Cold Burn in Melbourne

The first thing to say about this beautiful city is that it is the coldest place we have visited since Ireland. In the middle of the winter, Melbourne brought back memories we longed to forget when we jumped on plane in Cork a couple of months ago (much to the dismay of our now acclimatised bodies). Arriving late on the first night we only had a couple of days to view this beautiful city.

On the first day we took took a free tram on a tour of the city. Melbourne must be one of the easiest cities to be tourist. They have a free tram to take you around the city, which had a guide playing telling you about various buildings. on top of that, there's a tourist bus, also free to take you anywhere out of the way. Very handy. Took about one hour but we got to see and stop off at all the famous sites. The most memorable is definitely the Shrine of Remembrance, Victoria’s largest and most visited war memorial and probably Melbourne’s most recognised landmark. It really is huge. We spent about 2 hours here! Great way to pass the day.

Melbourne is famous for its Theatre Cabaret district so the first event on the cards was the well recommended dinner show (http://www.draculas.com.au). Described as "A blistering cabaret show with fleshy humour and venomous variety comedy", we were immediately intrigued. This cabaret restaurant is the only place in the southern hemisphere where you get a ghost train to you table! Very impressive, and scary! A 3 course meal and 3 hours of laughter and entertainment, definitely a must for anyone planning to make the trip to Melbourne. Take a look at the dessert we had:


After the Cabaret we went to meet some friends from Mayo we first ran into back in Asia. On to the cookie bar where the rooftop is covered in artificial grass. We were tempted for a quick 5 a side game of footie but thought the bouncers wouldn't appreciate our skills!!?!!?!!? Very impressive bar, nearly as impressive as the dance moves Darragh and I attempted later on in the night.


Following day after the Dracula experience we attended our first Aussie football game (kinda like Rugby and GAA combined). At the sage advice of Ger Canning we went to the Essendon Vs Hawthorn Game and it turned out to be a cracker. It came down to the very last quarter and we found ourselves jumping up and down on the seats jeering and cheering with our new friends and fellow supporters. See how similar it is to GAA.

The Big news of the trip, Conor is back with us. After a short stint visiting some relatives in Perth, the infamous 5 are now reunited.




Onwards and Upwards; Goodbye Australia.

Sydeeeeeeeeeers!!!

So we arrived in Sydney safe and sound which was surprising...Kevin Eddie may have to go back to driving school! The camper vans (Lucy and Moby) were put to the test down the east coast. I think Eddie reached the speed of light at one point. We are still waiting to see if we got a few speeding fines but I think we are in the clear!

Once we returned the camper vans we met up with the seniors - Colin (The Dog/Doggy), Courtney (C-Biscuit) and Cathal (Houlie). We stayed in their appartment over looking Darling harbor. Absolute class apartment with a great view of the harbour. The seniors had a plan made for our first weekend in Sydney. It started with a cruise around Sydney harbour. The boat was full of Irish with an Trad band playing tunes for the night. Daniel (Bockau) and Ross came along for the ride as well. It started off calm enough as people looked at the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney harbor Bridge while having a few sociables or scooners as they say in Oz (a phrase comes to mind...the calm before the storm!). The last hour on the boat things took an awful turn. The night turned into a bit of a ceili. The Irish dancing was flowing out of everyone with Darragh and Conor leading the charge... Michael Flatley/Jean Butler if you will! The night ended up with everyone taking their tops off and singing along with the band. Once the band finished up we were asked by the manager/captain to "please put your tops on and leave the boat". Great night and would advise everyone that visits Sydney to go on this trip.

On Saturday Bockau and Doggy cooked up a storm on the BBQ. Not joking the fire brigade was called! The flames coming from the BBQ were a bit out of control at the start and one of the neighbours thought the apartment was on fire. C-Biscuit and Eddie were on the balcony watching as 3 fire engines arrived below on the street. It didn't dawn on them until a fireman tapped Eddie on the shoulder that it was our appartment they were coming to save. All good though, no need to worry, the apartment did not burn down! That night we attended a party in Bondi beach. Jen Matson was the hostess. We met up with all the comm girls there (too many names to mention so com girls will cover all)...special mention to Orla who greeted us like this:

The girls arrived from south america so we had plenty of questions for them and they had plenty of questions about Asia. Great to see everyone and catch up on each others stories.

