Where were going, we don't need any roads!

Just arrived this evening into Melbourne after my 3 day adventure on the Great Ocean Road. It was an interesting tour with 24 people. I really had no idea what to expect with a lot of it and enjoyed all the fun surprises. Leaving Adelaide we seemed to drive, stop for toilets, and drive for a good 6 to 7 hours. One quick stop was to look at white kangaroos. Sweet! Once we hit our first stop, I was anxious to get moving. It was Mount Hollow in Grampian National Park. I took off and climbed the mountain in no time. It turns out, I was supposed to wait to go up with the group. Woops!!!! Got in a little trouble with that one. Still a gorgeous view. Later on we did some driving through to Mackenzie Falls, then to Reed's Lookout and then settled for the night at Hall's Gap.

Day 2, Thursday was by far the best day. Again, we headed up another mountain lookout "The Pinnacle". This time I waited for the group, and tried to stay in the middle of the pack. Tried that is. I don't think I've mentioned yet, but it's been freezing cold (15 C and windy). I had my toque along for the ride at it was a blessing as the top of the Pinnacle was very cold, and it started rainy pretty good on the way down. A few of us took bails, including myself. Ouch!

The next part of the day was the best as we got to "The Great Ocean Road". In the words of Tony the Tiger, it was "GREEAAAT!!!!". My favourite place was at Gibson's Steps. A location where a fisherman cut steps out the limestones a 100 years ago to allow for beach access. Words can't really describe this part of the trip. It was just that good! Later that night we stayed in a town called Princetown. Population 10. But in true Aussie style, they did have a pub. The BBQ consisted of 3 mysterious meets. Yum! Then off to the 12 Apostles to view the sunset, that never occured.

Today, Friday, we started out by heading to Otway Fly. Another tree top walk that was similar to the one JP, Laura and I did in Walpole in December at the Valley of the Giants. The Otway one was not as good. The forest did remind me a lot of home as it was a cool temperate rain forests. It brought tears to my eyes. But that might have been because I was FREEZING cold! Lunch was at Apollo Bay, a nice beach town. There I was able to check the internet to find out Marty Havlat was injured again. The hawks should have traded him. After that was Part 2 of the Great Ocean Road. Not quite as stunning as the Limestone cliffs of the previous day, but still quite nice. On the way we stopped to check out some wild koalas. They were actually moving! Which is a rare site in the wild. We then stopped in at a famous surf beach, Bell's Beach. Then on to Torquay!!!! No, not the elementary school, but the surf town. Australians pronounce it Tor-kee, but I stuck with my roots, Tor-Kay. There we "shopped" for an hour at the Surf Outlet store. That part was very boring.

Finally we chugged along through the traffic in Geelong and hit the mayhem that is Melbourne at about 6:30 pm. I'm staying in a backpackers in St. Kilda, which is 20 minutes by tram to the southeast of the city. I like the backpackers so far. It's a little messy, but there are heaps of cute girls, and cheap beers. That's a winning combination.

Check out the uploaded pics:
Grampian Mountains
Great Ocean Road

Not sure what I'm going to do tomorrow. I'll just wing it!

Hockey and Glenelg

I got to watch my first hockey game (non-webcam feed from Victoria) in Australia. It was Buffalo vs Philly. I watched the first 2 periods at the Woolrych's and then OT and the Shootout outside some sports bar that I happened to walk by. Peter Forsberg signed with the Avalanche .... I now HATE those stinking Avalanche. Trade Deadline is just a few hours away. I can't wait to wake up tomorrow. (Early start for my great Ocean Road tour. Have to be there at 6:15am .... EEEEK!)

The rest of today was spent Tramming it down to Glenelg beach to catch some rays, waves, and babes! Didn't really do a very good job at any of those; however, it was nice to see with beach with the sun shining, and people swimming. The sand was still littered with sea weed ..... but that's the way Cottesloe was when I first arrived for the first few months. The highlight on the trip back was a person (probably disabled) yelling at the conductor to get the tram moving "goddamit". "next stop please ... next stop please". We all had a good laugh. The tram has to stop for red lights so it takes about 30 minutes to go from city to beach.

