The Blizzard of Oz

I guess it's about time that we gave you a bit of an update about what we have been up to over the past couple of months. Our last few months in Melbourne were spent plugging away in our respective jobs, trying to scrape together the cash to get away and see other bits of Australia. While Smith Street is an interesting place to roam, its own natural stream of wildlife do not appreciate it when you stop to take pictures of them sipping coffees.

Melbourne is a place like none other, its a city that possesses a rare personality and stepping into the rhythm of this place for 6 months and becoming part of its fabric has been a fantastic journey for both of us. For a short while it felt like we were part of an interesting and complex little community. However, most people will agree that during the winter, if Melbourners do one thing well, it's hibernation. During the summer the city comes alive, little sparks of activity alight in every corner of every suburb and people bask in the sun, absorbing the opportunity to socialise. As soon as seasons slip and the days get shorter, though, you start to notice that the inside of your living room is a really nice place to stay. As soon as hats and scarves start to emerge from wardrobes, you know you're screwed. So you can either consume copious amounts of mulled wine, or try to distract yourself from the fact that it's so bloody cold...or perhaps do both of these things!

We opted to distract ourselves from the cold by heading away on a couple of mini-breaks. Doing a little bit of digging we discovered a place, tucked into the bottom of Victoria, called Wilson's Promontory. Tammy had not had the opportunity to get behind the wheel of a car and endanger some lives in a very long time, so she was chuffed when the lovely Jess offered up her chariot of steel, Flange, to carry us to our chosen destination.

"Flange" bathing in the early morning sun

Tammy, endangering lives....

We arrived in Wilson's Prom late in the evening and spent our first night enjoying the almost deafening silence. A rare and beautiful moment that, unfortunately, wasn't to last long. Our brittle silence was smashed by a sound that neither of us will forget easily! You see, one of the charming selling points of this accommodation was that it kept and bred Alpacas. On their website they spoke of being able to interact with them, pet them and maybe even feed them. Great fun for all the family they promised! However, on the morning that we arrived we were "privileged" to witness an attempt to mate the owners alpacas with a prize winning male.

It was only after being told that alpacas can take up to 20 minutes to "copulate" (and tend to make severely loud, guttural grunting noises throughout the proceedings) that we decided there may be more resourceful ways to spend our morning. So, after a 10 or so minutes of watching large mammals in the throes of ecstasy and a handful of bad taste jokes we both decided that this was all a bit much to handle before we had even had coffees. Off we toddled, much to the relief of the breeders, who didn't appear to appreciate all our jokes anyway.

Alpaca Lovin....

The majority of our time in Wilson's Prom was spent exploring the vast expanses of the national park. From trekking through thick forest, to climbing large hills/small mountains to clambering down to a strange beach where the sand is made of pure white quartz. It's this sand that lends to its name, as when you walk on it it squeaks underfoot. Thus it's aptly named "Squeaky Beach"

Monkey Rock, Squeaky Beach

On our wanders through the park we were lucky to be surrounded by wildlife. It's not always easy to spot especially in the forests where the foliage can be thick. Tams managed to spot one cheeky wallaby who just wouldn't stand still long enough for us to get a decent shot. The photo might not be great but its proof we spotted the little guy! Out in the more open areas, especially the hours of dawn and dusk, bigger animals like Kangaroo's and Emu's are in abundance. Running or hopping around fast and heavy, each one a potential car crash waiting to happen.

Crane

Emu

Wallaby (Anyone can be a wildlife photographer in Wilson's Prom)

You'd want to be crazy to drive through this wine country, without stopping off in a couple of wineries on the way. You'd also need to be crazy to not make the most to the 'spitoon' if you plan on tasting wine and then getting behind the wheel of a car! We visited a few different types of places, like little known wineries run by just the one crazy guy who just loves to experiment with risky blends. To huge family run behemoths boasting dozens of varieties ranging from new young wines to more expensive reserves. We got a kick ass, crash course in Australian new world wine.

Victorian Wineries

Next up was the land that time forgot, Tasmania! Where Tammy once again got to put lives at risk, this time in the form of a Kia Rio that went from 0 to 60 in about 45 minutes. In fact, I'm not sure it had made it to 60 by the time we left the island. But you know what they say, you pick your friends, not your rental cars.

Tasmanian Scenery

We were based in Hobart which we soon began to refer to as Nobart due to the sleepy attitude that permeates peoples' lives. You can't rush a Tassie, that's for sure! Hobart is a beautiful and very friendly harbour city. On our first night as we drank in what seemed like the last bar with its lights on in the city, (if the Irish are good at one thing, it's finding a crowd to have a few beers with) Richie spotted a guy wearing an Aphex Twin hoody, which inevitably sparked up a conversation. A couple of beers later we found ourselves drinking till 6am in a "pokies" (slot machine) bar with a bunch of fishermen who had been anxiously waiting, for a whole 6 weeks at sea, for the precious beer they now held in their hands!

