A Tiger

Uploaded by m_hagen.

This is a 'Tiger'... It is:

Gravy

Mushy Peas

Mashed Potatoes

Meat Pie

Delicious

A burger with 'the lot'

Uploaded by m_hagen.

This is a burger. A burger with 'the lot'.

From the top down:

Chilli & Garlic Sauce, Fried Egg, Cheese, Bacon, Fried Onions, Pineapple (yes pineapple), Burger, Beetroot (yes beetroot), Tomato, Carrot, Lettuce

Did I forget anything?

Beachin' it

Uploaded by m_hagen.

We've been travelling up the East Coast from Sydney towards the Gold Coast, slowly but surely making progress... The last few days have been spent at the beautiful Angourie Bay. The beach is spectacular, the water clear and I am still amazed at how few people there are! I guess if you consider the population of California was 36.5 million in 2006, and the population of Southern California makes up for about 24 million of those people - all living within striking distance of the beach! The population of Australia is just over 21 million, in the whole of the country..... No wonder the beaches are a little less busy here.

Is it raining?

Last night we were up at 3am pushing the van 10 feet forward out of the range of a sprinkler!
Now a gentle sprinkle would have been appreciated, as the lil white van is in dire need of a wash, but this sprinkler was not a gentle sprinkler.
I was woken up by the sputter and tell tail sounds of sprinklers starting up, which was swiftly followed by a power hose type blast in through the window and onto my pillow. Wet, but laughing, we jumped out, released the handbrake and pushed until we were out of range.

California

We're thinking of everyone in California..... Michael's Aunt & Uncle have been evacuated, as have other friends & family. Fortunately everyone is safe and well.

The Blue Mountains

Uploaded by m_hagen.

We packed up the van, made Toby leave work early, and headed out of Sydney for the weekend. The Blue Mountains are just inland, and an easy 2 hour drive for our lil white van. We pulled into Katoomba in the dark, and I jumped out of the van with the tent, table and chairs to set up camp. Michael and Toby headed into town to grab some beer and maybe a little something to eat.
We were woken by the sounds of an early morning cricket game - 'four'. We were camped in between two cricket pitches. That's the problem when you set up camp in the dark, you never know where you'll be in the morning....

Seeing the sights

Uploaded by ladyhedda.

So far we've been in Sydney for three days, and done not a whole lot... We'd been on a roll for the whole trip, so it feels good to stop in one place for a while. And if that place is Sydney, where there is lots to do and see, then who am I to complain...
The Opera House and Harbour Bridge are those sights that are so familiar because you've seen them a million times in print or on the telly, so I wasn't really expecting to be 'wowed', but Sydney has possibly one of the most beautiful locations of any city I have ever visited.
So far I have taken a ferry to Watsons Bay and eaten my Fish n Chips, wandered The Rocks and lazed away hours in the Botanical Gardens.
Tomorrow some window shopping....

A bed, at last...

Last night was our first night in a bed in oh, let's say forever. We've been in Australia for 7 weeks and have camped every single night - that's 49 nights to be precise, either in a tent, or in our van.
We pulled into Sydney at 7pm, and headed straight for Toby's flat, where we had a painful few moments getting the van into the underground parking space (we have about 5cm of clearance from the air conditioning duct!) but finally we're sleeping in a room with a roof and four walls and a bed. With pillows.

Roadkill

Uploaded by ladyhedda.

We're well into Wombat territory now and the little buggers are 'napping' at the side of the road on a frequent basis, we've seen two already this morning. Our roadkill viewed tally so far:

1 Horse
2 Camels
8 Cows
5 Wombats
Numerous Kangaroos/Wallabies

The majority of the larger mammals were in the Northern Territory, where they begin to look like deflated pieces of carpet littering the side of the road.
The rule seems to be if you hit it, take a shovel and chuck it on the side of the road.
We, thankfully, are only responsible for multiple moth carnage......

A hike on Wilson's Promontory

Uploaded by m_hagen.

Should we pack the surfboards?

We're down in Wilson's Promontory heading out for some overnight hiking.....

Our Current Home

The Koalas the Koalas

Uploaded by ladyhedda.

No-one can resist a Koala. Especially not me. They're fuzzy, they're slow, they sleep 20 hours a day and they have tufty ears.
We've been on Phillip Island - Michael for the surf, and me for the animals.
There is a Koala sanctuary on the island where they have built treetop walkways allowing you to get up close to the fuzzy little buggers and watch them while they do not much. A Koalas life is spent sleeping and eating, which sounds pretty fantastic if you ask me!

We also saw the Little Penguins. They spend days sometimes weeks at sea feeding and swimming around, then at sunset they form a 'raft' with some buddies and float in to shore with the waves. Once on the shore they gang together and face off against the seagulls, who are generally nasty. The penguins make a run for it, crossing the beach towards their burrows, ready for a nights sleep!

The 13th member

Uploaded by m_hagen.

We've been down on the very South Coast of Victoria - and we're now driving the 'Great Ocean Road' on our way to Melbourne.
Now call me hard to please, but I don't know if I'd say it's better than the California coast in Big Sur.... But it is a beautiful drive.
The West side of the coast is much more rugged, and you can feel the power of the brutal Southern Ocean. It's here that the 12 Apostles are being battered by the waves. We visited in the afternoon, at the same time as the tour buses from Melbourne pulled in - so we decided to come back the next morning.
The morning was grey and stormy, and we drove through hail (HAIL) to get to the Apostles. Sitting in the van, we made coffee and had some breakfast. 15 minutes later the sky was blue and we had the 12 Apostles to ourselves, with a little wind to keep us on our toes....

He's outside in the tent

Uploaded by m_hagen.

We've had lots of questions about our lovely little white van. Do we have a bed? Can we cook? Where do the surfboards live, on the roof?
Surfboards on the roof? You must be kidding. The surfboards get the bed, of course. Why would it be otherwise?
Our van has a two burner stove with a grill, a small fridge with enough room for beer and milk, and a bed - with a quilt and pillows. There's storage under the bed for an assortment of fishing & camping supplies plus our backpacks, and see that thing over the bed, it's our closet. Clothes and towels live up there!
The van has two tanks one for petrol, and one for gas (liquid gas) so we can travel over 800 kms (that's 500 miles) without having to fill up at some crazy roadhouse in the middle of nowhere charging a million dollars for fuel.
We have covered 7500 km so far (4600 miles), with another 3000 km to go (2000 miles)..... Next stop Sydney.

The scale of things

I really hadn't appreciated quite how big this country is until we started driving across it! We started in Darwin (somewhere up there in Norway), headed through Alice Springs (Germany and more), down to the little peninsular in the middle at the bottom (just over Italy's boot heel), then up and around to Adelaide (Greece) and now we're down in Melbourne, which is just off the coast of Turkey.

Birthday Boy

Uploaded by ladyhedda.

This is a little belated...... Michael celebrated his birthday on October 4th with perfect waves at Winkipop. Yes, they really call a surf break Winkipop. Whatever.
He got cakes for desert and see that hat, that hat is alpaca and I knitted it myself. Check out all those cable twists and everything.....

Practical cycling gear

Uploaded by m_hagen.

I have been really happy with my wardrobe for the majority of this trip. Especially when I consider the different activities that we have done, I have managed on a really limited supply of clothes.
Clothes for climbing a volcano = same clothes for walking around Melbourne.
However it was the Clare Valley cycling that finally stumped me. I don't have any lycra in my wardrobe (for good reason), and cycling calls for lycra, and lots of it....
I was the only person on the trail in a dress. It may not be practical, but it sure was cute.

Overheard today at the beach.....

"fair dinkum mate"