Camping in The Grampians

Press play on the player above and listen while viewing the photo of our personal slice of ultimate solitude at our campsite in the Grampians Victoria.






So what's that horrific racket that nearly ruptures the eardrums? Nope, not the corellas (although 100 or so of them do make quite the racket,) but apparently the little fella to the left, a cicada. One cicada, no problem. 1000 horny cicadas and you have a sex infused concert that threatens to rupture your eardrums.

Wilsons Promontory

Our last long weekend was spent escaping the city to camp in beautiful and pristine Wilsons Promontory, the most southernly point of mainland Australia. Several trails and back country campsites were closed due to bush fires and we wimped out of the 22 k hike to the lighthouse on the tip of the Prom but, goodness gracious, there were enough spectacular hikes and sights near the Tidal River campsite.

The wind was biting and it rained yet fires were not allowed--in January this part of the park was consumed by fire. The campsite was saved but much of the nearby forest and bushland was burnt. However, the fire created its own beauty. It exposed the granite peaks of Mount Oberon and this spring brought regeneration: little fragile wildflowers, spiky cones growing out of grass tufts which only appear after fire, and leaves covering the blackened eucalypt trunks like moss.


If you hold your mouse over the pictures, we've tagged them all with labels.

steve comes to visit

My brother Steve spend a week of his three week Aussie adventure with us down in the tempermental south. There was a biting cold wind from the Antarctic when we hit the Great Ocean Road but 35 degree Celius weather a day or two later. However, he persevered despite Mother Nature's inconsistencies and his bum foot to clamber over the tidal pools at Anglesea, meet salty old lighthouse keepers, feed cute as possums, and pose in front of the iconic not-quite-12-anymore Apostles. We kept him readily supplied with cheap wine and tim tams. Or so we would have you believe. Fun was had by all.

We do have friends!

Screw you guys back home for not visiting us! At least we now know who our friends are - Darren & Kelly made the trip from Sydney down to see us for a four day weekend back on August 24th. One of those days was spent spanking a record hangover...damn you beer, wine, shots, highballs...

So where'd we take our visiting Aussies? To our favorite spots on the Great Ocean Road. Wreck Beach, The Koala Drive where you are sure to spot a plethora of koalas in the wild up close and personal, and, of course, the 12 apostles (well, only 9 remaining, those apostles keep dropping like, well, apostles being persecuted by the Romans.)

Unfortunately, all good things come to an end!

Speedos...Time for Some Booze!

There's only one way to respond to Nicole's post with photos of men-folk sporting overly tight speedos. With booze...and lots of it! It's the only way to drown the images that have been forever etched into my brain. I mean it was bad enough being there, but having it reinforced with photographic evidence. Arg. It's enough to make a grown straight man cry.

So...ya, booze. Um...that's not booze, but it is the wonderful fruit (different from the 'fruits' in Nicole's post) called 'grape' that becomes the second best booze - wine. We hit Penola on January 20th. It's the gateway to the Cooawarra wine region renowned for its Cabernet Sauvignon and to a lesser extent its Shiraz. Since I had driven the whole way from Sydney down along the Great Ocean Road (over 3000 KM in total) Nicole had the pleasure of chauffering me around to all the cellar doors! We only hit about 8 or so but I was nicely buzzed by the end of it - and the price was right - FREE!

Now, that's better, clearly booze. This was taken after a wonderful dinner later that evening. We met Cathy & Mark at a pub who invited us over for Kangaroo steaks and wine. Never knowing when enough is enough as Wray and Marsh, and, well, just about anyone in the Calgary gang, can attest to, by the time this photo was taken we had made our way onto scotch. The walk home back to our cabin was quite enjoyable. Nico the babysitter looking after a completely innebriated & stumbling damo. Kangaroo steaks are yummy, I don't know why there was that big outcry when it was found that Aussie made pet food had kangaroo meat in it. Boohoo. There's over a hundred million of the things hopping all over the place. It's not like you're eating a panda or something.

