A cool but sunny morning brought on the shorts and sandals v trousers and shoes dilemma, like my own little State of Origin battle. But I was in Queensland, in Noosa, up north…it just had to be shorts and sandals, no question. Cold feet warmed up as I climbed uphill into part of Noosa Heads National Park and Laguna Lookout, where the town beaches and Noosa River were visible through the trees.

The path from up top then wound its way back down to the main strip of town, Hastings Street, full of shiny designer stores, cafes and more upmarket tourist tat. You could end up spending a lot of money in Noosa! I spent a little on brunch, but it was well worth it, sat beside the sand watching the world go by tucking into rashers of bacon and scrambled eggs washed down with a flat white.

As it was so close, I walked along the main beach for a bit, now pleasantly warm and with water temperature suitable for one of those lower bottom half of leg paddles.

The other side of the beach features plenty of swanky apartments with jetties onto the Noosa River. Thankfully you don’t need to be a millionaire to get out on the water thanks to an excellent ferry service along Noosaville to Tewantin. There wasn’t a great deal at Tewantin, bar more cafes on the water and a small market selling massages and smelly things, so I got the return ferry back and stocked up on some food in preparation for a BBQ dinner.

To work up an appropriate appetite though, it was necessary for more walking, returning to the beach, and back for sunset number two!

And after the fine sunset the BBQ lived up to expectations and left me very full and satisfied!

Today it was time to hit Noosa Headlands National Park, armed with BBQ leftovers for sustenance, taking the coastal track around the perimeter. The route took me past several golden bays, peppered with palm and fig trees lapped by turquoise waters.

The track eventually reached the headland and turned south onto the sweep of Alexandria Bay. Now, I sat here for a bit and thought about eating my lunch. Something wasn’t quite right though and I was put off my food somewhat by a number of wrinkled buttocks flapping about in the distance. To my left a couple appeared from the dunes warts and all and somehow my leftover BBQ sausage lost its appeal!

I headed off the beach and further south towards the family town of Sunshine where people keep their clothes on. The headland here was pretty rugged, with waves sweeping into narrow coves.














This was a much nicer spot to eat lunch, with a laid back surf vibe, blessed with temperatures of 23C in winter.

From Sunshine Beach I caught a bus back to Noosa where I was in time for, guess what, another sunset! To mix it up a little I took in the sunset overlooking the Noosa River.

It was such a fine way to end a fine day yet again, and by now I was truly aligned to that easy going, sunny Queensland vibe. Good job there’s still that gap between Noosa and Cairns to take in.

It was back to the real world today but I had a few hours spare in the morning and a little 4WD on my hands, so I headed inland from the coast to the Glass House Mountains, a series of prehistoric looking volcanic plugs rising from the land.

After getting lost several times, I only had a small amount of time to take some snaps before heading back to the coast and then down to Brisbane. Here they were moaning about the cold nights – down to 9C. They don’t know how lucky they are…flying back into Canberra over snow capped hills, it was a bit of a shock to the system to be back in winter. Two seasons in one day…not sure when the shorts will be out again!

Chooks and Chocs

Ah, regional Australia, it's good to get out there and meet the people. Work took me to Victoria for a few days...first to Melbourne, a city I increasingly like more with each visit. I met up with Haeli and the family for a typical family sunday, out for lunch in the Dandenongs and Roast Lamb for dinner. Then it was west to the town of Geelong, an industrial port where I totally lost my orientation, not helped by a car hire place which had transformed into a building site.

An hour or so north of Geelong through wide green farmland and koala lined roads (well, signs saying as much anyway) brought me to Ballarat, a town with a bit of history thanks to the discovery of some big gold nuggets back in 1851.

Unfortunately I spent most of my time in a hotel out of town, speaking to people from the area who were all rather charming in that country town type of way. After a long day tucking into a dinner for one in a sparsely populated hotel restaurant I felt very much like the travelling salesman!

