Home to early signs of spring...

We finally arrived home 39 hours after leaving Lane Cove, feeling pretty shattered! Most of the trip went well, the drive through Sydney a fine Sunday morning's cruise down the Tollway, noticing our last wonderful aboriginal placename on the way - Woolloomooloo! (look it up - there are lots of different explanations for that name!). A last look at Sydney centre in the haze, then flying very comfortably on the the top floors of 747s on the two long flights, with spectacular views of the Ozz interior and the Timor Sea on the first flight before the sun went down.

Delicious Thai noodle soup for breakfast on the second flight and then everything went haywire when we arrived in Frankfurt - our and many other Lufthansa flights cancelled because of a strike by handlers (wot, a strike in Germany?!!!). We finally got a flight 4 hours later, so that we were waiting in an overfilled lounge for several hours, along with many stressed-up and impatient passengers, like us on diverse stand-by lists, but glad our airmiles at least gave us the luxury of the lounge in our jet-lagged state.....

And home to small piles of melting snow, temperatures above zero and of course thick fog in the fjord just below home, boats hooting and tooting along the narrow channel in and out of Oslo. Ground outside still frozen solid of course, no question of work in the garden yet, and forecast of more cold weather to come. At least I can start sorting my seeds, sowing tomatos, leeks, celery, tagetes and all the other plants that make up a Norwegian gardening summer, dreaming of sunny days along the Great Ocean Road, our breakfasts with roos, the raucous kookaburra dusk chorus...

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And the next trip? Perth to Adelaide and return via Uluru, the Flinders and the Nullarbor? Or Cairns to Cape York and return? Or more of the Kimberley? We'll see, but there'll definitely be another trip and it definitely will be out in wilder areas than this one - watch this spot!

Back in Sydney...

It's now Saturday, we're in Sydney, our last full day here, leaving on the Bangkok flight tomorrow afternoon after dropping off the camper van and having driven almost 6,000 km...... On Thursday we reluctantly decided to leave the grazing roos and the paradise that Bendalong was and head for Sydney on the last 260 km of this coastal tour. Dropped in at Kiama - my first stop long ago - now in lovely weather and the blowhole blowing magnificently!

Then along yet more spectacular coast, in some places on viaducts as the cliffs are so steep. Stopped at Bulli Lookout (last time I was here it was in the clouds), looking down at a light plane flying along the cliffs below us, counting all the 15-16 cargo ships lined up to collect their cargos of coal and grain from Wollongong, the 9th largest city in Ozz. Then on through the Royal National Forest, our last rollercoaster ride before hitting the traffic nightmare that is Sydney, miles of so-called "Freeway" with traffic lights every 100 metres or so. We'd decided to stay at a site in another National Forest Reserve - Lane Cove, an ecosite recommended by many, but on the north side of Sydney, while the airport is to the south...... Deeply regretted now, as is the move from Bendalong! Ah well, next time we'll just keep out of big ciites as much as possible!

We took the metro into central Sydney yesterday, visited the Botanical Gardens (highly recommended!) and the iconic Opera House built out over the harbour, with the equally iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge in the background. Then hightailed it out of town, feeling very much out of place and country peasantish among smart-suited business yaps and elegant totties dressed to the nines flitting between the Prada and Gucci outlets..... Enjoyed much more the kookaburra raucous evening chorus and Ros's night walk through the park with a ranger pointing out all the nested birds and the possums and bandicoots going about their nocturnal business (though not caring much for the snake and spider stories!)

Today packed and got ready for prompt departure tomorrow, bought access to the Tollways to avoid the worst tr affic back through Sydney to the airportand then took what we hoped would be a relaxing ride to a beach, but which developed into yet another traffic-jammed point-to point between traffic lights....... Back to the haven of Lane Cove and then a delicious farewell meal at a local Japanese Restaurant!