During the week while the seniors were at work we took the walking tour around Sydney. We saw the Opera house and the Harbour bridge. We also got time to relax in the seniors apartment and watch dvds which was excellent. We needed a break from traveling....this traveling malarky is hard work!! :-) Our one bit of excersize in Sydney (actually probably only bit in Australia) was one day when we ventured out to the Olympic Park (home of 2000 Olympics). We got a ferry out there which was a pretty cool way to travel. The stadiums and park was sensational. Loads of space, loads of big arenas. We went for a swim in the Olympic pool which Ian Thorpe won 3 golds and smashed 3 world records 9 years ago. The record we were after was a little more modest. That same Olymics, a lad called Eric Moussambani qualified for the Olympics on a rule that allows every country to send at elast one athlete to the olympics. Now Equatorial Gunea isn't knows for it's sporting prowess, but somehow they reconed this guy was their best hope of, well not making a complete fool of himself. Whoever decided this should be shot. Eric had only learned to swim a few months previously and had never even been in a 50m pool - his training had been in rivers. Then, once he got to the olympics, he actually won his heat as everyone else in the race flase started and were disqualified. We smashed his Olympic heat winning time by 15 seconds! London 2012 here we come!

Sunday drinks is a must in Sydney. Everyone goes out Sunday for a couple of drinks. The main spots were The Rocks and Coogeee Bay. On the Sunday night before we left Sydney we watched the Cork v Tyrone match in Scruffy Murphys. Ger Canning gave us a shout out during the game...good man Ger! Good game for Cork but we all know that Kerry will take Sam home again this year!

Goodbye Lucy and Moby

Well after the excitement of Frazer Island we were looking forward to taking it easy in Darragh's sisters' (Orna) boyfriend's (Maurice) brother's (Vincent) house! Bit of a mouthful but it was good fun. We landed about an hour outside Brisbane just as they were finishing off a new porch (they had just moved in) and did a bit of odds and ends to get the place cleared up. Earned our keep anyway and were treated to a lovely barbecue. After dinner we burned the "For Sale" sign, about an hour before being told you have to pay for them if they don't get returned. Oh well. Big thanks to Vincent, Elaine and little Ben for all the hospitality they showed us. The following day we took a trip into Brisbane to have a look around. Lovely city, and I think it really changed our opinions on Australia. Until that point we'd only seen small beach towns, but this is a proper city. Very livable! Spent the afternoon around the museums...

The following day we visited the Steve Irwin Zoo. Pretty impressive array of animals - I think the Red Panda's definitely stole the show. Darragh did his best to take one home but they weren't as friendly as they seemed. We saw a pretty cool wildlife show which included some pretty nuts birds and also a lot of crocodiles. They are scary animals. Met some Kangaroos and other wildlife. Made for some perfect cheesy photo opportunities.......

Some of the Crocs are friendly enough in fairness....

That night we headed back to Brisbane for a night out. Met Trish who showed us around and some friends from the Whitsunday trip a few weeks ago. Brisbane was quite expensive however so we only stayed one night. Apparently it's the most expensive place in the world to park, with car parks being about $25 an hour (About 18 Euro). We were up early the next morning to head to Byron Bay (most easterly spot in Australia) to meet more friends.

At Byron we met Louise, Ben, Dee, Carol and Aisling for a few nights out. Lovely spot. Campsite right on the beach and everything within a 3 minute walk. One afternoon Darragh, Conor and Micheal rented some surfboards to give that a go, but from the sounds of things, they might as well be bodyboards. They came back battered and bruised after a few hours dying for a cup of Barry's Tea to get the blood going again. At least they avoided the sharks I suppose!

By the time we left Byron, we were running out of days, and needed to get the vans back to Sydney for the Thursday and we still had about 1,000km ahead of us. We took a few long days to get down the coast, just stopping off to sleep, eat and let Darragh put on his wizard hat to go see Harry Potter. On one of the long drives however, we spotted a golf course just off the highway so decided to give that a go. It didn't start off very well - I shot an 11 at the Par 4 first, Darragh hit a 10 at the second. It didn't help that there were kangaroos all over the golf course! We settled down eventually with Conor winning by five shots from me, Mick and Ed joint third with Darragh taking up the rear. I won't embarrass ourselves with the actual scores!