Oh well, I managed a quick half hour look round the centre of Ballarat the next morning and it felt kinda nice, a bit twee in places, but certainly showing some history. It must've been well established a century or more ago as they even have some Brit named Vicky looking down on the town. She looked a bit grumpy though. Less grumpy was the pink haired woman in the coffee shop and she served a good brew too. And that is about all I can tell you about Ballarat.

I like Victoria (the state), it seems a bit more manageable and more English-like, complete with cool grey clouds and mist at this time of year. I'll be back living the Aussie dream this weekend though, as Queensland is a-calling and it'll be back to the beaches, barbies and bush.

OK there may be some in-jokes in this one

It was a weekend of nostalgia as two thirds of my London 'family' had made it across the ditch from New Zealand for a few days together in Sydney. Sydney put on its best face as winter approaches with 22C days and brilliant blue skies! Here are Ollie and Jenn on our sparkling saturday.

I think there might be a cockatoo in this photo...

We walked through the Botanic Gardens and Woolloomooloomoomooloolmoo, finally reaching the spruced up daytime pleasantry of Kings Cross. It was some seven years ago that I met Jenn when we were both mixing with crazy Germans in a hostel called The Pink House (along with Melita who alas could not be present but was flying the flag in Italy). Anyway, she hunted me down, got me drunk and persuaded me to live in Nether Street in Finchley. I think she knew at the time what a great BBQ chef I would make. So whence small pink house coloured seeds doth beautiful friendship trees grow! We both have a lot to thank this place for.

It was all rather charming, reminiscing away past the drug pushers of Kings Cross, innocently taking in a 'bookshop' and getting served a drink by a woman out of her tree in a pub which I seem to remember being far busier and smoky, and not showing some lame PGA golf!

All this revisiting yesteryear was rather tiring, so we headed back to where we were staying in Coogee (via a Virgin not-so-megastore), where we later hit the highlights of the Coogee Bay Hotel, catching up for more Finchley talk with Caroline and Jill.

Sunday took us up the road to Bondi and then back again via that semi-famous walk along the shore. Again it was a fabulous day for it and though busy provided some pretty sights

In the evening, we did a good job of preparing Jenn and Ollie for Thailand by eating loads of delicious food at the rather originally named "Thai Me Down" in Coogee.

Despite a few glasses of wine we managed to make it home without getting intercepted by the Intoxication Squad.

Oh does one ever tire of blue skies? ***sigh*** Certainly not when taking a stroll in the early morning along a sandy beach such as Coogee.

Apart from a few dodgy people smuggling budgerigars, the beach was quiet and a perfect accompaniment to a morning coffee.

Later in the day we used much of Sydney's transport network, apart from the monorail, monorail, MONORAIL!

For the same price as a London Underground travelcard we took the bus to Circular Quay and then a ferry to Watson's Bay, which seemed a contender for any remake of 'The Birds' thanks to the gulls. Speaking of birds, here's Jenn on the rocks, the city in the distant horizon.

Later still it was off to the ever-popular home to developing mentalists, Manly, really just for the ride, but we had a wonder round a few of the shops and along the promenade.

Lot's of pictures of me this week aren't there? Don't tell me I never treat you now will you?!

The light faded as we boarded the ferry back, catching a glowing sky over the homes of aforementioned developing nutjobs (you know who you are!!)

By time we rounded Bradley's Head, the city lights were twinkling and we soaked up more of the city from our dinner spot on Darling Harbour. One final use of the daytripper ticket took us back to Coogee and pretty much the end of an immensely satisfying few days with the old codgers from way back when.

P.S. Some messages....

Congratulations Mr & Mrs Ferrari... we celebrated for you despite the threat of the Intoxication Squad

Happy 5th birthday Bethany, glad you liked the presents!

Bon Voyage Jenn & Ollie, thanks for the fun times and see you in the motherland

Welcome back to the motherland to Pops and Sonia, mmm Branston, cheese, mmmmmmm....

Black Mountains, Red Hills

Rain rain rain was the headline on Friday…Broken Hill the wettest for 10 years, Goulburn, Dubbo, Orange, Parkes all getting an inch or so…oh how the farmers rejoiced in local tin sheds up and down the south east! It had stopped raining on Saturday afternoon but the sky remained threatening as I took a break in the old trusty environs of Red Hill.

