End of the line

Friday 27-Sunday 29 October: Narooma NSW

A mere four hour journey mostly in the dark on Friday night brought me & Georgina to the town of Narooma on the NSW south coast. This is where the Murrays coach from Canberra ends its journey, and the last stop was but a short walk dodging cars along the dark and winding Princes Highway to the YHA, which was more like a motel and came complete with some very accommodating hosts, Chris & Wendy. One of the main reasons for coming to Narooma was for the whale watching…but we’ll get to that later.

A windy night was followed by a hearty breakfast down on Wagonga Inlet. Narooma is set on a bit of a peninsula with the inlet on one side and the ocean on the other. The water is beautiful, clear, pristine and many-coloured with the various sandbanks and shallows.


The YHA gladly lent us a couple of bikes, complete with dodgy helmets and barely decent gears, but they were a good way to get round, as long as the hills were avoided (which wasn’t always possible).

A small climb led to Wagonga Head, a good spot to look for whales in the choppy ocean, but there were none sighted. There was also a little bay here…

Did you spot anything noticeable in that last picture?

Nice beach?

Beautiful sea?

Some clouds?

Look again, and if you still don’t get it, check out a map of Australia!!

Now, running up and down the coastline of that country represented in rock form in the above picture are many animals, some of which are whales. Unfortunately, that country does not, contrary to some commercials saying something like “Where the bloody hell are ya?” have perfect weather 100% of the time. Whilst the sun may shine the wind can blow, seas can get rough and whale watching trips can get cancelled.

Alas, the bikes came in handy again and we pedalled to another beach further down the coast, sat on a rock and saw a few dolphins fairly nearby showing off in the surf. No pictures of the dolphins (too bleedin’ quick) but here’s the beach from atop the rock and some other intelligent animal species.

Despite aching legs and saddlesoreness, and after a somewhat boringly bland sunset, it was necessary to check out Narooma's nightlife, which seems to exist of one pub which functions as everything. It was a bit like a clubhouse at a holiday park, loads of kids and families, but also some couples and young whippersnappers showing off their dance moves to the Nashberries. The Nashberries sang everything from The Beatles to Blur with a bit of reggae and swing thrown in. Any band which sees two chavs in hoodies and shorts up dancing on the makeshift "dancefloor" can only be commended.

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Sunday and with no whales to watch because of trips being booked out, Chris took us to the pretty village of Tilba.
This (for Australia) is quite a historic place, with a small street of wooden buildings, most which are now shops selling trinkets and what not. The sweet shop was pretty good, along with the ice cream parlour.

The village is in a nice setting, with Mount Dromedary rising up to the West and rolling hills around.






There was time for a stop at Tilba Winery and one last desperate attempt to see something thrashing about in the ocean at Kiama before boarding the Murrays coach for the journey back along the coast, over the mountain, across the plains and towards the Telstra Tower and jolly jolly bus station in Canberra. Despite the disappointment of a cancelled boat trip, it was a good weekend in another lovely place in this vast country they call straya.

West is best

Today I saw more of the ACT than ever before thanks to a westcountry propelled people carrier (cheers Georgina!). It wasn't long after leaving home and heading west that the landscape turned dry and barren, not helped by the extensive damage in this area due to 2003 bushfires.

After a winding drive through a sandy landscape, and a brief stop beside the Murrumbidgee River, we reached Tidbinbilla Nature reserve.

This place had recovered somewhat since the fires, though the koala population on the koala walk was still somewhat limited (total of 8). So, much neck craning looking up at trees was fruitless. The rock wallabies were also elusive and it wasn't until reaching a scenic overlook that a first animal spotting was made with this little lizard.

Here's Georgina and I at the overlook - the hills in the background are over 1000 metres high, so we're getting a bit of altitude going on round here!

Things had taken a turn for the better and to follow were countless close encounters with the kangaroos. The second ice cream of the day (yes, second!) was spent watching these guys boinging their way down to a watering hole.

The drive back took me through parts of the deep south (aka Tuggeranong) for the first time and some Portuguese food later in the evening capped off a fine day.

Southern Highlands Och aye guvnor

Sometimes in life you have to make a few sacrifices. In Canberra this means getting up at 6am on a Saturday morning to get the only train out of town. I was off to the hills and it was about 7C and drizzly. I was questioning my decision. From Canberra the train soon passed through Queanbeyan and then wound its way through Molonglo Gorge before coming out on the yellow tablelands surrounding Bungendore. Kangaroos and Magpies were aplenty and I even saw what was probably a swamp Wallaby, which are more black in colour. Hitting glamourous Goulburn, which seems to have a love affair with rusty bits of metal, my destination of Bundanoon followed 45 minutes later. Bundanoon was deathly quiet. The drizzle had passed but it was still cloudy and chilly.