Across the Dividing Range

From Corryong on Monday, we carried on up the upper reaches of the Murray River, finally crossing it and over the state line from Victoria into New South Wales, all in gorgeous rolling pastoral country, climbing slowly into the northernmost extent of the Snowy Mountains. These reach up to over 2200 metres, with the tree line at 185o. We didn't get so high, but after a serious stoop down a winding road cut into the the sides of the gorge down to a hydroelectric dammed reservoir and then back up again along an equally hair-raising route up the other side, we finally reached the highest point on our journey at 1500 metres in relatively open heathland. There's snow and skiing conditions up here in winter, so that there are turnouts along the road for motorists to fit their snowchains, all quite strange after our travels through summer Ozz!

Then down again and along rolling valleylands to Canberra, in the Australian Capital Territory, ceded to the Commonwealth by New South Wales as a compromise after deadlock between Sydney and Melbourne as to choice of capital city in an agreement of 1908. Work began on building Canberra (named after the Ngambari, a local indigenous tribe) using a masterplan for a garden city radiating out from a hub along a series of grand avenues in 1913. Work went slowly, hindered by the 1930s depression and the 2cnd World War and it reportedly still had the air of a small country town in the late 1940s, but now it and suburbs have reached almost 400,000 population, spread out between the gardens, memorials and hills, nestled betwen the eastern and western parts of the Dividing Range at 600 m over the sea. A very pleasant and impressive place indeed, and not at all like the image I mistakenly had of a boring ostentatious necropolis! (Too much attention paid to Bill Bryson, who was clearly very bored by the place!) - the picture below taken along Anzac Avenue towards the Parliament Building.

We had a lovely evening with Becky and Phil, friends from Timor-Leste, newly moved to Canberra - Becky now working on the Solomon Islands bench of AusAid and Phil combining his IT expertise with his biking passion, now up and down the hills in and around Canberra. A very pleasant reunion after almost 5 years, a great barbie courtesy of Phil and a lovely bed and shower after weeks of campervan life! Then yesterday Tuesday another reunion, this time after 46 years! But first we skimmed through the National Gallery's Aboriginal Art exhibit, highly impressive, some works with highly critical themes - see below, with the gallery's and the artist's commentary!

"Daniel Boyd’s gloriously tongue-in-cheek appropriation of the Aboriginal languages map in Treasure Island 2005 seems particularly relevant with the recent reprobation of Indigenous land in the Northern Territory by the Federal Government, and with the minerals boom that Australia is experiencing, making only a very few people wealthy – and Indigenous people are rarely part of the newly rich. "With the European nations vying for ‘unoccupied lands’ (‘terra nullius’) the race was on to find the fabled ‘Great Southern Land’ and nothing was to stand in the way of obtaining it, not even a complex culture tens of thousands of years old. Intentions to me seemed dishonest and dishonourable, traits I found too similar to modes of operation related to piracy. Being so closely intertwined in the fabric of the British nation, the process of the colonisation of terra nullius allowed me to experiment and explore different subject matter under the blanket of piracy and construct an alternate version of our history. Introducing elements of piracy such as the parrots and [eye-]patches allowed me to deconstruct the romantic notions that surround the act of our colonisation and reconstruct them from an Aboriginal perspective".Daniel Boyd, 2006...."

Anyway, after this cultural interlude, we met up with Russ Temple, classmate of David in the Manchester Geology Honours bachelors programme from 1961 to 1964 and we haven't met again since graduation in 1964, although Russ did work in Stavanger for a while. He moved to Australia in 1969 and worked at the Bureau of Mineral Resources, now part of Geoscience Australia, before partial retirement some years ago (like David, we old geologists don't just retire, we keep plugging on....). Russ kindly drove us around the main sights of Canberra, then guided us out to and around the Geoscience Australia offices - impressive modern buildings, of course set in parkland - a beautiful setting for a great workplace (Ros had a lot of contact with them during the Timor stay and was most impressed by their efficient and friendly service...). A pleasant lunch reminiscing and catching up and then sadly it was onwards yet again, all too quickly....

