Melbourne Trip

After 3 days in Melbourne catching up with people and sight-seeing we headed on our way back home. We stopped off at Taras' aunt Judy's in Melton for coffee and a chat before the long road ahead. We drove for 170km (105 miles) before our nights stop over in Bendigo. Our base for the night was a cabin on a campsite. It was beautiful and peaceful and the stars were so bright as there was little light pollution from nearby large cities.

Day 7
After breakfast at the famous 'Beechworth Bakery' we headed towards Nerrandera via Echuca, the only reason for this slight detour being it also had a 'Beechworth Bakery'. Now, I hasten to add I am not advertising for the Beechworth Bakery (even though I've mentioned it three times in the same paragraph) but they make great bakery items. Beechworth Bakery - Australia's Greatest Bakery!! (where's my cheque Tom O'Toole??) Anyway, I'm rambling so I'll shut up. I'm really glad we stopped off in Echuca as it turned out to be a really interesting place. In 1854 after being surveyed it very quickly became Australia's largest inland port and paddle steamers ferried supplies around the interior of Australia along the Murray River. In the early 1900's trains took over and Echuca's main industries were agriculture and tourism.
Step beyond the main road of the modern town and it feels like you're walking on to the film set of an old western movie. The streets have troughs for the horses, the blacksmith is working, although these days he's making tourist items, and the river is still full of paddle steamers.




After lunch at the aforementioned bakery, we carried on our drive and our next stopping point was Jerilderie. A quaint little town, once frequented by the infamous Ned Kelly and his gang. On 10th February 1879 the Kelly gang held up the bank of New South Wales getting away with the princely sum of £2140 and holding thirty towns people hostage and locking the police away in their own cells! How audacious!!

We carried along the very straight roads with seemingly the same background for hundreds of kilometres. I fell asleep many times during this stretch of the drive, though, thankfully for Taras I wasn't at the wheel at the time!

After 441km (274 miles) we finally arrived in Narrandera where we stayed with Taras' friend Lisa and her husband Mark for the night. I had been told Narrandera was home to two sheep and a post office and very little else but I was pleasantly surprised to find it was quite a sizeable town. We chatted for hours and had a barbecue, that makes four now in my entire time in Australia - where do you Aussies get the reputation for having barbie's every night??

Day 8

Homeward bound. After a walk around the town with Lisa and her adorable border collie, Sam, we left Narrandera and travelled through Gundagai and Goulburn (the one with the big sheep - check last years blog!)

After clocking up a total of 2313km (1437 miles) from door to door we were home again, very tired but glad we'd managed such a trip and seen lots more of Australia than we would have done on a 90 minute flight. As a point of interest, if I had driven around the borders of England and Wales, hugging the coast where possible, I would have covered roughly the same distance.

Melbourne Trip

Day Two. After breakfast we set off early for Tilba. This was my second visit to the area and it really is well worth the visit. Mount Dromedary in Tilba was first named by Captain James Cook in 1770 after him noticing the likeness to the one humped camel. In 1850 gold was discovered in the town and people flocked there. The gold began to peter out around the turn of the century and the land was given over to dairy farming. Today, Tilba is famed for the ABC cheese factory. I have a wedge of cheese with chives in the fridge and it's yummy :)

Leaving Tilba we headed for Bega, our next destination. Recent flooding meant a lot of rivers were higher than normal and a poor turtle had managed to lose his way so I jumped out, picked him up and moved him off the road so he didn't get run over. After Bega we drove to Eden and then on to our motel for the night in Lakes Entrance. We covered 396km (246 miles)

Day Three

We traveled to Melbourne today via Stratford upon the river Avon (sound familiar??), Yarragon and finally arrived in Melbourne.
This is our view of Melbourne city centre from our hotel room. This trip covered a distance of 382km (237 miles)The same view at nightMelbourne still has a great tram network. Not so great for car users though as they have ridiculous rules (in my opinion) whereby a car wanting to turn right has to move to the far left, wait for the lights to change green for the opposing traffic and then continue the manoeuvre. Sounds madness to me, glad I wasn't driving otherwise the car would have been cut in two by a tram! Below is a picture of the free tram which runs around the city. It's mainly frequented by tourists and is packed like the proverbial tin of sardines.
The main purpose for the Melbourne trip was to celebrate Taras' Grandma's 80th birthday. The family gathered at the very swanky Langham hotel in the centre of Melbourne where we had the largest selection of food in one place I've ever seen. It was buffet stlye and every taste was catered for. Below is a small selection of the desserts (most important course!!) that were on offer.