The main attraction for me was nearby Morton National Park. It takes a bit of walking along some dirt roads (and past more roos), but there are rewards...

It's much like a sister of the Blue Mountains, only much quieter and even more untamed. I pretty much had the place to myself, just me and the birds sqwawking away in the thousands of trees lining the carved out sandstone valleys.

As well as the overlooks, there are numerous trails through the bush, dotted with all sorts of habitats (plenty of holes and crevices for snakes and spiders!) There are many of these termite mounds scatterted about, some just off the side of the road. They're pretty big, this one was a tall as me.

Here we are down in a bit of a Fern Tree Gully. You can see how the rain will rush through here and eventually head on down the sandstone cliffs into the valley.


More walking led me to a creek and a glow worm glen which was a bit pointless as you can only see them in the dark. This then looped back round into Bundanoon, so I checked out "Viewland Road" and "Panorama Drive" which were a bit misleading, given that there were no views or panoramas! The village did have a good country bakehouse including excellent caramel slices which kept me occupied until the train arrived for the trundle back to Canberra.

It will be good to go back there when the sun comes out, and there are a whole set of overlooks yet to discover...

Magpies belong in a pie

The Australian Magpie. Not the prettiest bird round here. Makes a bit of noise in the morning. It's the bird sound you usually hear in Neighbours.

Also opportunist attacker of cyclists. I was happily pedalling away around the foot of Red Hill when the first one swooped. I think I swore a lot and waved my hands at it and that seemed to make it think again (from my experience I've found a crazy English person swearing and waving their hands like a madman usually puts people off). A few more had a go before the day was out though.

Well, at the top of Red Hill (which I climbed most of out of the saddle) there were great views which hadn't changed a lot since last time I was there some 2 months back. The big disappointment was the cafe was closed so the ice cream I was craving never materialised. There were plenty of Crimson Rosellas hanging about though (still I would have prefered an ice cream whilst I was looking at them).
I chained the bike up and walked along to Mount Taylor, which is basically the next bump along from Red Hill. I think what you notice here is how the city seems to disappear and you could be virtually anywhere in Australia (there is even a rough red dirt track).

Back at Red Hill I saw three kangaroos, two of whom scarpered when I appeared and the other one followed soon after. No great pictures, but I did film one of them boing-boinging down the hillside.

The ride back home was good, barring one or two more magpies, mostly because it was downhill. The bike seemed to survive though was a little dustier at the end of the day.

Tara from the nation's capital,

Neil, the bike and the flamin' magpies

Friday 6th-Monday 9th October: In Victoria

Friday evening saw me arrive in St. Kilda, the seaside bit of Melbourne on Port Phillip Bay. It has the seaside lot – a seaside esplanade, a seaside beach, seaside amusement park, seaside pier and seaside fish & chips. I arrived by the tram, a journey I was to get to know fairly well over the next few days.

So, the sun set over Port Phillip Bay and I would see it rise again in the morning with a few drinks in between…

The first drink I had on Friday night was a good old pint of Tetleys in a “British / Irish” pub. This place had a good live band too and sold a nice burger. Oh yes, pint of Tetleys and a burger. Yes indeed. About seven hours later I seem to remember drinking water in some place playing R&B (hmmm my favourite!) and going to bed hearing the birds greeting dawn.

So with very little sleep I won’t bore you too many of the details of Saturday, but they included brekkie in St Kilda and falling asleep several times in the Dandenongs. Do you know, I also had a London-like experience in Melbourne? Travelling back from the Dandenongs by train to St Kilda took something like 2 ½ hours, thanks to weekend engineering work Something going on in Camberwell. Or was it Mitcham? Well they say Melbourne is the most like a British City!

Champion Grampian Sunday

Rest was not an option on Sunday as I went on a day trip to The Grampians, a range of hills 200km west of Melbourne. The drive there did allow more snoozing though. The Grampians rise up from the farmland of the Wimmera and offer staggering overlooks over the forest. Much of the forest however was burned in a bushfire in January, but it is encouraging to see how much it is rejuvenating. It was pretty windy and chilly up there, which helps explain the coat and the relatively frizzy hair…

This is the view from the Balconies lookout.