Ok.... time for bed. What superstar will be a Chicago Blackhawk tomorrow????

More pics added to Adelaide folder and some more added yesterday for Barossa Valley

Likely won't hav internet for the next few days.....

Danny Briere skating in for the winning goal
The pier at Glenelg Beach
South Glenelg and Brighton Beach
Methinks this pig has the greatest name ever!!!!! HORATIO!

Barossa Valley

I headed on a tour of the Barossa Valley today. The highlight was seeing the World's Largest Rocking Horse .... well not really. It kinda sucked as it didn't rock, literally. The tour was great though, it was a little tough early on as I was last to be picked up, so I missed all the intros, and was sitting off on my own. But the crowd was pretty good, and once the wine got flowing things kicked up! It didn't hurt that 3 of the people were Irish. Gotta love the Irish!!! The meal we had was ridiculously delicious. I think it was a 4 course meal. It was a tour worth taking.

World's Biggest Rocking Horse
Barossa Valley
Some of the Young Ones at Whispering Wall
I slipped and was hanging on for dear life!

Adelaide's Botanic Garden ... I thought I took some pictures ....

My 3 internet is acting up as usually. When I go on for 5 minutes it says I use 150 MB when it should just be 5MB. Very frustrating, but typical of 3 ....... :( .... what's the angry face icon?

It was still a little cool and cloudy for most of the day, but the sun did finally peak through in the afternoon. Today, I explored the city and the Botanic Gardens. It was very enjoyable as their was no where at the Gardens because they were all at a V8 Race Car event known as Clipsol. Downtown was heaps of fun as well, especially when I came across a trashy pig. The highlight of the day was losing my camera in downtown Adelaide. Can you say WOOPS!!!! I had gone to the visitor centre to look into booking a tour for tomorrow and ended up leaving it there. Problem was, they had locked the door as I left (meaning they were now 20 minutes closed). Fortunately, enough pounding on the glass door, and panicked face were enough to have someone left me in, and there it was sitting on the ground next to the counter. Lucky me.

I did end up booking a tour for tomorrow. I'm going to head to the Barossa Valley (Australia's largest wine region) for a tour, and a few samples. There is also lunch in the equation too. Wahoo!

Added more pics to the Adelaide page. Link is in the previous post .....

The Rose Garden with the Rainforest building in the background
Not the most beautiful flower in the world....
Oink Oink .... Piggy looking for my camera.
Popeye (the boat) on the River Torrens with a foot bridge above.

Adelaide-hee-hoo!!!!!!

I had a comfortable flight from Perth to Adelaide thanks to the Virgin Blue guy for putting me in the Emergency Exit seat. I spent the flight worrying that it was my responsibility to save everyone in the event of an accident, but I did so with extra leg room. Oh yah. When I arrived, Adelaide was cold, wet, and very very windy. I thought this was the middle of summer?

Adelaide has a nice charm to it. The downtown is built with parklands completely surrounding it. The River Torrens rages (note below picture), through the centre. The thing that amazed me most so far is that I've had cars stop, not once, or twice, but thrice!!!! for me to cross the street. I think that happened two times in my 6 months in Perth. Nice to be around polite people that aren't trying to run me over!

A friend I met in Perth, Tom, has his parents (The Woolrych's) in Adelaide. They have been kind enough to let me stay at their place for the first couple of days, and they showed me around on Saturday. On Friday night, it was party at the local pub, and then one of their friends took me to the CBD for some fun at the Belgian Beer Cafe (that has a good ring to it). I got arrested!!!! But that was a good thing ;)

As mentioned, the Woolrych's took me around to some of the city sights. I went to the markets where I saw fruits and vegetables for absurd prices. Red peppers for $2/kg. In Perth they were $14!!!!!! I could live here just for the fruit. Also headed to Glenelg Beach (above photo), but it's still quite chilly (22C), and stormy, so the beach was not looking it's best. Since Adelaide is fairly small, it only takes 20 to 30 minutes to go from beach to the mountains, so I was then taken up to Mount Lofty to see the view from the hills. Very nice!