Again over rolling tablelands over the eastern hills of the Dividing Range and then down yet another rollercoaster, back to the east coast which David drove down 4 weeks ago.... Past Bateman's Bay, where he stayed on Australia Day, past Ulladulla ("safe harbour"), Yatte Yattah ("2 waterfalls"), all in lovely fresh green countrysde, all the greener for all the rain they've had this summer, with wild lilies in bloom all along the road. A big contrast to the countryside between Melbourne and Adelaide! Finally out to Bendalong Tourist Park, one of the most beautiful sites yet (recommended by Becky & Phil - thank you!), surrounded by grazing roos and chattering multicoloured parrots.... All with an "ensuite " powered site - our private loo just by the van, more luxury.... Staying here for a final relax before the last leg into Sydney after another 630 km driving the last couple of days......

Up into the hills!

Covered 617 km today, first along the eastern end of the Great Ocean Road, cut into even more spectacular cliffs than we'd seen to the west, then past the famous surfing beaches south of Melbourne, then a long boring slog up the freeway past Melbourne itself to Wodonga (aboriginal for "bullrushes"), where we took the last 120 km along the Murray Valley Highway, another rollercoaster through the uppermost reaches of the Murray River system, almost 2500 km upstream from where we took the ferry across its outlet just over a week ago... Ending in the small town of Corryong (aboriginal for "bandicoot"), ready to drive over parts of the Great Dividing Range to Canberra, the federal capital, tomorrow.

Couldn't help thinking on the way how ironic it is that the towns we passed by alternate betwen copying their British namesakes, from Torquay to Glenrowan (where the Ned Kelly gang was finally mowed down) or are based on aboriginal names - from Geelong ("land, cliffs") to Wangaratta ("place where cormorants nest") to name just a couple. The aboriginal names are especially ironic as there are scarcely any aborigines left in this part of Ozz - largely wiped out by European diseases or massacres by the mid-1800s..... No wonder the bitterness of an art installation we photographed in Victor Harbor entitled "On occupied territory".....

cliffs and forests....

Woke yesterday (Friday) to clearer but cooler weather , then drove through a mainly sunny warm day through landscapes that were so incredibeautiful that any words I use just don't do them justice... First rolling open country along cliffs of flatlying Miocene limestone that stoop vertically into the sea, with a series of stacks, staurs, islands, natural arches and bridges, all set in the rolling surf and brilliant aquamarine sea, ending with the major tourist attraction "The 12 apostles" (above), only spoiled by the many busloads of daytrippers from Melbourne...

Then a dramatic change of landscape as we moved into the Lower Cretaceous sandstones and volcanics of the Otway Group, getting their name from the dramatic forested hills and valleys of the Otway Range - the group being formed in a series of rift basins as Australia started to "unzip" itself from Antarctica over 150 million years ago...... Drove through gorgeous rainforest with giant ferns and even gianter eucalyptus (some over 100 m high, matching the coast redwoods of California) to Cape Otway itself at almost 39 degrees South, our furthest south yet, and then on to beautiful Apollo Bay, to a full-packed campsite getting ready for today's mountain bike 100 km marathon with 800 competitors (not the 3,000 we were told yesterday!).

This campsite, like all the others, still dominated by "grey geese" though, an element of the Ozz fauna I've still not mentioned in this trip's blog - Grey geese are people who live in their campervans or caravans, migrating around the country with the changing seasons, April to October in the north's tropical dry season, away from the southern "winter", November to March in the southern summer, escaping the tropical storms of the north's wet season. Many are pensioners, some still have permanent homes somewhere, some have sold up and moved out - what will happen when they just can't manage any more? Some younger people work their way around the country taking temporary jobs wherever - we've met nurses, mechanics, secretaries, shop assistents, campsite attendants, all grey geese. Some have cars with caravans on tow, some campervans with cars in tow, like above, some have a boat in tow, but they all share the love of moving wherever, whenever..... All good fun in a country like this!

An easy day today, staying in Apollo Bay, laundry then coffee in a beachside cafe before taking a boardwalk through the rainforest, the next tree more gigantic than the last, thick underbrush of incredible tree ferns, and all in the rich aromatic scents of eucalyptus and tree ferns.... And then on to an impressive exhibit of "Walking with dinosaurs - the wildlife of Gondwana", all about the dinosaurs that lived in the Otway rift basin all those 150 million years ago, when this area was at 80 degrees South and pretty cool to say the least (although there was no ice cap like today)......

