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We parted ways with Joe & Jude in the morning and descended on Sydney. It only took around an hour or so before we were driving down the main backpacking area of Kings Cross looking for a place to park the van for the night. After dropping it off at a suitable multi-storey, we checked in to Brado's Place Hostel, dropped our bags off and set off in the direction of the harbour.
The Manchester equivalent to Kings Cross would most definitely be Oldham Street; a blend of delinquents and bohemians living in harmony to create an intentional trashy yet fashionable array of bars and shops. Following a trail mapped out for us by Irvine at the hostel, we headed down a few alleyways, staircases and side streets before coming out at the waterfront in front of the legendary 'Harry's Cafe de Wheels', very much a Sydney institution. The story goes that Harry Edwards started serving pies and sausages to Sydney's late night revellers from a caravan stall in the late 1930's before being shipped off to war, where he earned the nickname 'Tiger' for his efforts in the boxing ring. Upon his return to the city in 1945, he reopened his caravan in the same spot and it's been a permanent fixture ever since, eventually becoming a registered National Trust of Australia site in 2004. We'd been advised to try both the Hot Dog de Wheels (hot dog topped with mushy peas, chilli con carne, garlic onions and cheese & chilli sauce) and Harry's Tiger Pie (meat pie topped with mash, mushy peas and gravy). Both sounded right up our alley, however, we seemed to both have an incline towards the dog and so our decision was made before we'd even joined the queue. When we approached the van, we noticed the number of photographs of stars which had visited the establishment over the years, such as Anthony Bordain, Pamela Anderson, Blink 182 and most impressively, 4 members from the cast of the 'hit' British TV show, 'The Bill'...
The hot dog itself was by far the best either of us had ever had and we both agreed that Harry's isn't just there as a fashion statement, it's still high quality tucker after nearly 75 years of business. I recommend it to everyone visiting Sydney, especially considering that it's only a 10-15 minute walk from the harbour. After our fill, we tracked around the nearby naval base and then headed up to the park on the opposite side of the harbour to the famous Opera House and Bridge with the sun was beaming down and offering photographic opportunities which would take some beating.
After happy snapping our way around the harbour, we explored the Opera House before heading into the town centre to do a spot of shopping. We'd realised at this point that we'd forgotten our mascots, MoiMoi & BB for the obligatory photos across the harbour and considering that we were planning on leaving Sydney the following day, we felt a bit gutted that we'd left them out. We plodded on regardless and managed to pick up a couple of bargains each before wandering back to the hostel.
That night, we were meeting Anne's friend Joe, who had been transferred over to Sydney from his job in Manchester. After a couple of drinks and a good catch up for them, we turned in for the night quite early. We were sharing our room with a Welsh/Irish couple (I've forgotten their names so we'll call them Ewen and Niamh), they were also on a working visa and were a lovely couple, even if Ewen did snore persistently through the night.
The next morning, we checked out of the hostel and after getting a few tips of what to see on our onward journey from the hostel manager, Forest, we headed over to the Spaceships office to extend our lease on the van by a few extra days. We decided at this point that we couldn't leave Sydney without getting a picture of the boys (MoiMoi & BB) in front of the harbour, so after dropping our bags off in the van, we took the same route over to the waterfront, conveniently passing by Harry's in order to pick up a Tiger Pie for brunch (equally as delicious - seriously, go to this place). Once satisfied with pie and the appropriate photos we could continue on from Sydney and make our way towards Melbourne.
The plan from here was to head over to Adelaide to visit Adam, who we'd met in Hong Kong (I'm sure we wrote about him in the relevant instalment, feel free to backtrack and check). However, we also needed to begin to enquire about flats in Melbourne (where we had now chosen to reside for the majority of our time in Australia), so that we weren't going to be paying extortionate hostel costs and we were really just to trying to get ourselves sorted out for our impending arrival in the city. Also, with no Joe and Jude it kind of now felt like the holiday stage was over and so our minds were focused on getting settled as soon as possible so that we can earn some cash to pop back into our ever so depleted coffers.
