Monday 24 February we said sad farewells and left Lester and Helen’s property on Hindmarsh Island to drive five hours towards Beachport where we had booked to stay in an apartment at the Harbourmaster’s cottage on the promenade.

Here I am ready to drive Richard away….

We took the scenic route rather than the motorway so we ended up on a quick (free) trip on a cable ferry at Wellington. We were lucky to get onto one pretty quickly as the guy loading was picking carefully from the queue waiting for access…the fact that we were just a car with no caravan attached helped a lot I think LOL.

En route we stopped at Kingston to check out the Big Lobster before continuing onto Robe for a comfort break and a quick look around.

Afterwards we carried on until we reached the property in Beachport. We parked in our allocated spot and got ourselves checked in – very nice indeed! Beautifully furnished with fantastic views too…. Sadly was a bit too windy / chilly to take advantage of the outside deck. Some hardy Australians were walking the prom despite the chill factor but it wouldn’t have suited us to be quite so ‘on display’ LOL.

Anyway we checked out all the cooking facilities and then headed to the local general store for some provisions. We unloaded the car and took ourselves off for a scenic drive including our first lighthouse of this element of our trip (Cape Martin). This lighthouse is quite modern compared to many we have visited on our travels through Australia.

Afterwards we retired to our apartment, had dinner, and an evening in front of the TV before bed.

Tuesday morning we were up early as we had to be out by 10 am. We did a few bits of laundry in the washer / drier, cleaned up after ourselves, had a quick breakfast and checked out. Sadly the drying element of the washer was not up to scratch so we ended up moving on with a bag of damp clothing….oh well, never mind….

Our next stop was Mount Gambier where we visited the blue lake which was spectacular! Thought it quite amusing we were only 17kms from Southend at this point LOL.

We also checked out the town / art centre and stopped off for some lunch in a cafe.

Then we continued our scenic drive along the coast to Nelson and visited another lighthouse station at Cape Nelson. Some of the old light keeper’s cottages at many of the light stations are available to rent although obviously they are a bit isolated and you might have snakes as neighbours….

Finally we arrived at Port Fairy where we had booked a historic cottage which was disappointingly finished poorly and, although the bed was lovely (as were the linens) the rest of the place needed a thorough deep clean. I had personally been swayed by the fabulous five star reviews but of course what the reviews don’t tell you is that this property has five cottages in total. The reviews must clearly relate to the newly refurbished ones. And, to my disappointment, they did not even publish my review – although I was polite in my criticism. Shows that this element cannot be trusted on Air BnB as the owners can manipulate what goes public. Rant over…..

Back to the property – cooking facilities were not good – I personally don’t class a rusty standalone electric two hob plate as completely sufficient – although there was a microwave, kettle and toaster – but no oven. I wasn’t going to rustle something up with the two hobs (and the very limited pans available) so decided that, although the place was not in town as anticipated, we would head out for dinner. But first some exploring was needed…we went to see the sea entrance to the Moyne River and the sea was absolutely raging. Afterwards we went to check out the boats on the wharf too…. Then found a local pub which was recommended for its food offerings – and had a spectacular meal! Afterwards we went to the Passage Cliffs to check out the sunset before returning to our cottage, by which time we were absolutely freezing….

Wednesday morning we were up and out early – definitely had no inclination to stay longer – and this time we were heading to Warrnambool as we wanted to see the Maritime Village on Flagstaff Hill.

In the 1850s the original Flagstaff was erected which served as a navigational aid and signal point between ship and shore. It was a vital communication tool relaying important messages to vessels and alerting the townsfolk of shipping activities in the port.

The southwest coast of Victoria was often the first port of call for ships en route to Melbourne and the east coast of Australia from England. Imagine the excitement of passengers and crew at sighting land after 20,000 kms and three harrowing months at sea. Also the devastation of being shipwrecked along the 120 kms of coast from Apollo Bay to Portland – now aptly named the Shipwreck Coast.

We arrived, got parked up, got a concession price on entry (for OAPs) and thoroughly enjoyed a walking tour with one of the volunteers (who was dressed in a period costume). The shipwreck artefacts were stunning along with the stories of those who had survived, and those who had perished, on the ancient wooden schooners which had plied their trade along the coast from England. There are 26 recorded shipwrecks and strandings from 1842 to 1905. In the museum there are relics, cargos and anchors from some of Victoria ‘s most infamous wrecks including the Loch Ard, Schomberg, Newfield, Childre, Antares, La Bella and Falls of Helladale. Obviously wind powered only and this is a treacherous piece of coast – with onshore winds and currents combined with incredible unpredictability.

Was very interesting to hear about how the early settlers lived in this area and to enjoy some of the recreated / restored buildings…. The church was cute and the llamas were an interesting addition to the volunteer crew. And there were two lighthouses, Richard’s favourite LOL.

I particularly enjoyed the scones with cream / jam in the cafe and the sweet shop had some interesting concoctions – my favourite was their chocolate bullets (think hard black liquorice covered in thick milk chocolate). Yummmm…..

We had a lot of time to explore as our next stop was a short distance away – total driving time from A to B today was only 1 hour 30 minutes.

But as we were now officially joining the Great Ocean Road at every brown sign (tourist signs) along the road we turned to see what we could see / find – so visited the Bay of Islands, London Bridge and the Bay of Martyrs….which are inlets along the road. Many of them required us to go off road again too which is fun particularly when it’s only for a short period.

Leaving some of the spectacular scenery behind we continued to Port Campbell where we had a hotel room booked. Unusually for us we were staying in a hotel rather than an apartment and the room was huge. The staff were very friendly and, after checking in, we walked the pier, enjoyed some of the tiny town, checked out the surprisingly nice beach, and then had drinks in the bar before going back to our room for a while. Later on we ate dinner in the hotel restaurant which was great!

Thursday morning we had a wonderful hotel breakfast and then took ourselves off to the nearby heliport where we were going to be enjoying a 30 minute helicopter trip over the Great Ocean Road and the 12 Apostles. We were very excited and did wonder how many people we would have to share our helicopter with….they take up to eight people and need a minimum of three to fly the trip. Anyway, we arrived, had our safety briefing, got kitted up and were then told our helicopter was on its way to pick us up and we climbed into Budgie LOL.

It was only a four seater (including the pilot) and Richard nabbed the front co-pilot seat while I settled into the back. Not too happily I had to relinquish my small rucksack and leave it in the car…so it meant that the car now had all our valuables locked within…why couldn’t my bag take up the free seat?!? Anyway….we took off…and OMG what a view. We do have video footage of the trip which I’ll share another time – can’t right now as have no computer to plug it into – as we only travelled with the iPad / keyboard this trip to minimise hand luggage. But a unique USB reminder that’s for sure.

What a fantastic experience and highly recommended for anyone thinking of coming this way!

After the helicopter excursion we drove back along the Great Ocean Road and visited all the sights we had seen from the air by road – again following brown tourist signs.

We then drove on to Cape Otway but our sat nav lost its signal and started taking us through single rainforest dirt track roads into the clouds. We spotted some logging going on and prayed we would not meet a logging lorry coming the other way LOL. Nowhere to run and Richard didn’t fancy reversing along these roads under pressure. Pretty though in the forest…

We realised what had happened but there wasn’t an obvious way to sort it out – so pushed on until the signal returned – and then re-routed back to the Great Ocean Road. Amazing rural scenery as well as the ocean but, OMG, so very remote and hard to consider living somewhere that is at such significant risk from bush fires….

We did eventually reach the Cape Otway lighthouse which is regarded as the most significant lighthouse in Australia as this would be the first lighthouse that ships would have seen coming from England.

We then continued onto Lorne – by now we are on the best part of the coast road driving around hairpin bends alongside the cliffs…but, Sod’s Law, it is raining so the views are not visible. Pushing on we arrived in Lorne and eventually found our apartment in this particularly drab old-fashioned building…never mind…. We found reception, got the information about the underground car park, checked in and had a look around. The apartment was nice with great views out to sea…and was within walking distance of bars / restaurants etc. Having checked out the cooking facilities we went shopping, returned and unloaded, then walked down to the beach and enjoyed watching the cockatoos digging into the dirt. The beach was busy with lots of people swimming and enjoying themselves – this place had a different vibe, much more of a ‘seaside’ town. We returned to the apartment, did a bit of unpacking, then went out to the Lorne Hotel across the way for drinks on their rooftop bar overlooking the ocean and plagued by cockatoos LOL.

Back to the apartment for dinner and, naughty, naughty, we encouraged the cockatoos to visit our balcony and fed them with some cheese crackers. Love watching these pretty birds despite the earsplitting noise they make. And that was it for the day.

Friday morning we packed up and left. We drove down the road to the Swing Bridge Cafe for breakfast which had been recommended. It reminded us a bit of a Caribbean beach bar and didn’t hold much hope for a good feed – but it was tremendous, fast delivery and very fresh.

After breakfast we headed to Split Rock Lighthouse and had a cup of tea in their cafe before continuing our drive towards Torquay via Anglesea. Notice all the English place names…we had even driven through Southend the other day!

We arrived in Torquay and parked up outside and went in. The hotel room was not ready yet and they would call us when it was….so we asked for the car park instructions in the meantime. We got the car parked up and found a lift to take us back to the main reception. This place is huge and we needed a map to get around LOL. We decided to have some refreshments and settled down by the pool while we waited.

A couple of hours later – and at the allocated check in time – we returned to reception to get an update. We finally got access to our room which was huge although not easy to find! We unloaded the car and then went for a walk along the promenade towards the main strip of bars and restaurants as, surprisingly for a five star Wyndham property, the hotel didn’t have a proper restaurant just a cafe doing basic fare. En route we popped into the Bowls club (or the Bowlo as the locals call it) always a good place to get a reasonably priced meal – and it was absolutely rammed…. So we continued walking until we found a restaurant that could accommodate us. Which was called Bombaras. The food was good and the ambience nice too so glad we found it – despite the 35 minute walk to get here. After dinner we called back into the Bowling club as there was a live band playing. They were called The Truants and Richard reckoned they were called that because they had missed music lessons at school LOL. They were absolutely dreadful…. So we headed back to our hotel where we found we had frozen a bottle of wine in the fridge and so to bed…

So that completes this part of our Great Ocean Road adventure. Come back soon for the next instalment which visits Melbourne. Bye for now Jan

Wednesday morning (19th February) we were up early, packed up the car and left our little cottage behind. We drove towards the ferry terminal and arrived early enough to get the ferry before the one we were scheduled to be sailing on. I went inside to talk to the check in desk and they said we were welcome to join if we wanted to – however, they wouldn’t recommend it, as they had just loaded a lorry full of cows on board. In bad weather it wasn’t unknown for cars to be splattered as the cows reacted to their confinement in a ‘rolling’ truck. Hmmmm….our hire car was already filthy from all the dust on the Kangaroo Island’s unmade roads….didn’t fancy that! So we declined to join and waited it out keeping our place at the start of the queue for the next sailing.