Tomorrow we head northwards towards Canberra - not like grey geese, although I'd dearly love to be one - but on the beginning of the end of this trip....... boohoo!!!!!!!

volcanoes and lobsters...

Leaving the campsite at Robe yesterday I saw a Wicked campervan, reminding me of my epic journey across northern Ozz 2 years ago - the van yesterday had a great slogan: "Don't drink and drive, smoke pot and fly!" I should have taken a photo.... Talking about driving, all the states have lots of signs like "drowsy drivers die, take a powernap now" or "better to arrive late than dead", but South Australia excels in cheeky ones like that above - non-native english speakers may have to ask me to interpret that for them!

Before leaving Robe we took pictures of the cute little old "historic" stone buildings - the church, the customs house, the old police station, all dating from the 1850s and standing on the dunes overlooking the natural harbour - we must remember that anything older than the 1950s is historic in this young country. We then drove southward behind coastal lagoons through lovely rolling limestone country, stopping in little old Beachport where we were amazed yet again by the quality of service given by the local Information Centre: their effective PR persuaded us to take their drmatic scenic drive through rolling dunes and low cliffs, with tremendous vistas both along the coast and inland, past the local salt lake (7x seawater, "so salt you float"), the drive only being abandoned as the sea fog rolled in and reduced visibility to a few metres, not much point in scenic lookouts then!

On to Mount Gambier, an inland town on the flanks of a ?dormant volcanic vent, last active only 4,000 years ago, leaving 2 beautiful crater lakes, one with water turning a brilliant blue in summer (calcite precitated from the water in summer eats up humic material, or so they say....). It seems this area has been lying over the East Australian Hotspot, deep down in the mantle, until recently - this now apparently lying just offshore. Then on to Mount Schank, yet another young volcanic cone rearing up from the limestone flats, before arriving on the south coast in Port MacDonnell, self-proclaimed "Rock lobster capital of South Australia", which Ros had to test of course, while I stuck to oysters.... both verdicts were the best meal yet!

Today Thursday it was onwards eastwards, crossing the state line back into Victoria, walking along yet more spectacular sea-cliffs near Portland, this time with "petrified forest" where the lime-rich sand dunes have buried trees, and the trunks are now calcified, all quite impressive (and an even more impressive windmill "farm" in the background). Then past an oil rig just offshore, quite a contrast to the 145 year old rig from the other day, to yet another volcanic crater complex - Tower Hill - now a nature reserve with all the original fauna protected, emus wandering around in the parking lot, snakes and lizzards galore, but disappointingly no koalas sighted. Finally ending for the night in Warrnambool ("ample water") undecided as to what to do tomorrow in dodgy weather, storm or no storm? The night will show.....

Back to "The Big Island"

Woke Saturday morning to a very damp campsite, not many roos in sight. Drove westwards through eucalyptus forest and scrub, stopping at Rustic Blue Gallery and cafe for breakfast as the weather steadily improved, admiring the local (and owners') artwork, buying a few souvenirs, looking at pics of the devastating bush fires here in December 2007 (the other side of paradise!). Then in full sun, but cool wind, walked the boardwalk in Seal Cove, the magnificent sealions basking on the beach and frolicing in the surf rolling in from the Southern Ocean, both of us also taken up by the spectacular beachrock in the cliffs! On to Kingscote, the "capital village", with all of 1400 inhabitants, where we watched the daily ritual at 5 pm of feeding the pelicans - and as the picture shows, the gulls were also in on the game! For once a clear sunset........

Woke Sunday to a lovely sunup, ate our bacon and egg butties at the local cafe, then on to Emu Bay, famous for its spectacular Cambrian fossils, but also a gorgeous unspoiled beach, with even more pelicans to photo. Then on to the ferry back to "The Big Island" (aka Australia) after what we agreed had been a lovely relaxing but also instructive 3 days out on "The Little Island".

