussie counterparts from this morning, hence the reason they are found here on the shady rocks as opposed to the 45 degree heat of the beach). When Si had got the required number of seal photos (i.e. a lot) we were ready to move on to the piece de la resistance of the day; Remarkable Rocks. A group of wind sculptured granite boulders that do indeed look quite remarkable but once again I am left feeling that the Aussies lacked a little imagination when they were naming the delights of this country.
Almost finished. The original plan was to stay at Remarkable Rocks to watch the sunset but with our campsite being about 100 km away we decided to head off and instead just keep stopping the car for sunset pics. In our prior reading about KI we had been promised ‘abundant’ wildlife, all with slightly different island adaptations. Since we usually do quite well with our wildlife we were a little disappointed with the elusiveness of the land based wildlife here thus far (not counting the roadkill at the side of the road – that was quite abundant!). But after the beautiful deep orange sun had set and darkness had desended we began to learn why there was an alarming amount of road kill. Suddenly the wallabies and the possums became abundant, and they had no road sense what so ever. Si has to be commended for his careful driving and the fact that he managed to avoiding hitting any of these guys who seem to think it is fun to play on the road and then do the startled rabbit pose when you approach! Still no sign of a kangeroo though 🙁
After that long day and the long blog I bid you good night.

The stunning scenery and abundant fresh air of Wilson’s Prom inspired us to climb another mountain today. Our climb began with a stroll through Lilly Pully Gully which was a forest walk with a little bit of rainforest boardwalk action thrown in for good measure. Then began the energetic climb up to Mt Bishop…. the rewarding views at the top absolutely stunning.
With our legs feeling like we couldn’t possibly walk anymore we set off for Philip Island, home of the parade of the penguins. This experience was one of the highlights of my previous visit to Oz so I was looking forward to repeating it. Southern Australia is home to huge colonies of the very cute Little or Fairy Penguins (which proves to the geography buffs that this continent was at one stage, albeit millions of years ago, joined to the Antartic). Every night, shortly after sunset, these little guys waddle in from the sea and make their way to their burrows. It is magical to watch the first few rock up, they seem a bit dazed and confused as if they have got the time wrong or something, but then hundreds of their friends begin to emerge from the sea beside them. And when there is a large enough group for them to feel brave enough to make that treacherous journey across the beach, past the nasty seagulls, they begin their comical stop start waddle. Whilst they are lovely to watch, even more special is watching the chicks emerge from their burrows to wait for their parents to arrive home. You get a sense of the hunger these little guys must be feeling from the squawking racket they make. Not to mention the accosting of every adult penguin that goes past. But it is only when an adult penguin is certain that the demanding chick does actually belong to them that they surrender their catch of fish. The whole “Penguin Parade” set up may be terribly commerical but that doesn’t detract from the magic of watching these little guys. I’m looking forward to seeing more later as we drive along the Great Ocean road.

We woke up this morning full of good intentions to climb a mountain today (despite our 13K walk yesterday). But alas, when we arrived at the turn off for Genoa Peak, the road was closed, again. Instead we had to make do with a coastal walk around Cape Conran. It promised seals but they proved elusive today, at least it did actually involve some coast and a bit of rock climbing.
We failed in our attempts to experience some white water rafting when a rather rude woman informed Si that they were “chock o’ block” with kids!? A further phone call did not prove much more enlightening but we have deduced that it is not the right time of year and so there is not enough water in the river. Hopefully, an activity to look forward to in New Zealand.
Our thoughts turned instead to the daily task of finding just the right place to set up camp for the night. A tempting ad had caught our eye: Mingling Waters promised a waterside location, a tranquil setting, good food and interesting walks. Unfortunately, the campsite did not quite live up to expectations largely due to a pungent sulphor smell emitting from the nearby river. It was this continuous and overpowering smell which prompted us to rename the place Minging Waters!

Another day another few hundred Kms. The difference today being that we actually had the satisfaction of crossing a state line so we were able to park up the van and relax with that acomplishment under our belts.
The journey to Victoria did see us making an expensive shopping stop at Merimbula where I bought some flip flops, and Simon got a new camera – I wonder who got the better deal there!
We also stopped off at a wee town called Eden which boasts an illustrious whaling history. A strange past to be proud of you may say but this town has two unique tales to tell, which we learned of in the Killer Whale Museum. The first tale is about Old Tom, a killer whale who with a couple of his mates used to lead the human whalers to a poor unsuspecting whale victim. After the whalers had harpooned the whale, the killer whales were allowed to eat the whale’s tongue and lips! (I didn’t say it was a nice story!) The skeleton of Old Tom is on display in the museum, and you can even see his worn down teeth from where he pulled the harpoon rope (you have to look very closely at the picture to see that!)
If left feeling a little upset by that story you may feel a sense of whale justice from this next story. Whaling was a dangerous job and a couple of men were once knocked out of their boat by a thrashing whale never to be seen again. Or so everyone thought… Unfortunately the whale didn’t escape. After he was killed and brought ashore, when they began to cut him open they found one of the missing men. He had been inside the whale for about 15 hours and was still alive. Just. His skin had turned a very pale white, along with his hair. He was blind and unconscious for a while but he lived to tell the tale for a few more years.
One last strange morsel of whale info to leave you with; apparently people with rhuematic problems used to sit inside a hole cut into a whale carcass for up to two hours because of the healing benefits of this. Yuck!