As we left Sydney, we headed on south through New South Wales and passed by some amazing coastal roads, national parks and stunning vistas. We had decided on covering as much ground as possible and found ourselves driving well into the night, finally stopping halfway between Batemans Bay and Canberra on what was definitely the seediest free site of them all on the Kings Highway. Finding the actual rest area was a task in itself; we were in the middle of nowhere, the site was set well away from the road and there were no streetlights. As we drove precariously down the side road, we came to a halt when there was simply a mound of gravel blocking our way. Just as I was contemplating driving around it (as it didn't block the whole road), Anne spotted a side road which we realised took us to the designated camping spot.
That night was the coldest we'd experienced in Australia and we awoke to ice on the inside of the front and back windscreen. Needless to say, we didn't sleep well with the mixture of the sub-zero temperatures and the unsettling mist which had descended around the car. It definitely was a scene from a horror film and we quite aware of the fact that we could have been bludgeoned at any point and no-one would be any wiser given how remote the location was. We couldn't believe that this was a highly recommended site in one of our camp guides...
Luckily, we survived until morning with few physical and mental scars. However, it was only in the daylight that we realised that we were on the edge of a ravine with a river below and if I had driven around the mound of gravel like I'd planned, we would have probably ended up falling a good few hundred feet off the edge of the cliff; definitely a more chilling thought than anything we'd experienced through the night.
We were up and out early and in Canberra before lunch. As you should all know, Canberra is the capital city of Australia (it's surprising how many people don't know that) and seemed to be a city which was purposely built to house politicians. There really didn't seem to be much going on at all (My apologies to Adam & Chris, I know this is your home town so I have toned down the criticism). After a whistle stop tour of the Parliamentary Building's Car Park (I took a wrong turn), we were off and on our way to the state of Victoria, stopping off at mountain town of Cooma for the wifi break before stopping for the day in the quaint little town of Orbost, about 350km (217 miles) east of Melbourne. The site where we parked up for the night was run by Geoff and Ros, who arranged a big fire in the communal building for all the guests to sit around. We were joined by another lovely couple called Lori & Jerry, who at the end of the night offered to show us around their hometown of Batesman Bay (which we'd passed through the previous day) should we ever return to those parts.
The following day was frustrating and wet. The rain was nothing short of torrential and made driving conditions unbearable. After passing through the very pretty town called Lakes Entrance, and making a few more enquiries regarding flats and such in Melbourne on our wifi stop, we figured that we'd need another paid site close to Melbourne as there were no free sites this way. This led us to the outskirts of the small rural village of Neerim South, around 100km (62 miles) outside of the city. Finding the site was a struggle as there were numerous detours in place and with our site being an isolated farm in the middle of nowhere, we just ended up going around in circles. After throwing out a fair few profanities and tracking up and down the same roads several times, we eventually found our way to the farm, where we were directed to a waterlogged field to camp, much to our displeasure. After a quick dinner, we decided that this particular day was worth ending early and so we got tucked up in bed and drifted off once again to the comforting sound of the rain tapping on the roof.
The bad weather continued through the night and into the following day. Despite our best efforts to arrange a few apartment viewings whilst passing through Melbourne, we were unsuccessful and so we just decided on checking out the northern suburbs of Fitzroy, Carlton and Brunswick, as this is where we had intended on moving. It was a very homely feeling driving through the streets and very much reminiscent of our old home town of Chorlton in Manchester. After the quick excursion and with our hearts firmly set on residing in Melbourne, we headed further west to the Great Ocean Road. After hitting the coastal town of Torquay, we continued onwards initially intent on finding a free site for the night and as such, we did a massive detour inland only to find our intended rest area closed until the summer. This meant us coming back and stumbling on the beautiful town of Lorne and finding digs right next to a river mouth. The town was amazing and Anne and I made similar plans to those in Noosa and vowed to come back here in the summer, potentially to work. After a couple of beers with a lovely French couple (who pointed us in the direction of an awesome pizza house which even sold my favourite beer in the world, an Argentinian brew called Quilmes), we were once again turning in for an early night.