Then drove up and across the Fleurieu Peninsula's rolling hills and pastoral landscapes to the next geological locality - boulders and scoured pavements giving the evidence for the ice-age that gripped the southern continents about 280 million years ago - A little disappointing (but then we're used to much more convincing evidence of the last ice age back home!), as was the "Thai" meal at Victor Harbour before a so-called "ice cream" which had never been near a cow! Decided to make it a 1-night stand in VH - a nice enough (touristy) place, but not worth a full day's stay just to take a horse tram out to Granite Island and not particularly wanting to see the whaling museum (a depressing bit of history of hunting to near extermination!). Monday another lovely day, pushing 30 degrees and clear blue sky. After wandering around Victor Harbour we started on the Great Ocean Road back to Melbourne, 330 km past Goolwa (aboriginal for "elbow") just behind the Murray Mouth, then over the Murray River itself by ro-ro cable ferry.

Then south behind the almost 150 km long barrier bar and lagoonal system of the Coorong National Park (meaning either "long neck" or "sand dune", either would fit! Strange how the early Australlians seemed determined to exterminate the aborigines, but adopted their placenames!). Stopped to see pelican rookeries out in the lagoon, lovely unspoiled nature: a real outback feeling, then to see the site of the first exploratory oil well in Australia, drilled in 1866, with a replica of the original well..... David remembering careers advice in 1964 when he first graduated - "No future for geologists in Australia!" What a laugh, just 2 years on the first major gas discovery was made in 1966, then the big iron and other new metal ore discoveries, then oil in the 70s and on we go, now there's an insatiable need for geologists...... Ah well, too late now!

Finally to Robe, a pleasant little seaside town and fishing port, with a lovely spot for the camper looking down on yet another gorgeous unspoiled beach.... Robe's historic in Ozz terms, established as a port in 1847 and during the Gold Rush around Ballarat 10 years later, over 16,000 Chinese people landed at Robe to walk over 300 km overland to the goldfields, as Victoria introduced a landing tax of £10 per person (more than the cost of their voyage) to reduce the number of Chinese immigrants.......

Kangaroo Island

Ros arrived late but safely on Tuesday and we wandered through central Adelaide on Wednesday - to the impressive museum with its displays of aboriginal culture and beautiful fossils preserved in opal (and a roaring Tyrannosaurus, just to scare the kids, including us!), then on to the lovely Botanical Garden....

We got here yesterday, 100 km southwards from Adelaide down the Fleurieu Peninsula, thru lovely small towns like Myponga (Aboriginal for "Place of high cliffs", but Ros thought the sign saying "Myponga plumbing" was pretty funny...) and Yankalilla, to Cape Jervis to then take a 45 minute ride on the big Sealink catamaran to Penneshaw on the northeastern tip of KI - which is big, 160 km long and up to 55 km wide, with only 4,400 inhabitants. Lots of wild heath, scrub and foorestland, some farming and vineyards, but most of all it's a nature preserve (separated from the mainland since the last ice age 10,000 years ago) for all the remaining original wild animals of Australia - kangaroo, wallabies, possums, koalas, you name it.... We drove 150 km to the westernmost part of the island and as the sun set were surrounded by grazing kangas and wallabies, some of whom clearly wanted to share our supper....

Then today into the Flinders Chase National Park, with its spectacular "Remarkable Rocks" (geologically to be classified as "bloody big boulders", sculpted by nature over millions of years and very reminiscent of Henry Moore, but see the 2 tiny people for scale!) and the Admiral's Arch, an equally impressive limestone archway, with the rocks below littered with hundreds of basking fur seals. Finally saw our first koalas in the wild, but tonight's planned sunset walk to see more put off because of yet more rain showers

Lovely Adelaide!

By far the nicest of the few big cities in Australia, and I think I've seen them all now.... Lots of parkland, long gorgeous beaches, the trailer park being besides one stretch of unspoiled beach. Arrived in very squally weather, with violent wind gusts and sudden sharp rain showers coming sideways (does it sound familiar?), but it's now calming as I get ready for Ros to arrive from Sydney today (hopefully with all her bags - they didn't make the Zurich-Bangkok flight)...

