Australia

14 Saturday

Our morning consisted of packing cases and juggling the weights for our early morning flight to Broome (tomorrow), the hand luggage is well over, but seeing they haven’t checked us on that yet, we aren’t too bothered.
Karen is like a chicken without a head, the previous evening she was asked about speeches and would she give one, she normally doesn’t have any problems talking to groups - yeah right, I think, it was the short notice that may have put her on her back foot, I of course steered well clear!
We drove with Helga & Horst to Pelicans landing where their 50th anniversary reception was being held, overlooking magnificent views of the marina and the boatyards. We set up the beamer (projector) and Karen linked this to her computer, so that all the old photo’s could be played off during the afternoon. The room was beautifully decorated mum and dad couldn’t have found a better venue. The guests start arriving around 12pm a really nice bunch of friendly people, (my family when I was growing up). Otto one of dad’s oldest bachelor day mates introduced the first toast. After which during the starter Karen stood and said a few words, I think she did really well considering she didn’t prep anything, this also stimulated Otto to continue. He told some stories of the old bachelor days when they shared a house together with a few other friends, Horst told me later to take the stories with a pinch of salt, I even heard a few new tales and I had to laugh when Otto told about dad telling the boys that they had to behave because he was bringing his new girl over – mum - and the boys were all on best behaviour to Otto’s surprise she was a really good sort. Lunch was fabulous and the wine continued to flow, till around 6pm we sat in the lounge area with the last few friends watching the old photo’s and of course the stories that belonged to them, We both had a really great time in Melbourne and many thanks for the warm welcome I was given.

15 Sun
Our alarm seemed to go off in the middle of the night; the flight to Broome left at 8:30am, and the trip to the airport is roughly an hour’s drive. We arrive with a few minutes to spare and Karen and I said our goodbyes and thanks to Helga & Horst.
The flight was pretty uneventful, the highlight would be flying over Ayres rock & the Olga’s. I always enjoy a landing where you come in over the sea. Ooh god it’s really hot !
We are lucky this time with the taxi and 10 minutes later we are signing the papers for the camper, we thought that we would need about 2 hours to get on the road, but this time within ½ an hour we were away. Our original plan was to head over to Fitzroy Crossing but we decided to stay in Broome that night instead, it was a good call as the trip takes around 5 hours by camper. Thus we went on our camping place search and I hoped the camping ground on Town beach would have a vacancy. We won the jackpot with our pitch out on the point with only beach between us and the ocean, heaven. Ian was the brave one; the water as it was later in the day was on the cold side for me I need bathwater, he went in and had a good swim around snorkel and goggles in hand. It is the locals beach as well and the aboriginal kids were having a ball riding their bikes down the boat ramp into the water That night we had a BBQ and enjoyed a bottle of red facing the sun setting over the ocean, I think I am going to enjoy it here. I know he will.

12 Thurs
Once again a well needed lazy start, today our plans are to head over to Warburton and to have lunch with Robyn who would be the closest thing to a cousin that Karen has in Australia, Warburton is a good hour’s drive away from Karen’s parents house and is on the edge of the great dividing range, Robyn and family rent a property high up on a tree covered hillside with about an acre of gardens, local residents include wombats, possums, and lots of bird life, they have been there since April and absolutely love the place, the locals are very friendly and welcoming so as you can imaging they feel pretty at home there.
Her garden of an acre flourishes with camellia bushes, rhododendrons, and native trees it was laid in the early 1900’sand absolutely amazing one can get lost on its many paths. Mind you her dog would probably sniff you out if you ot lost hee hee. You know you are getting older when the little kids become teenagers. I wouldn’t recognise them now. Angus is Ryan’s age and the two of them would have had a ball, he is into building dens and making treehouses. Robyn doesn’t know it yet but next time we come it will be for a few days so the boys can play and well I get the chance to spend a quantity of time with Robyn. Forget quality I now want quantity hee hee.
We had a great lunch, it seems all of Karen’s friends can easily hold there own in the kitchen and put my dismal efforts to shame, (not true says Karen) Robyn picked her 3 kids up after school and we took the dog for a walk along the flooded Yarra river which is very twin peak like, I can see my self living in a place somewhere like Warburton, Unfortunately we have to say our goodbyes which Karen’s seems to have more problems with day by day and make a mad dash back to Mont Albert to throw on some other clothes and take mum & dad out for dinner as a thank you for all the hospitality.
There has been so much rain in Victoria this winter making up for years of drought the reservoirs are now finally filling up slowly. A flooded Yarra is comfort for my soul unlike the scary dry brown landscape that I saw last year it is now abounding with flora and fauna.