The hotel was situated on the banks of the river Yarra. Below is a picture of Melbourne at night with the river in the foreground.

Melbourne Trip

I got back a few days ago from a week long trip to Melbourne. The flight to Melbourne from Sydney is about 90 minutes but we decided it would be more fun to drive. We got to see lots more of the country and, tiring as it was, it was great!
We took the coastal route to Melbourne and stopped at several places on our way down. On day one our first stop was at Kiama. I love this place, it's only about 40 minutes drive away but it's a must see. I've visited many times and never tire of the place.

Kiama is probably most famous for its 'blowhole'. When the seas are high a flume of water is sent hurtling skyward to around 25 metres (82 feet) through a hole in the rocks. It's an awesome sight!After Kiama we drove to Berry, Batemans Bay and our destination for the night, Narooma. We stayed in a lovely road side motel for the night. We covered 299km (186miles) on the first day.

Puptastic

Over the last five weeks Taras and I have had the pleasure (mostly) of looking after his aunt Ksana's dogs while she was on holiday in Moscow and St Petersburg. Getting up early to take them for walks each day was an adventure and the dogs had us trained pretty well during the time we were looking after them.
The dogs all had their own unique personalities;
Benson - the escape artist. He escaped three times in our five week pup sitting. On one occasion he had the back up of Bobbi and Toby as they managed to dislodge a fence post into the neighbouring property. I thought it was pretty quiet so I went to investigate and found the three of them missing. Not knowing where at this point they were hiding Taras, his dad Bob, and I each took off in separate directions to try and find them. I'd just got to the beach when I received a phonecall to say Taras had found them and they were now safely incarcerated in their own back yard. Little perishers!!!
Toby - the gourmand. There is no limit to how much this little barrel can stuff away and, when he knows we're not looking, tries to eat the other dogs food. Walking on the beach he sniffs everything and occasionally, when I'm off guard, he's wolfed down all manner of things I'd rather not mention.
Bobbi - the gentle soul. This poor little pup was badly abused before being re-homed with Ksana and had a fear of humans, particularly men. I've known him over three years and he has only recently made friends with me. He now eagerly jumps up to greet me and happily lets me stroke him.
Skater - what can I say? This poor little guy fell on his head as a pup and suffered slight brain damage as a result. He's a chihuahua cross and thinks nothing of picking a fight with the biggest dog on the beach. He's a little sweetheart even if he does forget who I am from time to time and yaps at me.
Coco - the only girl in the pack. She's the boss and everyone knows it!! She's a Shih-Tzu and a prim and proper little madam she is too, walking around with her nose in the air.
The photo above is me on the beach. Left to right is Toby, coco, Benson, Skater (in front) and Bobbi (behind)

The Flat

Ok, well, I thought it was time I showed people back home in cold and snowy Blighty where I'm currently living. I'm living in East Corrimal which is in greater Wollongong, about 1hour 20minutes south of Sydney and on the coast. The beach is only about 10 minutes walk from the flat and has beautiful golden sand and is surprisingly not that busy at all.
The picture above is the lounge room with kitchen area. Through the window is the front garden which is my next project after I've completed the rear garden (picture to follow in later blogs)

Below is the bedroom of the flat.

Here's a beautiful sunset picture taken from the back garden a couple of nights ago.

Also this week Taras took me for a drive one evening to Austinmer, a very nice beach-side suburb not far along the coast. While we were there we witnessed an awesome storm miles (suppose I should really say kilometres now for fear of getting into trouble with the locals for using imperial measurements) out to sea. Here's a picture of a cloud with the storm boiling away within it. Nature is mighty powerful!