One last stop off on the trip was to the Hunter Valley for a wine tasting tour. Great day out. 55 wines sampled in about 7 hours, mixed in with a bit of Cheese and chocolate tasting. We all had our favourites but unfortunately most of the spots only sell from their cellar door, meaning we'll never get the chance to actually buy them. We got a lot of info anyway, handy to know what goes with what, which wines will age well etc. We thought the Semillon, Verdelho and the Merlot were the best. Check out the wine connoisseur head on Mick Cahill below..........

We got the vans back just about in time, with 10 minutes to spare. Unfortunately we had forgotten to wash the outsides so the lady at the rental spot sent us off to a car wash. the extra 20 minutes took us over our rental period, so we had to pay a late fee. Cheeky lady! Got to Sydney anyway in one piece. 3,916 km and 23 days later. The vans were good fun, although a lot of the campsites were very remote. Worked out about the same price as getting the bus/hostels but it was nice to have the freedom. It did get a little cold at night towards the end though.

Fraser Island - corr blimey!

Hi Mom - I'm still alive (no thanks to Kevin Ed but we'll get to that later....)! After doing the Whit Sundays we headed South towards our next port of call - Fraser Island. We stopped for a night in a place called Rockhampton and watched a film called the Hangover. Go and see it people. It's about as funny as watching Darragh trying to get into the top section of the camper van......and that's funny.

Anyway we got a bit of advice from a couple of people in Airlie which was to go to a place called Rainbow beach to get the ferry across to Fraser Island. First piece of travel advice I'm going to give on this blog - do not ever go there. We landed in at 9 on a Friday night and were literally the only people on the street. We weren't even able to book our trip on Fraser until the following Tuesday so we bailed out of there the next morning and headed back up to Hervey bay and checked into Palace Backpackers. We had to get up at 6 30 the following morning to get our briefing on the island and get the lowdown on driving a 4x4. Cue cheesy photo number one of Mark Canning with the van. Fraser Island for the uninformed happens to be the largest sand island in the world measuring 120km in length. You basically get into your jeep and drive across it on the first day, up and down it on the second day and back across on the third day. There were 3 jeeps leaving the hostel containg about 12 Irish people, an Israeli, a couple of English (Simon and Louise) and a smattering of Europeans including some Frenchies who thought they were on a guided tour/holiday (everyone else being the staff). We pitched up for the night at the Cornwells camp site. It was more of an area of sand dune zoned for camping than anything else so the nice hot showers, toilet facilities and camp kitchen were absent. That didn't really bother us too much as we cracked into a feed of burgers and hotdogs cooked up by the resident chef, Darragh O' Keeffe aided by sous-chef Natasha. In fairness to Darragh, while we all had some reservations at the start of the roadtrip, his cooking is improving and he may even be thanked someday for feeding us. The goon was then unloaded (see previous blog entry for definition of goon) and the classic campfire singsong was had. There were a few Dutch songs busted out at one stage which left us quite impressed. The rest of the night passed without incident save for a pack of dingoes who decided to tuck into the other Irish guys food for the trip. Second piece of travel advice - don't leave an esky full of meat out in the open with about 20 dingoes sniffing around the place.

The next day we got up and began our trek along the beach. The sand is rock hard at low tide so you can go as fast as you would on a road. The convoy stopped at a couple of places including the ship wreck of the Maheno and also a spot called Indian Head
Indian Head is famous for being the breeding ground for Tiger sharks, Bull Sharks and Hammerhead sharks.......that's too many sharks for one headland if you ask me. We also spotted a giant manta ray and a humpback whale so it was worth the climb up the hill and the view ain't bad either. All deadly marine life aside, the jeeps can't swim too well so you have to negotiate a stretch of soft sand inland to get to the next section of beach and the wonderfully overhyped champagne pools (they are in fact a couple of rock pools). The trick to getting through the soft stuff is to go into low range, stick it into second gear and go hard at it. Now this is fine if you're in the front seat but if you're stuck next to the door at the back then you're in for a bumpy ride. Kevin took it upon himself to break the bypass land speed record and I was suspeneded in mid air for about 5 seconds. I can however claim to be the first Corkman in space though!