13/ 8 Friday
Today is the official 50th anniversary of Helga & Horst,
Karen’s been severely stressing about their present, she had been putting together a photo album of there life for the last 4 months, contact had been made with friends and family across the world to get enough photos and stories together, her deadline as always with Karen was sooner to the minute than to the day. (It will all work out in the wash) So when a problem arose in production her dismay grew as did her stress levels then several nasty phone calls later to the not so reliable company. She was told that the album would arrive two days after we left for Aus. She was just a tad angry as you can imagine. To cut along story short the album was sent to Australia and arrived two days before the big day, talk about cutting it short! She did however an amazing job, and her mum and dad loved it.(and it did work out in the end)
After we gave them the book, we borrowed Helga’s 4WD and headed in to the city, We wandered through Victoria markets, it seemed to me that all the walkways had identical stalls, so you can imagine two walkways and I had seen enough, Fortune had it that we had arranged afternoon tea with another mate Sarah, she is now known as the scone making queen of Melbourne, it is so nice to see Karen once again catching up with a good mate, Chad (hubby) also lent us a beamer for the slide show Karen was planning at the 50th wedding lunch on Saturday.
Another mad dash home, a 15 minute wash and change and off to visit Ralph and Nina for dinner, quite an experience getting a pasta making lesson to boot.

7-8 Sat
This morning we packed our bags which are progressively getting heavier & heavier and said our goodbyes to Laura and Alice and headed back to the bomb rental place, quite sad to leave the old beauty behind (or not). We jumped in a taxi, a five minute ride to the airport, checked our bags in (fingers crossed), Qantas weren’t to bothered that we were 2 kilos over, unlike Ryan air who will rip you of any chance they get!
The flight of just an hour was pretty uneventful and we touched down in Melbourne around 1pm, Karen’s mum & dad had been kind enough to pick us up inclusive a scenic tour on the way back to Mont Albert, That night we went out to a Thai restaurant and had some really good tucker, back home the luxury of a comfortable bed, the use of our own personal bathroom and toilet, just what was needed after 3 ½ weeks on the road.

8-8 Sun
To our surprise we woke to blue skies, the weather forecast hadn’t been too promising for the coming seven days, lots of rain coming in from New South Wales.
At breakfast it was a unanimous decision to take Karen’s dad’s boat out, seeing that the weather wouldn’t give us another chance later on in the week, so we put on our thickest, warmest clothes and headed down to the marina, however to our dismay on arrival, the wind had picked up something vicious and to tell you the truth I was quite relieved when Horst said that sailing was a no go, I didn’t fancy feeding the fish from the back of the boat which is normally the case when the seas get a little choppy, so the next plan was coffee and cake, the later of which is another Horsts hobbies. We made our minds up to go to Phillip island, since we weren’t sure how long the sun would still shine this week. It is the home to a colony of Fairy Penguins, actually my anniversary present from Karen. After racing home and throwing a few things in a bag we set out for Phillip Island, direction a secluded hotel and to our fortunate delight a quarter of the price for the night, sometimes winter does have it’s perks, this hideaway is on the cliff face over looking Smiths Beach and the open ocean.
Dumped our stuff and headed for penguin parade, our exclusive tour was actually on the eastern side of the island, so we left the thousands behind, jumped in a van with our ranger and seven others - all tooled up with night vision binoculars, rain gear, and headsets, this part of the island closes down at dusk, so there was no one around, we headed down onto the beach and sat in a row ready for the big happening, at roughly 6pm the first heads appeared, It took them a while to build up courage to make the slow dash or waddle into the dunes, we saw about 80 birds the closest coming to within 15 meters, it was a bird lovers paradise, after about half an hour we walked back to the Penguin parade, this was even cooler there were penguins along the side of the road looking for their burrows and their partners and at the back of the Parade centre there are also artificial nest boxes which caught Karen’s curiosity. Although they are the smallest penguin they make a hell of a racket.
We went for takeout and waited and waited and waited for 2 serves of lasagne, I think they must have gone to Italy to make it. Back at the hotel we warmed up in a spa of bubbles.