Our next destination was Hindmarsh Island where Lester and Helen had settled since leaving the Gold Coast where we had met them. They had had an Island Packet too and we were (allegedly LOL) the inspiration for them to sell their boat SV Joule, as they had seen how well we had done in the Covid market when Australians were after anything that would let them go walkabout particularly boats and caravans in response to the restrictions. Their move to Hindmarsh – which is an inland river island located in the lower Murray River near the town of Goolwa, South Australia – is very close to where Helen had grown up so the huge move was also partially for family reasons as her mother had had some health concerns over the last few years. We were very excited to see our friends again especially in their new home and eagerly boarded the ferry and took off towards the mainland. We docked on time and drove towards the island and across the bridge. We located and drove down their street but couldn’t spot their house number – suddenly Richard spotted Lester in the road behind us – we had driven right past LOL.

We quickly got our luggage indoors, made ourselves comfortable in the guest bedroom, and then headed down the Murray River on their motorboat Romanza where we had a glass of bubbles and some nibbles. Lovely!

We then returned to their beautiful home for dinner – at which point Helen and I went indoors and the boys disappeared. Helen said they were probably next door so I popped out into the garden and yes, there they were, both sitting in the cockpit of the neighbour’s small Beneteau. Warned them dinner was almost ready and, eventually, they returned so we had a fantastic meal, sat and watched some TV, and then to bed. Had been a lovely day.

Thursday morning we headed to the Goolwa Barrage – this is a 10 minute drive from the town of Goolwa around 80 kms south of Adelaide. It separates the fresh water flowing down the Murray river from the salt water of the Coorong. It is the last of a series of locks and barrages that control the flow of the Murray River along its entire length. They were originally intended to make the river more navigable for the elegant paddle steamers that once plied these waters carrying essential goods. A row of statuesque Norfolk Pines lines the roadway to the barrage and as we reach the barrage we are greeted by a variety of wildlife around the first section which leads out into the river. There were great cormorants, NZ fur seals basking and fishing in the muddy water before resting up on the barrage itself for a rest (don’t know how they get into the positions they ferociously defend) and a view of my personal favourite the Australian Pelican. So much more beautiful than the brown pelicans we are used to seeing in the Caribbean. This largely white bird with black wings just seems bigger and more majestic somehow…..

We then moved on with a drive into the Barossa Valley. We stopped for coffee in Balhannah (in the Adelaide Hills) along the way and then headed towards Gumeracha where we saw the Big Rocking Horse….not sure why the Australians have to have “big” things everywhere but as they then become tourist attractions over time can see the long-term benefit!

Then onwards to Tanunda where we had a lovely lunch in the Bakery. We also stopped at the Whispering Wall in Williams Town – amazing feat of engineering building a curved dam wall that, when you speak to each other from either end, it sounds like the person is standing next to you! Had lots of fun with that….

We then went to a couple of wineries – the first one being a very commercial Penfolds and finishing up at Rockford – smaller with old fashioned methodology. We enjoyed the cellar door tastings and, having purchased a few bottles here and there, we headed back to Hindmarsh for dinner. Lovely day!

On Friday first thing Richard tried his hand at radio controlled sailing. This is something that Lester has newly introduced to the island and there is now quite a gang of them who race regularly! I declined as I really have no hand to eye coordination LOL.

Peter and Carol came over and we went up the river on Romanza to Clayton Bay for lunch at Pier 28. A jolly time it was too…. Always nice to make new friends. Everyone had a go at driving the boat and trying out Lester’s silly captain’s hat LOL.

On return to the house we chilled for the rest of the afternoon before getting ready to head out to Goolwa for the evening where we were going to a quiz night which was a fundraiser for the community shed that Lester attends. The team consisted of us, Lester & Helen, Peter & Carol, Frances & Geoffrey and George & Di. Lots of Australian specific questions so we were rubbish at them and because the team was so large the lady scribing often chose an alternative suggestion to our preferred answer….as a consequence we came third overall but, had she chosen some of our responses, we could have improved upon that LOL. Lester was also somewhat distracted by the yacht racing going on in the bay – a weekly event that he usually takes part in on his neighbours Beneteau….

Saturday morning we went into Goolwa and visited the historic Oscar W which is a unique 1908 wood-fired heritage Paddle Steamer. Lester is heavily involved in this vessel being part of the crew and Helen is currently treasurer of the charity so we had a private viewing! This project definitely keeps them busy…. Beautiful old craft which takes paying guests periodically for a cruise along the Lower Murray River.

We then headed off for a trip aboard the Steam Ranger Heritage Railway towards Victor Harbour – was quite excited about the idea of going on a steam train but, unfortunately, the trains were cancelled due to the fire risk – the temperature was above 38 degrees Celsius and there has been no rain for months. So we drove to Victor Harbour instead and dropped Helen off as she had an important opticians appointment. We then drove up to the Bluff for some scenery pictures before returning to get a horse drawn carriage over to Granite Island. We chatted to Albert – the large Clydesdale horse who was shackled up ready to go. The people running this service said this would be the last run over as the heat was too much for the horses…. So we waved Albert off and went to chat to Scottie, who was being lazy, and came with a warning that he bites! Lester chatted to him and he clearly wanted to bite him LOL.

Anyway by now Helen was free again so we went to pick her up and travelled onwards to the McLaren Vale where we visited the D’Arenburg Cube which is Salvador Dali inspired and where many exhibits were signed and certified as originals from the Dali stable. The most expensive statue was only Australian $1.95 mn plus sales tax (10%) plus delivery….. Was interesting looking through all the exhibits – not sure our garden / house or pockets were sufficient to warrant a purchase LOL. Some of the exhibits were just plain weird to be honest.

D’Arenburg is actually a winery so after looking around the exhibits we headed to the top floor for a wine tasting. All the white offerings were a bit sweet for our palate but was a fun experience anyway.

After we finished the tasting we drove back to the mouth of the Murray River which was fascinating. We then had dinner at home before retiring to bed after a long day. The temperature had certainly started to drop when the sun when down.

Sunday we headed to the Warrawonga Wildlife Sanctuary which is owned by Lester’s old school friend David (Cobbold). They had recently reconnected via social media.

We fed kangaroos / emus / checked out the ducks and turtles but sadly saw no platypus. Then it was time for our koala adventure…we all went into the enclosure with two rangers and, it was so cute, one of the smaller ones just reached up for the guy and climbed straight into his arms for a cuddle. Apparently this koala loves anyone dressed in khaki LOL. These koalas really seemed to enjoy the human interaction and we had lots of petting time – usually they give you a side look to say ‘hey, I’m tired, let me sleep’…. These were the friendliest koalas we had ever met and the most rewarding adventure.

Sadly leaving the koalas behind we continued wandering around the park and visited the dingos and, again, were mugged by the kangaroos for food. Richard even had the emus eating out of his hand…. I’m a little nervous around them as they have huge claws and a fast turn of speed…. Then we spotted a couple of little fellows – we think they looked like rock wallabies – some cockatoos, snakes and lazy lizards – called sleepy lizards and some blue tongues. All very strange looking creatures.

Moving on we headed to Hahndorf which is a German artisan village settled in 1839 by Prussian Lutherans seeking religious freedom.

We checked out the cuckoo clocks, the nutcrackers, the scented candles and a variety of other items, especially Xmas decorations. We, however, decided not to buy anything.

We stopped for a snack – I had a pretzel which was pretty good – and then we returned to the house. We had a rest up before getting ready to go out for dinner at the Chiton Rocks Surf Lifesaving Club. We saw an amazing sunset on our departure before heading home to bed.

Monday morning we said our sad farewells to Lester and Helen again – it had been a very special reunion and we were so very grateful to them for their amazing hospitality in their beautiful home and for showing us around the area. They are definitely living the dream!

And so the next chapter of this adventure beckoned….the Great Ocean Road to Melbourne. Very excited about this. Bye for now, come back soon, Jan

Saturday 15 February we were up early in Adelaide, packed up the car, checked out of our apartment and drove down the Fleurieu Peninsula on the way to Cape Jarvis where we were scheduled to be on the midday ferry over to KI. (And this is the most expensive ferry in the world per kilometre!) Beautiful scenery and small towns along the way and, although the brown grass showed the impact of the South Australia drought – if the hills had been verdant and green you could almost think you were in teletubbie land LOL.

Of course, the weather had caught up with us, after the extreme temperatures in Adelaide the previous week it was now chilly with the very occasional short-lived shower of rain.

We got to the ferry terminal and checked in – I had to walk onto the ferry as Richard drove the car and met me onboard later – it was very choppy heading directly into the wind towards Penneshaw, our KI destination port.

In fact the ferry was tipping around so madly that the (empty) swivel seats were enjoying themselves in some sort of synchronised ballet. There were a few excited kids around and they loved it although they were not so keen when the ferry tipped and they couldn’t stand up anymore LOL. Thankfully no one was injured or sea sick although bags were at hand in plentiful numbers just in case…

We arrived in Penneshaw and I walked off the ferry and waited for Richard to pick me up. Richard had been one of the first to drive onto the ferry so he was lucky enough to go forwards and reverse into a tight spot near the stern. Other drivers were not so lucky having to navigate the access to the ferry completely in reverse gear. Upside to that for them was that they were off first at the other end!

Richard drove us the hour or so to our accommodation in Kingscote which is the main settlement on the island. The first thing we noticed was the huge amount of roadkill – mainly kangaroos sadly. We found our holiday cottage easily and let ourselves in…checked out the cooking facilities…and headed into town for some provisioning. This cottage had been built in the owners garden (which was very spacious) and was lovely with sea views from the kitchen window. On the way back from provisioning we enjoyed the Silo Art, visited the pelicans and the cormorants on the waterfront. Back at “home” we felt quite cold so had dinner and movie night in.