Hanging out with the locals in Tassie

Apart from fishermen, a lot of Tasmania's population consists of mostly inquisitive, if a little bit grumpy sheep and strange black furry cows. We also happened upon some ducks chilling out, nonchalantly, in the middle of the road. If you try to get them to move, you can be sure that they'll fob you off with a disgruntled quack. And we couldn't leave out the old kangaroos, loads and loads and loads of them!

Kangaroos!!!

Unfortunately the icon of Tasmania, the Tasmanian Devil is not something you see very often in the wild, (though come to think of it, would you really want to bump into one of the angry, vicious little guys) due to them facing a unique disease that has wiped out nearly 70% of them in less than one year. The disease, an actually a contagious form of cancer. It manifests as multiple facial tumors, and has spread like wildfire due to the little critters sharing road kill at chow time. Nowadays the only place to see them really is in conservation centers, where they are cared for while scientists scratch their collective heads about the phenomenon of the unique disease.

Tassie Devil graveyard

Richie bargaining with the Devil

While the Devils might be cool with road kill for dinner, those of us who walk on our hind legs in Tasmania enjoy a stable diet of some of the freshest sea food. We literally ate seafood at every opportunity. Despite all the really rich options available we got a local tip to try the fish from the little floating shops in the harbour, who have literally got the catch of the day on their doorstep every morning..

Donut play with your food

Probably the coolest thing we squeezed into out visit to Tassie was the Tahune Forest Reserve. Apart from the wildlife and unrivaled serenity. The reserves treks feature crazy swinging bridges to get over the wide river rapids. There is also the Skywalk, a raised walkway that lets you literally stroll through the canopy of the forest. With my issues with water and Tams issues with heights, the serenity soon switched to a peaceful, heart pumping, adrenaline fueled, adventure of a day.

And to top off an amazing day we spotted (with our eyes, but not the camera this time) a lyrebird! Almost extinct in mainland Australia, the lyrebird was introduced to Tasmanian serenity and is now thriving. I could waffle more about this amazing bird or we could simply leave the talking to Sir David Attenborough......

Click here to hear about the Lyre Bird!

Tams grappling with her fear on the sky walk

Crazy long swinging bridges over rushing rapids

View from the sky walk

With our time in Australia coming to close we decided we would try and squeeze in our most ambitious trip yet. Or goal was the center, the red center, of Australia and then back to Melbourne again. Our chosen mode of transport was a less than luxurious campervan and considering that Australia is as big as Europe, we were taking on quite the challenge.

The chariot

Wheel Steerer

We packed up our house on wheels and hit the road with Tammy behind the wheel of potentially her most dangerous weapon to date. With the tight schedule we had to keep, our days would be full of fast driving for long hours. This is easier than you would think in most parts of Australia as the roads just seem to go on forever in a straight line. Our first day consisted of getting to Adelaide in South Australia, stopping to spot some koala on our way through the Grampians in Victoria.

Koala chilling the late evening sun

In Adelaide we stayed with an old friend of Tammy's from home, the wonderful Norcette, Wendy. Thanks for the hospitality Wendy! We braved the streets of Adelaide for a drink only to be approached by one wasted local bloke, who in realising we weren't interested in his company proceeded to tell us to "Stick ya bum up ya bum MATE!"

It was an early rise the next morning and immediately on the road. Once we reached Port Augusta, still in South Australia, we turned north onto the Stuart Highway and headed into the outback. Like many places we've been to so far we had ideas what the outback would be like. From watching TV as a kid, the outback of Australia has always been something that seemed like a mythical land of imagination. But it's not, it's very very real and here we were driving through the heart of it.

"Sweet! Marla is only 200km away"

The road, never ending, seemed to stretch on forever into nothingness. The vast unforgiving emptiness looked like it would just swallow you up and totally forget about you. Burnt out cars and the sun dried corpses of road kill seemed at first the only sights to be seen. But as the hours ticked by and the heat on the horizon played tricks on our eyes, the magic of the outback became evident to us.

Welcome to desolation highway...

Its lesson of life became clear, that from nothing, something will always come. The landscape shifted and changed dramatically as we reached the crest of hidden hills in what seemed a totally flat land. The road kill became banquets for the most impressive, scary, GIANT wedge tail eagles. And when the day ended and the sun went down the sky became painted with fire in the most breathtaking of spectacles.

Wedge-tail Eagle, that bird is bigger than that kangaroo!!!

Outback Sunsets

Back on the road again the next day, we were a little less awe struck and a little more practical until...... Road Trains. It didn't take us long to learn that when a road train is coming towards you, slow down. These things are monstrous, an articulated lorry with 4 carriages, given the opportunity will knock huge bulls out of the road without a scratch to its own bumper (Suddenly the reason behind the amount of bovine roadkill became clear.) Imagine then what kind of impact it will leave on your windscreen if you go by t at ny speed.