9-8 Mon
The nice thing about waking up in a hotel on the cliffs means that you can wander down and go exploring, the surf was up and a few fanatics were out catching waves. The coast line is rugged and ever changing between clay and basalt. Phillip Island is a series of 3 volcanoes that erupted millions of years ago. A treasure trough for the shell hunter. Though they are small they are still very pretty and so my collection grew once again. We drove out to the point and Ian spent a short time watching the seals with his binoculars on seal rock . At 12pm the Pelicans get fed and they love their food soI wanted to catch a quick glimpse and then it was off to the pub for us and a pub lunch. A great Aussie steak sandwich followed by a hike which was needed to use up the large energy intake. Woolamai point known for it’s pinnacles, so Ian got his pinnacles after all, only these were, in a different state, We thought we would take a short cut home and followed a track through the dunes short cut it wasn’t it turned out to be a long cut. Then via the chocolate factory and a chocolate shot; a shot glass of melted chocolate, we went home to a home cooked dinner – good on yah mum.

10 Tuesday
Then the rains came, an ideal day to go shopping Ian first and as usual one, two, three and he was done, thankfully the assistant pointed me in the direction of a shop up the road and yes she was right, fabulous clothes, ( Ian liked the shop at once nice leather seat for the wiery shopper to relax ).
We had lunch at home and then a choice neede to be made- more clothes shopping with Karen and Helga or at trip with Horst to Harry Normans ( huge Dixons store ) and the biggest do-it-yourself I have ever seen, once again the latter seemed a thousand times nicer, so builder talk first which was then followed by me checking out the latest in 3D plasma screens and the newest hi-fi’s whilst Horst was printing holiday snaps, a very relaxing afternoon.
That night we had dinner at the really classy casino brassiere with the whole family, it was really nice to meet Ralph ( Karen’s big bro ) and girlfriend Nina, and of course you can’t eat at the casino without a little roulette, it seems the god’s were smiling on me, I managed to leave the table with a 100 dollar profit. The casino was pretty special, it is well known for it’s water fountains but unfortunately they were shut down to Karen’s dismay she has been talking about them a lot, what was really impressive however were the seven towers along the outside of the building that on the hour spit fire out, these build up to finally flames which are equivalent to a small gas bottle igniting in one go.
All in all we had a fantastic evening.

11 Wed
We had a really nice wake up call this morning, to our surprise - Ryan called from Peru, he told us he had been doing some really cool stuff: sand surfing, dune buggy racing and one for his uncle Andy - he even saw a Condor, he spent some time with a local family and had to dance in traditional dress, hope it was filmed sounds quite entertaining.
In the early morning we went sightseeing in the Dandenongs (very hilly region about an hours drive from Mont Albert) spectacular views lots of gum trees and tree ferns, look out for the photo’s, we stopped at a very touristy area were you can feed the wild parrots, you can ask Karen how wild they are she still has the beak mark in her finger! Home for a snack and then Helga was nice enough to drop us into the city, we were after a new case - the small backpack just wasn’t big enough anymore, far too many memento’s. In one of central Melbourne’s shopping centre’s a very unique way of getting around the listed building laws has been achieved, the building was an old factory with a high tower (a shot tower used to drop molten lead to make shot for guns/cartridges), which is now domed with a glass roof and has a shopping centre branching off in all directions with an underground railway station underneath. A perfect example of old being incorporated into new. Poor Ian the busyness is catching up with him so after a quick shower we were home and then out the door again. This time Ian got to meet Kelly and boy did we laugh as we recounted our childhood experiences to Ian. I do miss my mates. Anyway a lovely dinner of more great steak and extravagant desserts and an additional surprise David Kelly’s dad came and joined us for coffee. It’s been years since I saw him last, his recollections of our childhood were even more colourful, he might be retired but once a comedian, always a comedian.