Sunday morning we were up early and headed down the island to the Wildlife Park and Raptor Domain. The Wildlife Park had been relocated in December 2024 from the centre of the island near Parndana. We enjoyed ourselves feeding kangaroos and patting the koalas. The kangaroos are different here – more woolly – and very friendly. The funny thing about the koalas’ enclosure was that they had wild ones who had come down in the night and wanted to stay…so they were let into the enclosure and hadn’t tried to leave since… Guess they were attracted by the easy access to fresh eucalyptus leaves each day LOL. The keeper told us which were the wild ones and they were more than wild looking – absolutely livid with us tourists checking them out when all they want to be doing is sleeping! But my favourite this time was the sleeping koala who was cuddling a youngster in her arms and a bigger young one climbed on top, not wanting to miss out. Wondered if this was also one of her joeys. Lots of arms / legs to decipher in this one LOL.

After that we looked at the fairy penguins, which do live on this coast in the wild but are being decimated by the expanding fur seal population. Afterwards we went to the raptor show which was very educational – the avian keepers clearly had a rapport and respect for their charges. I was lucky enough to hold a tawny frogmouth (who is often mis-named as an owl) and Richard held a large South American parrot. We also checked out the meerkats, the dingos, and some other critters.

Moving on we headed in the car to the far west of the island to see Admirals Arch and the Cape de Couedic Lighthouse. We also spotted quite a few fur seals lazing around – completely protected by their precarious perch on the rocks. Boy the sea was raging that day….

Afterwards we headed to see Remarkable Rocks which are perched above the sea in Flinders Chase National Park, the rocks form what appear to be a cluster of precariously balanced granite boulders. This stunning work of nature has been shaped by the erosive forces of wind, sea spray and rain over 500 million years.

By now we were pretty peckish so grabbed a very late lunch at Livonnie General Store and cafe just before they shut the kitchen. Back in Kingscote we were surprised to find a car parked in the parking spot outside the garden gate to our cottage. We realised, however, that the main house was also being let at this time so the car belonged to another guest who had parked close to the main house…. Anyway, no real hostelry nearby that we fancied so we decided to have another night in.

Monday we went out for breakfast in Kingscote before driving to Seal Bay.

On arrival, we enjoyed the boardwalk to the beach lookout.

Leaving this (and the seals) behind we headed to the northern coast and ended up in Rockpool via an unmade road. OMG the poor car was completely covered in dust! And we had been shaken / rattled like crazy. The slower you drove the worse it was, so Richard embraced his natural energy, and took off like a F1 pro LOL. I merely clung to my seat hoping to arrive safely!

After this we went to Emu Bay and had a cold drink in the car watching out over the coastline…. Then to Shoal Bay / North Cape and phew the roads were difficult – driving on sand over limestone rock…completely desolate with some farmland tucked in between. This is what you call isolation! Back to the apartment after a long day of driving we had another quick shop on the way back ‘home’ and another early night beckoned. This time we were a bit practical too as we got all the laundry done and hung up outside to dry. The sun had come out so we even enjoyed a glass of wine in our little cottage garden overlooking the sea….

Tuesday morning we headed to the American River. This is the first area visited by Europeans in 1802 when Matthew Flinders landed to survey this part of the island. In 1803 a group of American sealers camped for four months in the area. They arrived on the brig Union and built their own 35 ton schooner Independence from local timber. The town takes its name from this time. Was interesting to see the restoration work being done on the schooner Independence in the shed on the end of the wharf. The star attraction on the wharf was the solo seal sunbathing….

Oh yes and it was cruise ship day…so swarms of tourists in minibuses descended on the small towns along the way. It was also one of the few places where we saw yachts at anchor.

After this we headed off to see the Cape Willoughby lighthouse – and, with me driving and Richard navigating – once again we had dirt roads to contend with! To be fair you can’t really get around KI if you try to avoid them…. Funnily enough we had been told in the past not to take rental cars ‘off road’ but, although they knew our destination there was no such warning given this time. Felt better about that but did wonder if we would have been better off in a SUV?!? By the way, going back in time, can’t imagine being posted as the light keeper to one of these very remote places…

In December 2019/January 2020 KI was hit by lightning which ignited devastating bushfires. Fires burned 211,474 hectares of land, almost half of the island. It is unknown how many of the island’s wild animals perished, although the koala population plummeted from approximately 48,000 to 8,500 as a result, alongside 32,000 head of stock and domestic animals that also died. The widespread fires damaged / destroyed homes, businesses, grazing land, forests, crops, machinery, and infrastructure, and two people tragically lost their lives. Very sad but the island has recovered amazingly well considering.

In the afternoon we had booked on a boat trip to go out and see dolphins and seals…so headed to Christmas Cove to meet the boat. The boat was late docking and all these wet, cold and exhausted tourists disembarked. They had been swimming with the dolphins and seals….brrrrr….not for me thanks in the Southern Ocean which is Great White shark territory!!! Think they may have been cruise ship passengers…

We had an enjoyable slow cruise out looking at the limestone cliffs which showed many a story of the evolution of the place…with unusual formations which the skipper was quite excited about….but we had seen very similar in Tasmania so weren’t that impressed. We met a young French traveller – female and solo – who was driving around in a truck which had a tent on the roof for accommodation. I thought she was incredibly brave but she said that lots of French people do this and she keeps bumping into them at different places – but everyone has a different schedule so she always knew this would be largely a solo adventure. Guess camping is in her bones as she manages a campsite in France for a living LOL.

We were lucky enough to see both dolphins and seals as promised by the captain. Guess they pretty much stay in the same place…. On the way back the crew let the massive 1200 HP outboard engines rip and we drove around erratically at great speed to the delight of all the guests on board.

Anyway, quite chilly after the boat trip, we headed back towards Kingscote and popped into a new local hostelry called the Pick & Shovel Pub. All very trendy and tiny! Not particularly comfortable we drank up and moved back to our apartment to bring in our laundry, have dinner and curl up in the warm.

I got on with the blog and Richard watched his favourite programmes…. Anyway, this was our last night on Kangaroo Island as Wednesday we were booked on the 1.30 pm ferry to return to the mainland….

So bye for now and come back soon for another part of our adventure.

Jan

First thing (Monday 10 February) we got up, organised ourselves, and drove off to return the car to the hire company. Mission accomplished we then utilised the courtesy bus to take us to the airport in preparation for our flight to Adelaide. This boarded quickly and we took off…. Again Virgin Australia so nothing offered other than tea, coffee and water complimentary – I’d prepared this time by purchasing cheese and biscuits and some soft drinks…. About an hour before we landed we had a glass of wine and enjoyed the rest of the short flight (3 1/2 hours)….

On arrival we got an uber to our apartment and settled in. Nice place and quite spacious…. I finished the blog whilst Richard popped out for some provisions at the local shops. This serviced apartment’s only disappointment was the balcony – a bit grubby from street dust and not really fit for purpose especially as it housed a large air conditioning unit pumping out some very undesired additional heat! Oh yes and $4 a small bottle of water in the fridge which we thought was a bit swingeing….most places give you complimentary water these days. Anyway, blog published and Richard returned with the goodies. We then got ready to go out and found a local restaurant which served the most amazingly flavoured foods….on sharing plates. Fabulous!

Tuesday morning we headed out into a very hot day – phew! – and visited the Central Market via the tram (which was incredibly reasonably priced at only £1.27 for a full day’s travel). The Market was very interesting with pretty much any type of fresh produce you could possible want to buy and lots of food offerings and certainly didn’t expect such a comprehensive cheese offering. And all in air conditioned comfort….

We then navigated our way to the historic area and visited the Migration Museum and the Library. This area is so familiar it could almost be in the UK. Historic buildings and churches – only unlike the UK this area was very clean and tidy….

The Migration Museum was interesting and followed the story of families from around the world who had decided (and were indeed encouraged) to make Australia their home (not forgetting the £10 Poms) and the ‘Whites Only’ immigration policy which can be traced back to the 1850s with the last vestiges of this discriminatory policy not finally removed until 1973. You also need to know about the shocking adoption of Aboriginal and Torres Strait children who were forcibly removed to be placed with white families. These children are classed as the ‘lost generation’ as they had no opportunity to learn about their own culture. It is estimated that one in three indigenous children were removed between 1910 and the 1970s which is really not that long ago, which makes it even more heinous. But we must acknowledge that child trafficking also went the other way – with 130,000 UK children from “deprived” backgrounds sent to the Colonies for a better life. This was mainly to Australia and Canada with many of them separated from their siblings: the children were often falsely informed that they were orphans (many of them being removed directly after birth from single teenage mothers who were shamed into compliance): and many of whom were subject to physical and/or sexual abuse. What a cruel world we live in!

After this we googled to find a rooftop bar – thinking we could escape from the oppressive heat – so headed off on foot towards the nearest one. We found the entrance – stepping over a few homeless people along the way which is obviously an issue in Adelaide – and made our way up to the rooftop. Well it was a rooftop bar but it was only four flights up LOL! Not exactly what we had in mind….but it had nice cold vapour lines of mist chilling the seating area. We had a couple of drinks before returning to the area where our apartment was located and tried out a few hostelries on the way. We met a local nutter who decided Richard was his best friend as his accent reminded him of Ricky Gervais and I got hugs too but he thought I was Ricky Gervais’ mother! He was off his head so I tried hard not to be too offended LOL.

We did find a local bar we liked but afterwards headed back to relax in our apartment’s air conditioning as the heat of the city had sapped our energies. We then had a chat with Lester and Helen (who we were going to visit shortly after) before heading out for a fantastic dinner at the local Japanese restaurant (strangely named Call Me Curry & Izakaya). Our location in the city was a bit grungy in places but perfectly positioned in terms of eateries and hostelries….

On Wednesday morning we were hit by a heatwave – 43 degrees – phew! The highest daily temperature since 2017 and made Adelaide the hottest capital in the world that day. It felt like walking into a pizza oven, so intense, and very draining, So we headed off to the casino to have a look around – huge place where I managed to spend (lose) $20 on the slots (pokies)…. Oh well never mind – and then down to the riverside to check out where we would be picking up our river boat trip later in the week. It was so hot even the ducks were seeking out the shade!