An uneventful trip, apart from the weather, 270 km of largely flat to rolling pastoral and agricultural land (past Keith, proclaming itself the lucerne capital of Australia!), then over the Murray River at Murray Bridge - I couldn't help including this photo, quite boring, with the somewhat self-evident text "The Murray Bridge bridge over the Murray".... (I would never imagined it.....). The Murray River is actually flowing now, thanks to all the storms of last and this year - it seems its the first time it's flowed properly for over 10 years! There are advantages to the La nina years, but it's the 10 to 15 year droughts between them that cause the problems for the Australian agrobusiness... As a colleague in Melbourne pointed out, Australian farmers just won't accept the natural cycles in the Australian climate, mismanage the little water they normally have at their dispoisal and then complain about "climate change"...

Ah well, then on to the lovely Adelaide Hills before the freeway rollercoasted suddenly down a 1200 metre dramatic plunge, ending almost in the city itself; spectacular geology in the high cuttings on the way, but no way I could take it all in as I hung on to the wheel of the camper. I'm told it was an even more hairy ride in the old days when the road was called The Devil's Elbow"! Adelaide itself much easier to navigate and more laid back than Melbourne and Sydney, thank heavens!

Now hoping Ros arrives with bags and all, then sightseeing tomorrow (hopefully including the Botanical Gardens, see pic) before heading off for Kangaroo Island on Thursday....

Ever onwards!

After 2 days of successful and very pleasant meetings with colleagues in Melbourne, normally only in contact by email, I headed off westwards this sunny Saturday morning onwards to Adelaide, aiming to meet Ros there on Tuesday. A 730 km stretch, of which I drove 460 today, before stopping for the night in Bordertown, which amazingly enough is just over the border between the states of Victoria and South Australia (a seemingly arbitrary line at 141 degrees East of Greenwich).

Long stretches of flat to rolling prairie, some pastoral, some gigantic harvested wheat fields, all golden to brown, dry, in contrast to the green fields and meadows east of Melbourne - here in Bordertown the site owner confirmed that the big weather shift does occur around Melbourne and there hasn't been measurable rain here for 3 months now (but, wait for it, since I've arrived there may be some tonight!).

On the way drove through Ballarat, centre for the 1850s Gold Rush in the region, then Ararat, didn't see no Noah, but the best tourist attraction sign so far - "Gaol for the Criminally Insane, open daily"!!!! Then past the Grampians (imported photo), not quite the massive lumps of their Scottish name-givers, but decent enough hills to break up the monotony of the drive...

And now like the flock of ghalas (cockatoos) that squawkingly came to rest in the eucalyptus just over my van at sundown, I must tuck my head under my wings and say "Gnight mates!"

Sunny Melbourne!

Spent most of yesterday driving the flat coast behind the 150 km long "90 mile Beach" barrier island system east of Melbourne - OK, sedimentologically interesting but a pretty boring drive! All in a very cool breeze after yet another stormy night, Finally arrived Port Albert - recommended as a "quaint historic port and fishing village".... Quaint it may be, but of course yet again as soon I arrived (at low tide) the heavens opened and the rain lashed across the mudflats and mangroves. I gave up on the expected cultural experience of the coast walk to the old port and found the local camping site, then had a chilly damp night yet again....

Started today quite depressed and tired, not slept well in the bad weather: the rain had finally stopped, but the air was definitely COOL & DAMP. Decided to drive the last 220 km in to Melbourne and then plan further (including a couple of work meetings). First part of trip through lovely rolling countryside, weather (and my mood) improving all the time, so that by the time I reached Melbourne suburbs both were in great form. Then the fun of negotiating several thousand traffic-light junctions (or so it seemed!) before finally getting to a very pleasant trailer park - here I be, here I stay, no question of more city driving the next few days! Melbourne seems to have a great tram, train & bus network, so the camper can have a rest!