4- 8
We took the bomb up to the blue mountains and she performed admirably even on the climbs, our plan was to visit the three sisters which is the most well know and most well visited piece of rock or three in the blue mountains, once again things had changed considerably they have built a huge viewing platform this being necessary for all the bus loads of Japanese tourists and school outings. We didn’t stay long as you couldn’t hear yourself think, so we turned around and went direction Wentworth Falls and a bit of peace and quiet, the walk down to the falls is roughly a 3-4 hour round trip taking in some breath taking views, some parts where hacked out of the cliff side! A bit bottom nippy, but the result of the trek were some awesome photo’s and am amazing experience!
Karen wanted to go to a hotel called the Hydro Majestic for coffee and cake but unfortunately the place was very closed, apparently you have some of best views of the mountains from there. Since was a no go we went exploring and found an isolated lookout which gives a view of Sydney’s version of the grand canyon – pretty spectacular. We headed back to Sydney for a pub dinner in Newtown again another of Karen’s old stomping grounds, the Marlborough Hotel still cooking up a mean T-bone steak.

5-8 Thursday
A disagreement with the tom tom later we were on our way to have breakfast at Bronte beach and my usual café is luckily still in existence. Fried eggs, bacon, tomato, mushrooms and Turkish bread (yum yum yum) later and an amazingly full feeling we drove down to Randwick our plans were shopping and golf lucky mine is the later, Cristian had mentioned that he had taken up golf and asked if I would like to play, he had become member of the Bondi Golf Club, so I of course jumped at the chance to play, Bondi has 9 holes, it’s a testing paar 3, on one side the road and back gardens and on the other cliffs and the ocean, pretty awesome when you think about it, He was telling me that he and a few mates had the luck of watching a group (pod) of whales swim by earlier this year, you don’t get that at Geijsteren!!! Had a great laugh followed as always in Sydney by a few beers, that evening Laura spoiled us with a really tasty dinner.
I went in search of an outfit for mums and dad’s do and to my dismay nothing then again what can you expect from Sydney. Melbourne being the fashion capital no doubt more luck there.

6-8
It’s pretty frightening how things speed up when your on holiday, today being our last day in Sydney, and even more frightening halfway of the six weeks.
Karen had arranged for us to be picked up by Kath, and to go into the city with the new light railway, The council had a smart idea to use the old goods line (no longer in use) to connect the inner western suburbs and the city, we jumped off at Darling Harbour which has also had a serious face lift since my last visit, and of course when in Sydney we naturally stopped off for a glass of wine, Kath is a bit of a nut ( a nice nut ) not to be taken too seriously and the two of them (Karen and Kath that is) carry on as if they had been chatting yesterday and not 3 years ago.
We walked around Darling Harbour and headed to the fish markets for lunch, this is a definite must for anybody who visits Sydney.
Talk about a memory re-lived that only has gotten better, mind you so have the birds (clever that is) or should I say flying rats that aside, a cooks paradise any form of edible fish like creature can be bought. As usual my saliva glands went into overdrive, Ian was fun to watch as the prawns got bigger. Then we headed to the food court where it was bustling with Chinese - always a good indication of good food – look where most of the Chinese are. So our delectable lunch began. I was in paradise beginning with a dozen oysters Kilpatrick / calamari and whitebait with a follow up of my favourite and now Ian’s - John Dory. Yum yum yum. Back to the flying rats they are swift and before you know it they have made off with your entire meal if your not on your toes – they did enjoy Ian’s 5 dollar prawn, ouch and to rub salt in the wound, they topped it off with depositing the digested remains on Ian - poor dear.
On the way back to the light railway we picked up some veg, Karen was planning to cook for Laura as a thank you for making us feel really welcome.

3-8
I like these relaxed starts in the morning – one really knows that it is a holiday life that we lead. Drove down and dropped the car in Erskineville how things have changed in what seems a short space of time but I do have to admit that a lot can happen in 12 years. Train then to Circular quay and a super ferry (hydro cat) to the famous Watson’s Bay pub for fish and chips well talk about mud on my face after raving that not even Doyles could make a better fish and chips, we were served fish that was dry and horrible. The pub itself has unfortunately lost it’s grotty charm and been transformed into this lets try hard to be a swanky hotel but missing the mark slightly – very sad. Then headed to the heads walking along the old tracks which have also have had a makeover- shame really, though it is accessible to everyone. We sat like two lemons on the Quay waiting for the ferry to take us back in to the city, which would never come! It seems even the time tables have changed in the last 12 years how odd! We jumped on a bus direction Bondi Junction which took for ever and a day and took in most streets in the area, By this time we are running late for dinner at Tegan’s so a mad rush back to the car and then across Sydney, in the end we weren’t late after all Ian still needs to het used to the Australian ½ hour when we sat 7 it can be anywhere between 6 and 8.