Then we headed on the tram to Glenelg (end of the line) which the locals call affectionally ‘The Bay’ which was very nice and – aided a bit by the sea breeze – we walked the promenade to the local marina, had a lovely seafood lunch, then back to the main drag where we found a hostelry to keep cool in. Later in the afternoon we headed back to the marina, found a tapas bar to have an early supper, and at 7pm we boarded a large commercial catamaran which was taking us on a sunset and dolphin watching cruise. The crew were nice, the other guests were also pleasant, and we were lucky to get seated at the stern of the vessel so in the shade. Most people were in full sun on the bow / transom etc. We enjoyed both the cruise, the dolphin sightings, and the sunset at sea before the boat turned around and we headed back into the marina. We then retraced our steps to the tram and caught one back to the city (about 45 minutes journey). Back in our apartment we had an early night having enjoyed our day out despite the heat.

Thursday morning we had a leisurely start and met Lester & Helen on the street as they picked us up. Thankfully the weather had cooled down a bit – phew! First stop was the South Australian Royal Yacht Club before having a quick glance at the Clipper City of Adelaide, a massive renovation of an 1864 clipper ship which was built in Sunderland to transport passengers and goods between Britain and Australia.

We then went to check out the docks before driving towards the beach and the coast – ending at Semophore where we enjoyed checking out the jetty and making new acquaintance with a couple of Brits who were visiting on holiday but who now reside in Spain. We also checked out a huge pelican who was bothering a fisherman for snacks LOL.

After a nice pub lunch on the seafront we headed inland towards Mount Lofty to admire the city views. En route we came across a koala walking down the road. Lester stopped the car in a hurry – giving me a bit of a fright when I realised that I was teetering just above a sheer cliff drop! The koala spotted us and went into the bush becoming camera shy and would only give us a view of his/her bottom LOL.

At the top of the Mountain we couldn’t see much of the view as it was shrouded in mist…oh well, never mind. On the way back we stopped off at a residential cul-de-sac to see the huge tree growing in the middle of the road…. Why would anyone plant that there?!?

Back at the apartment we said farewell to Lester and Helen and had a quiet night in….

Friday morning we headed down to the River Torrens to pick up our Popeye boat trip down the river.

We enjoyed the ride and the commentary until we eventually ended up at the botanical gardens and the zoo – we had already decided not to visit the zoo. But we wanted to see the Chiculy glass installations in the botanical gardens so walked through hoping to catch a glimpse. Those that we saw were stunning – we had tried and failed to get tickets to see this installation during the evening as they are lit up – and, because of the severe weather the botanical garden had been closed because of fire risk. Anyway we did manage to catch a few – absolutely stunning!

Moving on we walked through Rundle Market enjoying some of the street art and we went into the Opal Store where Richard purchased a lovely opal pendant for me to match my Opal ring – Happy Valentine’s Day! Lovely surprise….

On the way back to the apartment we popped down to our hire car company who, for a change, had a city location. We were picking up our car at 5pm so wanted to check all was OK – and glad we did as the car they had allocated was too way too small – so Richard asked if he could have another Mazda X30 as we had both enjoyed driving that last time. Deal done we returned to the apartment and got on with the laundry as we were leaving the following day. At 4.50 pm we went back out and picked up the newly-allocated car and drove off – we had instructions how to get into the apartment block’s underground car park but the one-way system foiled both us and the sat nav. Pleased to report that this time the car – being a slightly older / lesser specification – had USB ports so we were able to run the google maps onto the dummy screen. Anyway, the one way system and the end of work traffic, caused us a nightmare and it took us almost an hour to get back to where we had started which was only a five minute walk away! To enter the car park was very very tight and I was glad Richard was driving. We managed to find a spot inside but, again, it was all very tight! Almost made you want to hold your breath as we navigated around….

Back in the apartment we got ready for the evening – first stop was to a Japanese noodle restaurant which was busy and looked nice. But the menu was incomprehensible to those not in the know so we left and headed down to the local pub where we listened to some live music, ate pizza, and watched the locals having fun. A very mixed collection of punters but at the ‘rough’ end of the spectrum – think some of them had spent the day watching the LIVGolf tournament and had kept hydrated accordingly LOL.

Having finished our food we moved on and walked to the Sky Tower – where we headed to the nine floor for their rooftop bar and sunset drinks – and met the more up-market type of clientele LOL. After drinks and the sun had gone down we headed down to the ground floor and I played on the slots again in the casino and won $50! Woo hoo!

Afterwards we just turned in for the night and that brings this part of our adventure to an end. Please come back soon for the next instalment. Bye for now.

Jan

Wednesday 5 February we were up early, packed up, in readiness to pick up our hire car. We had to be ready early as the water in our Perth apartment was going to be turned off at 9 am. We had received advance notice of this so made sure all our laundry was done and we had spare kettles / jugs of water for washing up etc prior to departure.

At 10.20 am we left the apartment by Uber to the airport. We found the Ace hire cars’ office easily enough and went in – a bit early as the car was booked from 12 noon. To our delight it was ready – a Mazda CX30 this time and a bit smaller than before thankfully….

Richard drove towards Margaret River and the first thing we realised was that there was incompatibility between the brand new car (only had 500kms on the clock) and our old iPhones, so not able to use the Apple / Google combination for navigation on the dummy screen. Oh well, never mind, we’ll manage using the phone on its own. Then we realised that there was no USB plug – only C type – so again our old phone could not be charged. But, against every eventually, I’d packed a power pack into our luggage just in case. Could you guess I used to be a Girl Guide LOL.

About 1pm we were feeling peckish and came off the main road to a small town cafe where we had a fabulous lunch before continuing to Margaret River. We were told we ‘had arrived’ on the phone but couldn’t physically see the building…. So we drove around again and looked harder – eventually we sussed it out – drove in and checked in. The name of the apartments was actually hidden by the extensive foliage outside. These serviced apartments had a 24 hour reception on duty to help us – although on check in day the woman was not particularly welcoming. We picked up the keys and drove down to the allocated car parking area – let ourselves in – and were wowed by the size of the place. Absolutely huge, especially compared to Perth.

After resting up for a while – and a little unpacking – we headed up the Main Street towards the Settlers Tavern where we enjoyed a nice bottle of wine and dinner. Richard enjoyed his (fish and chips) but mine was just too fatty (beef brisket sandwich)! My bad choice I guess…

Back to the apartment we enjoyed a pontoonie although Richard was complaining of the cold – the air conditioning wasn’t that fierce and I was enjoying it…but hey ho!

Thursday morning we popped into the information centre in town and booked a full-day wine tour for Friday. We had a basic breakfast in the cafe and then shopped in IGA for some provisions. We also found out that Busselton (where we wanted to visit the pier / underwater observatory) had a swim meet on the Saturday and a cruise ship was scheduled for the Sunday. Desperate to avoid both of these busy events we were able to book our tram tickets online for 1pm departure.

We arrived early and managed to find a four hour free parking slot – very happy at that! We headed into the Brewery on the promenade for ice creams (I know a bit bizarre) before heading over to the jetty office to sort out our physical tram tickets.

We thoroughly enjoyed our tram ride up and down the second longest leisure pier in the world (at 1.8 kms) – with our local one in Southend-on-Sea being the longest at 2.14 kms. So that means we have been on the longest leisure pier in the northern hemisphere and the longest leisure pier in the southern hemisphere. Not many people can say that LOL.

The observatory at the end of the pier was interesting despite the throngs of tourists trying to check out the windows for sharks LOL.

Afterwards Richard decided he quite fancied the look of the dirt roads and we took off chucking up red dust and sand around us. OMG the car rattled like it was being shaken and was so uncomfortable – not sure the rental company would be too happy about that! Eventually we ended up at Cape Naturaliste lighthouse and a lookout which wasn’t that good to be fair. Moving on we headed to the surfing lookouts at the end of the Margaret River and enjoyed watching the surfers in action – it was absolutely wild out there! We met a guy with a small parrot on a lead – he’d rescued it after it fell from its nest – and it was very protective, clearly having imprinted on him as a parent. Not wanting to get bitten we moved to the lower side of the wall where we were not perceived as a threat…. Afterwards we returned to our apartments and stayed in to enjoy a home-cooked dinner.

Friday morning we were picked up at 9.10 am for our wine tour – the small minibus was filled exclusively with British tourists so it was quite fun to hear what they were up to. The driver / tour guide was very knowledgeable about wine and the history of the area so we were delighted by our tour selection. Have to say we found the scenery around the Margaret River area absolutely stunning…

The first winery was Leeuwin Estate which is a pretty fancy corporate place famous for hosting big name concerts back in the day. Now it is concentrating mainly on the wedding market and even has a helicopter pad available for that special day! Nice tastings and I particularly enjoyed both the Sauvignon Blanc (Art Series) and the Prelude Vineyards Chardonnay. Now I’m not a Chardonnay fan – disliking the intensity of the flavour from the oak barrels – but this won me over. Fabulous! And we were also won over by the friendly kookaburra sitting on the small wall in the manicured gardens.

This was followed by a visit to Brown Hill which was like comparing chalk and cheese. A family-run winery operating out of one big shed where we had the tasting. The women talking us through all the options was incredibly informative, had a sense of humour and we enjoyed patting her collie dog LOL. This winery does not sell outside of the immediate area and is not to be found in bottle shops….so decided to take the rare opportunity to purchase a bottle for later.

Then it was onto Xanadu which is also very large and very corporate. Again a good tasting but the formality meant it wasn’t quite as enjoyable…. We then headed into their on-site restaurant and had a fabulous lunch (with the most amazing potatoes ever!) which had been pre-arranged through our driver.

After lunch (which came with complimentary wine of course LOL) we headed to McHenry Hohnen. Another small family-run brewery which we enjoyed very much – especially the cheese plate that came with it. My favourite this time was the very pale rose….

Then it was time for chocolate! So we headed to Temper Temper artisan chocolatiers which is based in Cowaramup a delightful village based mid way between the surf and the vines…. We had a tasting – of course LOL – and came away with a few pieces for later.

And so this was the end of the gourmet wine tour and we said our farewells to the gang and returned to Margaret River. We got dropped off at the top end of the high street and had a beer in the local bar…followed by a wine bar further down the road – but was driven out by the live singer who was doing some original dirge…all about saving the planet…. We then visited the Tavern for the last time…before returning back to our apartment for an early night. Had been a pretty full-on day!

Saturday morning we drove to Leeuwen Lighthouse and enjoyed the historical nature of the place with its renovated buildings, films and maps and charts….what a terrible coast this is! Can see why there were so many wrecks back in the day before proper charts became available. And the mixing of the two oceans….