I'll put some more photos up at the Adelaide Link

Last Day in Perth

Today was my last day in Perth. Tomorrow I fly out to Adelaide. It was a little bitter sweet. I'm excited to get travelling and to see the east coast of Oz and NZ, but it's tough leaving all the friends and fun of Perth behind. The good news is that I still have to fly out of Perth on my way back home, so I'll be back!

Pics Uploaded

I uploaded some more pics from Mom and Dad's visit to Perth. They are a bit of of order, but that just makes it more fun!
Perth Pics
Rottnest Pics.

Brissy Bound

I took Mom and Dad to the airport early this morning (Saturday) and have gotten word from them that they have arrived ok in Brisbane! They are planning to get to Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo tomorrow, then to Fraser Island for several days after that.

For their final day in Perth yesterday, we started out with the usual trip to the beach. Cottesloe in the morning. The weather was not the best. Only about 30 C and cloudy. Also a bit wavey. After that we headed to the CBD (downtown) of Perth to have lunch. It gave Mom and Dad a chance to see that people actually do go to the city as the two previous trips through have been completely deserted (Thursday @ 6:30PM and Saturday at 8:15AM).

After that, we went home and then back to City Beach. We hung out for several hours there, and finally the sun came out and Dad and I went in to some crashing waves. I came down with a bad case of Salt-Water-In-Nose Syndrome. This only happens during the stormy days. But when you lie down to go to bed, I guess the water shifts, and just starts pouring out. It's quite hilarious, and very annoying.

That puts a wrap to the Mom and Dad adventures in Perth. I'll put some links up when I get more photos up on the web.

The English Court in Perth
Catching some air on my board
Dad and I in the big waves.

PS, I Love You Perth

My favourite holiday of all .... Valentine's Day .... YEAH!!!! There is no one better to spend it with than Don & Sandi in Perth. :)

Today we headed up north along the Sunset Coast Drive, and made our first stop at Mettam's Pool at Marmion Marine Park. It has some of the best snorkelling along the Perth coast. Sadly, the waves were kicking up pretty good, even in the morning, so it wasn't very good at all. That's alright, just hang out on the beach instead. I think I was the only person aged between 2 and 35 years old.

After Mettam's Pool we drove further north to the Quay at Hillary's Boat Harbour, had some lunch, then crossed the street to AQWA (Aquarium of Western Australia). Inside we saw some pretty sweet fish: Sting Rays, Sharks, Jellyfish, Octopus, Turtles, etc etc.

This is a cross between a Sea Horse and Sea Weed. It's known as the Leafy Sea Dragon. Some very good camouflage!

Little did Dad know, but the chameleon-like Donfish was sneaking up behind him! LOOK OUT!

The best part of the tour was the underwater moving walkway. We spent about 30 minutes in here just watching the sharks, turtles and rays. Very cool having a shark swim right towards you. The moving walkway was a little sketchy and we all came down with minor cases of vertigo. For one young boy, it wasn't minor. "Smells like someone just chucked" said one teenage boy passing by. I saw it happen, and it was gross.

One of the grey nurse sharks stalking it's prey.

I thought it would be fun to go pet a crocodile statue..... I then realized it was not a statue at all and the croc chomped down on my arm. Not too much left of the right one, but I always wanted to write with my left hand.

FOUND YOU NEMO!

On the way home we stopped off at City Beach. The sea breeze had kicked in, so the waves were rougher than Mom and Dad had seen yet. The beach was also filled with people under 25 ..... which is always a welcoming sight.

For Valentine's Day we went for a romantic drive to King's Park, which turned into a traffic nightmare. Something was going on in the Park, but there was no where to park, so we parked that idea, and headed to other parts of King's Park .... did I mention we saw Richard Park? The outdoor moonlight cinema was also packed with as the movie "PS, I Love You" was playing. We stood outside the fence but still had an unobstructed view of the cinema for 10 minutes. A Chick Flick times 10.