There are also some lakes and waterfalls in the park, this is McKenzie Falls.


















Walking back up the (all too) many steps from the base of the falls, I came across this little guy – a Kookaburra.

It was a long trip back through the town of Ararat for a brief bite to eat and then some more snoozing along the Western Highway to Melbourne.

Melbo Monday

Monday offered some more time in Melbourne before I headed back home. I realised today was my two month anniversary in Australia and I’m starting to feel like I know what’s going on round here. I’ve just about figured out the coins so that there is less change these days in my wallet. I was even able to show someone how to validate their ticket on the number 16 tram from Kew to Melbourne University via St. Kilda (and I don’t even live in Melbourne…how bright am I?!)

So with a few strewths and a fair dinkum I walked to the end of St Kilda pier, with the view looking back across to the city.

Later on I checked out the Botanic Gardens in Melbourne, which are situated just south east of the city on the Yarra. This was just what I needed, slowly ambling around the gardens, chilling out with a coffee and muffin and admiring the different gardens. Some of the flowers were more than a match for Floriade.

Eventually the gardens led to the south bank of the Yarra, which offered a satisfying spring scene of kids playing footy, people chilling out eating lunch on the grass and views across to the city centre.

And then time ran out and Canberra called me. The short hop back was nice, flying over the ranges and lakes of the Great Dividing Range. Looking forward to hitting my own bed, just gotta post this blog…and…then…zzzzzzzz…zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Creme Broulee

An early start on Sunday saw me taking a coach through the salubrious NSW town of Queanbeyan and across rolling plains and the cutesy towns of Bungadore and Braidwood on the way to the coast. The coach broke through the rugged Budawang ranges at Clyde Mountain, meaning a descent through winding hairpins at little more than 5mph. There were occasional snatches of sublime views through the gum forest, just a shame the coach couldn’t stop. After a brief stop at Batemans Bay (a bit like Paignton) I reached my destination at Broulee.

As well as the endless stretches of sand on this section of the coast, there are numerous inlets and waterways (perfect for kayaking), and of course, a few birds feeding on the ample supplies. This one was at Candlagan Creek on the north side of Broulee.

I walked on into the next village called Mossy Point, a really pleasant place, quiet and leafy, with homes and wooden jetties lining the Tomaga River. Here I am at Mossy Point, with views across to Tomakin.

I had a nice little lunch at Mossy Point before heading alongside the coast back into Broulee. There were plenty of these flowers lining the clifftops.

I came to Broulee as a bit of a birthday treat and I got more than pampered at the place I was staying. I was greeted with afternoon tea and cheesecake before I went out again to try and walk of some of those calories, this time heading to Broulee Island (which is actually linked to the mainland by a small spit of sand.

Here are a couple of Broulee Island rocks. They rock!

I caught a bit of a sunset from Broulee Island, the sun dipping below the rugged ranges to the west.

And with that I had fish and chips from the only takeaway in Broulee and took advantage of some pampering at my accommodation with a complementary bottle of wine, cheese and use of the spa bath.

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For some reason, I woke really early on Monday morning, so I took a small pre-breakfast jaunt to a headland overlooking Broulee’s south beach with distant views down the coast and towards the inland mountains. Where I was staying was literally 50 metres from this beach.

Some final pampering at my B&B with a brekkie of fruit and a fry up led to some more walkabouts, this time heading south down the whole extent of Bengello Beach. Walking on sand is always so nice but can get a little arduous when the beach is 7km long! Here is the beach a few of those kilometres down!

I made it to the North Head of the Moruya River, which I then followed all the way into Moruya. The walk along the road wasn’t all fun fun fun, but there were some scenic highlights, with sandy coves and shallows in the river creating turquoise waters.

The landscape changed a little approaching Moruya, with paddocks and farmland stretching on until reaching the barely penetrable ranges. I scared an echidna on the way (unintentionally of course, it's not like I was running up to it shouting, cam on then, I'll ave yer) causing the little guy to curl up in a spiky ball. I also saw a little golden speckled lizard on a rock, he wasn't too scary.

Annoyingly I didn’t have much time to take in Moruya as I was worried about missing my bus (there’s only one a day). In the end I made it with time to spare (enough spare time to have some fish and chips again!) The journey home was fine, a slow ascent of Clyde Mountain and some company speaking to someone from Bristol! It was a great couple of days – tiring yet relaxing – still, it was nice to come home and see some snags on our barbie to welcome me back!