This is also the place for a beautiful memorial to those navy sailors who had served and since perished….

Driving on we headed to Augusta and enjoyed views along the coast before settling into the local hotel for a basic lunch (tiger prawn salad) and watched the Australian Royal Navy band setting up for an afternoon concert. We later found out this was a memorial concert in relation to a Navy disaster when 12 people were swept off a Royal Australian Navy vessel called Nizam by a freak wave and who were not recovered….. Sadly we were on a mission to see other things otherwise I would have quite liked to have stopped to listen for a while…

We then headed to Hamelin Bay where we walked the beach and checked out the sting rays that frequent the shallows…. Was lovely!

Afterwards we headed back to our accommodation and picked up a curry takeout along the way for another quiet night in.

Sunday we were up early and drove to Perth (3+ hours) – we had hoped to go via Fremantle and see the Sunday markets but on arrival we could not find a parking space anywhere! Absolutely manic…. So after driving around for quite a while we decided to leave it behind and head back to Perth – and check out King’s Park once again. This time we wanted to explore the war memorial in more depth and enjoyed an ice cream as well.

See there were a few McCarthy’s listed but none for my maiden name….so from convict stock or settlers….that will be the question!?!

Moving on we headed to our accommodation for the night – a B&B near the airport. We drove to the address given to us by Booking.com and was told to wait when we rang the bell. Then this guy came from next door to say we were staying there and he let us into our allocated room. It was absolutely huge with a fab en-suite bathroom. Once the guy had left I checked out the rest of the property while Richard emptied the car…. There was a communal kitchen, patio, lounge etc. And was obviously newly renovated. Very different to anywhere we had stayed before…but…who cares it is only for one night!

We went out and walked to the local pub – called Around the Corner – and it was a bit sketchy in places. But, never mind, we had a lovely dinner and good drinks all at very reasonable prices. Later on we walked back and had an early night. The bed was comfortable with quality linen and thoroughly enjoyed….

So that bring’s this part of our Australian adventure to a close.
Check back soon for some more.

Bye for now Jan

Friday 31 January we were up very early, checked out, and got a cab across to the domestic terminal at Brisbane airport. It wasn’t too far away and seemed odd that it cost less for a taxi than it would for both of us to go on the hotel’s shuttle bus…. Check in / security clearance for the domestic flight was easy so we quickly headed to the food court for some breakfast.

The flight was on time (9am) and we were delighted that our Apple Air Tags confirmed our bags had been loaded on board. We took off and settled down to read some books – this flight was not too long (five and a half hours) or a full service one. So no seat-back screens to while away the time on movies etc. But we didn’t mind….coffee / tea and water were served free of charge…but everything else was at a cost. We changed our watches to the Perth timezone and, about an hour before landing, we had a glass of wine and some cheese and biscuits. Very nice.

Once we had landed security was easy again although there was a long terminal walk with our bags to find the uber that we had ordered. We drove away from the airport and arrived at the road where our apartment was located around 1pm. But the road was sealed off with roadworks going on….never mind….the uber driver was great and he went around again so that we could enter. We were dropped off quickly and made our way up the 12 steep steps to the front of the apartment block – one of the workmen who was digging up the road helped me with my luggage LOL. We sat on some benches and reviewed the access information – well it was a lock box on the wall with security boxes inside…so followed the instructions and, voila, I had the keys and security fob. So we quickly went upstairs to have a look around. The apartment seemed dark on arrival and very small compared to the beautifully-shot promotional photos. Never mind, it had everything we could possibly need…. And we had been naughty accessing it earlier than the official check in time of 3 pm LOL.

After we had got ourselves familiarised and semi-organised we headed out down to the Elizabeth Wharf area so we could check out where we were going in the morning as we had a return ferry ticket to Rottnest Island booked. Mission accomplished – by now we were getting pretty hot – so headed to the Hilton Hotel bar on the roof for some views over the Swan River.

We enjoyed that very much before heading back up the hill towards our apartment having found a recommended Thai restaurant en route called the Long Chim which was located in the basement of the historical State Buildings.

We didn’t have a reservation so we had to sit in the bar area rather than the restaurant itself but that didn’t matter as we weren’t exactly dressed to the nines either LOL. Had a lovely meal but mine was so heavily laced with fresh chilli that, despite doing my best to avoid eating them all, upset my stomach. We didn’t find anything on the wine list that inspired so we decided just to have water as we ate our main course. Was absolutely delicious and great service / fresh food. So we headed back to our apartment for an early night.

Saturday morning we were up early and walked down to Elizabeth Quay, found pontoon 3 and swapped our online tickets for real physical ones. We headed into the nearby cafe for a drink and we waited forever for my sparkling water to come along…. Finally it was time to board the ferry and we managed to get seats on the top deck – we had lathered up heavily with our factor 50+ suntan lotion in advance – and met a lady who worked for one of the mining companies (they are huge here in Australia) who was in Perth for a conference with some colleagues. She was a bit standoffish to start with but warmed up and we enjoyed chatting to her during the journey.

We admired the scenery as we headed out to sea and, finally, arrived at Rottnest Island. We didn’t have a tour booked nor did we have bicycles booked either (the main form of transport on the island). For those that know me well, will also know that I’m not actually able to ride a pushbike as I have no sense of balance. Probably the reason why I was never sea sick on the boat….

Anyway – we were hungry – so headed towards the first eatery we came across to be told that the kitchen was closed and they were not serving. The next place – a nice looking hotel – had the same response although was definitely a bit friendlier and helpful. So we wandered off on her recommendation and stopped off – Richard enjoyed his pancakes and I had the healthy fruit and yoghurt option. Very nice it was too….

Afterwards we headed up to the Main Street with the intention of going on the hop on-hop off bus. Two single deckers were circling the island on an hourly basis. Thought it might be a bit more regular than that…. And the queues were horrendous for both purchasing tickets and to get on the actual bus. We got lucky in the queue as a quokka decided to come by and say hi. After that bit of excitement we got on the next bus and, by this time, we were lucky to be one of the first ones boarding so got a seat. Only a single decker but they were being counted on by one of the guides so all the standing room was taken up too.

Of course the minute we got off the bus – at a lookout place – we lost our seating privilege and, for the rest of the day, we had to stand up on buses as they circled the island and we got on and off. Pretty tiring to say the least. Final stop was a beach which we enjoyed just sitting in the shade looking out at the boats anchored off…. People were bobbing and swimming but, despite having our swimmers in the bag, weren’t convinced this was a safe activity as they have big dangerous sharks here LOL. Throughly enjoyed the wild and spectacular coastline of this island – and check out the mares tails in the sky warning of strong wind. At least it kept the temperature down a bit (was 30+ degrees centigrade)…

Finally we arrived back from where we had started and went to the hotel for a drink. There was a DJ entertaining the crowd and we enjoyed listening to his tunes and watching the quokkas wandering around trying to get fed by the tourists. Of course we didn’t feed them but many people were….. You are not supposed to touch them either but of course people were…. They might look cute but actually they can be quite aggressive and despite their reputation we never saw one smile either LOL.

We found a bar closer to the main wharf and headed there for a final beer…. Anyway, time to go, and down the wharf we went to board our boat. The wind had really picked up 25 knots + so we knew it was going to be lumpy on the way back – so we elected to sit in the air conditioning downstairs this time LOL. We also enjoyed a few beers as we were sitting pretty much next to the guy serving….

Off the ferry and we headed into the pub called the Lucky Shag and sat outside on their waterfront terrace. Anyway, we enjoyed some more music, chatted to some Americans who lived nearby and we reckon they were spooks from Pine Gap as they were very secretive about their work…. Anyway, we had the taste for it by now, so swapped to wine and, eventually, wobbled up the hill towards our apartment. Had been a fantastic day!

Sunday, we had planned to go to Fremantle Markets on public transport. But having done two 15k step days consecutively, Richard decided I needed a bit of a break! I wasn’t arguing with that…the heat just completely zaps everything…so I focussed on doing some laundry and getting a blog done and published. Later on – mid afternoon – we headed out again towards the harbour looking for somewhere to eat but, this is Perth, and most eateries shut their kitchens during the afternoon (around 3pm) and reopen them again around 5.30 pm for dinner. So out of luck unless we wanted fast food (which we didn’t) and so we walked a huge circuitous route anyway, clocking up 10k steps. Oh well, so much for giving my legs a breather LOL. Having failed miserably to get fed we decided to go shopping and picked up some provisions for cooking / eating dinner in our apartment. So in the end we had a quiet night in enjoying some home cooked grub.

Monday morning we were up a bit later as we were going out at lunchtime on an organised tour. This was into the Pinnacles Desert to see the sunset, have a BBQ dinner, and star gaze through a large reflecting telescope that had been set up by the guides. Anyway, we were picked up right on time and met the rest of the small group. They were mainly Asian – Korean, Japanese and Chinese. Plus the odd Brit, Australian and German thrown into the mix. The driver was pretty entertaining but, as we were at the back of the bus, we couldn’t always hear him too well as his microphone had failed!

The first stop of the day – about an hour and a half later – was to a bakery, ice creamery and toilets in a small town called Lancelin. Pretty remote to say the least! At this stage we met up with another minibus doing the same excursion from the same company and we travelled in company after this. Anyway, the next stop was to the sand dunes to go sand boarding….and our guide asked us if we actually wanted to do this. Think we may have been age profiled LOL. We confirmed that we weren’t bothered…having done it before….so he offered to drop us off at the Lancelin Sands Hotel where we could enjoy a view over the water / walk up to the lookout / and generally while away some time while all the youngsters got covered in sand! We thanked him and took him up on the kind offer…. So we were dropped off, Richard went for a walk up to the top of the lookout, and I sat down with a glass of wine in hand. And lovely it was too! We enjoyed checking out the langoustine fishing boats who were pulling hard on their moorings behind the reef. Finally Richard returned and he joined me…. By now we should be going so we walked back out to the car park to rejoin our minibus – then the two minibuses returned – and gave everyone a break. So we stayed put and had another!

After about another 10 minutes or so we all took off towards the Pinnacles Desert. On entry into the National Park we stopped at the toilet blocks for a comfort break first and picked up a couple more tourists who were joining just for this part of the trip. We drove into this moonscape – OMG how fascinating – absolutely blown away by it all. We took a few photos before climbing a rock for a good view when the sun went down. I got a bit tired of clinging to the top of a rock so headed back to the minibuses where the drivers were organising dinner…and enjoyed the sunset from ground level.