Monsters exist

In one foul swoop it was made obvious to us as out windscreen got showered in stones from one roadtrain. The result was roughly 10 cracks spread neatly across the entire bloody screen. Wonderful! From here on out we were willing to sacrifice a little time and speed each time one of the beasts approached and slowed down to almost a halt. After all the ever rising heat outside meant we needed our windows to keep the air conditioning in. And keep the critters out. It generally means a more pleasant journey for all if your car has windows I suppose.

One of many cracks in our windscreen...and no, those plastic things don't stop them spreading!

Still in South Australia, we hurried through the Australian military's restricted zone, where they must be up to something terribly exciting because you are not, under any conditions, allowed to stop your car. When we got to the first town outside this zone, Coober Pedy, we stopped to refuel. Deep in some of the most arid land imaginable, the people of Coober Pedy mine opals for a living. Many of the houses and cafes are underground. You can even get a room in an underground hotel if you are interested! It might be a slightly extreme way of escaping the heat but hey it works. All in all a rather strange place, full of weird sculpture and dangerous shafts wide enough to fall into and deep enough to die in. YEY!

The strange world of Coober Pedy

Soon after leaving Coober Pedy we crossed the border in the Northern Territory and without warning the land turned red. The closer you get to the mysterious red center the more magical the outback seems to become. This is the home of the Aboriginal people, the home of giant red kangaroos and the home of our destination, Uluru or Ayers Rock.

The mysterious red sand dunes of the Northern Territories

We turned off the Stuart Highway at last and onto the Lasseter highway going west towards the center. Seeing Mount Connor, one of the lesser monoliths of the red center, far away in the distance we confused it with Uluru itself. After a while we continued on and soon enough there it was in all its glory.

Mount Connor, confusing excited tourists for generations

I know our blog tells the story of two people who try to visit places not favored by most tourists. So visiting Uluru might seem quite the contradiction, as it's the most popular tourist attraction in Australia. But believe me when I say it's worth the effort. I can't fully describe what it is, cause basically its just a huge rock. But it just has an aura, an aura of power, of time, of magic even.

Tams spots the real Uluru

To this day the Aboriginal people will not share with non Aboriginals, all the stories of this natural monument. They give us small scraps to spark our imagination, but the real secrets they keep to themselves. And I really believe they know something significant about it that we will never understand.

Enjoying Uluru the respectful way, from the ground!

Being the peaceful sort the Aboriginal owners simply request that their beliefs be respected while visiting Uluru. This respect is not enforced however and many people totally ignore it and climb Uluru in what has to be one of the biggest "spit in the face" to any culture the world over. How would Jewish people react if someone sprayed graffiti the Wailing Wall? Or a Buddhist if you started swatting flies in a temple? Why the Aborigines wishes aren't enforced by the park authorities is something that totally confused and outraged us. I think the Aboriginal people have suffered enough insults by now.

Watching the sunset at Uluru

That night we just camped out in the middle of nowhere, thinking we had nothing to share the night with other than darkness, but we were in for a big surprise. Rolling over head was a huge thunderstorm! Thankfully the rain didn't hit till the next evening, but right there in the darkness the lightening was insane! And more importantly, the storm was over the great rock as well! A sight, I'm sure, not seen by many. We were privileged to witness huge lightening bolts creating great silhouettes of Uluru.

Kata Tjuta or The Olgas

The next day we visited the nearby site of Kata Tjuta or The Olgas. Another religious site for the Aboriginals, obviously of less significance, but of rival beauty. From afar they pale in comparison, but they have a hidden trick up there sleeve. Where Uluru is a solid rock which you can only walk around, the Olgas contain a small hidden valley, an oasis of life, almost alien to the harsh outback environment. Taking the 4 hours trek through the valley of the winds is like walking through a venerable land before time.

Well hidden bearded dragon, but not hidden well enough

After the Olgas though, it was literally back in the van for the long journey home. Plenty of more wildlife to spot and we kept up our Desolation Highway counting game once we were back on Stuarts Highway. At one point we spotted a herd of wild camel. Obviously introduced to Australia and not as bizzare as the marsupial natives. But still the sight of them plodding along was just so unexpected.

Camels are the last thing you expect to see in the outback

By the time the van was dropped off back home, we had done a round trip of nearly 5,000km!!! We had to have our windscreen replaced on the sly before returning the van in fear of being slammed with insurance policy charges etc.
So we totted up the results of Desolation Highway, handed over the van, and went home to pack our bag for the next journey in a couple of days. New Zealand here we come!

The final tally on Desolation Highway!

Bovine Death (How many can you COWnt?!) - 14

Burnt out Cars - 29

Dead Kangaroos - Too many to keep track of!
Windscreen Cracks - 15 (they then turned into about 4 BIG cracks when the heat caused them to spread)

The sun had set on our time in Australia and with some reluctance we headed off to New Zealand. I say some reluctance because yeah we were continuing our adventure and moving somewhere new. But behind us in Australia we've left great friends, amazing memories and a home away from home.

Thanks for having us!!!

The sun sets over St Kilda pier and over our time in Australia