Both Anne and I were at this point beginning to fatigue of our backpacking adventures, especially considering that at this point we were trying to sort out jobs and accommodation in Melbourne and so with our minds on that, it was hard to appreciate the travelling life, even though we both knew that we'd miss it as soon as it was over.
After covering the entire Great Ocean Road the next day (which is just the Great Farmland Road for two thirds of it really), we crossed the border into South Australia and finally pulled in after another 400km (250 miles) day. Our mission now was simply to cover as much ground as we could and get to Adelaide as soon as possible. Therefore, we were up and out before 8am the following day and working our way across possibly the straightest roads in the world. Seriously, I think we drove around 100km (62 miles) at one point without turning once. In order to entertain myself, I developed a game called 'beep the sheep'. The rules are simple, when you approach some sheep grazing innocently in a field, you hammer the horn as much as possible and watch as the petrified little b*****s scarper for their lives. It may sound a bit harsh, but I assure you that it's great fun when you're driving an automatic car down an exhaustingly long stretch of straight road. It works especially well with tiny lambs and we also tallied up a few cows amongst our victims too.
Anyway, by lunchtime we had arrived in Adelaide and descended upon Adam's house, who was generously allowing us to stay with him for a couple of nights. We met with his housemates, Jeremy & Josh and then headed out to wander around the city. Adelaide is small yet with rather picturesque architecture, especially in the north of the city. It kind of has an American college city feel about it, like the ones you see in films, where it always seems to be autumn and there are a hundred different shades of brown in the leaves which coat the street. People always sport Kashmir scarves & satchels and their hair always parts from the side. You get the idea...
Over the next couple of days we felt truly at home with the guys and their friend Tash. On the first night, we were treated to amazing homemade chicken wings with a tasty hot sauce (we stole the recipe and have since replicated on a number of occasions) and on the second night we headed out for $10 squid night at a local bar called Astor. Before we knew it, it was time to get back on the road again with Adelaide and the guys firmly on our list of places to revisit.
At this point, we had given up on being able to move straight into a new apartment and had decided to utilise a website which we were previously told about, airbnb.com. The concept is for people to rent rooms out of their house as an alternative to hostels or hotels. We had made a number of enquiries and finally booked in to stay with a couple called Sara and Lisa (along with their dog, Action - definitely a selling point for Anne) in their home in Collingwood, which is just slightly out of the city. Despite the website charging extortionate fees, it definitely came in handy.
So after 231 days on the road we had come to the end of our first leg of travelling. We drove back to Melbourne via the Grampians, which were absolutely stunning mountain range in west Victoria and within a few days of leaving Adelaide, we had said goodbye to our trusty steed, Laika Virgin and were running ourselves ragged across Melbourne in the quest for employment and accommodation. We found an apartment in the city centre and within no time, we were back to the 9-5 routine which we had so desperately escaped from in England. Having a place to hang our hats definitely felt good and the little things like just being able to cook our own food were very much appreciated. It's hard to put into words our sense of accomplishment in getting to where we are now; we've seen some amazing sites, met some truly amazing people who we hope to keep in touch with for the rest of our lives and just plain & simply felt alive (as corny as that sounds). This is something that we had both respectively wanted to do for a long time and to be living in the moment is ideal. Where do we go from here? Well, our onward plans have morphed on many occasions and so I honestly can't predict what the future holds for us. Perfect.
- comments
Shaun's Mum xx Well this one , what can i say....i took a very deep breath at the thought you nearly fell off the 'cliff' , that worried me! And i dont like the bleep the sheep game...naughty Shaun!!!!!!! Cant wait for the next one ....take care love you xxxxx