For more pics from when I went to AQWA in October click here

Back in Perth .... King's Park, Perth Zoo, North Cott

Back in Perth now. We hired a car .... Australians don't say rent, and headed off for stop #1, King's Park. Dad just now "King's Park was the highlight of the day". "Beautiful Place". So much easier than writing my own stuff. "Must be so beautiful when the flowers are in bloom" says mom. Dad replies, "So clean, and nobody there". Ok, now there are digital camera battery issues. The conversation has changed.

Today was extremely hot, and may have been the hottest I've felt in Perth. It got really muggy in the early afternoon after we got to the zoo. It was so hot, the area that usually holds 20 kangaroos bouncing around you was deserted. Mom and Dad didn't even realize we were IN the kangaroo pen. Then you could start spotting them in the bushes or under the trees. The only one we saw moving was one that got up, dug a bit of a hole, and then collapsed inside. If the kangaroos weren't active, I didn't hold much hope for the koalas. Koalas usually spend over 20 hours sleeping. On a day like today, I reckon that increases to 25 hours. Other highlights from the zoo were an orangutan with a little baby hanging from it's stomach, and much like the Tortoises in Taronga, we saw some Madagascaran Turtles going at it. At least somewhat. It looked like 2 of them were trying to mount 2 others that didn't want them to mount. So it just turned into a never ending circle. "What are they doing Daddy?" asks a little girl. "I think they are playing the Merry Go Round Game".

As it was so hot, we headed to North Cottesloe beach for a dip in the ocean. Usually in the evenings the sea breeze kicks in, and it's too windy, too wavey, and just not fun to be at the beach. Not tonight. It was calm as. Unfortunately the sunset left more to be desired. But still a fun day.

Some photos below ......

Mom and Dad at King's Park overlooking the city
Parents in the Tree Top Walk in King's Park
A Koala getting some rest from the heat .... or just being a koala
Orangutan with a baby .... notice it hanging on for dear life.
Donny watching the calm ocean, waiting for the sun to go down.
A nice photo of the three of us .... unfortunately a low set of clouds over Rotto prevented a gorgeous sunset.

The Rottnest Experience

Mom, Dad and I had a successful trip to Rottnest Island for 4 days. As usual, the beaches were out of this world, the biking was breathtaking, and the quokkas were KRAZY! For those who don't know, Rottnest Island is carless (except for Buses, a police car, and some luggage transport vans), so you just bike around everywhere without a care in the world. The beaches are WORLD CLASS!!!

We spotted Dolphins (not sharks …. There is always that split second moment where you have to decide which one it is) in both Fremantle and in the Basin. At the Basin they were just 20 metres from shore, and if I had my swimwear on, I would have been out swimming with them in no time.

Dad giving the thumbs up at Longreach Bay

Booking accommodation for Rottnest is very difficult. Accommodation goes on sale 1 year in advance, and is sold out within days. To find a place to stay, you need to hope for a cancellation. Fortunately, I found one for the 3 nights when Mom and Dad were here. Unfortunately, it was at the Army Barracks. The place used to house the Australian Army from the 1930s to 1960s and has now been turned into a Youth Hostel. We stayed in the “Seargent’s Quarters”, so we had our own bathroom, but you do need to bring your own sheets and pillow cases. Saturday night was absolute mayhem. There is a “No Alcohol” rule at the Barrack’s, but in Australia that’s like saying there is a “No Swimming” rule at a local beach. It just doesn’t happen. I slept fine that night, but supposedly there was some good screaming sessions, Happy Birthdays, and at one point a couple were threatening to kill each other. The police came 3 times! Fun times. We then lined up at the Mess Hall for Sunday Breakfast. Then it was off to march and do drills. Left, Left, Left, Right, Left ….. I mean off to bike and swim.

Mom checking out the water at Bickley Bay

Rock Formations at Phillip Point
Crested Turns at Phillip Point

Quokka Rules

There are 2 sides to Rottnest Island. The DAY, which is run by humans biking the paths, swimming in the ocean, sunbathing on the beach, drinking in the pub, and laughing all day long. However at NIGHT, it’s Quokka Rules. They magically appear and take over the entire island. Hopping, bouncing, scrimmaging and crapping everywhere! Much like death and taxes, so too is stepping in Quokka Pool. There is just so much, that it is inevitable that you will get some on your sandals.