Richard returned and we had cheese and biscuits – wine was on offer – but decided to go for a hot drink as by now the wind had turned very chilly. Of course we had not brought our jackets with us…. So we huddled down together and enjoyed our BBQ sausages and fresh bread / salads before wrapping ourselves up in a blanket to keep warm. By now one of the guides had set up the telescope so encouraged everyone to have a look at the moon – and showed us how to take photos of it too. So here you are….enjoy!

The guide was very knowledgeable and, although it was not a completely dark night and too early in the season for the Milky Way to show itself, we watched as the planets and stars revealed themselves to us. Was lovely. All too soon the show was over and time to return to our apartment, a two hour trip back for the driver. So we were dropped off just after 11.30 pm having thoroughly enjoyed our tourist excursion.

Tuesday morning we went out for breakfast down near the Wharf and then got on the Hop On Hop Off Tourist Bus. We stayed on enjoying the sights of the city as we decided to not get off until we reached King’s Park as we fancied checking it out.

We arrived at the Park but were too slow to organise ourselves getting off at the right stop so stayed on for another couple – and then decided to walk back to the original bus stop through the botanical gardens, admire the views of the city from various lookouts, take in the war memorial etc etc. Of course, like mad dogs and Englishmen, we were out in the midday sun without any water with us. What idiots – you would have thought we would have learnt by now?!? So to start off we decided to hydrate in a cafe we came across near a child’s play area (plus dinosaur of course) before starting our walk. Richard told me it wasn’t far and led by goggle maps off we trotted…. It wasn’t the nice lawned park we had been expecting as it was largely bush and sparse vegetation on red dust paths in places…. Sometimes it was pretty hilly too. It even had a glass bridge into the tree canopy… But worth it for the spectacular views over the city.

Couldn’t believe how many joggers passed us along the way too. Anyway, a while later, and only 11k steps to our name in 39 degrees Celsius heat we arrived at the first car park and found another cafe and had a restorative glass of water to recover. We were both absolutely shattered.

We had made arrangements to meet Richard and Hannah (and their daughters Sophie and Abigail) later in the afternoon at a waterfront East End pub called The Royal. So we decided not to wait for the next bus and got an uber back to our apartment where we enjoyed restorative showers / clean clothes / and a rest up before heading to the pub as previously arranged. Richard and Hannah had both worked with Richard in London before they moved to Australia and had become a couple after relocating here. So was lovely to see them and to catch up on their news…. Oh yes and the pizza was pretty good too LOL. Lovely family and another great reunion!

So that concludes our stay in Perth but not in Western Australia – on Wednesday we checked out of our Perth city centre apartment and collected another hire car to do some more exploring of the area.

So bye for now and come back soon for the next instalment. Jan

Friday morning (24 January) we checked out of our apartment in Caloundra and drove towards West End, Brisbane. Having arrived early we headed into the ice cream shop to have dessert before lunch LOL. Subsequently we met up with Ryan (who Richard used to work with in London). Ryan was working from home that day and, as it was school holidays, he was joined by his two beautiful young daughters who were not going to miss out on the opportunity to have pizza followed by ice cream. The girls were not shy at all and were very assertive – particularly about their view that pineapple was born to be eaten on a pizza LOL – and it was a lot of fun. After lunch we headed down to the mall and ended up in Anita Gelato where the girls were able to choose from a huge variety of flavours.

Sadly it was all too soon to say goodbye so we said our fond farewells and headed back to our car. We then drove towards Riverside Marina on the Brisbane River where Russ and Barb have their boat SV Happy Hour moored. They had already sent a message to let us know that Russ was home earlier than expected from work so we went straight there. We were greeted at the barrier by Russ and Barb (although we went to the wrong one to start with doh!) and then walked down to the boat having conveniently parked the car at the top of their pontoon. We had packed an overnight bag / toiletries etc so left the rest of our luggage in the car – there is no room for hard shelled suitcases on a boat! We had a lovely evening chatting and catching up on their news since we had seen them in London last year. This was the start of a bank holiday weekend in Australia as Sunday was Australia Day – or invasion day according to the First Nations people. Russ did his usual whipping up of a culinary feast of a chicken stir fry – was lovely. Then we headed early to bed….by which time a storm had started so we watched the lightning striking from the comfort of our bunk through the port. Felt quite nostalgic….

Saturday morning we had a leisurely start and Russ cooked us an eggs and bacon breakfast – and delicious it was too. Before we had even got up he and Barb had made fresh sausage rolls and baked a selection of cup cakes. Wow! They have more appliances in their boat galley than I have in my kitchen at home….

We showered ashore and bumped into John Hembrow near the office who used to run the Down Under Rally which we had participated in back in the day – he is working at Rivergate as a dockmaster on weekends / holidays. Was nice to see him although he was a bit stressed by the demands of a superyacht!

We spent the day playing card games – introducing them to Five Crowns (where I wiped the floor with them all) – we then played Sequence where Russ and I teamed up and beat Barb and Richard, followed by our first introduction to Upsies / Downsies which was fun although took a lot of concentration LOL. Throughout the day we were drinking and eating…and laughing very hard. Was great fun before we called it a day and had an early night.

Sunday we headed over to Fort Lytton and joined the first walking tour of the day.

Oh yes and there was a heatwave! Most of the tour was out in the full sun and by the time we finished I looked like I’d just come out of the shower….have never felt so hot and bothered in all my life! Was an interesting tour seeing all the armaments in preparation for an invasion during the Second World War which, of course, never happened so the guns or mines were never fired in anger.

Back to the marina we continued playing games – this time it was Barb & Richard’s turn to beat us in Sequence so we made it the World Series which was the best of three games (totalling nine games including the day before). Oh they revelled in their victory and refused to play any more having secured the crown! So back to Five Crowns and I won one, Russell won one too. So in total I won twice, Richard lost twice, Russell won one and Barb won one. It all got very competitive as the wine and laughter flowed…. Russ cooked us burgers for dinner which was very nice – always surprises me though that Australians put beetroot and pineapple on a burger – but everyone to their own LOL.

Monday was a Bank Holiday so Russ didn’t have to go to work. We had another leisurely start and Russ cooked us pancakes for breakfast. Followed by more sausages rolls, wahoo fish bites and other nibbles / lollies. (Explanation required here – lollies are what the Australians call sweets. Think skittles etc). Thankfully a slightly less hot and humid day so we enjoyed just sitting around chatting, eating and playing games again. But we did have a walk after breakfast around the marina to have a little look around. So not completely lazy!

A competitive afternoon of gaming followed with Upsies / Downsies starting us off which Russ won. Then a hand of Phase 10 which I won. Then Five Crowns again which I won and then Barb won. For dinner we had sausages and mash for dinner. We had another early night as Russ had to leave for work at 4.30 am the following morning. So we said our sad farewells…the time had gone so quickly…and we had had lots of laughter and lots of eating!

Tuesday morning Barb did our breakfast whilst we had our onshore showers. We repacked the car and said our sad farewells. We had enjoyed being back on a boat again even if it was a catamaran LOL. We headed to Margate first – and we had a few hours to kill – so decided to try and get me a haircut as it was getting pretty wild and out of control LOL. Managed with the first saloon of the day so pretty happy whilst Richard took himself off for a coffee. Very reasonably priced too…. Leaving Margate behind we then went to Radcliffe for a spot of lunch and to see the Bee Gees. We sat on the pier for a while watching all the kids jumping in and having fun…

Afterwards we headed to Woody Point to see Tom and Diane (who used to own SV Avalon) but whom have now decided to settle in Australia. We admired their beautifully refurbished apartment and then headed to their rooftop terrace for bubbles overlooking the expanse of water that is Moreton Bay. Also grateful that we were able to use the visitor spot in their gated car parking facility so we didn’t have to worry about leaving our car full of our junk on the street.

After enjoying the bubbles we walked to the pub for dinner which was at least downhill. But my legs were feeling it in the heat and after a nice meal and good evening Tom very kindly offered to get an Uber back which I gratefully accepted. And we were the last punters to leave the pub – which used to happen when we met them on the Down Under Rally! Back at their apartment we had some pontoonies before retiring to bed. Was so lovely to catch up with them.

In the morning we went out for breakfast – Richard drove as Tom and Diane were going to walk back. Leaving them having said our sad farewells we headed to Brighton and Sandgate before returning towards Brisbane and Remmant where we were going to visit with Ed & Yvonne (who used to own SV Steelee). Yvonne laid on a wonderful charcuterie board for nibbles with a glass or two in the garden before we had a lovely lamb dinner on the deck of their amazing Queenslander home. Such a lovely evening….and so to bed.

In the morning Ed cooked us breakfast on the BBQ on the deck and we just sat around chatting.

Before we knew it, it was time to say goodbye again and we drove towards Brisbane Airport – filled up on petrol – then checked into the Pullman Hotel. We looked like the poor relations with our assortment of bags and cases – one of the jobs was to get all our stuff back into cases / hand luggage bags for the morning’s flight to Perth.

Have to say we were completely blown away by everybody’s hospitality whilst we revisited Queensland. Amazing friendships are formed by cruising couples even though most have sold up and moved on since we last saw them – the bonds remain…. Was just so lovely to catch up!

Having checked into our room we then drove to Ace cars where we returned our hire car, retracing our steps back to the hotel utilising the complimentary shuttle bus. We decided to enjoy the afternoon and laid by the pool and had a late lunch – deciding that all this entertainment was pretty bad for the weight – and vowed to do better whilst we were on our own going forward LOL. Later on we returned to the room, repacked and weighed our suitcases and had a quiet night in.

So that concludes this part of our Australian adventure. Come back soon for the next instalment. Bye for now. Jan

Monday 20 January we departed Byron Bay in New South Wales towards Caloundra.

First stop en route was the Boatworks, our home for a lot of our time during Covid and after Richard’s heart attack which amazingly is almost five years ago now!   On arrival we headed into the on-site restaurant The Galley and waited to be seated.   David spotted us, looked confused for a little while, then rushed over to envelop us in bear hugs.   “Richard and Jan you came back!”    We settled down to some breakfast – which was excellent as always – and caught up with David and Cara who genuinely seemed very pleased to see us. Cara said she hadn’t smiled so much for weeks!   How nice is that?!? And of course we forgot to take photos in the moment…..