And, to clearly wash the images of the previous post from everyone's mind, here's one for the boys.

Oh...hehe...let's try again here...someone not from the 1970's Russian womens' hockey team.

Ahhh...much better...someone that would make even the overly discerning Fearman proud! The horrors of the previous post are now clearly washed from memory and we can all sleep easy once again. Your welcome.

Cape Otway & The Shipwreck Coast

On January 17, 2006 we hit the Shipwreck Coast along the Great Ocean road. The first part of the trip we did a major hike to access a couple of shipwrecks (Nico already mentioned earlier) at Moonlight Head - the Fiji (1891) and Marie Gabrielle (1880.) All that's left of either wreck are the anchors. The sign claims it's 366 steps but we counted and they lied. It's really 380. Because of the long hike and the inaccessibility of Moonlight Head (only accessible via a long dirt road) we only saw three other people our entire time on the beach. The beach is dotted with rocks and you have to be careful navigating the rock shelves.

To combat the phenomenon of wrecks a lighthouse was erected at the northern tip of the Eye of The Needle - an 84 KM gap between King Island and Cape Otway - in 1848 (nearly 50 years after the first ship entered the straight.) How can an 84 KM gap be called the eye of the needle? Well, if you think about it in nautical terms (1000's of KMs) 84 KM is a tiny space to fit a boat through without hitting something in the dead of night and without modern technology.

I can't imagine being the lighthouse keeper in that era...utlimate isolation...beyond that which even than the basement Damo would desire. The only contact with the outside world occurred every 6 to 12 months when supplies were delivered. It wasn't until the 1930's that it was accessible overland by road. The second lighthouse keeper

Even today it seems so isolated on the tip of the second most southern point in Australia with cliffs dropping away to trecherous ocean. Rock shelves and breaking waves even a kilometer out. One could see how shipwrecks happened a lot. The views from the lighthouse and the point itself were stunning and its well worth the admission fee of $11.50 Aus.

catching a wave or two

Surfing is SO much fun! We had our first lesson down in South Gippsland with the other exchange teachers. It started off with some on-the-sand practice of jumping up on our imaginary boards.





Here we are ready to hit the surf with our foam G-boards--these are study and somewhat soft, just for beginners like us. They were really slippery and a bit unstable though. (Or maybe that was just my lack of balance?) Later, Damo tried out our host's $1000 plus fibreglass board and said it was much better, like surfing on a tub. There we are, running eagerly to hit the waves! We're the little people on the right.


No action shots of us catching a wave but here's an action shot of Damo waiting to catch a wave! Quite exciting. He's a bit braver and, by the time our lesson was done, had made it out further than me to catch the good waves--good because you get to ride them for much longer. Even when we couldn't get up to standing position or squatting on the board, it was just exhilerating to speed along atop the water.

the great ocean road

January 16th-18th

Here's the winding road along the cliffside--one of the world's most spectacular (and fun) drives.

The anchor is from a shipwreak of the Marie Gabrielle in 1880, one of two wreaks at Moonlight Head and among oodles of others along this stretch of coast. We walked down and up 380 steps to get down to the beach!





The limstone cliffs are at Loch Ard Gorge and the rock formations are the remains of the Twelve Apostles (apparently in this story the apostles are picked off one at a time instead of Jebas - only 7 or so are left.) It's still so pretty!

sleeping koala

Look at our cute little buddy fast asleep after his afternoon snack of eucalyptus leaves, some hand picked by us! We just pulled off the road (jan 16th at Kennett River on the Great Ocean Road) and there he was, right in the wild--much lower down in the tall eucalylps than koalas usually are. A typical day consists of eating, then a lot of sleep, followed by more eating.

Sad thing is right now with all the bush fires, there's lots of koalas being burned in their trees and kangaroos with burnt paws from hopping through embers. : (

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