The cooler weather and damp grass seems to have rejuvenated the kangaroos, a procession of 20 or so bounded along the ridge at some speed, another potential hazard to the devoted bushwalker. The sun peeked through the dark clouds once in a while, illuminating patches of the dense urban environment that is Canberra!

I walked along the ridge up to Mount Taylor, which was pretty fresh in a keen westerly wind, I guess you could say pleasantly invigorating. Black Mountain was looking black, “though every cloud has a silver lining” as thin red streaks illuminating the storm laden clouds.

It’s amazing what a difference half a day makes as blue skies returned on Sunday though the coolness was still lingering and may now last until September (when I say cool I’m talking about 16C here). Across Lake Burley Griffin, Mount Ainslie was inviting a Sunday morning stroll and it wasn’t just me who was out on the path. This, I later found out is a male red headed mouse spider, and yes, it probably does contain enough venom to make me a bit itchy but hey, let’s snap snap snap away!!

http://www.bluemts.com.au/reptilepark/animals.asp?catID=17&ID=130

I think this may be the last time I’m up one of Canberra’s hills for a while…the hills could do with a break! Sydney next weekend, probably Melbourne the next and Queensland the weekend after. Queensland in June…phew, the summer returneth!

Sublime and ridiculous

Canberra is beautiful but after a few weeks here I find the urge to leave the confines of the territory becomes too strong, plus I need to post some pictures of stuff other than Canberra to keep all you avid readers happy! However, Canberra’s beauty was all too evident as the sun went down on Saturday evening…



…and then again as the sun crept up over the misty Sunday morning horizon.



Just under two hours from this early capital sunrise, whizzing up the Federal, Hume and Illawarra Highways, I found myself at Fitzroy Falls on the northern edge of Morton National Park. It was time to go bush! I came here once before but it was so misted in you could only see the top of the falls and little else. Today however the views were great and, along with the screeching cockatoos and fragrant peppermint gum and flowering yellow wattle, presented the perfect all round Aussie bush experience. Here’s some of the scenery…

This is my lunch spot, probably one of the nicer places I have shared with a cheese and ham sandwich!














It sure was a lookout extravaganza…this was the last one, further west near Tallong, looking down on the Shoalhaven river.

After the sublime of Australia it was the ridiculousness of Europe, driving back to Canberra to watch a delayed broadcast of Eurovision with a bunch of Aussies… some Serbian ‘thing’ winning. Personally I was disappointed the Swiss entry “Vampires are Alive” got knocked out. As they say, strewth, ding-a-dong-a-ling-bing mate.

Fancy eggplant

Not much to report from the national capital this week, though I did have a capital experience on Monday night, dining out with work at a tasty restaurant called Aubergine. Pretty fancy for me…apparently a few of the pollies have been known to hang out here, there may have even been some there Monday night but I wouldn’t have known better.

It was a pleasant weekend and Saturday lunchtime Lauren and I visited a little market which was a bit hippy-ish (knitted beanies everywhere) and had some Salvadorian food, which consisted of chicken and beans in a kind of cornmeal / potato case topped with chilli sauce. The market was in part of a community arts complex and Canberra being the happening place it is, the youth were out in force at the youth centre.


On Sunday I met up with a friend, Jodie, who has just bought a car and so was keen to test it out. It was a lovely autumn day and we had a little drive beside the lake and an amble through golden Weston Park, which is on the south west of Lake Whirly Burley Gubbins.

Following that we popped around the lake and to the Botanic Gardens for more of an amble and afternoon tea - disappointing cakes in Canberra terms though – but the gardens are always relaxing. From there it was a drive up the ever beautiful Mount Ainslie, where I seem to always take the same photos! Hopefully the tree adds a little different perspective on the landmarks of the Bush Capital.

Enjoy your May Day back home, our next public holiday is the Queen’s birthday which is amazing because a) it isn’t really the Queen’s big day and b) we don’t even get that day off in her majesty’s homeland (by that I’m meaning the UK not Germany). Auf Wiedersehen!