Despite the white-knuckle drive towards it the Jenolan Caves are one of Australia’s most visited attractions. So feeling very refreshed after our warm, comfy bed we set off to explore a couple of the 320 caves. The first tour was of the specacular Temple of Baal (there is a story behind it’s name but it’s a long one). Once inside the cave there was a neverending supply of amazing sights to see. You could easily spend hours down there and not run out of things to look at (although,it is quite possible that you might run out of air!) I surprised myself with a new found interest in geology that high school geography could never inspire. Now that I’ve seen stalagtites and stalagmites for myself I don’t think I’ll be forgetting which is which for a while. And they were just for starters, we also saw columns (when stalagtites and stalagmites join), a huge shawl shaped like an angel’s wing, flow rocks, which look like waterfalls frozen in midstream and a whole host of other wonderful things that I can’t remember the names for. Si was impressed as his 160 photos will testify! Anyway it’s simply wonderful what a bit of water and a few hundred millilon years can produce.
We also went on a tour of the Lucas cave, one of the first caves to be shown to the public. It has been a show cave since the 1800s and as you can imagine the tour would have been a little different back then. Hearing about the first tours being conducted by candlelight and the visitors being given hessian sacks to slide down into the next chamber of the cave (wearing their Sunday best of course and holding their candles in their mouths!) we were grateful for electric lighting, concrete stairs and steel handrails. Sadly you can see the damage done by these early cave explorers who left their initials, pilfered the crystals and left the waxy stalagtites and mites with a dirty black hue due to being touched. Despite this there was still plenty of magical things to see (especially with the beauty of coloured lighting) such as the broken collumn you can see in the picture.
So all in all it was a grand day out and worth the trecherous journey to get there.

This morning I had my Christmas present, it may have been a little late but it was worth waiting for (even if we did have to get up at the ridiculous time of 4:30am!). My Christmas present was a hot air balloon ride over the Hunter Valley and what an experience! We met up with our very cheery and awake(!) hot air ballon pilot at the airport where we were given our safety briefing, the gist being that the landing would be interesting and could take one of three forms – land upright on the ground first time (not likely), bouncing on the ground a few times before coming to a stop (highly possible) or landing and then dragging sideways along the ground for some time (quite probable)! The best thing would be to enjoy the ride and not think about the landing.
We had a fantastic morning for being up in the air and the views were amazing. The valley below us was lush and green (theres been a lot of rain recently!) with rows upon rows of grape vines. We could see mountains in the distance (the great dividing range, I think). But the best view was looking down (and it was a long way down) at the animals the size of dots, we saw cows, horses and a few kangaroos bouncing along. The view upwards was pretty cool (or rather hot!) as you can see from the pic.
Sadly all good things must come to an end and so we began to think about landing. It was a bit hairy. We bounced along the ground several times before stopping but it then felt like we were going to tilt over with maybe some dragging. It certainly got the adrenalin pumping but we survived and enjoyed the obligatory post flight champers. It never tasted so good!
We were all done and dusted and it was only 9am! What to do with the rest of our day? We started with a gourmet breakfast at the Crown Plaza – just a taster of how the other half live.
After a refreshing roadside snooze we headed off to sample some more wine. We found ourselves in Tyrells, one of the oldest wineries in the Hunter in it’s 4th generation of family ownership. These guys have been making wine since 1858 so they certainly know what they’re doing. The tour of the winemaking process was very interesting and we will be appreciating our next bottle of wine just a little bit more now that we know how much effort went into making it. After the tour we were treated to some tasters and I am pleased to say that Si seems to be coming round to my way of thinking where white wine is concerned so I will no longer be forced to drink whole bottles singlehandedly! (I have been missing you Donna!). I also took a bit of a liking to the expensive, aged red wine – there is no doubt it tastes better – just a shame we can’t afford it! After buying several bottles (of the slightly cheaper stuff, alas) we headed off to the smelly cheese shop (that’s what it’s called!) to spend some more money.
So the next few days will be spent consuming the produce of the Hunter Valley – wine, chocolate and smelly cheese …yum!