Tearing ourselves away we headed to the office – Amy was working and came out straight away for a bear hug.  She looked really well.   Danielle was also working but on a break at that moment in time so we headed into the yard to see if we could find Nikki. We were directed to the super yacht yard (which had been transformed with new huge sheds) and much of the old ‘storage’ area was now kitted out with new units / workshops. We asked one of the guys to radio Nikki which he did as two people were looking for her – tracked down and waiting in place – we drove around the corner. She was absolutely delighted to see us and we got more bear hugs. Saying fond farewells to Nikki we headed back to the office and this time found Danielle – wow she looked completely different having lost lots of weight – just younger and more vibrant. So we caught up with her for a little while and then sadly we left the Boatworks behind….

First stop was the mall to pick up some chocolate gifts then onwards to Upper Coomera where we had arranged to visit with Tim and Naoko. Tim was delighted to see us but Naoko looked a bit shocked as Tim had forgotten to tell her so she quickly jumped in the car and headed out shopping herself. Naoko is an excellent host so clearly felt the need to pick up some provisions – all a bit strange as we had reminded Tim that we were coming only the day before!

While Naoko was out we looked at Tim’s ongoing projects and discussed ideas for taking it all forward. He desperately wants to get the big boat launched this year so he can take his fellow veterans out sailing to improve their mental health. Tim suffers from PTSD himself so the projects keep him busy although with his scatter gun approach their fabulous home is surrounded by bits and pieces and resembles a works yard!! Naoko returned and proceeded to lay out a fabulous charcuterie board which we tucked into. She also persuaded me to have a glass of wine as Richard promised he would do the driving….she had even remembered what type I liked and had picked up a couple of bottles specifically. So it seemed rude not to LOL. Here we are with Tim and his dog….

Our visit was over all too soon and it was time to head up the coast towards Caloudra. We arrived around 5pm but found the reception to the building closed. Hmmm….so called the listed number and was talked through instructions of how to get access to the underground car park, the apartment keys etc. Managed all that and we rushed upstairs to have a look. The apartment was huge, quite old fashioned and could do with some upgrades here and there. But a wrap-around balcony looking down towards the sea was very welcome…. Sadly I could not find a washing machine although I was convinced that the description had talked about laundry facilities. Oh well, never mind….

Having made ourselves at home we headed down the road to the promenade and into the Drift Bar.

This had been our favourite watering hole many years previously and we were surprised by how quiet it was – but, hey, it’s a Monday so what did we expect?!? We had a couple of drinks listening to the live music which was a young hippie chick dressed in Mary Quant type fashion. She had a good repertoire but, just like her clothes, was a bit dated LOL. Sadly her voice was a bit weak and didn’t really engage with the room. The Drift Bar appear to position their nightly live music offering as background rather than entertainment.

We had some potato wedges for our tea and were amazed by the sound of the parakeets as they returned to their trees opposite to roost for the night. Quite amazing that such little things can be so very loud. Anyway, had been a busy day, so we headed back to our apartment for an early night.

Tuesday morning we were up early and I did some hand washing and got all that out on the balcony on the airer. After breakfast we headed out to the nearest large supermarket for supplies and picked up some cheap giant prawns – cooked, cleaned and peeled – and later we realised that we had got 35 for the princely sum of £13. Fantastic!

On our way back we had some brunch – just a toastie – and chatted to the receptionist in our building. She showed me the laundry room which was coin operated. Excellent – will use that later on before we depart.

We then headed to the beach – this used to be the main channel between the mainland and Bribie Island – and the tide used to race through, which is where we really enjoyed drifting along in the current. In January 2022 Bribie Island was broken through by the sea in a storm and this has now become the dominant entrance so the Caloundra bar is infilling with sand and closing over and a huge sand bar now blocks the main channel. Which has meant that the sea is shallow, warm, and a bit lagoon like instead. So we joined all the other families and enjoyed bobbing for a while. We were amazed to see people walking and driving across to Bribie too. Amazing changes brought about by nature.

Back to the apartment we had a delicious prawn salad for tea followed by a glass or two on the balcony – where it was so windy the washing had been blown over…. So we ended up back in the Drift Bar for a nightcap and then home for the night.

Wednesday morning we awoke early as we had planned to meet Sandy and Nigel – but sadly, Nigel had gone down with the lurgy so we postponed the trip and hope to see them later in our travels. There was a severe heatwave warning so we decided it was way too hot for the beach and headed into the mountains instead. We thought it would be cooler in the mountains but that was not to be the case. First stop was Montville which was a historic old town and very cute. We stopped at the Poets Cafe for lunch and enjoyed great food and iced smoothies. Richard wanted to walk around to get some photos but, the trek back up the hill to our car in the heat did me in, so he continued on his own and I escaped to the air conditioned comfort. We had already agreed that I was driving from here too….

Leaving Montville behind we headed to Garrad’s lookout for views over the countryside which was absolutely spectacular. So lush and green….

Then we decided to return to Caloundra via the supermarket and back to the apartment. The air conditioning in the apartment was only in the lounge – fans in the bedroom – so we camped in front of the TV for a few hours. Later on as it cooled down for the day we headed back to the Drift Bar for a couple of cold ones before returning to our apartment to finish off the prawns for supper. Afterwards we vegged in front of the TV but sadly the viewing opportunities were a little limited – either the Australian Open tennis in Melbourne or the Trump Inauguration – before turning in for the night.

Thursday was another extreme heat warning day (think 40 degrees centigrade) so I spent some time in the laundry as we were leaving the following day. Having completed all that Richard took me out for brunch where we ended up in the Coffee Club on the seafront – which was new since our last visit here.

Back to the apartment we decided against returning to the beach as it was way too hot so decided to stay put. So I took the opportunity to blog …. Later on we got cleaned up and headed out to the Drift Bar which was still quiet, although there were lots of volley ball players turning up for the long bank holiday weekend’s tournament. Richard had captured the activity setting up this tournament on the beach earlier.

So back to bed having readied ourselves for our morning departure. So come back soon for the next instalment. Bye for now

Jan

 

We packed up our apartment in Terrigal and took off around 9 am on Thursday 16 January. The rain was just starting as we drove out of the secure car park and it quickly became heavy…and then it became biblical…and, as we joined the motorway it was downright dangerous. We couldn’t see the road ahead and we pulled off at the first opportunity to a service station. We sat there for a while but there was no sign of this abating any time soon – but it did start to ease enough for Richard to be confident in driving again. So we headed back onto the motorway and carried on. This was supposed to be a seven hour drive anyway so not exactly the best start to the day. Suddenly the torrential rain started again and this time there was thunder and lightning thrown into the mix – think they call this a supercell storm and we pulled off the road again. We found a local KFC as this would, at least, give us access to toilet facilities. We weren’t happy when an UTE pulled in alongside us and, in her hurry to get out of the rain, the blonde airhead whacked our door with hers…. I needed the loo so quickly got out – checked the door (couldn’t see any obvious damage) – and headed into KFC. OMG it was like Armageddon as I came out and looked across the main road, to see water bubbling up from the storm drains and it was flooding the roads pretty quickly. So we needed to get out of here quickly before becoming stranded! We drove on and, as we pullled away, we could see that flooding was going to be a serious issue for the residential properties very soon.

Relieved to be leaving that behind we were delighted when the weather cleared up a bit and the rain started to ease. We pulled into the next service station to get fuel to find all the pumps cordoned off…we used their facilities anyway and got a couple of wraps for lunch…to find that the station had been hit by lightning and that’s why the pumps were inoperable. It was a pretty big storm if the size of the hailstones were anything to go by as reported by Higgins Storm Chasers,

Luckily for us we still had half a tank we were just using this opportunity to change drivers. So I took over and continued north towards Byron Bay, our next destination. The rain continued on / off all day and we finally arrived at our Air BnB at 7pm. We found the cul-de-sac easily and the apartment – which was actually a loft apartment / granny annex in the bottom of the proprietor’s garden with separate access. We had stopped off at the bottle shop on the way and picked up some provisions at the grocery store too so had an early night after a long and quite challenging nine hour road trip.

Friday morning we decided to explore and headed first to the lighthouse. We were lucky to get parked about two thirds of the way up the hill and walked the rest. The forecast was for dangerous surf in the region and boy was the area getting pounded…. Was really hot so we stopped at the cafe for a cold recuperative drink before moving on.

Next stop was Ballina – this has an inlet which is notorious in big swells – so we wanted to walk the sea walls and have a look. OMG the sea was raging and this would not be a day to either enter or leave this area for sure – absolutely treacherous. We bumped into some locals who knew someone in London and did we know them?? It’s amazing how many times we get asked this type of question LOL. No concept of how heavily populated the UK is.

After Ballina we headed to the hinterland and enjoyed a walk around Bangalow – quite a historic old town. Very charming and we enjoyed checking it out.

Afterwards we headed towards Mullumbimby for the Crystal Castle and Shambhala Gardens This is like a theme park for crystal lovers and it is home to the largest natural crystals where we did actually sit in an ancient amethyst cave.

We wandered the tranquil gardens too, including a Kalachakra Stupa (sacred monument to Tibetan Buddhists to represent universal divinity). This is unique in the Southern Hemisphere and only the seventh in the world. We span the beautiful brass prayer wheels and walked around the stupa to lend wings to prayers of peace. Felt quite serene.

Check out some of the huge natural crystals which are allegedly the biggest and most beautiful crystals in the world.

We also visited the Peace Dome and joined in on a healing meditation session where we listened to Crystal Singing Bowls being played which was fascinating. All very zen LOL.

Moving on we returned to Byron Bay and visited the historic Northern pub – which was very very noisy and the live music wasn’t to our taste. We then found Woolworths to pick up some more supplies before going to the Tree House for dinner followed by a short walk along the beach before returning back to our loft.

Saturday we headed to the town of Mullumbimby and found it was market day. So we parked up and wandered through checking out the ‘magic people’ along the way. So this was full of hippies – young and old alike – and we were even offered blue methylated spirits by a couple of people LOL. In the middle of the stalls there were two guys playing live music so we grabbed a coffee and sat down to watch them.

Sadly very quickly the rains returned and we headed back to the car. Such a shame…. This didn’t stop us though as next stop was Scarabelot’s lookout where we watched the clouds scuttling across the sky.