Sunset over Longreach Bay

The Rottnest Bus

At Little Salmon Bay, Dad and I watched a huge scrum of fish picking away at a dead octopus. It was quite large, and quite interesting. They had a snorkel tour here where you dove down and could read these underwater plaques, and then follow the trail. It was the best snorkelling of the trip.

Bikes Outside Little Salmon Bay

Sance Armstrong rocking it on the bike.

Dad came down with TB. Nope, not Tuberculosis …. Tired Bum. It was a little contagious, but Mom and I didn’t get it anywhere near as bad.

Death Spider .... not entirely sure if it's venomous, but it was a good 3 to 4 inches long, and the spider web look thick enough to capture a small bird. This thing gave me the heeby pajeebies.

A plane flying in to the Rottnest Airstrip

The view at Oliver Hill Lookout

The Mega-Cannon at Oliver Hill .... to protect against the Japs in WWII

Mom and Dad having a swim at the Basin

I introduced Dad to many of the cheap Aussie Beers. At the pub a pint ranges from $8 to $9, but at the grocery store you can get the Bogan beers for $2 to 2.50 a can, compared to the $6 import Coronas. I thought those were supposed to be the cheap beers.

The Bathurst Lighthouse

Sunset over Thomson Bay

As there is no Drip Coffee in Australia (there are only Fancicinnos and Instant) I got Mom and Dad addicted to the Iced Coffees that are all the rage here. Iced Coffees, Iced Mochas, Chocolate Milk, Strawberry Milk. They are hugely popular Down Under.

The Road out to the West part of the Island

I cycled out to the Far West of the Island. It’s about 11km long. The furthest point is Cape Vlamingh, the Dutch Explorer who was the first white man to visit Rottnest. He was also the one who called it Rottenest (dutch for Rat's Nest) The ride should have taken just over an hour. Instead, it took over 2 hours as I kept stopping to take photos and enjoy the breathtaking views. The western side is untouched compared to the east. There are some venomous snakes on Rottnest, and a few walks around the bushes on that side of the island had me shivering in my crocs. Note: Crocs are the safest footware for snakes.

Rottnest Skies

Houses at Geordie Bay and the Windmill. In the Foreground is Lake Baghdad

Eagle Bay

Dad in the Water, Mom under the Umbrella at Little Parakeet Bay

Me enjoying the calmness of Little Parakeet Bay .... another great snorkelling spot
Me atop a sand dune at Parakeet Bay (not the Little one)
The view from atop the dune at Parakeet Bay
Enjoying the view so much, I can't stay on my feet!
Neither can Dad!

Dad riding down the trails
The golf greens ..... not so green as they are sandy.
More Quokka shots ... this one found a broken sprinkler head.
A little blurry, but just too damn cute not to put on.
Sunset over Herschel Lake with Wadjemup Lighthouse in the background.

Sunise at the Army Barracks ... where we stayed.
Sunrise over Fremantle

On another breakfast, we went looking for a restaurant and café. They had a menu on a chalkboard for yoghurt (notice the H in yogurt), musli, and fruit. As there were no prices, Mom went in and asked the waitress. “I don’t know how much it is, lemme ask the owner” ….. “You don’t know the price of a meal?” ….. the owner comes out, looks at us, “It’s $12”. “$12 for yoghurt???? Let us think about that one” ….. as Mom was still there, another lady came up with an issue in her bill “Excuse, $22 for Bacons and Eggs seems a little steep” ….. Gotta love that “Tourist Discount” …. We then went to the grocery store and made our own.

The three of us at the Basin
Notice the creepy guy hiding behind the bushes taking the photos of the babe suntanning on the beach on the left. Can you say .... CREEPY!
Fish Hook Bay near the Western Most Part of the Island.
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I'll try to get some photos put up on my photo site from this trip, but until then, you can look back at my Previous Trip in November or read about it here.