We headed back to base then and ate the remainder of the burgers and sausages before having the usual early night in. Our last day on the trip consisted of us packing up all the gear and heading back to the ferry via Lake McKenzie. FYI - It is a "perched" lake sitting on top of compact sand and vegetable matter 100 metres above sea level. It also happens to be absolutely freezing but that didn't bother Kevin "The 'Hoff" O' Sullivan as he braved the icy cold. They're made of different stuff down there in Beara alright! We caught the ferry back across then and dropped off the jeeps in one piece. Our new friends from the trip, Simon and Louise, cooked up a fajita storm then back in the hostel (I'm mentioning food a lot I know) and we all pretty much passed out in advance of our trip to Brisbane the next day.

Australia........Ah Yeah!

We really thought we knew what Australia was going to be like. How couldn't we! We were all raised on a diet of Home And Away followed by liberal helpings of Neighbours (especially during the Holly Valance years). Most of us can recite the "Call that a knife, this is a knife" scene from Crocodile Dundee by rote. This was going to be a piece of cake.

We were meant to have decided our method of transport from Cairns to Sydney before landing but instead left it till the last minute (our overriding philosophy so far has been "it'll all be alright on the day" and it hasn't let us down yet). We spent two days in Cairns (or as the locals say Caaaarns) planning our attack. Suggestions included jumping on/off buses, renting a few cars, renting a massive Winnebago, stealing a helicopter. These were all discarded in favor of renting 2 3-person campervans (think a tall Hiace van and leave your caravan jokes to yourself). Micheal and Mark share driving one, while Conor and Eddie are in the other. We have walkie talkies to keep in contact so we make a proper convoy on the roard. As I can't drive (and cycling 4000km is not an option) I have been handed the rather difficult task of keeping the lads fed and watered. Some of the bbq's have been epic, my personal favorite being Mexican night.

Sleeping arrangements are slightly cramped but as the weather gets colder the further we go south it could turn out to be a blessing.

Cairns was good craic, big shout out to Josh who we had met in Thailand and ran into on our hostel (Gilligan's). Had a great night out with him in the local pub, the Woolshed. Next day we were eager to hit the road so headed south as soon as we got the vans sorted. Mick spends most of the journeys with his head out the window, see below.

Spent one quiet night in Mission Beach before making our first stop in Townsville. I loved it there; it has a beautiful beach side promenade strewn with open BBQ sites, flood light open areas for footie and free swimming pools. The standard of public facilities here is excellent and its heartening to see no vandalism or defacement. Mark has promised to upload a video on the place so won't go into too much but suffice to say I was very sorry to leave.

Next stop was Arlie Beach where we went on a boat trip to the Whitsunday Islands, a collection of around 74 beautiful islands just off the coast bordered by the great barrier reef. Things started well when a baby and mother hump backed whale decided to escort us out of harbour. The animal spottings continued with dolphin and turtles seen at various times over the 3 days. Got a chance to snorkel and finally put our scuba diving skills to test by doing a dive to 18 metres in the Great Barrier reef. Lots of amazing coral and fish (including a few clown fish, the main guys from Nemo). Brilliant but feckin' freezing!

My favorite place on the boat trip was to the beautiful white sand beach, Whitehaven. This is a 15 km beach with sand made up of 95% silica that is so fine that NASA borrowed some to make the lenses in the Hubble telescope. Just realised that this will probably only be of interest to me, my Dad and any other nerds/physics teachers out there!

In the evenings we had a bit of laugh with the other passengers, especially our new Irish friends Barrai and Sarah who promised a mention in their blog if we put a pic of them. Ball is in your court now guys!

One of the other passengers suggested a social bonding game (AKA drinking game) called Chicken goggles, as usual we were only too ready to look like idiots

PS, two new words for your vocabulary

• Goon - 4 litres of Australian wine of questionable content and dubious quality served in a box. The warnings of the box state that it may contain traces of nuts and fish eggs. Mark points out that caviar is made from fish egg, he was always the positive one
  
• Freedom Parking - finding a quiet place to park the vans and crash for the night, usually a shopping centre car park or quiet side road. Fine until security guard wakes you at 6am.