Having left the countryside behind we headed back to Byron Bay and wandered around the main drag Jonson Street. Not a lot going on – lots of tourists like us – but didn’t quite have the hippy vibe that we had been expecting. Oh well, guess places change over time. We walked to the Beach House Hotel on the promenade and enjoyed a drink with snacks and live music. Afterwards we went to main beach to have a look but found it very busy. Of course the rain returned again so we headed back to our loft and had a quiet night in doing the laundry!

Sunday morning we awoke to a kookaburra singing away on our fence outside the door. Love these birds! We had decided that this was going to be “a sitting overlooking the beach” kind of day but, of course, the minute we got parked and found a bench to sit on the rain started again. What a shame!

So back to the apartment we go…. I decided to use the unexpected free time to write the Terrigal blog. In the evening we returned to the Tree House for dinner – good food and a great happening place, very popular with locals, tourists and backpackers alike. Was a good evening – Richard was very good and let me have a glass of wine whilst he was the designated driver. Arriving back we had some wine in front of the TV before climbing the stairs to bed. Had been a good last night in Byron Bay, just a shame that the weather didn’t play ball for our time there.

In the morning we were moving on again – returning to Queensland after a two and a half year absence – to Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast. Bye for now and come back soon for the next part of our Australian adventure.

Jan

Thursday 9 January we were up early, packed, had breakfast, paid our bill and drove to Terrigal on the Central Coast away from the beautiful Blue Mountains. It was still drizzly but not too bad. We deliberately drove via the mountain roads rather than via Sydney and I drove most of the way this time but felt nervous about close quarters and parking the beast so handed over the reins to Richard just before we arrived in Terrigal.

I enjoyed driving this vehicle but found the wing mirrors a bit too large as they impeded visibility at times….we arrived just after 2pm, just in time to check into our Air BnB apartment. We found the key box, located the secure car park entrance we needed to find our allocated space inside the multi-storey apartment block, parked up, located the correct lift block and headed to our apartment. This was lovely! Very modern, fresh and spacious with separate kitchen, bedroom, wet room, utility room, lounge, dining area and balcony (overlooking the Crowne Plaza hotel). Very nice too!

We emptied the car and then headed out again to the local supermarket for some shopping. We didn’t realise that our nearest Coles supermarket was actually at the huge Erina Fair shopping mall so we enjoyed the familiarity of returning to the place. Back to our apartment we decided not to go out for the evening so had a basic dinner of jacket potato with beans and cheese for tea. Wanted something simple…. We then spent the rest of the evening vegging out in front of the TV (which we had forgotten was pretty dire with lots of UK repeats / programme copies). Oh well, never mind…

Friday morning we headed over to Avoca Beach – our favourite in the area – but it was a bit drizzly so we checked out the Surf Club and enjoyed watching the surfers / life guards in action.

Afterwards we headed back to Erina Fair for more shopping – this time our mission was to pick up some desserts for the evening as we were going over to see Hayley and her family for a BBQ. We had never met her mum, dad or nan (Heather) so that was great to see them, along with our great nephews Jack and Adam too. Heather has been a supporter / follower of the blog for a long time so it was nice to see her in person, especially as she is now 93 years old! What a great lady….

Was a lovely evening and we enjoyed checking out all the renovations that had been done to the house since our last visit – the new kitchen, the pool, the new furniture in the lounge, newly redecorated walls etc. The changes were stunning and made such a difference to the house. Looking forward to staying there again at the end of our trip in March. Budd remembered his best friend Richard so got the zoomies a couple of times but otherwise he was pretty well behaved LOL. While we were there we picked up our shade tent which we had left in the garage on our departure in May 2022. So we were now equipped for the beach again…yay….we just needed some sunshine LOL. After leaving the BBQ we headed back to our apartment and had a final glass of wine in front of the TV. Well final for me, first few for Richard as he had been the designated driver.

Saturday morning – Happy Birthday to me! Had a leisurely start (after opening my cards – thanks to everyone that was organised enough to give them to me in advance) – eggs on toast for breakfast and then headed to the beach as the sun had finally come out! We were well equipped with shade, drinks and sun tan lotion and had fun. We both got a bit of sun but found it very intense. Our UK factor 30 suntan lotion really wasn’t up to the job so we need to get a stronger one next time we are out and about. After a few hours we headed to the surf club for some nibbles before returning to the apartment. We had a leisurely afternoon and did some laundry.

Later on we walked to our favourite Indian restaurant The Grand Palace and met Jamie there. We caught up and enjoyed sharing our birthdays together for the first time in many years (his was the previous week). Was really lovely. Afterwards we headed back to our apartment for a nightcap and so to bed. Had been a great day.

Sunday we were having a lay in when we could hear this alarm going off…..evacuate now….evacuate now…. We honestly thought it was the hotel across the road but when I went out onto the balcony and saw people on the street below (as well as fire engines) realised it was actually our building! We opened the apartment door, got the full force of the tannoy announcement, vacated and found the emergency stairs. Got downstairs onto the street – grateful to be only on the 2nd floor – and were given the all clear pretty quickly. Phew! That was an unexpected start to our day. Have to say the alarm was not a sound either of us had heard before which is why it didn’t register immediately…very strange noise….

In the afternoon we decided to go on a Terrigal pub crawl – wandered down the promenade admiring the beach (which was much narrower than from memory) and then went to the Caribbean rooftop bar, Mumbo Jumbos. Bit of a grubby place to be honest but they served cold beer and we could watch people below so it fitted the bill….

Leaving that behind we headed to the Beach House which is part of the Crowne Plaza. This was really busy and had a live band so we stayed a while. Was great….

Later on we returned to our apartment across the street and had dinner at home.

Monday morning we were out shopping again – picked up some factor 50+ suntan lotion – and went to Avoca beach again. This time we were getting constant warnings about bluebottles (jellyfish) in the sea from the lifeguards. We did set up the shade tent but also went for long walks as well in the sand watching out for the tiny jellyfish which resemble Portuguese man-of-war with their ‘sail’ and have very long and thin stinging tentacles, looking for all intents and purposes like a cotton thread – impossible to watch for in the surf although easier to spot on the beach. Not nice. Lots of kids were getting stung and there was no way I was heading into the surf without a wet suit LOL.

In the afternoon we headed back to the apartment having had enough sun – the sand was so hot it was impossible to walk on without shoes – and had a quiet afternoon doing more laundry, Richard also vacuumed the car and the apartment while I did the Blue Mountains blog.

Tuesday morning we got up early and headed over to pick up Adam and Jack. They are still on school holidays so we had offered them a day out of their choice. Well, they had chosen a two hour Splash and Slide Dolphin Watching cruise which departed from Nelson Bay at 12.30 pm. This was over a two hour drive from their home so we left at 9.30, having first deposited food in the fridge for dinner later, and took off. Richard was driving and it was challenging in places because of all the varying speed limits – we really don’t know what constitutes the difference between a 60 kph and a 80 kph road other than the changing sign to warn you. NSW is very sneaky with speed cameras located in unmarked parked vehicles alongside the road with little or no warning so Richard was trying to keep within the limit at all times although Jack (who is a budding petrol head and now learning to drive at 16 years of age) was now commenting too. Poor Richard – getting suggestions / comments from two of us – and Adam just went to sleep as he is a tired boy most of the time LOL. And that’s without the dangerous behaviours of some of the Australian drivers – no courtesy shown, don’t look before pulling out in front of you (resulting in one emergency stop to avoid a collision) and constant ‘undertaking’.

On arrival in Nelson Bay we were very lucky to find a long-stay (9 hour) free car parking space and went for ice cream. We then boarded the boat and were overtaken by a huge Arab family group pushing for space, Luckily we were able to get seated at the bow on this large motor catamaran so took our places and weren’t going to give them up for anyone LOL. We sat tight as we pulled away from the dock and headed into the bay…. It was pretty windy so didn’t really feel the sun so it was lovely.

Eventually dolphins were spotted in the shallower water and we watched them for a while. Everyone was pretty excited to see them but, of course, we were pretty blasé having watched dolphins play around our bow on Morphie on numerous occasions. So nice that we saw a them but shame that they were so far in the distance.

The crew then picked up a mooring ball and deployed the boom net and the slide. Jack decided not to go in the water declaring it too cold – I was never going to do it to be honest – Adam and Richard thought about it but the whole area was rammed, so they decided against. Oh well, never mind…

After a couple of hours cruising around we returned to the dock and got off. Jack was hungry by now – and we know that most places close their kitchens in the afternoon – decided it would have to be a fast food place so we could guarantee service. So we headed to the nearest KFC, placed our order and sat down. Jack wanted to eat in the car not inside the restaurant but we over-ruled him – as we didn’t want the smell nor the potential for mess inside our hire car. We then lived to regret that decision because the Arab family came in and the boys ran amok – including one lad who was so tubby he had an overhanging belly and moobs without a shirt on. This actually offended me when I’m trying to eat and I was seriously hoping the young manager would ask the family to ensure the lad was appropriately attired but, no, everyone seemed very nervous about this big group spending a fortune on a mountain of food…. Oh well…just confirmed Jack’s view that these places are not nice LOL (although he enjoys the food).

We packed up and headed back home with the boys who by now were flagging and snoozed all the way back. On arrival I took over the new kitchen and cooked us all a lasagne and made salad for dinner. We had a nice evening before heading back to Terrigal for pontoonies. And OMG did I get burnt to a crisp on this trip….everyone else was fine…just me! Clearly I need to learn how to apply suntan lotion LOL

Wednesday was sadly our last day in Terrigal and we had a few admin things to do – first was to renew our Medicare cards (required by our travel insurance policy) – this usually involves a difficult session at the local office but I found a get-around online – so tick, all done. Richard needed new flip flops (or thongs as they are called here) and had his eye on a nice pair at the Ripcurl store just down the road….so we headed down there and purchased them. So he now has a pair for ‘best’ LOL.

Later on we spent a few more hours on Avoca Beach before returning to the apartment. Having got ourselves cleaned up we then headed out to meet Jamie for a Thai dinner and to say our farewells for now. Lovely time together as always. We had to curtail it though as a big thunderstorm came through and we wanted to get back. On arrival back in Terrigal we stood on the balcony and watched this incessant lightning all around…pretty impressive to say the least….

So that wraps up our time in Terrigal – so bye for now and return soon for our next instalment of this Australian adventure.

Jan